Does Quicktime have a future ?

Preamble:
I realise that Apple has various legal obligations to cripple its
software because of its relationships with the MAFIAA.


Not too long ago, I had to change my stereo. The new unit has fibre
connectors, so I decided to plug my Mac to the streteo using toslonk
cables instead of the old RCA plugs, since this gives me ability to have
dolby 5.1 instead of the 4 channel extracted from 2 channel sound).

Audio MIDI won't let me choose Dolby 5.1 on a digital out.
Quicktime and DVD player won't produce 5.1 output, they insist on 2
channel output. (my stereo displays the type of input it is getting).

So, to wach DVDs, I need to use VLC player. It has no problems getting
"encoded digital" output to the stereo over the toslink cable. (ok, it
took a few trials and errors in the preferences to get it to do this
automatically, but it works.)


Furthermore, there are fewer and fewer movies that I download which can
be played on Quicktime. I get .mkv and various other .m something file
types which Quicktime doesn't know about, but which VLC has no problem
playing.

In other words, I find myself not using quicktime anymore, and those few
times I do us it, I have to go out of my way to get Quicktime 7 because
I hate the new quicktime with the controls over the content.

Then, there is the inability to create Blue Ray DVDs.

I find it somewhat odd that Apple would go out of its way to support
fibre/digital sound output, even on laptops, but that its software would
not work to support it properly. Apple used to brag about being a leader
in new audio/video technologies, but it appears it is falling behind now.

Itunes refuses to support FLAC for high quality audio. So it is going to
be relegated to only supporting low quality audio for walkmans/ipods.

Is VLC going to become the defacto/primary application on a MAC to play
rich media because Quicktime isn't moving ahead to support modern file
formats ? This would also mean that Windows users will have less and
less need to download quicktime.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: QuickTime on an XP system
    ... am wary about taking the "maybe" solution of deleting all of those Quicktime ... error message that reads: ... Verify that you have sufficient access to that key, or contact your support ... If you don't want to try this then your recourse is Apple support. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Powerpoint Hates quicktime 1.7.3!
    ... I think you are referring to Apple's QuickTime version 7.2 not version 1.7.2 ... On the Apple menu choose System Preferences ... Click the checkbox "Enable Flash" ... I just wasted 6 hours with Microsoft and Adobe tech support. ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.powerpoint)
  • Re: 360 degree image "tours"
    ... That is traditionally done using QuickTime from Apple. ... FP does not support ... >> but I don't know what technology is available to allow it to be viewed and ...
    (microsoft.public.frontpage.client)
  • Re: IPOD Compatible Video
    ... | to its Ipod I would like to add support for creating Quicktime files to ... I checked on te DirectShow filters ... | Quicktime that I can purchase? ...
    (microsoft.public.win32.programmer.directx.video)
  • Re: Mac OS X 10.7 guesses
    ... Thinking about support being dropped for various old things... ... to support third-party applications. ... QuickTime 7 will probably still be there because QuickTime X won't have ... PowerPC application support is at greatest risk of being ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)