Better Quicktime Viewing in One Easy Step

First of all let me say, I love Quicktime! We all watch Quicktime movies but the quality of the movie depends on how it was filmed and encoded. I am not a expert when it comes to all the various combinations and resolutions but it’s pretty easy to see what you have once you hit the play button. If you are interested you can check the get info on the movie file and you will see something like this.

But to use this tip you don’t need to know anything about pixels or resolutions and the like. While we will have to wait for Leopard and resolution independence for the best solution today you can see more with a simple keyboard and mouse trick.

Ever notice under the view menu you have options to change the size of your playback window. If you select a larger size you a bigger picture but with less quality. So to see the movie larger with minor degradation hit the control key and use the scroll wheel and you zoom right in. In order to activate this feature you will have to go into system preferences, click on Universal Access and click the button which says “enable access for assistive devices”. If you are using a laptop you will need to use control and the two finger swipe upwards to zoom in.

As you experiment with this technique you will find what the optimal viewing distance. This will also work for YouTube videos or anything on screen for that matter. This has been tested in Mac OS 10.4 Hope you find this useful!

Apple Hints – Here’s one thing we do know…

Posted in an email to all Apple developers, we read:

The Leopard beta. Available first at WWDC.

At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, we’re planning to show you a feature-complete version of Mac OS X Leopard, and you can take home a beta copy. Be the first to get your hands on the Leopard beta and get a huge head start on development. Register now for WWDC 2007—it’s your ticket to the future of Mac OS X.

Notice the words “feature-complete” This is the first time that Apple has actually said they were ready to show all the features in Leopard. At least to my knowledge. Prior to this it has been the generally accepted idea that we would see all the features but now from the horses mouth we’ve heard it ourselves.

In a second move they have also extended the deadline to register for WWDC. This would seem to indicate that they wish as many developers to get there hands on the beta as possible. This is Apple’s way of reaching out although they may not term it such. A whole lot is at stake for Apple right now and it would seem that Apple is just a little bit anxious. As I see it anyway… about a month to go. iPhone, Leopard, iLife?, New iMac?, and one I’ll call the iBook nano?