Useful Books and Software

Written for multimedia authors, Web heads, and anyone who wants to include sound or video on a website, this book provides clear, detailed, and often humorous guidance. This book contains a wealth of information you won't find anywhere else.

The included CD-ROM contains QuickTime Pro for Macintosh and Windows (a $60 value). QuickTime is the industry standard for developing and distributing multimedia content. Its powerful, extensible software architecture lets you deliver state-of-the-art digital content over the Web or on CD-ROM. It works equally well on Windows (95/98/NT/2000) and Macintosh computers.

Other Books in the QuickTime Developer Series

Discovering QuickTime: An Introduction for Windows and Macintosh Programmers. A step-by-step introduction to QuickTime C programming, with code samples on CD.

QuickTime for Java: A Developer Reference. An inside look at programming QuickTime in Java, with a CD that contains installers for both QuickTime and Java.

If you do anything related to creating QuickTime movies for the Web, you'll want this book. QuickTime for the Web: A Hands-On Guide for Webmasters, Site Designers, and HTML Authors is one of the most informative and easy-to-read guides of its kind, and perhaps one of the best in Apple's QuickTime Developer Series.

Loaded with real-world examples, code snippets, and digestible text, this book opens up your eyes to the real power of QuickTime, which goes much farther than merely allowing you to create and play short videos. QuickTime is a deep, all-encompassing technology that can be used for displaying all kinds of things, including programmable functions and site navigation.

Nineteen chapters cover everything from how to download and install QuickTime to special features of the QuickTime Plug-in (you can limit the download rate of a movie so that users with a fast connection don't hog all the bandwidth) to streaming vs. nonstreaming applications. Other chapters discuss using QuickTime layers (text, Flash, and so on) and programming sprites for creating interactive QuickTime movies. There's a great example of a calculator created entirely in QuickTime by using sprites.

As an added bonus, the accompanying CD-ROM contains QuickTime 4 Pro for both Macintosh and Windows (which alone is worth the cost of the book); an assortment of tools for creating, editing, and converting audio and video; and most of the examples in the book. Leave it to Apple to come out with a technical manual that reads easily and is packed with more fun things to do than a boardwalk arcade. --Mike Caputo

New Price: $18.83 / Used Price: $0.01 / Collectible Price: n.a.
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Average Rating: 5.0
Number of Reviews: 9

I purchased this book for its material regarding steaming content over the Internet, and learned a great deal in the process. The chapter on QuickTime VR answered my "how do they do that?" questions, and has led me to explore the use of this technique for my upcoming projects.

The QuickTime VR chapter is a good example of the depth of knowledge used to develop this text, as it gives in-depth information on photography techniques that only a mid- to experienced photographer would know.

My only criticism of the book is that it only begins to explore about half of the knowledge needed to set up your own streaming web server, but I can hardly fault the authors for that -- it says right on the cover "A Hands-On Guide for Webmasters, Site Designers, and HTML Authors." It says nothing about being aimed at System or Network Administrators. If your main interest in this book is the setup of streaming servers, you might want to consider another book (or better yet, purchase this book along with another to round out your knowledge).

With the ... QuickTime Pro included, I can say without reservation that this is one of the best computer book values I have ever purchased. The book paid for the rest of the cost by showing me how to trick Microsoft Internet Explorer / Windows Media Player in such a way that it will not try to open your .mov files (great in a Windows-dominated environment)!

Highly recommended, even if you have only a passing interest in QuickTime.

[Full disclosure - I work for Apple on the QuickTime Engineering team, and know the author - believe me I wouldn't endorse this book if it wasn't great]

The book is full of useful info and the author is fun and helpful. He assumes we have little prior knowledge with either QuickTime or HTML and by the end of the book, he teaches us how to produce some amazing content.

I purchased this book for its material regarding steaming content over the Internet, and learned a great deal in the process. The chapter on QuickTime VR answered my "how do they do that?" questions, and has led me to explore the use of this technique for my upcoming projects.

The QuickTime VR chapter is a good example of the depth of knowledge used to develop this text, as it gives in-depth information on photography techniques that only a mid- to experienced photographer would know.

My only criticism of the book is that it only begins to explore about half of the knowledge needed to set up your own streaming web server, but I can hardly fault the authors for that -- it says right on the cover "A Hands-On Guide for Webmasters, Site Designers, and HTML Authors." It says nothing about being aimed at System or Network Administrators. If your main interest in this book is the setup of streaming servers, you might want to consider another book (or better yet, purchase this book along with another to round out your knowledge).

With the ... QuickTime Pro included, I can say without reservation that this is one of the best computer book values I have ever purchased. The book paid for the rest of the cost by showing me how to trick Microsoft Internet Explorer / Windows Media Player in such a way that it will not try to open your .mov files (great in a Windows-dominated environment)!

Highly recommended, even if you have only a passing interest in QuickTime.

[Full disclosure - I work for Apple on the QuickTime Engineering team, and know the author - believe me I wouldn't endorse this book if it wasn't great]

The book is full of useful info and the author is fun and helpful. He assumes we have little prior knowledge with either QuickTime or HTML and by the end of the book, he teaches us how to produce some amazing content.