Supported compressors

Table of Contents | Appendices

Supported compressors

QuickTime includes a wide range of media compressors for specific purposes. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, so you should take the type of data you are working with into account when choosing a compressor for your files.

The QuickTime media compressors are used for compressing video and audio files for use in Electrifier Pro, compressing bitmap images, and exporting QuickTime 2.x files.

Video and graphics compressors

Compressor	Appropriate Uses
Animation	Computer-generated animations with broad areas of flat color. Fast decompression and high image quality. Lower quality for video or photographs.
BMP	Still images for viewing on Windows machines
Cinepak	Video for CD-ROM. Data rate can be limited for smoother playback.
Component Video	Video capture on AV Macintoshes. Very high video quality but low compression ratios.
DV-NTSC & DV-PAL	Digital Video cameras. New in QuickTime 3.
Graphics	256-color still computer graphics. Medium-speed decompression and high image quality. Lower quality for images in thousands or millions of colors, such as most video or photographs.
H.263	Video conferencing. Low quality but high compression ratios. The movie will be scaled to one of the three supported window sizes: 352x288 (CIF), 176x144 (QCIF), or 128x96 (sub-QCIF). Not supported on 680x0 Macintoshes.
Motion JPEG A & Motion JPEG B	Video for use with a hardware Motion-JPEG card. Not well suited to playback on systems without such hardware. Slow but high-quality compression of video.
None	Video capture only. Almost no compression.
Photo-JPEG	High-quality still photographic images and intermediate storage for movies. Very slow decompression.
Planar RGB	Photographic graphics with an alpha channel (for use when you have an image that you want to composite with video).
Sorensen Video	Streaming video. Very high compression ratios and image quality. Frame timing is scalable for web playback. New in QuickTime 3.
Video	Intermediate storage for video. Very fast compression and decompression but poor image quality at high compression ratios/low data rates.

Audio compressors

Format	Appropriate Uses
24-bit & 32-bit Integer	Not recommended for export. Increases the sample size to 24 or 32 bits (these will be converted to 8- or 16- bit to play on current hardware). High quality but no compression.
32-bit & 64-bit Floating Point	Not recommended for export. Increases the sample size to 32 or 64 bits for more accurate conversion and the application of effects. Very high quality but no compression.
ALaw 2:1	Not recommended for export. Low quality and low compression ratio. Included for compatibility with European Internet compressed audio standards.
IMA 4:1	Music and other 16-bit audio content. Relatively low compression ratio.
MACE 3:1 & MACE 6:1	Not recommended for export. Included for compatibility with older Macintosh sounds.
QDesign Music Codec	Music and other continuous sound samples. Very high quality and high compression ratios. New in QuickTime 3.
Qualcomm PureVoice(TM)	Speech and other less-continuous sounds. Not well suited to continuous sounds such as music. High quality and very high compression ratios. New in QuickTime 3.
µLaw 2:1	Not recommended for export. Low quality and low compression ratio. Included for compatibility with US & Japanese Internet compressed audio standards.