Chapter 2 (continued) AUTHORING/ENCODING TECHNOLOGIES — QuickTime Pro (QT Pro)

QuickTime Pro (QT Pro)
When I included QuickTime in my discussion of Encoding Technologies in 2004, I had no experience with Apple based products.  I was relying simply on research.  At this point in time I do have access to an older (2004) Macbook Pro that I had restored after a hard drive crash of the original laptop. So at least now I can add some personal experience to what I had researched and written about previously.
My current scenario is not without limitations however.  The Macbook Pro I am using, because of its age, is limited to running MAC OS X 10.6.8, referred to as Snow Leopard.  It’s inability to run Mountain Lion does complicate things a bit, especially with my desire to run a video editing program on the machine, but that is a topic for another post.  Since this post is focused on QuickTime Pro, and since I am able to run that software on this Mac, I will try to stay on-topic here and not go off on the difficulties of finding video editing software that will still run on this older Mac platform.
So let me present the description of what the QT Pro software is about, and then I can relate some experiences as I try to use it in the manner described.  Here is my original assessment of the QT Pro software package.
>>QT Pro is a bit different in several ways from other encoding software, one way is that it is available as an upgrade to the basic QT player.  By purchasing a software key for $29.95 from Apple, the media player becomes an authoring/encoding station capable of creating content in an MPEG4 format that streams directly to the QT Streaming or RealNetworks Helix servers.  Advantageous to the webcaster is the CODECs compliance with the MPEG4 AAC audio standard. This standard provides advanced compression resulting in smaller bit-rate transmissions with higher quality than MP3.
QT Pro also provides compatibility with the new worldwide wireless standards 3GPP and 3GPP2 for the creation, delivery and playback of multimedia over 3rd generation, high-speed wireless networks.  This capability will extend the webcasters reach to portable cell phones, PDAs and digital music (currently MP3) players, essentially mimicking the capability of terrestrial broadcasts to be received by mobile devices (radios).  These standards are based on MPEG4, which incorporates the QuickTime architecture by choice of the standards committees responsible for their development.  Therefore, QT Pro offers a quick and inexpensive entry point into an interesting development area for the webcaster.
Another component of the QT Authoring/Encoding suite is QT Broadcaster, which allows the encoding of live content into the QT platform as an MPEG4 stream.  Broadcaster integrates with both the QT Streaming and Darwin (Windows based) servers, and allows the delivery of a live MPEG4 stream, a live 3GPP stream to wireless users, archival of an on-demand stream for later viewing/listening to the millions of QT players available.  The broadcaster component is available as a free download, but runs on the MAC OS system exclusively at this time.<<
The current version of QT Broadcaster is 1.5.3, and the website describes the software this way:
“Support for broadcasting ISO-compliant MPEG-4 audio (AAC LC) and MPEG-4 video (MPEG-4 Part 2).
Instant VOD automatically saves the live broadcast to the hard drive and prepares it for streaming (creates “hint tracks”) for immediate delivery via a streaming server for on-demand viewing of the live event after it has occurred.

The scenario to run QT Pro is somewhat unique to me and my limited exposure to Apple products.  In order to run QT Pro, I had to actually download an older version of QuickTime, (version 7.3) and then I could download the QT Pro upgrade to this player.  So there are actually two versions of the QT player on my computer, as the default QT player is now version 10, and that is not deleted by the QT Pro upgrade process. They sit side by side with similar but different icons on the desktop (or Dock in Apple world).
In order to completely accurate, I would like to go to the source for info on QT Pro in it’s most current version, so here is the overview direct from the Manual.
QuickTime 7.3 User’s Guide
Includes instructions for using QuickTime Pro
For Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later, and Windows
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pdf/QuickTime7_User_Guide.pdf
Downloaded: 07/11/2013
What Is QuickTime? (Please refer to earlier post on version 7 of the QT player for my description).
http://michaelpatrickmoran.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/chapter-two-continued-media-player-technologies-quicktime-7/
Now the description from the current version of the manual just downloaded from Apple.com
QuickTime Player is a free multimedia player. You can use it to view many kinds of files,
including video, audio, still images, graphics, and virtual reality (VR) movies. QuickTime
supports the most popular formats on the Internet for news, sports, education, movie
trailers, and other entertainment.
QuickTime is also a multimedia architecture that other applications can leverage. Some
of the most popular software—such as iTunes, iMovie, and Final Cut Pro from Apple, as
well as many third-party programs—uses the QuickTime architecture for important
multimedia functions. These applications require QuickTime to be installed in order to
function properly.
And now the description of QT Pro from the manual.
“What Is QuickTime Pro?
You can easily add a host of useful features to your QuickTime software by purchasing
QuickTime Pro. With QuickTime Pro, you can:
Save files from the Internet
Edit audio and video
Record audio (Mac OS X and Windows) and video (Mac OS X only)
Add special effects
Create slideshows
Convert and save video, audio, and images to more than a hundred standard formats.”
For more information on the authoring/encoding capabilities of QT PRO, refer to: 
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/extending/
So that is the original and the up-to-date description of the Quick Time solution for encoding.  I do plan to experiment with the QT Pro process for encoding, possibly editing video, and/or converting files for editing within the Imovie software package.  So please check back for more info on QuickTime and QT Pro.