Apple's QuickTime 7.6 to improve 5.1 surround sound

[AppleInsider]

With an influx of Dolby Digital enhanced HD content making its way to the iTunes store, and subsequently Apple TV, Apple is reportedly working on an update to QuickTime that will improve support for 5.1 channel audio.

People familiar with the matter say the Cupertino-based electronics maker tapped its vast developer community on Tuesday to begin testing versions of QuickTime 7.6 for Windows, as well as both Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

The pre-releases, which reportedly carried build number A26, ranged in size from about 20MB to over 60MB, but were consistent in that they delivered the same series of enhancements requiring evaluation.

In particular, those familiar with the software say Apple has requested that developers test the release extensively with multi-channel encoded audio tracks that feed unique content to each surround sound channel.

Developers were also asked to put some weight on MPEG-1 playback and conversions, as well as encoding and playback of audio tracks in the AAC and Apple Lossless formats.

QuickTime 7.6 is one of only a handful of remaining updates planned for Apple's existing QuickTime architecture before the company turns the majority of its focus to QuickTime X -- a complete overhaul to the media software with optimized support for modern audio and video formats that should result in extremely efficient playback.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[MsNly]

Its taking too long for Quicktime to join the "X-Club"

[paxman]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

People familiar with the matter say the Cupertino-based electronics maker.....

What? Do you mean Apple? Really? I didn't know Apple was a 'Cupertino based electronics maker' as I have never heard that expression before If you are going to embroider please try and be original. If not it is just crap journalism.

[JeffDM]

I didn't know QuickTime offered surround sound at all. I guess it makes sense given the iTunes rentals and such.

[sandor]

hopefully apple will finally fix ac3 passthrough that it broke with the release of QuickTime 7.5.1

[djsincla]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

With an influx of Dolby Digital enhanced HD content making its way to the iTunes store, and subsequently Apple TV, Apple is reportedly working on an update to QuickTime that will improve support for 5.1 channel audio.

5.1? What about 7.1??

[caliminius]

Originally Posted by djsincla

5.1? What about 7.1??

Apple will get around to 7.1 when 10.2 becomes standard.

[Kolchak]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

QuickTime 7.6 is one of only a handful of remaining updates planned for Apple's existing QuickTime architecture before the company turns the majority of its focus to QuickTime X -- a complete overhaul to the media software with optimized support for modern audio and video formats that should result in extremely efficient playback.

It's about time. For a company that embraced H.264 early, it's pathetic how Quicktime won't play more complex H.264 profiles that things like VLC have handled easily for a while now.

[federmoose]

Originally Posted by paxman

What? Do you mean Apple? Really? I didn't know Apple was a 'Cupertino based electronics maker' as I have never heard that expression before If you are going to embroider please try and be original. If not it is just crap journalism.

oh shuttit. This is a rumor mill, not a leading reporting paper. and this phrase is used in nearly every article. no offense intended, the complaint just seems a little silly to me.

[RichL]

Do you know what feature I'd love to see? Unbundling it from iTunes!

Why do I have to download and install both? There's no dependencies because I can happily uninstall QuickTime separately.

[ShavenYak]

I'm glad to see Apple being so proactive on this. After all, Dolby Digital has only been available to consumers since 1995. I suppose we can expect TrueHD support by some time in 2020.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by ShavenYak

I'm glad to see Apple being so proactive on this. After all, Dolby Digital has only been available to consumers since 1995. I suppose we can expect TrueHD support by some time in 2020.

Quicktime has been able to deal with basic 5.1 surround sound (DTS, Dolby) for quite a while now. it will either mix down to a stereo mix or, if set and using optical out, it will pass the raw data to an external receiver.

This was great, until QT 7.5 broke passthrough. So for the past 6 months + it has been difficult if not impossible to get reliable passthrough of surround sound. Quicktime still has no problem mixing a 5.1 surround sound down to stereo but this is worthless in a HTPC setup.

[efithian@mac.com]

Perhaps the new version will eliminate the kernel panics that occur when OSX tries to play back a recorded tv show that has dolby digital through the digital out port. This happens with both EyeTV and VLC, and probably QuickTime Player if dolby digital is enabled with Perian. After multiple kernel panics, I just use system sound out on EyeTV to prevent the occurrence.

[Cubert]

"before the company turns the majority of its focus to QuickTime X -- a complete overhaul to the media software with optimized support for modern audio and video formats that should result in extremely efficient playback."

Isn't that what Apple claimed about QuickTime 7? I remember them saying something like that when Tiger was released (it may have been Leopard but I really think it was Tiger).

[Kasper]

Originally Posted by paxman

What? Do you mean Apple? Really? I didn't know Apple was a 'Cupertino based electronics maker' as I have never heard that expression before If you are going to embroider please try and be original. If not it is just crap journalism.

What on earth is your problem? There's only so many ways we can refer to one company day, after day, after day. Is it really that much of a problem? Jeeeeez.

K

[Louzer]

Originally Posted by RichL

Do you know what feature I'd love to see? Unbundling it from iTunes!

Why do I have to download and install both? There's no dependencies because I can happily uninstall QuickTime separately.

I'm guessing you mean on Windows (where uninstalls are possible, as opposed to OS X, where Apple doesn't feel the need to give people this capability).

Quicktime is now downloadable separately from iTunes. For a time it wasn't (man, it was like they learned from the Stuffit folks or something). But you can get just Quicktime if you want.

Getting iTunes will give you both because iTunes uses Quicktime to do its audio/video playback. So you can't use iTunes without it.

[RichL]

Originally Posted by Louzer

I'm guessing you mean on Windows (where uninstalls are possible, as opposed to OS X, where Apple doesn't feel the need to give people this capability).

Quicktime is now downloadable separately from iTunes. For a time it wasn't (man, it was like they learned from the Stuffit folks or something). But you can get just Quicktime if you want.

Getting iTunes will give you both because iTunes uses Quicktime to do its audio/video playback. So you can't use iTunes without it.

Yes, sorry, I meant Windows and when getting iTunes. And you can use iTunes without (at least the UI of) Quicktime installed. If you download and install the iTunes/Quicktime package and then uninstall Quicktime, iTunes still plays back videos fine.

There really should be an option to download just iTunes for Windows. Every time I upgrade iTunes on my PC machine at home, Quicktime either re-installs itself (if I've uninstalled it) or reverts back to appearing in the system tray (if I've told it not to load with Windows). Very annoying.

[Chris_CA]

Originally Posted by Louzer

Quicktime is now downloadable separately from iTunes. For a time it wasn't (man, it was like they learned from the Stuffit folks or something). But you can get just Quicktime if you want.

Perhaps your post was worded incorretly, but QT has always been available as a separate download.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by Chris_CA

Perhaps your post was worded incorretly, but QT has always been available as a separate download.

This is true, but Apple never really gave it any resemblance parity, so it is easy to understand this perception. On the site, iTunes + QT had a big obvious download button, a link to download QT was in a different part of a page as a text link in a sentence. Someone looking at the page in a glance would think that you had to get iTunes to get QuickTime.

[dfiler]

Eh?

Go to quicktime.com and click download.
Where's the confusion?