I just downlaoded QT 4.0. I thought QT 4 was going to be great, but it was anything BUT! It looks like Apple spent only a week or so with this upgrade......... I admit the interface is really nice, but thats literally about it!
With all the new features, one that i was looking forward for is, off course, streaming. Boy was i suprised! Streaming....... in QT 4........ NOOO!! I don't know how Apple could possible say that QT 4 does streaming! The video quality was terrible on my 33.6 modem and the sound was worse, if it even worked at all. People I know who have much faster modems (56K, cable) also said that video/audio quality was bad. If Apple wants to take a bite out of Real PLayer or MS Netshow it better get its stuff together(!).
Another issuse i didn't like with QT 4.0 is its stabiltiy. QT 4 breaks ALL of the records when it comes to unstability!! Even though this is a 'pre-release' I definately expected better stability. My browser keept on freezing, my internet connection keept on dropping, and other harasing stuff that started to occur only after QT 4 was installed. The QuickTime Player application program is not the least bit stable at all. EVERYTIME I start loading some content that requires the QT PlugIn on my browser (IE 4.5), my computer freezes after a few seconds! This was EXTREMELY hasasing. Right now I un-installed QT 4 and re-installed QT 3 (which indeed does also have its own set of stabiltiy issues). Apple better work on QT 4's stability or i'm definately not keeping the final version when it comes out. (Warning: unless you have LOTS of patients, don't get this 'pre-release' of QT 4:-)
To conclude, it definately looks that Apple has A LOT of work ahead of it with QT 4.0. I don't know what Apple meant when it said "good videa quality at 28.8..." because thats definately not the story. The final product i'm sure is going to suprise us all again, hopefully this time in a good way. But I can say this much, its no where near that.

[This message has been edited by apple2 (edited 04-20-99).]

[This message has been edited by apple2 (edited 04-20-99).]

This is funny. We take it as a joke if you don't mind.

[AAPl Shareholder]

Well apple2... download realplayer and try a similar streaming site. Trust me... quicktime 4 looks a lot better. That BBC news site it a good one to compare.

And as far as being stable... you should give your computer the once over with disk first aid and perhaps norton if you have it. The vast majority of the people I have talked with have not really had any problems with it.

It can be kind'a hard on older pre-g3 macs, but hey... software evolution follows hardware evolution.

The only major thing I have really noticed is that sometimes the streaming content can blank out if you have a modem. But that doesn't happen that often, and it should be fixed soon.

PS... drop down 50 bucks for a new modem

Hey! I tried Real Player 5. The performance is on par with that in QT 4.0, I admit. Though with all the hype from Apple and the Mac community about the "amazing" streaming capabilities in QT 4, I did expect more. Still, at the point, QT 4 doesn’t have much of an advantage on Real Player 5, at least on the Mac platform. Also, the new Real Player G2 beta is looking really inviting compared to QT 4 streaming. The stabilities issues basically still remain. I have a pretty good PM6500/225 with MacOS 8.5.1. I know there's nothing wrong with my HD - I regularly check it Disk First Aid. I do get better over all stability/performance by starting up with only the required QT 4 extensions.
It is indeed true, Apple’s software is moving ahead and therefore newer hardware in becoming necessary. QT 4 must be really good on a G3........ Sooner or later I’m gonna get my Mac a 56K modem or perhaps pick up a new iMAC.

QuickTIP:
If the QuickTime Player 4 doesn’t work to well you can go back and use MoviePlayer 3.0. All the new features in QT 4 (like streaming,etc.) are available in MoviePlayer 3.0 which is more stable. The only difference is that you lose most of the fancy new user interface in QuickTime Player 4.

[BlakeSeely]

Although I've got a couple grips about QT4, stability is definitely not one of them.
I haven't had a single crash or freeze since I installed it yesterday. And, basically for the last two days all I've been doing is trying out all the movies, sounds, MP3's I've got and I've been checking out all the trailers and streaming movies too. Not a single crash.

apple2, you've got something messing you up. I've got the same machine and no stability issues whatsoever.

[AAPl Shareholder]

Ya Apple2 I agree with this guy... you have some sort of software conflict.


And as far as realplayer goes. realplayer takes days to buffer a film if you have a modem. It takes about a 60secs with my 56k, and every now and then it drops off and I have to wait 60 seconds again. Quicktime 4 is ready to go in a few seconds.

And as far as quality goes... I really think it is easier to see what is going on with quciktime streaming. However I have a 56k modem... so things may be a bit different for me.

And the cool thing about quicktime 4 is that like real player g2... it supports interactive content, only with a much simpler UI.


I don't see what you beef is

Hi

I'm using PM7100/1mb cache. I installed QT4.0beta yesterday and had no problem. It never froze my computer and Netscape 4.51. And played great, a lot better than QT3.0.
Live streaming on BBC was great except when the news picture was changing fast. I use 256kbps Lan connection. It usually gives me 7 to 14 kbps internet ftp connection speed. I use system 8.0

I hope this infomation be any help

Good life with Mac

Happy Mac

If you've got a PM 6500/225 and you still have the modem that came with it, the Geoport Express Modem, get yourself a new modem. This is the computer my parents have, it and crashes constantly with Java and quicktime enhanced websites. As far as my experience goes with Quicktime 4, I thought it was great! The sound played very well from BBC, while the video was choppy, but better than Real Player. I've got a new PowerMac G3 with a 56k modem, but I only run at 28.8 speed due to my service provider. Still, it ran fairly well-the best I could expect from a 28.8 connection.

Hey Rumplestilskin, so the PM 6500/225 is indeed unstable when viewing QT content on the internet. It ALWAYS freezing. I don't know how to stop it. Do you know how or what I could do to prevent QT from crashing my system when viewing QT content online?

Hey Rumplestilskin, so the PM 6500/225 is indeed unstable when viewing QT content on the internet. It ALWAYS freezing. I don't know how to stop it. Do you know how or what I could do to prevent QT from crashing my system when viewing QT content online?

Hey apple2! What crawled up your butt and died? Having a bad day or something? You sound like your whole world came crashing down when you realized that QuickTime 4 was not the be all and end all of audio/video software. Well anyway it sounds like you have a simple extension conflict/corrupt preference in your system. . .and a pathetic modem. Try running QT4 with MacOS base set and see how it runs. I think QT 4 is an awesome step above QT3 and I haven't had any stability problems with it at all. . .love the interface!!!

Apple2 you have both personal and software issues

I don't agree with apple2. I have had no stability probelems at all with QT4. Plus it has all those cool features and authoring capabilities (for free). Everyone knows that internet video sucks anyway, and QT4 is pretty much the same as RealG4 on my computer, except a little blurrier (wheras RealG4 is TOO blocky).

Also, consider this: you are using a Microsoft product. That statement alone explains all your stability issues right there.

I once read that people who put other people down have self esteem issues.

I found QT4 worked fine on my beige G3/300. The only thing strange was that the new 640 pixel version of the Phantom Menace clip I downloaded shows the clip twice and reports the data sizes for video and audio at twice their actual sizes. In reality, they are better than the 480 pixel version, especially the audio, which is 2/3 the size!

The original modem in the PM 6500/225 series can't do Java, midi, sometimes shockwave, and once in a while Quicktime movies over the net half the time without crashing. Apple2, if you want this fixed, get yourself a new external modem and take out the internal one. Turning off virtual memory makes the chances of crashing less, but it'll still happen. I had the problems with Quicktime 3 as well, not just Quicktime 4.

I too own a 6500/225 and am expieriencing all the symptoms of apple2 (freezes, bombs, gittering
movies and mp3's, super instability). I am running 8.6b9 with 96 megs of ram and I clocked my
6500 to 275mhz. Oh and I'm on a cable modem that usually d/l's at 100KB/sec (thats bytes not
bits). I have uninstalled QT4 due to the crap that happens on my mac with it on. It even pukes
when I run it on 8.5.1.

I found a nasty little bug with 8.6 and QT4 with Sherlock, Apple Video Player, and Netscape
4.5.1. I restarted my mac and opened apple video player, then started netscape, after that I
opened Sherlock and did a search. When I double-clicked a search return in Sherlock the
netscape window would open and go to the right page. 30 seconds later the Mac would freeze
completely! the only thing that would work would be to restart!

I have repeated this bug many times and have tried to stop it by disabling extensions. NO GO! If
someone else can repeat this bug on their machine it would be appreciated.

-corwin

YIKE,

Somebody is running beta software on beta MacOS.

Beta on beta!

[This message has been edited by MacNW (edited 04-21-99).]

Ok guys time to hear the truth...

First off creditials...I'm a QT dev. been using QT4 under a NDA for awhile

If you want to know why the playback is worse than RP...its this...the servers are damned overcrowded lately...this overload probably surpassed what even apple was expecting...

IF/WHEN the servers are not crowded you can get damned good audio/video quality off a 28.8 connection

I used to listen to a music video off it all the time...the audio was perfect the video was about aframes a second...that my friends is what QT4 can do over 28.8 if all is going well

(for comparison I liken RP to the AM of radio and QT to the potential of FM ...well soon again I will...for right now I'll just take the "growing phase")

give apple till the final and a lil extra to beef up the demo servers and a few other professional broadcasters to also support qt4(several of which will offer alot more dedicated services than apple..) before you go around passing judgement...

lets put it this way

One week ago i downloaded qt4 at about 25k/sec
off a t3...yesterday I downloaded at 1.2k/sec worse than my modem....give apple a break people...this is NOT a final...they offered a preveiew and some of you are treating it like a shipping product

MP3 if you think apple is not going to improve this you don't know apple well

Soundset issues...your ears aren't the only ones acking from that nasty crackle...

to give you a last idea the interface that everyone likes? it was put in less than three weeks ago..there are several last minute things that will be improved...apple can hear your bitching and will happily do its best to appease you but just don't expect the world from a beta release demonstrating that the internet does in fact lag at times and servers do in fact get overcrowded

if I offended anyone I appollogize...no offense is ment with my language other than my strong feelings on the issue

DM

------------------
The read world,
as in dreams.
Nothing is quite,
what it seems.

The book of counted sorrows

Streaming on my slow 28.8 connection is on par with Real Video, if not better. Real video cuts out a lot for me, and QT didn't hardly at all. Granted it wasn't too high quality, but I am on a 28.8 modem. I would suggest to the people that are having streaming 'issues' to make sure there modem speed is set correctly, if it's not, it could mean poor performance.

Also, about stablity, I think Apple2's machine (system/extensions/control panels) should be looked at if he's complaining about crashing all the time. Granted it's not exactly rock solid, but I've found it VERY usable.

The only real issues I've found with it is when I try to stream a Radio broadcast the Quicktime Player hangs. And that the new sound manager distorts my system sounds.

All-in-all I think QT 4 is a great update and I'm looking forward to it becoming a final product.

6500/225 - 96mb - OS8.1 - 33.6 Geoport

Greetings!

Well, so far I veiw this "QT Beta Release" just as the moniker implies: a killer app which needs some refining.

<u>Sound</u>:
I find the sound to be heads-and-shoulders above any other MP3 player. As a musician who frequents recording studios, I discern a huge improvement in the high-end of the audio spectrum (cymbal crashes and ambients) which makes me wonder if Apple has a type of aural exciter in one of the codecs. I have experienced no crashes on MP3s or downloaded movie trailers, etc.

<u>Video</u>:
Video is also better than Netshow, Real or QT3. After d/ling "The Matrix" trailer, it was obvious a marked improvement had been made(also, reinforced that I need to see that movie 8).

<u>Streaming</u>:
I'm going to give Apple the benefit of the doubt here and suggest that the issue of garbled streaming was due to heavy traffic. I experienced OK sound through IE but very poor video. I experienced OK video through Netscape but very poor sound. Stability was pretty good ... perhaps 1 hang. My connection speed was a measly 31,2 bps but Real (so far) has the edge here (even under heavy traffic like Jobs keynotes 8).

<u>Broadcasting</u>:
Have not yet tried the radio broadcast feature.

QT4 looks to be a sure winner although further refinement is needed. That's one of the very reasons for the beta release: customer feedback. Keep up the good work Apple!

[billybob]

deadmilkman - hold your horses, bro. the reason apple released a preview of qt4 was so other people could try it out and give them feedback. and that's exactly what we're doing. I'm definitely not very impressed with qt4, but i am expecting a lot more of the final release.

Hey! apple2 here....
I'm pretty sure alot of us expected a bit more from QT 4, after all, it IS from Apple-the best computer company in the world. Apple sure has its share of refinements to do with QT 4. But generally Apple releasing QT 4 was/is INDEED for users like ourselves to judge and comment about QT 4. Apple probably didn’t expect such an audience with QT 4. We have to remember, though, that QT 4 is in no way a final product, its a ‘preview release’ as Apple said. Hopefully when the final version of QT 4 ships, Apple will “wow” us with a breath-taking piece of software.

BTW, is there anyone else that has a PM 6500/255 and having stability issues or problems with QT 4?

[This message has been edited by apple2 (edited 04-23-99).]

I've got a PM 6500/225 and have constant crashing with QT (any version), Java, etc. when using the internal modem. Now I've set up my old 6100/60 as an internet gateway (using IPNetRouter, so I haven't set it up for streaming yet), but now the PM 6500/225 works just wonderfully over ethernet, no crashes.

That internal modem/software is not stable. But the best thing about going ethernet is that I don't get the ~10% CPU hit for using PPP! Now I get movies that play faster and don't crash my Mac!

findley

Well, guys. I have a new G3 and Ethernet with plenty of RAM. But, G3 and Ethernet aside, I think the problem with crashing Web browsers and unstable QT 4's is RAM. Depite what the factory set alotment of RAM is for your Web browsers or QT 4, just give them more. Apps love RAM and they will reward you. Up RAM, run Norton, reset the PRAM and rebuild the desktop. Then can you complain about unstable systems.

Billybob - Nah...I think *you* should hold *your* horses...Apple wants feedback on bugs that aren't obvious...not the things you and other people are complaining about. Do you really think Apple is *that* blind not to see the obvious bugs?

[47Ronin]

Here's my final word: QT4.0b22 is fine. Why? It may be hardware/OS related because I'm having ZERO problems except Adobe Type Reunion conflict. I am on a 7600/120 upgraded to a 305MHz G3 (512k L2 & 1MB L3) and 280MB RAM (no VM). Running OS8.6GM. My gfx card is an ATI Xclaim VR RAGE Pro 8MB. Netscape has 39MB allocated. Net is coming through a cable modem using @Home service. I keep telling people how great QT4 is over this type of hardware.. I can stream the Star Wars music video at full screen (1024x768) using the Present Movie option and it doesn't skip a beat or frame. MOVs look great scaled. No stability problems. The only I can't do is save an MPEG animation as a MOV without losing the audio. So if you're crashing/bombing whatever.. maybe your hardware is over 4 years old and your system folder is bloated cause I'm having a great time w/QT4 on my 1996-era mac.

------------------
Glenn
47 Ronin Multimedia
www.47ronin.com