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Fink-Nottle · Jun 6, 2002, 08:01 AM

I've upgraded to Quicktime 6. It's definitely faster... Great! The MP4 samples look and sound fantastic. But there's still a dearth of content.

Are we going to have to wait until Real converts to MP4? And if so, is Real really going to rush converting to a format that will cost them marketshare? It would be great Apple could provide a few streaming channels... bring the BBC back and grab a few others. I think they may need to kickstart this thing!

Any thoughts... give me hope people!

mitchell_pgh · Jun 10, 2002, 10:03 AM

Man... you are crazy... QT6 preview has only been out for a few weeks... Time, BBC, Newsweek etc. aren't going to switch anytime soon. It is going to take time, but I think you will see it with time.

No, we won't have to wait for Real to switch to MP4 (if they ever do... I don't believe Real...)

Commodus · Jun 10, 2002, 11:44 AM

We'll probably have to wait for the final QT6 release before we start seeing MPEG-4 content in earnest, but I do believe that there will be a general move in the industry to the format (including Real). Proprietary formats are only useful in that they "lock" a certain percentage of the market into your product. Universal standards no longer provide that guarantee, but they also mean that potential customers are less likely to balk at the thought of installing yet ANOTHER video player just to see content on a site.

Another element is definitely the Not Microsoft (tm) factor. Microsoft can take advantage of the fragmentary nature of the rest of the media player market due to their pre-existing domination of the OS. If 90% of your potential audience uses Windows and likely has Windows Media Player installed already (not including Mac users who choose to install WMP), it's sorely tempting to use a "guaranteed" codec rather than one which may well be better. MPEG-4 erodes the certainty of that view. Suddenly, if both Quicktime AND RealOne users can see the same video, you know you can still expect to reach a large percentage of users - including that elusive 10% which doesn't use Windows. Apple and Real may simply consider it worth the sacrifice of exclusivity to put pressure on Microsoft (who despises with a passion any standards that they didn't make themselves).

Fink-Nottle · Jun 10, 2002, 08:12 PM

Hey! I'm not crazy... :-)

My point is that even if MP4 is great will it be enough to make content providers switch to it? I can't see it happening until Real adopt it as their codec... and given their glacial progress on other projects that's a worry. After all, they have no real interest in helping Quicktime out... they just view it as a way to fight the WMP.

RJLawrence · Jun 11, 2002, 02:01 AM

Unlike Real's supposed committment to OS X, Real has a whole section devoted to MPEG-4. Windows users can already view mp4 content with a plug-in made by Envivio, however I will admit that the masses have no clue. I agree that MPEG-4 will not really take off until Real introduces a compatible play which plays the content natively.

If MS was smart, they could just throw in an mp4 plug-in or decoder with their next version of the media player and do it with little fanfare. For those who only have the WMP on their machines, they wouldn't know the difference anyway.

I have friends/classmates who've sent me quite a few clips of this and that and I don't really think they were aware of the .asf or .wmv extension. All that mattered to them was that the content played.

mitchell_pgh · Jun 11, 2002, 05:38 PM

I would have to say that Apple doesn't really care about the MP4 format other then the fact that they want it to become the standard in video. They aren't going to get rich on the codec. They will only make out if MP4 becomes the standard and content creators buy Macs to design for the standard.

So far, MP4 hasn't impressed me. I can't seem to find the sweet spot size/quality wise...

When real buys in on MP4, I think we are gold...