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- THIS RELEASE MOVED OVER PR NEWSWIRE ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1994 AT 8:37 AM,
- EDT
-
- Contact:
- Katy Boos
- Apple Computer, Inc.
- (408) 974-4451
-
- New QuickTime adds Interactive Television, Music and Full-Screen
- Video Support QuickTime 2.0 Supports MPEG Standard
-
- CUPERTINO, California-- February 9, 1994-- Further demonstrating its
- commitment to the burgeoning multimedia market, Apple Computer, Inc.
- today announced a new version of Apple QuickTime , the revolutionary
- software that brings multimedia capabilities to personal computers
- and consumer electronic devices. The newest version, QuickTime 2.0,
- is significant because it provides larger video at faster frame
- rates, support for music, and support for interactive television
- applications.
- Larger, Faster, TV-Like Video
- Video on computers is often confined to small windows and played at
- less than 12 frames per second, making the video appear rough and
- jerky. QuickTime 2.0 provides greatly increased performance
- resulting in full-screen movies-- without the addition of any
- hardware-- closely resembling what viewers see on television today.
- For example, on a Macintosh LC475, one of Apple's lowest-cost
- computers, 30 frames per second video is possible at a resolution of
- 320 x 240, or full-screen video (640 x 480) is possible at 15 frames
- per second.
- A key component of the new video enhancements are new features that
- support professional-level video editing. QuickTime 2.0 includes
- support for time-code, 60 fields per second video and high data
- throughput greater than 3MB per second-- representing a 300 percent
- increase over previous versions of QuickTime.
- Interactive Television Support
- QuickTime 2.0 creates an infrastructure for development and delivery
- of interactive television applications through MPEG support and
- network enhancements. Now, with its new device protocols, QuickTime
- can address distributed networks and devices, such as video servers,
- on the information superhighway.
- QuickTime 2.0 also supports MPEG*, widely regarded as the industry-
- standard method of delivering video into the home for interactive
- television applications such as Video On Demand (VOD) and home
- shopping. However, MPEG, by itself, allows only playback. With
- QuickTime 2.0, users of MPEG-based devices will be able to edit,
- search for, interact with-- as well as play back-- video information.
- "With Apple's support for the MPEG standard, the Macintosh will
- become the development platform of choice for ITV applications," said
- Mark Bain, president of Wired Incorporated, a Mountain-View,
- California-based product design firm that extensively utilizes
- digital video and audio.
- Music For The Masses
- Building on Apple's industry-reknowned ease-of-use, QuickTime 2.0
- makes it much easier for computer users to create, edit, playback and
- synchronize music with video-- all without a technical understanding
- of MIDI technology. In the past, users of Macintosh computers and
- other personal computers have required an understanding of MIDI
- technology in order to create and playback music on computers.
- In addition, QuickTime 2.0's music capabilities will save disk space
- for users, because QuickTime music tracks are much smaller than
- digital audio. For example, Beethoven's 5th Symphony could easily
- fill a 300MB hard disk if stored as CD-quality audio, but when
- represented as a QuickTime music track it would fill just a single
- 800K floppy disk.
- "The technical advances we've made with this release of QuickTime
- will have a profound impact on the multimedia industry," commented
- Tom Ryan, manager of Media Products at Apple. "QuickTime's faster,
- full-screen video with MPEG support, will raise the video quality
- standards for multimedia developers, while its new music capabilities
- lower the barrier to entry for multimedia customers who do not want
- to learn the technical nuances of MIDI."
- More than one million copies of QuickTime have been sold. Both
- Windows and Macintosh developers have adopted QuickTime technology,
- and there are more than 300 software products supporting it today.
- System Requirements
- QuickTime 2.0 will run on any color-capable (68020 or later)
- Macintosh computer running System 7 or 6.0.7 with at least 2 MB of
- memory.
- Availability
- QuickTime 2.0 is expected to be available on the Macintosh in the
- middle of 1994, with developer seeding planned to begin in March. As
- with previous versions, QuickTime 2.0 is designed to permit cross-
- platform compatibility between platforms which support it.
- Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Apple Computer, Inc.
- (NASDAQ:AAPL) develops, manufactures and markets personal computer,
- server, and personal interactive electronic systems for use in
- business, education, the home, science, engineering and government.
- A recognized pioneer and innovator in the information industry, Apple
- does business in more than 120 countries.
- -30-
- Apple, the Apple logo and Macintosh are registered trademarks and
- QuickTime is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.
- *MPEG (Motion Pictures Experts Group) is an ISO standard that allows
- for greater video compression rate, resulting in faster, smoother
- video. The standard has been cooperatively developed by more than 70
- companies and institutions worldwide including SONY, Philip,
- Matsushita and Apple. It is expected to become the digital video
- standard for compact discs, cable TV, direct satellite broadcast and
- high-definition television.
-
- NOTE TO EDITORS: If you are interested in receiving Apple press
- releases or product data sheets by fax, call 1-800-AAPL-FAX (1-800-
- 227-5329) and enter I.D. number 6172.
- Below please note, is a list of quotable quotes from Third-Party
- Developers concerning
-
- QuickTime 2.0.
- What Third-Parties Are Saying About QuickTime 2.0
- "Support for MPEG within QuickTime is continuing evidence of Apple's
- innovative leadership in multimedia and digital video. It will
- clearly accelerate the merger of digital and analog technologies and
- foster exciting combinations of computers that provide production,
- education and entertainment in an interactive digital world."
- Tom Ziola
- Director of Marketing
- Radius
-
- "We fully endorse QuickTime as our API (Application Programming
- Interface) for our new line of Macintosh MPEG peripherals. By
- continuing to utilize QuickTime, Macintosh developers are assured a
- consistent programming environment regardless of the media format
- being handled."
- Mark Bain
- President
- Wired Incorporated (product design firm)
-
- "We are extremely excited about the advent of the QuickTime era. The
- market has matured to a point where there are specific performance
- requirements for both video creation and for video delivery.
- QuickTime 2.0 delivers the promise of meeting both these needs head-
- on."
- Scott Rawlings
- Product Manager
- RasterOps
-
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