What's this control in QT Player X?
Sometimes it appears when I'm using QT Player, but it never sticks around long enough for me to see what it is or what it does.
How can I reliably get it to appear, and what does it do?
Martin S Taylor
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 12GB RAM
It's the video play control - Pause, Play, Rewind, Volume, etc. It appears when the cursor hovers on the video and disappears when the cursor is moved off the video so the control panel doesn't obscure your view.
No it isn't. The video play control has Pause, Play, Rewind, Volume, etc. The screenshot I posted has none of these things.
MST
Your screenshot is difficult to make out. It certainly looks like the play control from what I can make out.
I clicked on it for a better view and it really just looks like an index of where in the playback you are. What happens when you interact with it should tell you what it does or possibly exploring Help.
What's this control in QT Player X?
This is the QT X "Jog" player control. It automatically comes up while in "playback" mode if you make a single finger gesure left (reverse) or right (fast forward) on a gesture input device such as a "Magic Mouse." If the file is not in the "Playback" mode, the same gesture will "scrub" the playhead backward or forward.
Thank you. Is this documented anywhere? Should I have known?
MST
Is this documented anywhere?
I have not run across any documented references but then I haven't been looking for any either. In fact, I have seen complaints that the QT X Player had no "Jog" control at all or only had the Option-Click FF/REV options to change the playhead speed in 0.1X increments. The "gesture" control provides logrithmic control over the linearly incremented index axis. I.e., the first index marker is 2X normal playback speed, the 2nd is 4X normal and the 3rd is 8X normal speed. Thus, the "Jog" control provides up to 8X normal playback FF/Rev speeds without having to Option-Click 80 times.
Should I have known?
That would depend on how observant and analytical you are. From your description, it sounds as if the controller change caught you by surprise and you immediately released/removed your finger from the input device causing the controller to switch back to its normal mode. Had you left your finger on the device and explored the gesture further, the use of the controller modification would have probably become obvious very quickly. I tend to have "lazy fingers" and discovered this secondary functionality some time ago and just assumed everyone knew about it.
Should I have known?
That would depend on how observant and analytical you are. From your description, it sounds as if the controller change caught you by surprise and you immediately released/removed your finger from the input device causing the controller to switch back to its normal mode. Had you left your finger on the device and explored the gesture further, the use of the controller modification would have probably become obvious very quickly. I tend to have "lazy fingers" and discovered this secondary functionality some time ago and just assumed everyone knew about it.
Ha! I've been trying to condition myself away from "lazy fingers" because leaving a stray digit on the mouse can sometimes stop certain keyboard commands working in Apple programs. Cmd-C to copy is particularly pernicious in Numbers.
MST
What's this control in QT Player X?
