Transitioning QTKit Code to AV Foundation
Apple TN2300 (via Peter Hosey):
AV Foundation is the recommended framework for all new development involving time-based audiovisual media on iOS and OS X. AV Foundation is also recommended for transitioning existing apps based on QTKit. Introduced in OS X 10.4, QTKit provides a set of Objective-C classes and methods designed to handle the basic tasks of playback, editing, export, audio/video capture and recording, in addition to a number of other multimedia capabilities.
This document describes the mapping of the QTKit classes and methods to the newer AV Foundation classes to help you get started working with AV Foundation objects and their associated methods to accomplish a variety of tasks.
It seems like just yesterday that QTKit was the new hotness replacing NSMovieView and the QuickTime C APIs.
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QTKit is still better than AVFoundation when it comes to supporting a wide range of media. AVFoundation is not able to play the video track of some QuickTime movies (e.g. WWDC 2001 videos).
@bob That’s interesting. Is this like the QuickTime Player 7 vs. X distinction? Did the WWDC 2001 videos use the Sorenson codec?
"Here’s an interesting question on Stack Overflow."
That's always been one of the BIG issues with AV Foundation, no?
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More broadly, in the broad scope of time, I'm amazed that Apple is 'breaking' the .mov format after all these years. I'd always assumed I could have as much trust in the .mov format as I do in the .doc format. I mean, you've been able to open and modify pretty much all mid-1990's .mov docs. But I assume it's safe to assume that QTKit is not long for this world, and that will end backwards compatibility of .mov.
@Chucky It’s odd because it seems like old .avi files may have longer life (via the various open-source players) than old .mov files. I wonder how long LegacyMediaBridge.framework will be around.
"It’s odd because it seems like old .avi files may have longer life (via the various open-source players) than old .mov files."
On the trajectory we're on, no doubt.
And for someone who's been around since the "knife the baby" days, I always assumed .mov was the one and only Apple proprietary file format I could count on. Always seemed as crucial to the Cupertino corporate operation as .doc is to Redmond. But those days are gone.
(And the irony here, of course, is that Apple, in killing off .mov as reliable with AV Foundation in favor of a focus on mere playback of web video is doing exactly what Microsoft was pushing them so hard to do back in the "knife the baby" days...)
