Editing QuickTime (section)

== QuickTime framework ==
{{Expand section|More information about the framework as a whole; and about the platform-specific implementations of QuickTime (differences between Mac and Windows versions). Can use the book sources cited at the end|date=January 2023}}
The QuickTime framework provides the following:

* Encoding and [[transcoding]] video and audio from one format to another. Command-line utilities afconvert (to convert audio formats), avconvert (to convert video formats) and qtmodernizer (to automatically convert older formats to H.264/AAC) are provided with macOS for power users.
* Decoding video and audio, then sending the decoded stream to the graphics or audio subsystem for playback.  In macOS, QuickTime sends video playback to the [[Quartz Extreme|Quartz Extreme (OpenGL) Compositor]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Apple&nbsp;– Mac OS X&nbsp;– Quartz Extreme | url=https://www.apple.com/macosx/features/quartzextreme | access-date=January 16, 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20031010031305/http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/quartzextreme/ |archive-date=October 10, 2003 }}</ref>
* A "component" plug-in architecture for supporting additional 3rd-party codecs (such as [[DivX]]).

As of early 2008, the framework hides many older codecs listed below from the user although the option to "Show legacy encoders" exists in QuickTime Preferences to use them.<ref>{{cite web | title=Re: batch export : where is sorenson ? | url=http://lists.apple.com/archives/QuickTime-API/2008/Feb/msg00223.html | access-date=June 6, 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207004142/http://lists.apple.com/archives/QuickTime-API/2008/Feb/msg00223.html | archive-date=December 7, 2008 | url-status=dead | df=mdy-all }}</ref>  The framework supports the following file types and codecs natively:<ref>{{cite web | title=Apple&nbsp;– QuickTime&nbsp;– QuickTime Player&nbsp;– Tech Specs | url=https://www.apple.com/quicktime/player/specs.html | access-date=April 15, 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080724002332/http://www.apple.com/quicktime/player/specs.html |archive-date = July 24, 2008}}</ref>

{|
|-
! Audio
! Video
! Picture
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
* [[A-law algorithm|A-law]]
* [[Advanced Audio Coding]] (AAC)
* [[Adaptive Multi-Rate audio codec|AMR Narrowband]]
* [[Apple Lossless]]
* [[Au file format]]
* [[Audio Interchange File Format]] (AIFF)
* [[Core Audio Format]]
* [[FLAC]] (since macOS 10.13)
* MACE
* Microsoft [[Adaptive DPCM]] (MS ADPCM)
* [[MIDI]]
* [[MP3|MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3]] (MP3)
* [[Pulse-code modulation]] (PCM)
* [[QCELP]] (''Qualcomm PureVoice'')
* [[QDesign]]
* [[WAV|Waveform Audio File Format]] (WAV)
* [[μ-law algorithm|μ-law]]
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
* [[Animated GIF]]
* [[Animation codec|Animation (FLI, FLC)]]
* [[Apple ProRes]]
* [[Apple Video]] (MOV, QT)
* [[Audio Video Interleave]] (AVI)
* [[Cinepak]]
* Component Video
* [[DV (video format)|DV]]
* [[3GP and 3G2]]
* [[QuickTime Graphics|Graphics]]
* [[H.261]]
* [[H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2]]<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/ |title = Apple&nbsp;– QuickTime&nbsp;– MPEG-2 Playback |access-date = April 15, 2010 |quote = QuickTime has the ability to play back MPEG-2 content via the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component. It is available as an add-on to QuickTime 7 for $19.99 in the Apple Store online. |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100414104538/http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/ |archive-date = April 14, 2010 |url-status = dead |df = mdy-all }}</ref>
* [[H.263]]
* [[H.264/MPEG-4 AVC]]
* [[H.265/HEVC]] (since macOS 10.13)
* [[Microsoft Video 1]]
* [[Motion JPEG]]
* [[MPEG-1]]
* [[MPEG-4 Part 2]]
* [[Pixlet]]
* Planar RGB
* [[Qtch]]
* [[#File formats|QuickTime Movie]]
* [[QuickTime VR]]
* [[Sorenson codec|Sorenson Video]]
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
* [[BMP file format|BMP]]
* [[FlashPix]]
* [[Graphics Interchange Format]] (GIF)
* [[JPEG]]
* [[JPEG 2000]]
* [[Portable Network Graphics]] (PNG)
* [[TIFF]]
* [[Truevision TGA]]
|}

Due to macOS Mojave being the last version to include support for 32-bit APIs and Apple's plans to drop 32-bit application support in future macOS releases, many codecs will no longer be supported in newer macOS releases, starting with macOS Catalina, which was released on October 7, 2019.

As of [[Mac OS X Lion]], the underlying media framework for QuickTime, QTKit, was deprecated in favor of a newer graphics framework, [[AVFoundation]], and completely discontinued as of [[macOS Catalina]].<ref name="developer_apple_com" />

=== Windows ===
PictureViewer is a component of QuickTime for [[Microsoft Windows]] and the [[Mac OS 8]] and [[Mac OS 9]] operating systems. It is used to view picture files from the [[still image]] formats that QuickTime supports. In [[macOS]], it is replaced by [[Preview (software)|Preview]].<ref>{{cite web
  |url = http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3134
  |title = Common Internet file formats
  |work = Apple Support
  |publisher = Apple
  |access-date = January 24, 2011
  |quote = Many of the multimedia file types listed below can be opened with QuickTime Player, Preview (Mac OS X) or PictureViewer (Mac OS 8, 9).
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
  |url = http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=QuickTime%20Player%20Win/7.3/en/c1qt5.html
  |title = QuickTime for Windows 7.3 Help
  |work = Apple Support
  |publisher = Apple
  |access-date = January 24, 2011
}}</ref>

=== Irix ===
A version of QuickTime for the Irix operating system running on SGI hardware with MIPS processors was developed in the mid-1990s but never released.