QuickTime: an extensible standard for digital multimedia

QuickTime is an extensible standard for digital multimedia which establishes a foundation for the representation of time-based objects and file formats, still image and video compression techniques, human interface conventions, and application programming interfaces. All of these representations can stay the same as one moves towards an era of full-screen, full-motion digital video/high-resolution digital systems and as the underlying media technologies and compression schemes improve rapidly over time. QuickTime includes direct support in the operating system for audio/video synchronization and for still and moving image compression algorithms. Software-based video decompression is used as a means to permit dynamic media functionality in all color Macintosh computers. As a result, QuickTime brings dynamic media to a broad range of applications, including not only media authoring tools such as video editors and animation systems, but to mainstream tools such as word processors, databases, spreadsheets, and electronic mail.<
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