Hinting movies was a key reason for owning a Pro license for Quicktime Player 7 (QT7). The Quicktime X that ships with Snow Leopard adds new features and a simplified interface in the new standard Quicktime Player application. But in the process of simplification, one of the most useful Pro features, the ability to "hint" a movie for Quicktime Streaming is lost or too well hidden.

QT 7 Pro - Converting and Hinting a Flash Video

In Leopard, there are two versions of Quicktime Player 7 (QT7), standard and Pro. Pro is a $29 upgrade option. There is only one version of Quicktime X (QT-X) in Snow Leopard.

Heeding warnings of QT-X possibly being a downgrade from QT7 Pro, I had moved QT7 to my user Applications folder before upgrading to Snow Leopard, and kind of forgot about it. Then came the day to "hint" an existing movie for the Quicktime Streaming Server (QTSS) that ships with Snow Leopard Server.

Since hinting is applied by default in Quicktime Broadcaster, my first thought was that maybe hinting was automatic with QT-X. So I tried just exporting the .flv (Flash Video) file in question to .mov format. Loading the file in QTSS threw an "Unsupported media" error.

Patted myself on the back for saving QT7 Pro, fired it up, noticed the Pro features were grayed out. Hunted down registration details, clicked the "Registration" menu, nothing happens. Formerly a dialog box for entering the registration number would appear. Now, absolutely nothing. Tried re-installing QT7 from the Snow Leopard DVD optional installs mpkg. Same results, still no way to enter a registration code.

I was starting to believe the worst, that Apple had arbitrarily removed the ability to "hint" files to nudge users to the new Podcast Producer platform. Then I tried installing QT7 on the QTSS server machine. The installation worked, the registration dialog popped right up. When the details were entered, hinted movie functionality worked. Then I opened a .mov file on the server, and QT-X launched. So QT7 Pro and QT-X are up and running side by side on the server.

What is going on?

For whatever reason, likely something to do with the registration code functionality, QT7 Pro only displays the registration dialog when run from the /Applications/Utilities folder.

During the upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard, I had manually moved the QT7 app into a location where I was certain it would not be overwritten. That location is not compatible with QT7 Pro. Re-installing QT7 on the machine, put QT7 in /Applications/Utilities. Yet the QT7 that was launching using the command-spacebar option was the app I had moved, not the app the installer installed. Confused yet?

Short version is that Apple themselves had already considered the possibility of overwriting key QT7 functionality. QT-X installs by default in the root of the /Applications folder, to prevent application collision and overwrite. Had I just blindly left everything alone, the only trick would have been knowing where to find the old QT7 Pro app.

The Parts..

• Quicktime 7
• Quicktime 7 Pro
• Quicktime X
• Quicktime Broadcaster -- Hinting is applied by default to streams recorded to disk using Quicktime Broadcaster app
• Quicktime Streaming Server -- Available with Snow Leopard Server

Apple Knowledge Base regarding QT7 on Snow Leopard.. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3678