Based on comments by vjPulp and martbr, there still seem to be a lot of misunderstandings out there.
A few years ago. Apple bragged to be the company where everything "just worked". Remember the "Hello, I am a Mac" campaign? It was all about this. "I'm a Mac, I can do just about anything, make movies, do this, do that... It just works out of the box". That wasn't so long ago.
"Puffing" is a standard practice for most companies. It would be foolish to believe everything you see, read, or hear regarding a product—especially if it is espoused by the company itself or without doing some independent research on your own.
Whith Quicktime 7 (Pro), it was exactly that. We could do just about anything with movies. Watch them, cut/copy/paste, rotate them, add effects (okay, I never really used that, but... you know), extract the audio, even add masks and subtitles... And best of all, we could open pretty much ANY codec we wanted. AND also export them to ANY other Codec we wanted.
As has been mentioned numerous times already, this option is open to users—even under Mavericks.
Then came Quicktime X, and gone were all these functions. We could just WATCH movies – and export them to the web, but that was it, more or less. And we couldn't even watch ALL of them, because some codecs weren't supported anymore. But luckily for us, we could keep Quicktime 7. And there was Perian. And VLC. And Flip4Mac. But then already, I thougt to myself: That's not the Quicktime I used to like – that's not what Apple used to be for me. "Making things easy" – Absolutely! But reducing things so they don't work anymore? No way.
I thought all of this had been hashed out back when Snow Leopard was first introduced. Apparently it has not. QT 7 (classic QT 7 player with the 32-bit embedded QT structure) and QT X (QT Player with dual 64-/32-bit/QT X/AV foundation or whatever else you wish to call it) are two completely different things. Two different tools targeted to support different groups of media types—one for modern AV formats and the other for legacy and/or support of proprietary third-party content in a more open architecture. Indeed, many proponents have stated that the development of a more modern player/structure may well take up to a decade to complete. In short, if you don't like how QT X v10.3 works, you are most likely using the wrong tool for what you want to do.
Contrary to popular belief, this moderization project is not an attempt to support as many compression formats and file types as possible but rather a process of winnowing them down to a small number of multipurpose codecs that can be well supported easily and used for everything from smart phone conferencing, web use, wireless streaming within/to/from, as well as storage of 2K (maybe 4K and/or 3D in the future) high quality home entertainment content and the archiving of content for professional/prosumer level video projects. In short, you will likely see fewer formats being supported as the number of modern features increase and limit the playback of older formats more and more.
(There were other things going in the same direction – i.e. that desaster about Final Cut Pro X with all these important features just gone... iCloud dropping the picture galleries from MobileMe. Dropping the "save as.." function in TextEdit. etc etc)
What FCP X disaster? (I am still an FCP Suite v6 user. If you have some specifics that might impact a future decision to switch to the newer software, I would like to hear them.)
I can't see much reason to complain about the loss of MobileMe from the standpoint that you had 18-20 months warning in this case (unlike the the surprises in Maverick) and there are many free photo posting services and UPnP NAS Internet accessible devices on the market to replace it (for less cost). (I myself opted to set up my own in-home server.)
As to TextEdit, have you tried the "Duplicate (Upper Case-Command-S)" file menu option. While not intuitive, it is the new "Save As..." option. Would assume the original idea was to prevent users from accidenally changes their files by mistake—i.e., it first creates a new copy of the file before allowing you to use a "Save As..." equivalent option.
And now, with MavX, they're going even a step further. They won't let us open our old movies anymore (we need third party software for that). AND they also don't leave us any choise about what we want to do with these old movies. They just convert them, without even thinking about asking. And above all: They don't even let us take a glance at the content!! The Icon is gone, Quick Look is gone! So if we had to choose what to do with our old library - say, to decide if we wanted to convert all these files or not – we'd have to open them up in VLC, close them again and then let Quicktime X convert them in a way that we have no control over.
Again, if you don't like the way QT X v10.3 handles your files, then don't use it. And, if your old files were supported by the QT 7 player, then they are still compatibile with it. You only have ti use third-party software if you want to or if you have failed to configure your sytem's QT codec component configuration to play the files you want to open. How are they preventing you from doing what you want to do with your files? If you don't want them automatically converted then don't open them in the QT X player. It's as simple as that.
With regard to icons, you can always add a custom icon if that is so important to you-—normally at the time you add the file to your drive. In fact, I often find a custom icon has more meaning for me that the previously/currently auto-generated icons. As to QL, i really can't understand the difference between using a preview function that works like an app and using an app for the same previewing purpose. QL only lets me prieview one file at a time but I can open one or forty files or more in QT 7, preview the content of any or all simultaneously, do what I want to do (like separating the files into "Convert" and "Don't Convert" folders for later action, and then close each player window when done previewing the particular file(s). I may often process, convert, preview, add metadata, file, and then proof up to 50 files or more a day and I require a faster workflow than you propose. Also, VLC automatically preates a playlist so why not dump allof the file you want to preview into the playlist at once. Then you can prview the file in order, decide what to do, do, and move on to the next file in the list with the press of a button. The only reason I don't like VLC is that I frequently need to check chapter markers and there does not seem to be a short-cut for this function built into the app.
(I'm talking about the vast majority of users here who are not using Converter or FCP X, okay?)
Not sure I understand the point you are trying to make here. If you are referring to a conversion workflow, why not use the AV Convert function now built into the Mavericks system? Simply highligh all of the files you wish to convert using the same otarget display (and quality level if applicable) and target compression format, change target location if you wish, set the delete option for the original file as desired, and then go to bed for the night. The next morning the files will be done and you can do what you want with them.
That's a HUGE step backwards. Thats wrong on so many levels. Everything that Quicktime was about – simplicity, easy understanding and handling, fun – has turned into some sort of patronizing peace of software that makes my life much more complicated than it was before. It's really annoying. Because it does not make ANY sense whatsoever. Except of course, for Apple's developpers who don't have to write complicated software anymore.
Once again, I have no desire to change anyone's mind regarding Mavericks, but it does seem that many of the complaints I read are due a lack of knowledge on the part of the user (regarding what the system can and cant do) or a resistance to change on the part of how the same tasks are/can be performed differently with little or no extra effort.
Apple are not thinking about the users anymore. They are thinking about themselves. What's easiest for THEM. And what's making the most money. It's clearly the wrong direction.
Corporations are like living organisms. Their primary functions are survival and growth. While I agree that program for media player moderization may differ from what you, I, and others think it should be, I don't believe things are as bad as you say. In fact, some users make it sould like that Apple is "out to get them" on a personal basis. Pardon me if this seems a bit paranoid.
Of course QL is opening the files to playback its data. I am really astonished - sorry - that you are argueing here that people should know since several years that they should move to MPEG4 or H.264 - and now your are asking such a question. You should have such knowledge - displaying data without opening and reading its file (data) is impossible. Sorry!
No need to appologize, but I think you are still missing my point. Research would seem to indicate that Apple is not actually playing/rendering the original data. Instead, it is applying some sort of system trickery here. My guess, and it is only a guess, would be that it is using "thumbnail" routines already built into this and earlier operating systems for the actual display. While it is true that the original data must be "accessed," using whatever codecs may be required to do so, to take a "snapshot" of whatever is to be displayed, the term "playing" in the sense that a media player "plays" the data would not apply here. I tend to think of it more in terms of "scanning" the data for rendering.
And this is exactly the point: if Apple can open and convert the "incompatible" videos with a 64 bit application, then Apple could - as far as I can think - playback these videos. Without conversion.. at least they could do it in background and just playback the video in foreground. And this is exactly what people are asking for!
By the way: it is not avconvert. It is a class called "QTMovieModernizer" (as far as I know) which converts AVI and other video compression formats to MPEG4 or H.264.
Again you still seem to be missing the point. The QT (X) Player is more or less, just a player now. It sends the content references to the AV Foundation, if the AV foundation can't play the data, then it sends to file reference to the QTMovieModerizer (probably the name given to the overall process sequencer consisting of several routines) which appears to evaluate the file type and data contained. It decides what data is to be converted, what data is to be passed through, and which codec is to be used for the video (H.264 or Apple ProRes 422). This information then seems to be passed on to the AV Convert routine which actually attempts to locate the appropriate code(s), assign the target file and temporary file locations, and, if everything it needs is present/availble, then proceeds to perform the the actual conversion.
As to the AV Convert routine, suggest you remove a required source codec component and then try a conversion. If you attempt to load the QT X v10,3 player, you get the normal, generalized modal message indicating your system QT codec component configuration does not contain/is missing a required codec. On the other hand, if you re-try a conversion under the same conditions using the Mavericks Finder level converter, you will receive a modal message saying the AV Convert failed to open an "Export Session" and that you need to check your (QT codec component configuration) setup. If you then replace the missing codec, things will return to normal. My guess here is that the v10.3 player has been streamlined to little more than a plyer which only plays a few specific codecs and that the export routines have been reprogrammed as a system-wide converter that can be called from any AV app which Apple chooses to "convert to the darkside" in the future. For instance, I suspect Apple may be planning to change GarageBand from a QT 7 32-bit based app to a QT X Player-like application in the not too distant future and with AV Foundation, QTMovieModernizer, AV Convert, and similar routines already in place, it would likely be a relatively simple matter to do so.
This is exactly the point: for you this is no problem. It might help if you just search at Google for something like "Mavericks QuickTime" - and you might learn that there are millions of people who have problems - and do not like what is going on.
Again I believe you have the shoe on the other foot. While millions of Mac users may have one or more AVI files on their system, only a small number seem to be concerned enough to voice their compaints with the "heat" you use. In most cases I keep seeing the same irate people posting over and over again. In my opinion their time might be better spent learning more about their systems than voicing their dispair. I realize you think the few hundred people posting to this and similar topics on this forum and the few thousand (maybe even tens of thousands) posting to other forums on the internet represent the voiceless majority out there, but I believe the vast majority of users numbering in the millions are either too busy or are, for the most part, unconcerned about issue since it is not thier goal to use a Mac as an AVI media content server/manager. Frankly, I think professional users whose livelihood depends on an ability to view, edit, and convert their media content have more of a problem than Mac AVI users and Apple should turn their attention in this direction first. As far as I can see, all of your complaints are focused on the inconvenience of having to modify a workflow—not a real degradation of the overall system capabilities.
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