My web browser asks me to download Quicktime. Why? What actually is Quicktime?
Quicktime is a platform independent Apple technology for viewing multimedia contents over the internet, such as movies but also interactive slide shows, virtual 3D panoramic views and much more. So Quicktime is an extension to the operating system. At the same time, a player and a browser plugin is installed to view the contents.
Since www.palaeo.de/tv is widely using Quicktime technologies, you should install Quicktime (see www.apple.com/de/quicktime). Otherwise, you can only view a fraction of our presentations.
Tip: You shold install Quicktime in the custom mode and activate all possible components.
I have Quicktime but I am always asked to upgrade to Quicktime Pro. Is this needed?
No. QuicktimePro which is not free comes with extra editing functions for the Quicktime-Player. Unless you want to cut, crop and change movies to other formats, you do not need the Pro version. All contents of palaeo.de/tv can be viewed with the free Quicktime Player. Whenever Quicktime Player is called, you are asked to upgrade to the Pro-Version. You can confirm ' later'. A bit annoying, though...
Tip: Apparently you can get rid of this annoying pop up promotion. Quit Quicktime Player. Change your system time to a date after the year 2020 (if needed stop automatic time update by a time server). Close your time & date control field, so that the new date is activated. Open Quicktime Player and confirm the upgrade popup with 'later'. This should have been the last time (at least till 2020). Quit Quicktime Player and reset your system date to the correct time and date. Now you won't see the annoying popup again. This is an inofficial tip from the book 'MacOS-X, the missing manual (O. Reilly). I did not try it and do not know whether it works with other operating systems. I also cannot take any responsability for the proper functioning of your system after fiddling with the system time. I do recommend to upgrade to Quicktime Pro if you want to save your films in other formats.
I have Quicktime vers. 2, 3 or 4 and am asked to update. Do I have to?
Some of our movies only run with Quicktime 5 or above. This is due to some more modern codecs which improve movie quality at small file sizes but are not supported by earlier versions of Quicktime. Also, interactive contents can only be viewed with Quicktime 4, in some cases with Quicktime 5 or above. So you should update.
Quicktime is installed on my computer, but I am asked to load an active-X-control. Do I need this?
Since version IE 5.5SP2 Internet Explorer has stopped supporting Netscape-type plugins and switched to so-called active-x-control for calling plugins and external applications. If your browser asks to download the active-x-control for Quicktime, you should do so, it only takes a couple of seconds. If Quicktime was installed on your computer after August 2001, the Quicktime active-x-control should be installed already.
Quicktime is installed on my computer, but I am asked to download additional components, or download (or activate) Direct-X. Is this necessary?
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Quicktime technology is modular, so depending on the content to be viewed, some additional components might have to be downloaded This is especially true if you did not perform a full installation, so we suggest to accept to download the missing components. Displaying modern graphic contents under a Windows operating system needs the Direct-X-technology. However, you might be asked to download Direct-X although it might allready be installed on your computer. This might be caused by the standard Quicktime video setting. We recommend the following setting (see figure to the right): Open Quicktime Player and choose Edit / Quicktime Settings / Video Settings: Options (just as shown to the right). Don't worry. This mode is as safe as the 'Safe Mode'. |
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Quicktime is installed on my computer, but no movie of type .mov can be displayed. What is wrong?
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If this is the case, the support for playing videos might be deactivated in the setting of your Web browser. For instance, in Internet Explorer for Windows the settings must be as in figure to the right. Internet Options / Advanced / Multimedia: Play animations, Play sounds, Play videos. If this does not solve the problems please see the answers to the following questions. |
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Each time Quicktime (for Windows) is called, the following error alert pops up "Some of the file types asssociated with QuickTime applications are currently associated with other applications. Should I restore these file type associations to QuickTime?" Should I answer with 'yes'?
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In most cases you can click 'No' in the above prompt-field. Should your browser however try to play Quicktime movies (i.e. movies ending with .mov) with other players or plugins (such as WindowsMediaPlayer or RealPlayer) which does not work, you should confirm with 'Yes'. Alternatively, you should sett your File Type Associations in the Quicktime Settings to 'Macintosh file types' (see Figure to the right). Quicktime can also display avi, bmp, gif and jpeg (among many other file types). However, this is not necessarily ideal for a browser. Macintosh file types MUST however associated with Quicktime. WinMediaPlayer and RealPlayer can only display Quicktime movies of the very first generation, they will scramble up modern Quicktime movies. In order to play .mov-movies with Quicktime you must set your Quicktime settings as shown to the right. It is also important that the lowest option is activated ('Notify me ....'). This prevents that another piece of software (such as when installing another player) might 'kidnap' (or 'plugin-nap') .mov-files. You should never accept this if you still want to see Quicktime movies. |
I want to download additional components, Active-X-Control or anything else I am asked for. However, this does not work. Why?
Oops, you might have a problem which you cannot solve yourself. Many system administrators of WindowsNT or Windows2000 company networks have disabled installation of addditional software by the end users. You must convince your system administrator to install Quicktime and possibly other missing components. He/she should do a full custom installation of Quicktime (with selecting all components). This might prevent later requests for downloading additional components. Should you work at a multiuser PC and don't have all permits to install software, you also need your 'administrator'.
Quicktime-movies are displayed correctly. However, I cannot hear sound.
This should be a rare problem, restricted to Windows users. If you are sure that your movie contains sound and after having checked a correct installation of your sound card and sound card driver (- i.e. you can hear, say, the starting sound of Windows -) the only problem might be a wrong, non-standard setting in the Quicktime Settings. Go to QT-Settings, choose Sound Out / Direct Sound (you may set the rest to 44.100 kHz, 16-Bit, Stereo. Go down to Mono, 8 Bit, if you have a slow machine).
If you still have a problem, click the options button and double the fifo-size in milliseconds. If this solves the problem, reduce the fifo size incrementally to the smallest value that works properly.
If this does not work, choose WaveOut in the Sound Out panel (instead of Direct Sound), then double the WaveOut buffer size in milliseconds. If this solves the problem, reduce the buffer size incrementally to the smallest value that works.