QuickTime Alternative is a

codec A codec is a device or computer program that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. ''Codec'' is a portmanteau of coder/decoder. In electronic communications, an endec is a device that acts as both an encoder and a decoder on a signal or ...

package for Microsoft Windows for playing

QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is a ...

media, normally only playable by the official QuickTime software distribution from Apple Inc. Development has now ceased and the version of the QuickTime codec now lags behind that released by Apple.

Comparison

QuickTime Alternative consists of codec libraries extracted from the official Apple distribution, including the official QuickTime plugin required for playing QuickTime files (.MOV, .QT and others) in web browsers such as

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...

and

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current a ...

, and also includes Media Player Classic. The main functional differences between the official QuickTime distribution and QuickTime Alternative from an end-user standpoint are in feature set, size, and consumption of system resources. QuickTime Alternative is a smaller package and lacks the full complement of software included in Apple QuickTime, including QuickTime Player, PictureViewer, and any

QuickTime Pro QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is a ...

features. In addition, QuickTime Alternative does not run background processes such as the optional QuickTime Tray Icon from the official distribution. QT Lite is a stripped-down version of QuickTime Alternative that contains only the base components, and does not install Media Player Classic. It used to be maintained concurrently with QuickTime Alternative.

History

*On March 10, 2006, QuickTime Alternative 1.56 was released, which is the last version based on Apple QuickTime 6.0, and therefore the last version to support

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The second operating system in the 9x line, it is the successor to Windows 95, and was released ...

and

Windows Me Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (marketed with the pronunciation of the pronoun "me"), is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is the successor to Win ...

. *On June 28, 2007, QT Lite was introduced. QT Lite 1.1.2 published 2007-11-12 was the last version for

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was official ...

, QT Lite 2.0.0 published one day later required

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was release to manufacturing, released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Wind ...

. *On September 14, 2007, QuickTime Alternative 1.90 was released, which removes QuickTime Pro functionality and DirectShow filters, both of which were included in prior versions. Based on Apple QuickTime 7.2, QuickTime Alternative 1.95 is the first version that doesn't support

or CPUs without SSE. *On December 15, 2007, QuickTime Alternative 2.20 was released and it was based on Apple QuickTime 7.3.1.70. From this version upwards support for CPUs without SSE is restored back again. *On September 3, 2009, QuickTime Alternative 3.2.2 was released. Based on Apple QuickTime 7.6.6. *On July 15, 2010, both Quicktime Alternative and

Real Alternative RealPlayer, formerly RealAudio Player, RealOne Player and RealPlayer G2, is a cross-platform media player app, developed by RealNetworks. The media player is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimedia realm, including M ...

were removed from their main distribution website, and on July 25, 2010 QT Lite and Real Alternative Lite followed suit. The maintainer of these software packages, CodecGuru, refuses to discuss the reason for the removal, saying "that discussion is not wanted here." CodecGuru also actively deletes or edits any posts on the Codec Guide forum that mention the two codec packs and their removal. Repeated posting about the topic results in users being banned from the forum. CodecGuru stated in a forum post that "There are no links on the site anymore to stimulate the use and development of open-source alternatives, such as VLC and ffdshow, instead of the use of proprietary software." *On August 16, 2010 QT Lite 4.0.0 was released. Based on Apple QuickTime 7.6.7. *On December 18, 2010 QT Lite 4.1.0 was released. Based on Apple QuickTime 7.6.9.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quicktime Alternative Video codecs QuickTime Windows multimedia software

Comparison

History

See also

References