Apple Releases New QuickTime Player

As Mac fans worldwide line up to be the first to receive the new release of OS X known as Tiger, Apple hasn't forgotten those not yet ready to don the stripes. The company has made available a release of QuickTime 7 for Panther users, which brings to the table a new video codec, live resizing and surround sound support.

Apple's H.264 video compression technology, which plays an integral role in Tiger, is an industry standard MPEG-4 codec that will be supported in HD-DVD and Blu-ray next-generation DVD formats. Whether creating video for mobile devices or high-definition playback, Apple claims its new codec provides "astonishing quality."

For audiophiles, Apple has added 24 channels of surround sound to QuickTime 7. New audio and video playback controls let a user set the bass and treble, along with speeding up or slowing down playback on the fly. Apple has done away with manual configuration, enabling QuickTime to auto-configure network settings.

Although QuickTime 7 is a free download, it includes some limitations. Users who wish to watch full screen video or require recording capabilities must upgrade to QuickTime Pro for $29.99 USD. Pro users also can save movies from the Web, skin the QuickTime player and create streaming content for mobile phones.

QuickTime 7 currently ships with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and can be downloaded for Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. A release for Windows is coming soon, Apple says.