**QuickTime from Apple Computer**

Document written by Doug Walsten, System Developer,  NCSA

What is QuickTime? QuickTime is an extension that works with System 6.0.x
or System 7.0. It has many functions, but its main features are playback
and recording of digital video (with compression) and
compression/decompression of still images on any color Mac with no
additional hardware. This means that you can double-click on documents and
play movies (with sound)! Or you can take very large color images (say 7
megabyte 24-bit image files) and compress them to 1/200th their original
size with very little noticeable loss.

Playing Movies Once your Macintosh has finished starting up, double-click
on one of the movies you copied from the server. If it has been previously
identified as a Simple Player document, then Simple Player starts and you
should see the movie on the screen. If it is not a Simple Player document,
open Simple Player first, choose "Open..." from the File menu, and find
the movie you would like to play.

The basic controls are at the bottom of the movie window. The controls are
similar to a VCR, where you have play, forward, and reverse buttons. You
can directly drag the center vertical rectangle to move forward or
backward in the movie.

The speaker button adjusts the sound. Keep in mind that the maximum volume
is determined by how high you have the sound set in the Control Panel on
your Macintosh.  Sound quality is much improved when you use headphones or
an external speaker.  (A miniature jack on the back of your Macintosh
accepts Walkman style headphone plugs.)

To use the scrub-style controls, hold down the Control key and click and
hold the mouse on the right or left single-step controls. Continue holding
down the mouse and move right or left to play forward or backward.

How can I create my own movies? To create movies, you need to have the
movie material ready and the appropriate hardware to digitize the
material.  QuickTime movies made from video require that you hook up a VCR
or other output device to a special video board in the Macintosh. The
videoboard converts from a video signal to digital pictures that can be
stored on disk.  Examples of these boards are RasterOps 24XLTV or SuperMac
VideoSpigot.

How can I improve the picture quality of the movies? If you have a 24-bit
video card that sets your Monitors icon in the Control Panel to millions
of colors), then you will get better results with movies, since most are
captured in full 24-bit color. To see if you have this capability, open
the Monitors icon in the Control Panel. If you can set your monitor to
"millions" of colors, then you have a 24-bit card. Select this setting and
see if it improves the quality of the movies you are viewing.

edited by M. Ruckman 4/22