What is QuickTime?
Apple Inc. developed QuickTime as a multimedia framework. It is capable of processing a variety of formats of digital pictures and panoramic images, sound, video, and interactivity. The multimedia framework is available for operating systems such as Mac OS classic, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.

The Apple Inc. proudly promotes this powerful multimedia technology. It is an all-in-one multimedia device that lets users view videos directly from the internet, HD movies, and some other personally owned media. Moreover, QuickTime lets you process a wide range of file formats and enjoy them in high quality.

QuickTime is an optional component when the earlier version of Mac OS is introduced. This means that a user must have to install the multimedia framework. However, when Apple, Inc. launched the Mac OS X, QuickTime becomes an integrated program of the operating system. Microsoft Windows users may also install QuickTime free of charge. The installer may be downloaded from the Apple Inc.’s website. The downloadable file may be a standalone installer or bundled with iTunes.

Downloading or obtaining QuickTime does not require fees for both Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems. However, the basic QuickTime Player is not equipped with complete features and therefore cannot perform tasks that some free player applications relying on QuickTime framework can do. This means the free QuickTime player is only limited to basic playback operations.

For a user to get the full features and maximize the use of QuickTime, Apple sells license key for QuickTime Pro. However, a Pro license is already included on Apple’s Pro applications such as Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio. The Pro key licenses are specific to the version of QuickTime for which they are purchased. Once a Pro key is used, it will unlock additional features of QuickTime player. Pro keys can be used on QuickTime installed on both Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems.

However, some users who are into multimedia industry opt to use alternative players, video editors and other various utilities from other sources, instead of buying the Pro keys from Apple Inc. Some of the added features enabled by Pro license which other alternative providers also feature are:

• Cut, copy and paste functions in editing clips
• Combining separate audio and video tracks
• Cropping and rotation of video
• Features freely inserting video tracks on a virtual canvas
• Projects can be saved and exported to formats or codecs supported by QuickTime
• QuickTime movies from the web can be saved directly to the hard disk (although there are two options in saving in downloading movies directly from the web.

1. Using the ‘save as source’ ‘“ file will be saved in its original format.
2. Using the ‘Save as QuickTime movie’ ‘“ file will be saved in QuickTime format (.mov) regardless of what the original file format is/was.

QuickTime is more popular to Mac users; however, many PC users using Microsoft Windows also find the multimedia player a good alternative to Microsoft’s Windows Media Player. Considering a purchase of QuickTime Pro key would depend on the needs of a user. On the other hand, there are some other free alternatives from other sources which may also bring the features of a QuickTime Pro.