Apple has debuted their QuickTime 7 High Definition Video Gallery utilizing H.264 codec on Apple.com.
Welcome to a revolution in resolution. High Definition video brings the widescreen vistas, clarity and color depth of film to the television and computer screen. So you can view movies the way film directors intended. Check out this gallery of amazing High Definition video, and see what’s in store.
H.264 uses the latest innovations in video compression technology to provide incredible video quality from the smallest amount of video data. This means you see crisp, clear video in much smaller files, saving you bandwidth and storage costs over previous generations of video codecs. H.264 delivers the same quality as MPEG-2 at a third to half the data rate and up to four times the frame size of MPEG-4 Part 2 at the same data rate. H.264 is truly a sight to behold.
The advanced H.264 codec makes it possible for QuickTime 7 to play back High Definition video on a personal computer without additional hardware required. However, you’ll still need a G5 system to display so much media.
Apple System Recommendations (not requirements, videos will play on “lesser” configs) are as follows:
To play high definition video, a large amount of data must be processed by your computer. A powerful system will deliver the best playback experience.
For 1280×720 (720p) video at 24-30 frames per second:
• 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer
• At least 256 MB of RAM
• 64 MB or greater video card
For 1920×1080 (1080p) video at 24-30 frames per second:
• Dual 2.0 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer
• At least 512 MB of RAM
• 128 MB or greater video card
Visit Apple’s QuickTime 7 High Definition Video Gallery here.
NOTE: These are recommendations, not requirements.
I played the Kingdom of Heaven trailer on my 1.33 GHz PowerBook (with 1.5 GB Ram) and it played very well.
Yes, it is very nice. The Fantastic Four trailer is superb on my G5.
Oh, I’ve for a dual 2GHz with 4GB of RAM and the fast ATI card
no qt7 for windows??? boohoo
Hey, for all you Mac Media Center people, check out CocoaJT it’s from France but it is in English now. It gives you a nice interface for watching and recording TV shows from around the world. Great interface and features full screen. Play back is great.
http://jeanmatthieu.free.fr/cocoajt/CocoaJT-5.2.1.dmg Direct Download
Blown away by the performance of my new G5-Powerbook.
Of course you are McFly. You and Doc have a time machine!
BTW: What’s it look like?
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Hey, McFly: Do you realize you are the first to have one?
They look great on my PowerBook G4/1.25 with 512MB RAM.
HD movies fill up screen and look awesome on 1.25Ghz eMac with 769MB RAM. QT7 rocks.
I think I need more ram. QT7 is very jerky on the big files. I just tried to watch the Batman trailer. I got mostly stills. Yuck!
cptnkirk… big files huh? I was playing around with an old ‘think different’ ad I had.. 30 seconds long.. played absolutely gorgeous…
OH, MY, GOD!!! That was some smooth, crisp, beautiful playing of the Fantastic 4 movie on my 15″ PB 1.6Ghz.
Wow. I’m just blown away by the size of these videos. I always thought 1080i was the WIDTH not the HEIGHT. Duhhhh… figured 720i was no big deal, HAH! I have to scale it down for my iBook. Hard to believe people actually need a 23″ CD to see these without any scaling. Okay I can definitely see the iTunes Movie Store taking off now, I mean shoot, DVD’s look like absolute CRAP now that I’ve seen this. Obviously you’re gonna have to download those movies overnight, but for that kind of quality… something you just CAN’T get in stores… who WOULDN’T be willing to wait a few hours to download something you can’t get anywhere else? Make 720i the default with a 1080i option and seriously, people will buy these like crazy.
Played Serenity trailer on my 1 Ghz iBook. It doesn’t do full frame rate, but it’s smooth enough. Quality of the codec is amazing. The detail does put DVD to shame. Processor will heat up quickly, though.
Also played just fine on my iBook 1 Ghz with only 256Mb ram.
Does anyone know if you purchase the QT 7 pro KEY, does Apple E-mail the key or send it in the mail? Thanks
Robert Hutwohl
When you buy QT 7 Pro, you get your new key at the end of purchase (the last page of checkout at the Apple Store site), and a receipt of the purchase with the key is sent via email. Thus you get your key immediately. I bought QT 7 Pro yesterday.
I hope this helps.
“Check out this gallery of amazing High Definition video, and see what’s in store.”
Apple quote from the gallery page. Interesting…
Hey Don,
1080i and 720i are not for you. The i stands for interlaced. You want progressive (which is what Apple is supplying) since every computer display is progressive. In fact, I don’t think there even IS a 720i.
OMFG
In fact, I don’t think there even IS a 720i.
That’s right. 720 is always progressive. (720p) Interlace is bad news for anything other then a CRT display, and Apple is wise to avoid it.
I was very impressed by the lack of compression artifacts in these clips. (I saw them at the Apple store.) The 720p clips represent about what HDTV broadcasts really look like, and the 1080p clips are beyond what is possible with the current HD broadcast standard.
Too bad my monitor is smaller than the movie
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i don’t see the big deal about h.264
when i first heard about it, i thought it was supposed to be about as compressed as .mov & .mpeg, etc. are already, only higher quality. but instead, i go to dl the batman begins trailer (1080p) and it’s a 150mb file that takes about 2 min. beginning to end.
granted, it’s crisp, but i don’t really see it being any better than a dvd (which i can actually play on my 1.25 ghz g4 imac w/ 1 gb ram)
i watch fansubbed anime a bit, and a 150 mb .avi file is pretty darn good in terms of clarity – and lasts about 1/2 hour, without being slow & jerky.
MW – “outside” – this seems to be a bit outside my area of expertise. a little help?
…also, there seems to be a disconnect between those numbers & the actual pixel size.
my monitor’s @ 1440×900, and the “1080” one fit about halfway on my screen, while the “720” ones go most of the way across…