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 datathroughput 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.

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.

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