Audio Video Software

QuickTime is popular media-player, created by Apple. It is capable of handling various formats of digital video, media clips, sound, text, animation, music, and several types of interactive panoramic images. Available for Classic Mac OS, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems, it provides essential support for software packages including iTunes, QuickTime Player (which can also serve as a helper application for web browsers to play media files that might otherwise fail to open) and Safari.

The QuickTime (.mov) file format functions as a multimedia container file that contains one or more tracks, each of which stores a particular type of data: audio, video, effects, or text (e.g. for subtitles). Each track either contains a digitally-encoded media stream (using a specific codec) or a data reference to the media stream located in another file. Tracks are maintained in a hierarchal data structure consisting of objects called atoms. An atom can be a parent to other atoms or it can contain media or edit data, but it cannot do both.

The ability to contain abstract data references for the media data, and the separation of the media data from the media offsets and the track edit lists means that QuickTime is particularly suited for editing, as it is capable of importing and editing in place (without data copying). Other later-developed media container formats such as Microsoft's Advanced Systems Format or the open source Ogg and Matroska containers lack this abstraction, and require all media data to be rewritten after editing.

Other file formats that QuickTime supports natively (to varying degrees) include AIFF, WAV, DV, MP3, and MPEG-1. With additional QuickTime Extensions, it can also support Ogg, ASF, FLV, MKV, DivX Media Format, and others.

Because both the MOV and MP4 containers can use the same MPEG-4 codecs, they are mostly interchangeable in a QuickTime-only environment. However, MP4, being an international standard, has more support. This is especially true on hardware devices, such as the Sony PSP and various DVD players; on the software side, most DirectShow / Video for Windows codec packs include an MP4 parser, but not one for MOV.

In QuickTime Pro's MPEG-4 Export dialog, an option called "Passthrough" allows a clean export to MP4 without affecting the audio or video streams. One recent discrepancy ushered in by QuickTime 7 is that the MOV file format now supports multichannel audio (used, for example, in the high-definition trailers on Apple's site), while QuickTime's support for audio in the MP4 container is limited to stereo. Therefore multichannel audio must be re-encoded during MP4 export.

QuickTime consists of two major subsystems: the Movie Toolbox and the Image Compression Manager. The Movie Toolbox consists of a general API for handling time-based data, while the Image Compression Manager provides services for dealing with compressed raster data as produced by video and photo codecs.

Developers can use the QuickTime software development kit (SDK) to develop multimedia applications for Mac or Windows with the C programming language or with the Java programming language (see QuickTime for Java), or, under Windows, using COM/ActiveX from a language supporting this.

The COM/ActiveX option was introduced as part of QuickTime 7 for Windows and is intended for programmers who want to build standalone Windows applications using high-level QuickTime movie playback and control with some import, export, and editing capabilities. This is considerably easier than mastering the original QuickTime C++ API.

Still, with all the pluses and minuses, QuickTime is installed on many computers and is used frequently. And, every upgrade is only gaining more popularity for the Apple-born product.

QuickTime 7 for Mac introduced the QuickTime Kit (aka QTKit), a developer framework that is intended to replace previous APIs for Cocoa developers. This framework is for Mac only, and exists as Objective-C abstractions around a subset of the C interface. Mac OS X v10.5 extends QTKit to full 64-bit support.

QuickTime is often criticized for its slow performance in both encoding and decoding video when compared to other media players and encoders. The QuickTime implementation of H.264 is sometimes considered inferior in specification to competitive implementations like x264 and Nero Digital. Due to these limitations, the same videos encoded with QuickTime usually have to be assigned a greater bit-rate to keep the quality level compared to other mainstream H.264 codecs.

CyberLink PowerDVD is a commercial video player and music player for Microsoft Windows and Turbolinux . It enables the viewing of High-Definition Video and DVD-Video movies on a PC. The player can also be used to play videos and audio/music files in other formats encoded with different codecs, for instance WMV-HD, DivX, XviD, and DVD-Audio, MP3 and AAC audio. The software offers full Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD playback with menus, with CPRM DRM support. However, HD DVD support is dropped with the release of PowerDVD 8.

Supported video formats/codecs: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-2 HD (high-definition MPEG-2), DVD-Video, Mini-DVD, MPEG-4 ASP (like XviD and DivX, including DivX Pro), MPEG-4 AVC (H.264), QuickTime, RealMedia, 3GPP, DivX Pro, Blu-ray Disc, AVCHD, WMV-HD, DVD-VR, DVD+VR

Supported audio formats/codecs: DVD-Audio, WAV, MP3, MP2, AAC, LPCM, MLP Lossless, Dolby Digital (5.1), Dolby Digital EX, DTS 5.1, DTS Neo:6, DTS 96/24, DTS-ES Discrete

Right now, PowerDVD is one of the most popular programs for watching movies and clips. Some companies even include this program along with their DVD players and other video merchandise, such as graphic cards and video cameras.

Windows Media Player (WMP) is a digital media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices. Editions of Windows Media Player were also released for Mac OS, Mac OS X and Solaris but development of these has since been discontinued.

In addition to being a media player, Windows Media Player includes the ability to rip music from and copy music to compact discs, build Audio CDs in recordable discs and synchronize content with a digital audio player (MP3 player) or other mobile devices, and enables users to purchase or rent music from a number of online music stores.

Windows Media Player replaced an earlier piece of software simply called Media Player, adding features beyond simple video or audio playback.

The default file formats are Windows Media Video (WMV), Windows Media Audio (WMA), and Advanced Systems Format (ASF), and supports its own XML based playlist format called Windows Playlist (WPL). The first generation Zune software (but not the current second generation software) which actually is a modified version of Windows Media Player, additionally supports AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) audio, MPEG-4 and H.264 video formats out-of-the-box. The player is also able to utilize a digital rights management service in the form of Windows Media DRM.

Windows has had a media player since version 3.0 with MultiMedia Extensions (Media Player). The original Media Player application used MCI to handle media files. In 1996 Microsoft released ActiveMovie, a new way of dealing with media files and streaming media (which the original Media Player couldn't handle). A wrapper was provided for users in the form of the ActiveMovie Control, allowing users to play media files on their computer.

ActiveMovie morphed into DirectShow and a new Media Player was created, known internally as Media Player 2. This player was an evolution from the ActiveMovie Control, providing a richer and more intuitive user interface. Media Player 2, like its predecessor, was also a wrapper - this time around DirectShow. Version 5.2 was the first version of this new Media Player, with version 6.x becoming widespread.

Version 6.4 was the final version of Media Player 2, by now known as Windows Media Player. Version 6.4 was included with Windows Me, Windows 2000 and Windows XP, but was dropped in Windows Vista.

After Windows 2000 was released there was another large revamp with version 7, with a new user interface, visualisations and increased functionality. WMP7 came with the WMA and WMV codecs. With version 7.1, it was being called as a part of Windows Media Series, a collection of tools and codecs to create, serve and play media.

Windows Media Player for Pocket PC was first announced on January 6, 2000, and has been revised on a schedule roughly similar to that of the Windows version. Currently known as "Media Player 10 Mobile", this edition (released in October 2004) closely resembles the capabilities of the Windows version of WMP 10, including playlist capabilities, a media library, album art, WMA Lossless playback, support for DRM-protected media, video playback at 640x480 with stereo sound, and the same Energy Blue interface aesthetics also seen in recent versions of Windows XP Media Center Edition. It also supports synchronization with the desktop version of WMP 10, and additionally supports synchronizing and transcoding of recorded television shows from Media Center. Media Player 10 Mobile is not available as a download from Microsoft; distribution is done solely through OEM partners, and is typically included on devices based on Windows Mobile.

The latest version of Windows Mobile (6.0) includes a copy of Windows Media Player 10 Mobile but with a similar (but not quite identical) theme as Windows Media Player 11.

In March 2004, the European Commission in the European Union Microsoft antitrust case fined Microsoft €497 million and ordered the company to provide a version of Windows without Windows Media Player, claiming Microsoft "broke European Union competition law by leveraging its near monopoly in the market for PC operating systems onto the markets for work group server operating systems and for media players". The company has made available a compliant version of its flagship operating system under the negotiated name "Windows XP N", though the product has not been very successful. Windows Vista is also available in "N" editions. Still, with these editions it is possible to either install Windows Media Player (XP/Vista) or the Media Restore Pack through Windows Update (Vista) to gain the media player functionality back.

WMP is the most popular and used media player in the world. And it doesnt seem to be loosing any popularity throughout the years. Windows Media Player has become something almost every computer in the world has and it still continues to grow!

Winamp is a proprietary media player written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of Time Warner. It is skinnable, multi-format freeware / shareware.

Winamp was first released by Justin Frankel in 1997. Current Winamp development is credited to Ben Allison (benski), Will Fisher, Taber Buhl, Maksim Tyrtyshny, Chris Edwards and Stephen (Tag) Loomis.

Winamp grew from 33 million users in February 2005 to over 57 million users in September 2006.

The minimalist WinAMP 0.20a was released as freeware on 21 April 1997. Its windowless menubar-only interface showed only play (open), stop, pause, and unpause functions. A file specified on the command line or dropped onto its icon would be played. MP3 decoding was performed by the AMP decoding engine by Tomislav Uzelac, which was free for non-commercial use. The acronym "AMP" stood for "Advanced Multimedia Products". Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev integrated this engine with their user interface.

WinAMP 0.92 was released as freeware in May 1997. Within the standard Windows frame and menubar, it had the beginnings of the "classic" Winamp GUI: dark gray rectangle with silver 3D-effect transport buttons, a red/green volume slider, time displayed in a green LED font, with trackname, MP3 bitrate and "mixrate" in green. There was no position bar, and a blank space where the spectrum analyzer and waveform analyzer would later appear. Multiple files on the command line or dropped onto its icon were enqueued in the playlist.

Besides MP3, Winamp supports a very wide variety of contemporary and specialized music file formats, including MIDI, MOD, MPEG-1 audio layers 1 and 2, AAC, M4A, FLAC, WAV and Windows Media Audio. Winamp was one of the first common music players on Windows to support playback of Ogg Vorbis by default. It supports gapless playback for MP3 and AAC, and Replay Gain for volume levelling across tracks. In addition, Winamp can play and import music from audio CDs, optionally with CD-Text, and can also burn music to CDs.

Winamp supports playback of Windows Media Video and Nullsoft Streaming Video. For MPEG Video, AVI and other unsupported video types, Winamp uses Windows' DirectShow API for playback, allowing most of the same video formats as Windows Media Player. 5.1 Surround sound is supported where formats and decoders allow.

Winamp has extensive support for plugins. Input plugins allow Winamp to play additional media formats, while output plugins enable additional features such as sound effects (via DSP plugins) and visual effects (notably Advanced Visualization Studio, or AVS, and MilkDrop). Other plugins included in the installer bundle activate features such as global hotkeys. The plugins enable can be selected during installation due to Winamp's use of NSIS to package the application.

Winamp is an early and popular example of application skinning. Winamp 5 continues to support Winamp 2's "classic" skins (static collections of bitmap images) and Winamp3's more flexible "modern" skins, which can be freeform with true alpha channel transparency and controlled by scripting.

Winamp supports many types of streaming media. Its SHOUTcast technology provides free access to Internet radio and Internet television, and Winamp can also access XM Satellite Radio, In2TV classic television programs, and AOL Video content. It can access the Singingfish audio/video search engine, and SHOUTcast Wire provides a directory and subscription system for podcasts.

Winamp's media library contains support for Unicode metadata for media files, and full Unicode filename support.

Winamp has extendable support for portable media players. Device plugins are currently included for iPods and Creative NOMADs, Mass Storage Compliant devices, and the Microsoft PlaysForSure and ActiveSync technologies for devices such as those running Windows Mobile.

In more recent versions of Winamp, support has been added to allows users to share their media library to their gaming consoles on the same network through Winamp Remote. This was created through a partnership with Orb. The same extension allows users to access their media library anywhere with an internet connection.

Skins are aesthetic revisions of the graphical user interface of Winamp. Winamp has published documentation on skin creation, and invites contributors to publish skins on Winamp.com. Winamp 5.0 supports "classic" skins designed to Winamp 2 specifications, and "modern" skins per the Winamp3 specification. Modern skins support alpha channels, a docked toolbar, and other innovations to the GUI, but many skins found on Winamp.com still remain committed to the "classic" skin specification. Online communities of skin designers, such as 1001 Winamp Skins and DeviantArt, and the active forums on Winamp.com attest to the popularity of the feature and its flexibility as a medium for creative expression. As the number of independently produced works has increased, genre styles or categories of skins have emerged. Promoting celebrities, fashion models, films, cars, bands, brands, and other forms of entertainment remains a common staple of the medium. Artists have also created designs for their own sake: parodies of other interfaces, nostalgic emulations of old hardware and operating systems, hand drawn art, 3-dimension renderings employing transparencies, minimalist and high contrast designs, and clever implementations of vector graphics.

Right now, Winamp is installed on almost every computer. Everyone knows this programm and everyone likes to use it. A huge plus is that Winamp is free, but you can also buy Winamp, and you will have many more options to choose from.

You can download Winamp at http://www.winamp.com