What is QuickTime 4?

QuickTime 4 was the last major release to support 68K Macs with version 4.0.3 and was then fully targetting PowerPC Macs only.

QuickTime 4.1 is the only version to fully work under the SheepShaver emulator.

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After one of the longest windups in multimedia history, Apple has finally pitched a new iteration of QuickTime. Version 4.0 looks fresh and has groundbreaking new features, and the standard version is still free (though we recommend getting QuickTime Pro for $29-99) . That’s all to the good. But the QuickTime team has also committed some faux pas that will have you asking just what they were thinking.

The big news in QuickTime 4.0 is realtime streaming, the long-promised ability to stream movies and audio in real time over the Web. The QuickTime Streaming Server software is free, but setting up a streaming server requires a machine running Mac OS X Server ($495), and probably an additional Mac to digitize and reflect content to the server hardware. Still, this is better than the streaming arrangements RealNetworks, maker of the popular RealPlayer, dictates — it charges a hefty license for each server setup. While you may not need to serve your own content, you can certainly view it at any streaming QuickTime site. We think streaming QuickTime movies look better than the same movies played through RealPlayer — at least on fast connections. (At 56 Kbps, all streaming content looks so awful that you can hardly tell the difference.)

You can now play your MP3 collection in QuickTime 4.0, too. That’s just one of several new file formats it supports, including FLI (the Autodesk animation format) and Karaoke (we haven’t tried this yet, but it sounds cool). The range of formats truly makes QuickTime 4.0 a universal standard; the upgrade is worth it just for this.

So what enticed Apple to wreck the interface for MoviePlayer, now called QuickTime Player? This mini application now sports a bloated and tacky brushed-chrome appearance, like a cheap gadget from The Sharper Image. The window lacks most of the standard Mac window controls you’ve grown to know and depend on. Additional gratuitous irritations include an eye-distracting sound-level meter you can’t hide or turn off, a volume thumb wheel you simply can’t operate with a mouse, and a motorized drawer that trundles out at the speed of molasses when you need an essential feature such as the rewind button. We strongly recommend that you learn the key commands for most QuickTime Player functions, because they’re easier to use than the new interface controls.

The worst offender is the Favorites drawer. This classic example of bad design — possibly the worst ever to come out of Apple’s own shop — lets you plop your favorite movies and MP3s into little pigeonholes. Note, however, that the icons in the pigeonholes have no names, and most movie icons show up in plain black. Moreover, if you move the QuickTime Player down toward the bottom of the screen, or open a movie that takes up most of your screen, you won’t be able to open the Favorites drawer at all. It’s anyone’s guess why Apple, which wrote the book Human Interface Guidelines (we’ve still got our copy), would diverge so much from its own principles.

The new installer is trouble, too. Every time you do an install, it requires you to connect to an Apple Web site and download a stub, which then asks you to do further downloads. That means no installations on machines without a modem; no downloading for later installation; no installations through a firewall; and no installations without contacting Apple, which can gather information on your machine while you do the install. (At press time, Apple had announced that it would eventually make QuickTime CD-ROMs available for offline installations. This would address most installer problems.)

QuickTime has always been one of the very best things coming from Apple. Streaming, MP3, and expanded support for more file formats have made it even better. But Apple should keep in mind that nothing is so good that it can’t go bad.

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Anzovin, Steve. (September 1999). QuickTime 4.0. MacAddict. (pg. 60).

Download QuickTime 4 for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.1 up to Mac OS 9.2

Compatibility notes

Architecture: 68K (v4.0.3 only) + PPC

At least 16MB of RAM

Mac OS 7.1.1 - Mac OS 9.2.2

Note: QuickTime 4.1.x is the only version that fully works under SheepShaver.

 

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver