It does occasionally crash, from my experience I'd say 1-2% of the time I'll get random crashes, usually I'll just restart the same video file, and it will play just fine. I have no idea why it crashes when it does, seeing as a redo usually will work. For me it's been reasonably stable since at least version 0.84 (currently using 0.86).
Except for WMV files, it's played most everything I've thrown at it, I use flip4mac when I have WMV files. And I have thrown a lot (~10,000+) of video sources at VLC (if you know what I mean).
Hmm! I've had it crash more than that.
I also use MPlayer. Sometimes it will play something VLC won't.
I also use MPlayer. Sometimes it will play something VLC won't.
Does anyonem besides me, use QT as their main player for things video. I like the stabilty, the UI (except the lack of double-clicking to go to full screen), and the easy trim selectiona nd paste selection features of QT Pro.
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross
Ah, my last post was 6969, a good number.
All your posts on this page at being listed as "Post: 6973". Very odd.
Does anyonem besides me, use QT as their main player for things video. I like the stabilty, the UI (except the lack of double-clicking to go to full screen), and the easy trim selectiona nd paste selection features of QT Pro.
I use it as much as I can.
Quote:
All your posts on this page at being listed as "Post: 6973". Very odd.
They update all of your posts to reflect the new number.
Jobs did preview Leopard's new text-to-speech features at the WWDC last August and I know Quicktime will soon support Closed Captioning, so perhaps this will be an option for iTS video downloads.
Yes the text-to-speech will be good for blind people. Reading straight text isn't the problem though, it's when text has fancy arrangements that it get's difficult to browse. Getting developers to write blind-friendly websites is really helpful (ie easy to navigate in text-only browsers, text substitutes for graphics, etc).
The closed captioning is for deaf people. They don't describe the picture, just what people say (and blind people can hear that fine . Still good - for deaf people.
I'm not a deaf/blind person or designer for deaf/blind - just an ex-UI designer who's looked into some of those requirements. My biggest surprise 10 years back was noticing how many deaf people started buying mobile phones (mobile text messaging was the greatest technological leap!) :-)
The closed captioning is for deaf people. They don't describe the picture, just what people say (and blind people can hear that fine . Still good - for deaf people.
That was my point. Jobs stated they are adding accessibility options and very briefly mentioned the CC support in QT. I made mention because one key factor for a Mac in the living room should be CC support on iTS video. BTW, Helen Keller was blind and she could couldn't hear a damn thing. :-)
Wow, so no A/V outputs? Instead, have baselevel component for a low res image? Interesting....
Huh? HDMI is A/V, Component is V, Stereo RCA is A, and Optical Digital Audio is A. If you are refering to composite video, then no, that low grade, single channel analog video is not included. Neither is the outdated S-Video. How do the included outputs equal "low res"?
EDIT: I understand now! You are a FUDster who thinks iTS video is "low res" despite it being higher quality resolution that SDTV. Apple says it's near DVD quality, but we know that even DVD quality isn't HD quality. Right? Regardless, Composite and S-video are old standards that shouldn't even be included on a 2007 appliance. What about all the people that have 10+ year old TV, you say? Well, I doubt many of them would even be interested in purchasing an iTV, but if they did, a simple analog converter would be sufficient.
No SCART connector is more of a concern for us Europeans. Everything comes with SCART here - it's the law. They'll have to ship it with a cludgy 'SCART to whatever connector is common in the USA' convertor or ship a different version here.
Do you think that Apple might offer an add-on HD Drive (BluRay/ HD-DVD) via that USB port like the XBox has? FrontRow has a DVD section.
You can already buy HD-DVD and Blu-ray players for the Mac. I assume that Front Row would have no problem playing them. If you mean an external drive connected to the iTV via it's supplied USB port, then no. You need a lot of CPU/GPU to decompress HD H.264 in real time. Check out anandtech.com for some real world benchmarks.
Would it not need that kind of CPU/GPU power to playback a Quicktime file in 720p / 1080p such as the movie trailers I download? I'm assuming that they're goign to make it support HD at least to future proof it - it does have HDMI after all?
You can already buy HD-DVD and Blu-ray players for the Mac. I assume that Front Row would have no problem playing them. If you mean an external drive connected to the iTV, then no. You need a lot of CPU/GPU to decompress HD H.264 in real time. Check out anandtech.com for some real world benchmarks.
You honestly think iTV won't support realtime HD H.264 playback? I'd be very surprised if it doesn't.
As to external drive support, if Apple allow it then I'd guess all sorts of 3rd party addons for iTV will crop up like they did for the Mini from Iomega, Lacie, Belkin et al. Some of those were very well done and matched up with the mini perfectly.
I hope the iTV is the same footprint as the Mini too - just another slice in the Mini stack.
Would it not need that kind of CPU/GPU power to playback a Quicktime file in 720p / 1080p such as the movie trailers I download? I'm assuming that they're goign to make it support HD at least to future proof it - it does have HDMI after all?
Yes it would. But they iTV probably won't connect directly to the internet. It will still have to use iTunes (like Front Row does) to access the movie trailers. I postulate that the decompression will most likely happen on the computer. The only drawback is that this will increase the network bandwidth usage. There are really only two possibilities: a cheap device that hogs bandwidth for HD content, or a more expensive device that uses minimal bandwidth by doing the decompression on the appliance. There are pros and cons to both setups but I'd put money on the former.
Comments
It does occasionally crash, from my experience I'd say 1-2% of the time I'll get random crashes, usually I'll just restart the same video file, and it will play just fine. I have no idea why it crashes when it does, seeing as a redo usually will work. For me it's been reasonably stable since at least version 0.84 (currently using 0.86).
Except for WMV files, it's played most everything I've thrown at it, I use flip4mac when I have WMV files. And I have thrown a lot (~10,000+) of video sources at VLC (if you know what I mean).
Hmm! I've had it crash more than that.
I also use MPlayer. Sometimes it will play something VLC won't.
Maybe someone here will have an answer.
In Quicktime Player the video controls, color, contrast, etc., work on all files EXCEPT mpeg's. That's odd. As I say, I haven't checked out why.
All the audio controls work though.
I have the Pro upgrade.
Ah, my last post was 6969, a good number.
Mel, you're loosening up.
Mel, you're loosening up.
I've always been loose.
If I could just find that screw!
Hmm! I've had it crash more than that.
I also use MPlayer. Sometimes it will play something VLC won't.
Does anyonem besides me, use QT as their main player for things video. I like the stabilty, the UI (except the lack of double-clicking to go to full screen), and the easy trim selectiona nd paste selection features of QT Pro.
Ah, my last post was 6969, a good number.
All your posts on this page at being listed as "Post: 6973". Very odd.
Does anyonem besides me, use QT as their main player for things video. I like the stabilty, the UI (except the lack of double-clicking to go to full screen), and the easy trim selectiona nd paste selection features of QT Pro.
I use it as much as I can.
All your posts on this page at being listed as "Post: 6973". Very odd.
They update all of your posts to reflect the new number.
Does anyonem besides me, use QT as their main player for things video.
The far majority of Mac users use Quicktime as their primary video player.
I mostly use VLC to take screen shots of DVD's.
Jobs did preview Leopard's new text-to-speech features at the WWDC last August and I know Quicktime will soon support Closed Captioning, so perhaps this will be an option for iTS video downloads.
Yes the text-to-speech will be good for blind people. Reading straight text isn't the problem though, it's when text has fancy arrangements that it get's difficult to browse. Getting developers to write blind-friendly websites is really helpful (ie easy to navigate in text-only browsers, text substitutes for graphics, etc).
The closed captioning is for deaf people. They don't describe the picture, just what people say (and blind people can hear that fine
I'm not a deaf/blind person or designer for deaf/blind - just an ex-UI designer who's looked into some of those requirements. My biggest surprise 10 years back was noticing how many deaf people started buying mobile phones (mobile text messaging was the greatest technological leap!) :-)
Perfectly acceptable.
The closed captioning is for deaf people. They don't describe the picture, just what people say (and blind people can hear that fine
That was my point. Jobs stated they are adding accessibility options and very briefly mentioned the CC support in QT. I made mention because one key factor for a Mac in the living room should be CC support on iTS video. BTW, Helen Keller was blind and she could couldn't hear a damn thing. :-)
Wow, so no A/V outputs? Instead, have baselevel component for a low res image? Interesting....
Who says no AV outputs?
Wow, so no A/V outputs? Instead, have baselevel component for a low res image? Interesting....
Huh? HDMI is A/V, Component is V, Stereo RCA is A, and Optical Digital Audio is A. If you are refering to composite video, then no, that low grade, single channel analog video is not included. Neither is the outdated S-Video. How do the included outputs equal "low res"?
EDIT: I understand now! You are a FUDster who thinks iTS video is "low res" despite it being higher quality resolution that SDTV. Apple says it's near DVD quality, but we know that even DVD quality isn't HD quality. Right? Regardless, Composite and S-video are old standards that shouldn't even be included on a 2007 appliance. What about all the people that have 10+ year old TV, you say? Well, I doubt many of them would even be interested in purchasing an iTV, but if they did, a simple analog converter would be sufficient.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART
Do you think that Apple might offer an add-on HD Drive (BluRay/ HD-DVD) via that USB port like the XBox has? FrontRow has a DVD section.
You can already buy HD-DVD and Blu-ray players for the Mac. I assume that Front Row would have no problem playing them. If you mean an external drive connected to the iTV via it's supplied USB port, then no. You need a lot of CPU/GPU to decompress HD H.264 in real time. Check out anandtech.com for some real world benchmarks.
Would it not need that kind of CPU/GPU power to playback a Quicktime file in 720p / 1080p such as the movie trailers I download? I'm assuming that they're goign to make it support HD at least to future proof it - it does have HDMI after all?
You can already buy HD-DVD and Blu-ray players for the Mac. I assume that Front Row would have no problem playing them. If you mean an external drive connected to the iTV, then no. You need a lot of CPU/GPU to decompress HD H.264 in real time. Check out anandtech.com for some real world benchmarks.
You honestly think iTV won't support realtime HD H.264 playback? I'd be very surprised if it doesn't.
As to external drive support, if Apple allow it then I'd guess all sorts of 3rd party addons for iTV will crop up like they did for the Mini from Iomega, Lacie, Belkin et al. Some of those were very well done and matched up with the mini perfectly.
I hope the iTV is the same footprint as the Mini too - just another slice in the Mini stack.
Would it not need that kind of CPU/GPU power to playback a Quicktime file in 720p / 1080p such as the movie trailers I download? I'm assuming that they're goign to make it support HD at least to future proof it - it does have HDMI after all?
Yes it would. But they iTV probably won't connect directly to the internet. It will still have to use iTunes (like Front Row does) to access the movie trailers. I postulate that the decompression will most likely happen on the computer. The only drawback is that this will increase the network bandwidth usage. There are really only two possibilities: a cheap device that hogs bandwidth for HD content, or a more expensive device that uses minimal bandwidth by doing the decompression on the appliance. There are pros and cons to both setups but I'd put money on the former.