[47Ronin]

My department has three G3 Macs and we can download the main installer but the subsequent component installer can't download because we're behind this heinous firewall. I was able to download QT4 at home onto my Powerbook G3 using a cable modem. By putting the Quicktime Updater and Quicktime Install Cache onto a Zip, I was able to get the package properly installed on the Macs at work (Note: sometimes the updater will move the Quicktime Install Cache to the trash -- put it back if you still need it). We all had QT3 Pro previously so we installed the Authoring components.

The new interface is nice although it doesn't behave correctly with Balloon help. The titlebar font is fuzzed but that could be because of ATM antialiasing or the system font-smoothing. The biggest problem with Quicktime Player is the Favorites Drawer. While you have a favorites list in the menu, the icon approach in the drawer is completely unintuitive because there is no feedback as to what movie/URL you're pointing at. A text pop-up description is necessary. Streaming is possible directly from the player as long as you know the URL to the QT4 movie that is being broadcast. What's cool is that it's possible to stream a broadcast at full-screen size (Present Movie: Full Screen). However, streaming video still looks shoddy and you can imagine what it will look like at 1024x768. Hopefully this is just the BETA quality coming through. The player has an unnerving habit of opening an untitled movie when I launch it. QT4 movies look great and sound great (44KHz) but you'll need a fast hard drive that can handle the data rate. You can play MP3 files but you can't point to an URL that streams MP3s (online MP3 radio stations). I guess streams have to be in "hinted" QT4 movie format. It's cool that the Player can also handle Flash files.. it was tough trying to extract embedded .SWF files from some web pages, however, to test it.

Pros: Nice new look. Streams video (even full screen), plays MP3s, good QT4 authoring package, playback. Better volume control (using the keyboard). Plays Flash!

Cons: Terribly unintuitive Favorites drawer (needs descriptions/URL popups for the icons), can't stream MP3 broadcasts. Awkward volume control (using the dial). Streaming video looks as bad as RealPlayer (for now). Titlebar font is fuzzy. Version number isn't apparent in the About dialog (but it is in the control panel).

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Glenn
47 Ronin Multimedia
www.47ronin.com

I'm afraid my experience was quite different. I installed QT4 Pro on my PowerBook G3 Series 250MHz with 160MB RAM. I found that playing the old 480x218 versions of the Phantom Menace trailers was significantly SLOWER with QT4 than it had been with QT3. Based on that experience, I didn't even bother to try streaming video--QT4 just had to go.

In my experience, I found only a few pros:
-Finer volume control using keyboard.
-Graphic EQ and balance were nice.
-The 44KHz sound on the new trailer was good.

In contrast, the cons:
-Slower video playback than QT3.
-Bulky window (I like the functional efficiency of the old MoviePlayer).
-Nonstandard, slow-responding user interface: clicking a window widget during playback actually caused a short delay before the widget reacted; clicking a dragging a background window only selects it--it should select and drag it; redraw is slow.
-Ugly or absent UI widgets.
-Heinous volume "dial."
-Silly favorites drawer.
-Unintuitive installer (yes, now I know that I have a local copy in the "Installer Cache" file. I shouldn't have had to come to this board to learn that).

Yes, the interface looks kind of neat. But it's like the "Drawing Board" Appearance theme: nice to look at, but not to use. How can Apple promote user interface standards to developers when one of their high-profile products to flagrantly violates them?

I was looking SO forward to this, but I am profoundly disappointed. I downgraded my system back to QT3.02, and plan to keep it that way until I hear of these major issues being worked out. What a shame.

Markus

[zoeph]

Markus,

You need not be dissappointed. A short test shows that almost all of QT4 new features are accessible from movieplayer 3: playing in MP3, exporting with all the new codecs, etc. What is it you don't get? The interface, and of course the favorites.

Might not be such a bad idea, since these are the features which weren't so great after all in the first place. Well... I'm not so sure as of now. In the meantime, I'll leave the old movieplayer hanging around. And if I want all QT movies opend up in the old player, then I can always change the creator code of the new player to something like '????'.

As for the worse playback, I don't know what you're talking about. I've read many reactions to the contrary, all referring to the StarWars 480x216 trailer, and I have the same experience: playback is much smoother than with 3, and yes, also in the old movieplayer. By the way, I use a UMAX s900 @ 250MHz (none of them G3's!).

O yeah, one interface feature will remain with this homebuild solution: the new silver type movie controller, also seen in the new plugin. Oh well...