Apr 27 2009
Quicktime Tools
To mark this weeks preview release of Quicktime 6, I’ve decided to feature a handful of useful and fun Quicktime tools. Best of all, as always, they’re free!
This week we’ll take a look at some useful applications that let you do more with your Quicktime movies.
First up is a great little program called “PresentMovie”, and it does just that. For those of you that are Quicktime Pro veterans, you know the “Present Movie” command displays a movie full-screen (and with no menu bar).
PresentMovie brings this display capability to non-Quicktime Pro users. By dragging a movie to the “PresentMovie” icon, it automatically plays it full screen. To configure settings, launch the app by itself.
If full-screen isn’t you’re style and you prefer to watch movies while you work on your computer, MovieFloat may be a better fit. This little app launches one or more Quicktime movies in floating, always-on-top windows. A visit to the applications preferences gives you a chance to change the settings. Among the playback settings is the ability to change the transparency settings for the movie, allowing you to reveal other windows below the movie. For OS 9 users, check out SteveMovieFloat for similar functionality.
If activism is your bag, check out SaveHollywood. While you won’t preserve an inch of rain forest, you can let the office know what you care about even while you’re away from your computer.
SaveHollywood is a screen saver module for OS X. By dropping it into your Screen Saver folder in your Library, you add it to the selection of built-in screen saver modules. In your System Preferences you can configure Save Hollywood to make a screen saver of one or a series of Quicktime movies which can be displayed in order or randomly.
So, now you can have your Quicktime full screen, on top of your work and even while your Mac is idle. So, after trying out Apple’s new Quicktime 6 preview, you should have plenty of fun with your movies. Yeah, I’m too good to you…
Until next week, Brian
(PS, if you find that QT 6 isn’t treating you right, don’t miss the QT 5 re-installer.