Quicktime Review

by Daniel Ramos

Description

Quicktime is a video creation application comprised of two main components. The first is the ability to open videos and playback various file formats, including AVCHD videos. This is not just limited to playback however, you can actually trim videos as well within the player window. The second main component of the Quicktime application is the ability to capture video or audio from your desktop. It works well for simple audio recordings and works even better when trying to capture footage from your screen. You can selectively record parts of your screen or the entire screen which makes for versatile use. 

Access

Quicktime is free of charge on both Mac and PC. On Mac its preinstalled with OS X, so no additional downloads are necessary. On Windows PC's its a free download from Apple's support site here https://support.apple.com/kb/DL837?locale=en_US 

Sample Usage

https://www.icloud.com/keynote/000xGhOW9YDhi-Fu0ZtQeVZJg#Presentation_3

Tips, tricks, and tutorials

A really interesting feature when trimming clips within Quicktime is the ability to maintain the original file size of the video despite having trimmed its duration of time. So for instance, if you want to shorten a video from six minutes down to 3, you can actually have quicktime save the original file size so that if you choose to, you can add the length back to the video at a later time. Recording your screen at first, is not very apparent from when first launching the Quicktime, its instead buried in a sub menu, but once located is very simple to use. This guide here https://support.apple.com/kb/PH5882?locale=en_US explains how to start a screen recording. 

What the Tool Does Well

-Quicktime has a really user-friendly interface with a minimal UI and not many places to get lost within the application. 

-The flexibility of being able to screen record and then trim and review that same recording within the same application is really convenient and promotes a good work flow. 

-Extending beyond traditional screen recordings can make for really unique experiences. For example the ability to capture your mobile device's screen opens up a whole other set of possibilities. 

What it Does Poorly

-While screen recording, at times, the mouse cursor can disappear which makes it difficult to navigate whats on screen thus making you stop the recording to review what you have and see if its ok. 

-Stability on Windows PC's can be hit or miss. Also recent security vulnerabilities are now a concern for the Windows version of Quicktime. 

What happens when you...

Originally introduced into Quicktime as a means to troubleshoot iOS devices and capture system logs, screen recording is a feature that has been extended to any iOS device (iPad, iPod touch, iPhone). 

With that, there are many ways to use this feature in a way that maybe the developers of the application, and the developers of other applications may not have not intended. The most notable is to capture information that is either meant to be temporary, or anonymous. For example if you connect your phone to your computer, open quicktime, start a new recording, and then open Snapchat, you can then record any and every snap without notifying the uploader. This circumvents the traditional alerts that apps like Snapchat usually sends to its users when something is being screenshot or recorded. This turns what was meant to be temporary and self destructive, into something permanent and possible part of a project or research. You can also selectively capture just parts of video (think youtube videos) and then make gifs out of those selectively captured videos in Photoshop. 

Additional Resources

Here is a comprehensive list of what Quicktime is comprised of and how to use it https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201066 . More recently Giphy has introduced a desktop application called "Giphy Capture" that allows gif creation through simple screen recordings much like quicktime. Its not as robust in that it only converts captured videos into gifs, but its a net concept.