ProVideo Coalition.com: the EDITBLOG on PVC by Scott Simmons

The biggest disappointment (as least from a pro video standpoint) has to be QuickTime X. While the core technology may be something that really improves working with video on a Mac in the long run (and maybe on this release as well but who really knows) the initial reaction to QuickTime X will be the new QuickTime Player and what it removes from the pro-video experience. Several things are now gone.

Gone is the ability to choose timecode display (if your QT file has one) in the player:

Gone is the Show Movie Properties item and the myriad of things it allows you to do to a QT movie:

Gone is JKL shuttling of playback and gone is a lot of the other menu options available with QuickTime 7.

Apple trumpets the “beautiful new player” but the playback controls only appear when you hover your cursor over the window and even then the controls obscure part of the picture itself, a real design mistake IMHO:

Screen real estate isn’t at a premium on a desktop machine like it is on an iPhone so we should at least have the option of leaving the playback controls up and off the screen. You can drag the playback controls around the QuickTime X window but you can’t drag them out of the window itself. This isn’t the first time Apple has place style and interface over functionality.

Thankfully Snow Leopard has the option to install QuickTime 7 and it is selected to install by default if you have Final Cut Studio installed:

Once complete just look in the Applications > Utilities folder and QuickTime Player 7 is there. I quickly made it my default app to open QuickTime movies. Apparently you can make some changes to the QuickTime X interface via some terminal commands so maybe the QuickTime X player will reemerge with a lot of these features in updated versions. The pro video market is so dependent on QuickTime that there have been calls from the user community for Apple to branch QuickTime into two groups, the consumer user and the pro user (and not just charging for a Pro player). With QuickTime X if really feels like that is a bigger need now more than ever but with Apple’s continued focus on the consumer market I’m not holding my breath. Oh and that ever present QuickTime gamma shift thing? Apple has finally addressed that as well.

In one way, the Snow Leopard update reminds me of the recent Final Cut Studio upgrade. The cost ($29) is very affordable and there’s enough in the new version that there’s really no reason NOT to upgrade. I mean that from a cost factor as overall the under-hood advancements made in Snow Leopard are, comparatively speaking, much greater that those made to Final Cut Studio as a whole and Final Cut Pro 7 especially.

If you have Leopard then $29 is a no-brainer upgrade. If you don’t have 10.5 Leopard then word is that Apple is having you buy the whole Mac Box Set for $169 to get a stand alone version of the new OS. That’s quite a steep charge especially if you already have iLife and/or iWork. In fact, on Apple’s website there’s no option to purchase a full non-upgrade of Snow Leopard. In a production environment (especially if you are running Avids or have a machine dedicated as a server) there might still be some Macs that are running Tiger so this makes me wonder how do you get a full Snow Leopard without the Box Set purchase? It seems that you can’t. Maybe this is Apple’s way of pulling some extra $$s out of the user’s pocket. Apparently you can install Snow Leopard whether or not you’ve got Leopard installed. You just didn’t pay as much on that machine and are probably violating some legal agreement. But to do it legally head over to Amazon and buy a copy of Leopard and then Snow Leopard on top of that. It’s worth it as they are both great OSs.

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You can easily install QuickTime 7 from the Leopard DVD as an optional Install… both can run side by side.

Posted by Richard Harrington on 08/30 at 10:12 PM

If you use SxS cards on your Macbook Pro, the Sony drivers do not work with Snow Leopard. Sony has confirmed this and they don’t have a release date for new drivers. If this is a part of your workflow, DON"T upgrade to Snow Leopard. This only goes for mounting SxS cards via the expresscard slot on your MacBook Pro. If you use Sony’s USB reader then it will work fine.

Daniel Weber

Posted by Daniel Weber on 08/31 at 07:05 AM

I call my network HAL 1000.

Good info on the SxS cards Daniel. As with any new upgrade of anything there’s little glitches and gotchas that pop up that bite some and not others so it’s great to put that stuff in the comments of posts like this. Thanks.

Richard, yep ... read page 2.

Posted by Scott Simmons on 08/31 at 10:12 AM

Have you tested and confirmed that the gamma issue has been resolved?

Posted by Charles Angus on 08/31 at 04:20 PM

Charles, I have not tested as the gamma issue hasn’t really been a problem for me in my workflows but I know it is for many. If you find a good conformation test please post a link back here in these comments.

Posted by Scott Simmons on 08/31 at 04:54 PM

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Kicking the tires on Snow Leopard and doing some edit work too