Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 1707)

This chapter covers the following:
• What Is QuickTime? (p. 1707)
• The QuickTime Suite of Software Applications (p. 1708)
• The QuickTime Movie File Format (p. 1708)
• Formats Supported by QuickTime (p. 1711)
• How Do You Export the Files You Need? (p. 1715)
Final Cut Pro uses QuickTime technology as a foundation for media file storage and as
an import and export method for opening multiple video, audio, and graphics file formats.
What Is QuickTime?
QuickTime is Apple’s multiplatform, multimedia technology for handling video, sound,
animation, graphics, text, interactivity, and music. As a cross-platform technology,
QuickTime can deliver content on Mac OS and Windows computers. Many applications,
including Final Cut Pro, use the powerful architecture of QuickTime to view, create, import,
and export media.
QuickTime supports most major video, audio, and graphics file formats. It works with
local disk-based media, media accessed over a network, and streams of real-time data.
QuickTime supports a wide variety of video and audio codecs and can be extended with
third-party codecs.
QuickTime technology is composed of:
• A suite of applications (most notably, QuickTime Player)
• An environment for media authoring
• A movie file format
Using an application like QuickTime Player Pro or Final Cut Pro, you can import, edit, and
export every file format that QuickTime supports. This allows you to create movies for
the web, for DVD, or for output to videotape. You can also create movies including video,
audio, text, still images, and interactive layers.
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