An overview of how to stream video and music for Apple enthusiasts.

QuickTime is Apple’s platform-independent suite of files, applications and plug-ins for playing or interacting with a wide range of popular media formats – everything from movies to live streaming video to Flash animation to MP3 music files to interactive 3D environments.

QuickTime Streaming Server

QuickTime Streaming Server lets you start up a streaming digital video channel with news, entertainment and education programming—on the Internet. Apple makes the QuickTime Streaming Server source code available to whoever wants to improve it so that it continues to evolve.

• Serves QuickTime files stored on the server (video on demand)

• Supports more than 2000 streams to QuickTime users concurrently

• Supports hundreds of stored files

• Acts as a reflector for live broadcasts

• Provides access control to media files using authentication modules

• Compliant with Lariat

QuickTime Streaming Server is included in Mac OSX Server. Being optimised for Power Mac G4, it serves live streams of audio and/or video with industry-standard Internet protocols RTP/RTSP or QuickTime files formatted for HTTP via the Apache Server (also included).

QuickTime Streaming Server provides the choice of two different streaming methods—HTTP streaming and RTP/RTSP streaming:

HTTP works by downloading an entire movie to your viewer’s hard disk.

RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol) keeps the viewer’s computer in constant touch with the server running the movie. Digital data is transferred and displayed—then discarded once the viewers
have watched it.

The difference—HTTP streaming is great for short movies and repeat playback. RTSP streaming, on the other hand, is ideal for full-length movies and live events.

QuickTime Tracks

Each element of a QuickTime movie is contained in a separate track. A QuickTime movie is made by adding tracks that point to the media under use. The media may be embedded in the movie itself, or reside on a server half a world away. This track architecture is powerful and flexible and provides the control and precision one needs, to create complex interactive movies.

Each track represents a unique aspect or ability that one can change over time. A single movie may have many different track types, including video, audio, text, sprit, Flash, HREF, hinting QuickTime VR and chapter divisions. Each track, in turn, may possess many modifiable properties.