Product Description

This is the complete guide to creating QuickTime content and putting it on the Web. It covers everything-from the right way to embed a movie in a Web page to the best techniques for combining scrolling text, Flash animation, MP3 audio, live streams, and virtual reality-in an engaging and easy to follow style.

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1769727 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 729 pages

Amazon.com Review
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

From Library Journal
This comprehensive resource covers every aspect of working with QuickTime, from creating and posting simple movies to making virtual reality panoramas and interactive 3-D object movies. The accompanying CD includes several multimedia trials as well as the full version of QuickTime Pro 5 (the free, downloadable Player lacks Pro's editing features); it also uses QuickTime tools to demonstrate book examples. Larger public and college libraries supporting multimedia programs should purchase even if they own the first edition because QuickTime 5's new features are discussed.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Clearly the most comprehensive book about QuickTime authoring ever written! From compression to media skins, this book was written so well that beginners are gently guided through every step and experts can get answers quickly. An essential guide for webmasters moving into rich media. This book exposes the flexibility of QuickTime in an easy to understand language." -- David Egbert, Wired Media & Apple Solutions Expert, Retiarius Enterprises

"High-tech writing is sometimes helpful to beginners, complete for advanced users, entertaining, full of examples, easy to use, or accurate. This book does it all.This comprehensive guide is a excellent ready reference to the extensive visual, audio, and interactive capabilities of QuickTime. From basic concepts through clear how-to examples and a wealth of tips, Steven Gulie covers all aspects of creating and delivering QuickTime media for the Web. This edition extends a keystone work to include the myriad of new features in the QuickTime 5 release." -- Steven M. Cox, Ph. D., Interactive New Media Developer, virtualthink.com

"The most consistently useful book I've owned in many years. This is technical writing at its best: lucid prose that explains and exemplifies the vast capabilities of QuickTime on the Web then goes on to inspire a flood of ideas that can be explored right away because the enclosed CD includes great sample code, media and ssential tools, including QuickTime Player Pro." -- Dr. Frank Lowney, Director, Electronic Instructional Services, Georgia College & State University

"An excellent body of work that should not be absent in any multimedia authors collection of tools." -- Mario Piepenbrink, Director of Technology, Kamera Netherlands and QuickTime Evangelist

"This second edition is a must have even if you own the first edition. This book covers all the new features of QuickTime 5, that by themselves are impressive, but here they are explained."

"Steve's book is simply _the best_ resource for anyone that creates or will create QuickTime content. The language is perfect for both beginners and experts. I love Steve's sense of humor when he writes. I wish I had the CD-ROM to see as it seems to have great new samples of work from different QuickTime producers around the world in various topics." -- Francesco Schiavon, Interactive Production Instructor, Vancouver Film School, New Media

"QuickTime for the Web 2nd edition is a fantastic resource for anyone who works with new media. It's a must have for anyone who wants to use digital computer media at any level, beginner or expert. I've learned more in 2 days of glancing through this book than I was ever able to gather from various sources, or glean from my own experience. My eyes are suddenly opened to all the possibilities that QuickTime enables." -- Jim Longo, co-Founder, Rhythm division

"An impressively thorough reference which also functions well as a general introduction to a complex and extensive technology. Unlike many 'authorized' texts, this up-to-date book reveals all the tricks and gotchas with exactly the encyclopedic level of detail that the subject deserves. Everyone working on the internet/multimedia axis should have a copy." -- Brennan Young, Multimedia Programmer

"The title "QuickTime for the Web" doesn't really do this book justice. Although QuickTime and targeting it for the web is the main focus of the book, it's about a whole lot more than that. I'd say it's THE book to read for all that is QuickTime. The wealth of information just about QuickTime is incredible. And oh by the way it has a lot of great information about related technologies like streaming, Flash, SMIL, etc....

The book is...different than most technical books of it's kind. It's easy to read, contains some humor, written by someone who knows the technology well, and above all you can tell the author is excited about what you can do with QuickTime.

I'd rate this as a must read for anyone doing anything with QuickTime. It contains everything you need to know to deploy QuickTime content and more. It also does a great job of explaining what specific tools you'll need to build the QuickTime content of your choice." -- Brad Behrendt, Digital Prairie Systems -- Review

Customer Reviews

QuickTime for the Web review
QuickTime for the Web is a hands-on, how-to guide for working with QuickTime (Apple's software architecture for multimedia content creation and delivery) and the web. It shows how to embed QuickTime movies on web pages and configure the playback of those movies to achieve any of a number of special effects. If you are working with web pages and want to make use of sounds, video, text, still images, or any other other kinds of media that QuickTime supports, you should buy and read this book.

The book is chock full of information, but it's anything but a dry presentation. The author is witty, precise, and instructive. He approaches the subject in a way that presumes very little prior acquaintance with either QuickTime or HTML. Little by little, he teaches us how to do some amazing things.

If you are a web page designer, a webmaster, or an HTML author, this book belongs close at hand in your office!

An holistic resource
This is an important resource for anyone who is serious about maximizing the potential of Quicktime. At Rayhawk.com we have been using this book to enhance our web productions and the results have been noticable, not only to us, but to our clients (KFC, Taco Bell, BMW, Porsche).

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.

A Rare Find in the World of Computer Books!
This book is a must have if you plan on working with QuickTime to make multimedia content available! I call this book 'a rare find', as it is great for beginner through master, leaving few questions unanswered or stones unturned. The text is a good mix of "how to" information combined with "tips and tricks" to get your implementations to work.

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.