Product Description

QuickTime is the industry standard for developing and distributing multimedia content on the Web and CD-ROM, for both Windows and Macintosh computers. This book includes QuickTime Pro 6 and a full set of content development tools for both Windows and Macintosh developers. This third edition of the best-selling and award-winning QuickTime for the Web is a hands-on guide showing how to integrate animation, video, recorded sound, MIDI, text, still images, VR, live streams, games, and user interactivity into a Web site. It now also covers how to benefit from QuickTime support for the MPEG-4 global multimedia standard.

Written for Web masters, site designers, HTML and multimedia authors, and anyone else who wants to incorporate sound or video into their Web site, this book offers clear and detailed instruction in an engaging style. Written by an expert at Apple Computer, this is the most complete and authoritative source for creating QuickTime content for the Web.

The first edition of this book won the Touchstone 2000 Merit Award for Books awarded annually by STC (Society for Technical Communications).

About the CD-ROM
The accompanying CD-ROM contains the full version of QuickTime Pro 6 (a $29.99 value) for Windows and Macintosh. 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 current versions of Windows and Mac OS. The CD-ROM also includes a free tools for creating and editing movies, cut-and-paste HTML and JavaScript examples, royalty-free audio, and prebuilt interactive sprites.

*Written for both Windows and Macintosh developers.
*Illustrates all the latest features in QuickTime Pro 6, including MPEG-4 support.
*Includes a CD-ROM with the full version of QuickTime Pro 6 (a $29.99 value) for Windows and Macintosh, and free tools for creating and editing movies, cut-and-paste HTML and JavaScript examples, royalty-free audio, prebuilt interactive sprites, and a demo copy of LiveStage Pro with a special offer for $100 off from Totally Hip Software.
*Includes a skinned player for streaming MPEG-4 (with ACC audio—superior to MP3) of the hit band Wilco recorded live.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #604162 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 850 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
"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 essential tools, including QuickTime Player Pro."
-Dr. Frank Lowney
Director, Electronic Instructional Services
Georgia College & State University

"Its broad possibilities make QuickTime the technology to tell a captivating tale. With such a technology you need proper guidance to successfully relay your message; QuickTime for the Web is the book to do so. Whether you are a novice or an expert, this book will guide you through all the important aspects, with intricate real-world examples, as well as inspire new ways of authoring. With its engaging writing, it's a joy to read and . . . the best reference manual on the subject."
-Mario Piepenbrink
QuickTime Evangelist
Bluevilla

"Since QuickTime is an always evolving technology and now has support for MPEG-4 and a number of other features, it's great to have this third edition available. . . . As in the first two editions, this QuickTime for the Web offers easy and thorough explanations. This edition will always be on my desk at hand's reach and not tucked away in a bookshelf."
-Francesco Schiavon
Digital Media Deployment Instructor
Vancouver Film School, Interactive Media

"QuickTime for the Web, Third Edition, is a fantastic resource for anyone who works with new media. It"s a must-have reference for anyone who wants to use digital computer media at any level, beginner or expert. I"ve learned more glancing through this book than I could ever hope to gather from various other sources or glean from my own experience. This book will open your eyes to all the possibilities that QuickTime enables."
-Jim Longo
Cofounder
Rhythm Division

"An impressively thorough reference that 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 from most technical books of its kind. It"s easy to read, contains some humor, is 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.This comprehensive guide is an 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, the author 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 6 release."
-Steven M. Cox, Ph.D.
Interactive New Media Developer
virtualthink.com -- 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.