QuickTime 4 software offers unparalleled quality, ease of use, and functionality for anyone authoring, publishing, or streaming digital media. QuickTime is not simply an application, but a complete technology for handling video, sound, animation, graphics, text, music, and even 360-degree virtual reality ( VR) scenes. Now, with the introduction of QuickTime 4, media authors not only have access to the wealth of capabilities built into QuickTime, they also have the ability to stream digital video.

• Fast Start. For HTTP streaming, the Fast Start feature of the QuickTime Plug-in has been extended to all QuickTime-enabled applications. It presents the first frame of a QuickTime movie or QuickTime VR scene almost immediately, and automatically begins playing the movie as it is downloaded.
• Movie "hot spots." You can attach URLs to specific areas of QuickTime and QuickTime VR movies, and to movie elements such as sprites, facets of QuickDraw 3D images, and text tracks. These URLs can link to other QuickTime movies, QuickTime VR panoramas, QuickTime 4 streams, objects, animations, music, text, web graphics, or separate web pages.
• Automatic web page launching. You can encode individual frames of QuickTime movies with URLs that will automatically open one or more specified web pages. The new pages can be displayed next to the still-playing movie. This is a very powerful way to link web-based or CD-based QuickTime movies to other links on the web.
• Poster frame previews of movies. You can embed still images representing QuickTime movies on a web page to enable the page to load faster. The full movie is streamed when the user clicks on one of these movie posters.
• Processor delivery. The QuickTime Plug-in can detect processor speed differences, and can allow media authors to send highly compressed materials to more robust systems for decoding and higher-quality playback.
• Data rate adjustments. The QuickTime Plug-in automatically selects the best version of a QuickTime movie for the viewer's connection speed. The author simply creates multiple versions of the finished movie, specifies which file should be selected for each rate of downloading, and puts a single link on the web page.
• Alternate languages. The plug-in can play alternate versions based on language options. For example, a single embedded link could reference movies with Spanish, French, and English sound tracks or text captioning. A particular language can be automatically selected based on the localized system software on the user's computer.

• Video. QuickTime supports AVI, AVR, DV, OpenDML, and other professional digital video formats. Although AVI and other files can contain only audio and video, QuickTime can enhance these files with text, additional music tracks, and any other supported media types. QuickTime 4 features video compressors and decompressors that can handle needs ranging from CD -ROMs and DVDs to dial-up Internet access. QuickTime can stream video over the Internet even with 28.8-Kbps modems. QuickTime 4 includes Sorenson Video 2, which delivers the best possible video quality while maintaining the smallest file size. Sorenson Video incorporates the latest compression techniques, motion compensation, and data rate control methods to provide un-matched video at virtually any speed. With QuickTime, Cinepak, IMA, Intel Indeo Video, and the industry-standard H.263 compressor, you can target almost any audience, giving you the highest level of cross-platform compatibility.
• MPEG format. The MPEG standard for Macintosh is used extensively for consumer products, combining high-quality audio with low data rates. An Apple extension for QuickTime 4 for Macintosh provides direct access to MPEG-1 audio and video, including the popular MPEG-1, Layer 3 (MP3). You can also play back MP3 files with QuickTime 4 for Windows. The QuickTime file format for MPEG-4 has been chosen as an ISO standard, so QuickTime files you create today will be ready for MPEG-4 tomorrow.
• Speech and music. QuickTime brings high-quality digital audio to all types of applications, whether the audio is used by itself or with other media types. Support for Qualcomm's PureVoice technology gives media authors access to some of the highest-quality voice compression available, in a format so compact that it can be enjoyed over a 14.4-Kbps modem. Since PureVoice is optimized for speech, it offers a much more effective solution than multipurpose audio formats. QuickTime 4 also provides amazing audio fidelity for music at greatly reduced bit rates through support of the QDesign Music 2 compressor. This compressor represents a breakthrough in audio encoding and decoding technology by providing unprecedented fidelity at as little as 1 percent of the original file size. Such efficiency is vitally important for the bandwidth-limited situations frequently encountered on the Internet. For example, one minute of CD-quality audio can be reduced from an 11-megabyte file to a 150-kilobyte file that delivers full-bandwidth, 16-bit, 44.1-kHz stereo in real time over a 28.8-Kbps connection.
• MIDI and music. MIDI music is an integral part of the QuickTime architecture. It can be used alone or with video, animation, still images, or other visual elements. In addition to playing music through internal or external speakers, QuickTime can route musical information to external MIDI devices, effects processors, and drum machines. QuickTime 4 delivers CD-quality, low-bandwidth music by supporting over 200 instruments with the Roland Sound Canvas sound set. It also supports GS format extensions, which allow additional expressions for General or standard MIDI sequences. On Windows systems, QuickTime supports the use of the MIDI Mapper for use with external MIDI hardware.
• Still images and pictures. The extensive collection of still-image importers in QuickTime 4 allows media authors to leverage photography and illustrations created in a wide range of formats. QuickTime 4 now has the ability to open FlashPix images with PictureViewer and export to PNG, TIFF, TARGA, and MacPaint images, while supporting 16-bit-per-channel files. It also supports multiple images in TIFF, FlashPix, and Adobe Photoshop formats. To enable you to work easily within workgroups, QuickTime 4 supports BMP, GIF, JPEG, PICT, PNG, and SGI formats.
• Text. QuickTime supports searchable text tracks, with a Find command in the QuickTime Player or your custom application to allow content creators and users to quickly find a particular scene by searching through its script or annotation text. A single QuickTime movie can have multiple text tracks, simplifying the creation of multilingual movies. Text annotation can be used with any QuickTime-enabled media types: AVI for video files, and WAV, AIFF, or MPEG-1 for audio files. It can also be deployed as an HREF track, allowing you to embed URLs in your movies.
• Animations and sprites. Macromedia Flash animation can now be played with any QuickTime application, including the QuickTime Plug-in. For superior animation with compact files, QuickTime 4 integrates a curve-based vector animation compressor and flexible sprite capabilities. For some types of animations, these vector-based tools can produce a dramatically smaller file than traditional compressors and prerendered video tracks can produce. QuickTime 4 also supports alpha channel compositing and special effects up to 16 bits per pixel.