Curiousity: Windows Media vs. Quicktime

[ladysycamore]

I was on a newsgroup earlier, and a discussion came up about media, and which one was best to play videos online.

While I am in no way computer savy enough to go toe-to-toe with some of you guys about this, but I just wanted to ask a question.

Here is some of the conversation:

"I hate to be a whiny bastard, but I refuse to install QuickTime on my
computer. That horrid program cannot be installed without utterly
dominating my Windows registry and file associations. It's downright
evil.

It's gotten to the point where I will install QT just to watch one
vieo, then go through the painful process of deleting every vestige of
it immediately afterward. But I won't even do that anymore. I now
treat QT files like I treat AOL program files - just not worth the
headache. I skip them. (note: Adobe GoLive! cries for a QT5 or better
installation every time I start the program, but I refuse to feed it.
Heh.)

I still don't understand why Apple does this. They finally have a
chance to infiltrate Windows with a flexible, powerful media program.
So what do they do? They create a program that violates all the file
associations and ruins all the work a user has previously invested in.
QuickTime doesn't even give you the option of manually setting file
associations. In one instance, I told it to associate with qt files
ONLY. As soon as I rebooted, it had monopolized my MPEG's, MP3, etc.

So, just a word from a multimedia hound:

Please do not compose media in QuickTime. Do it in MPG2, MPG3. DIVX or
a common AVI codec."

The response

"The MPEG 2 and 3 codecs come somewhere within spitting distance of being "common" formats, but they are still bit-rate pigs and best used by people with many gigs of online storage available (not me!) and home-T3-line owners. For your information, my file, though created with QT, is in MPEG4 format, duly annointed by the Motion Pictures Experts Group. QT just happens to be the most commonly available player for it. Feel free to use another player if you want. I originally had it as an actual mp4 file, but that caused the whole thing to download before playback began, which I kinda thought would irritate people.

If you want to get into nuts and bolts, AVI is an utter technological horror. As I understand it, there IS no single "AVI codec". An .avi file might use any of dozens of codecs, and for users of non-Gates-worshipping computers, even Microsoft's pathetic attempt at a WMP for Mac doesn't support them all - or even half of them. It's more than a little ironic to accuse Apple of trying to monopolize people's computers, when the alternative is using something written by Microsoft - the company synonymous with monopoly. You want to talk grudges? When MS bought its block of non-controlling Apple stock in the 1990s, they tried to force Apple to stop development on Quicktime and adopt MS's WMP standards instead.

As for hijacking file type associations, Realmedia is every bit the system-wrecker that QT/Win is. You can't make QT play nice? I can't make RM play nice. I'll watch an RM file before a WMP file, but only as a last resort. And granted that WMP is the default player for ALL media formats, on ALL windows systems, I would hope we can take it as given that it's a bit of a format-hog too?

The house of MS-Windows is made of frail glass, my friend. Watch it when you throw stones."

No worries: no one was harmed in this discussion. However, I was curious about something. I recall when I was doing data entry about four years ago, and I had downloaded RealPlayer on my work computer. Later on, I found out that it had changed some of the Windows files to RP files (I was immediately horrified, and quickly uninstalled RP). My question is: Is *that* what they are talking about when they mention "hijacking files", and if so, WHY does that happen (and does it happen often)?

Personally, I love my WMP. Quicktime is good, but I don't like it if the only way to view a particular video is *ONLY* QT (like on the Depeche Mode website...the webowner works only with QT).

[Troubleshooter]

In my experience, QT and RP are flaky and prone to take over the file associations of other media types. I'm guessing that that is what is meant by hijacking. File associations are what windows uses to assign which program is used to access/use/play a file.

AVI is a file format that many, many codecs can be used to create. DivX is becoming the codec de jure and is a decent product. While RM (*.rm, *.ram, etc.) and QT (*.mov) can produce a smaller package, I don't like having to four media players on my computer. I only install QT because a lot of websites stream their content in QT format.

You can go into the settings of each program and assign the file associations so that QT only opens *.mov and RP only opens the various RP formats. I set MP to open everything else except for *.mp3 which is reserved for Winamp.

Funny thing about MP is that it won't play DVD's unless you have a 3rd party DVD program installed.

Hope that helps.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I've removed and reinstalled QT a dozen times but the sound is still garbled. Tried downloading from different sources but nothing helps.

[Razorfish]

Overall I would have to say that Windows Media is better than Quicktime.

Windows Media supports many formats well and it has a fairly nice, free movie maker located here . WM does have Mac support but its pretty much a dedicated Windows product. Also finding codecs, as said above, can be a big pain in the ass (lord knows how many I have on my system).
Generally I prefer WM just for convienience sake.

Quicktime is a nice format that streams well over the internet but its got its problems. It does try to associate itself with many file types, even if its not the best program for the job. Also its constant bugging the user to upgrade to the non-free pro version is bothersome. Also from my experience as tech support for online courses streamed with Quicktime, it does a good job of really messing up some peoples' computers (all windows users).

Neither of these players hold a candle to the horror that is the Real Media Player. Reals' ad laden, overpriced, proprietary format is just bad on all levels. Nothing like a format that can't be played on with any other software with a reduced number of features on the ad laden free version. Oh, and the whole taking over of file associations issue.

[Razorfish]

Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce
I've removed and reinstalled QT a dozen times but the sound is still garbled. Tried downloading from different sources but nothing helps.

Have you tried tweaking some of the settings in the player? Most common cause of bad audio in the Quicktime Player (in my experience) is a slow internet connection. It could also be a compatibility issue with your sound card and its driver. An updated driver often fixes it but not always. Quicktime has a bad habit of leaving trace elements in your system when you uninstall it. These elements often cause the Quicktime player not to see any vital system changes that occured during its absence.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Thanks, I'll do some tweaking.

[jaguar]

I use a mac to quicktime is kind of standard. Never remember it really shitting me off under windows. The whole AVI thing does get, me, is it Xvid, DivX, AVI..... Getting a bit stupid really. There is a great player for mac (maybe PC too, can't remember) called VLC that plays pretty much anything (including most of the WMP/A abortions) and is some kind of OSS project, become utterly essential for me.

You know QT (and correct me if I'm wrong) doesn't contain any spyware etc. Why not just install it, change the other prefs back and leave it installed? Wouldn't that just solve the problem?