Chapter 4 - Movie Resource Formats
This chapter describes the format of QuickTime movie resources. Movie resources are the data structures that provide the medium of exchange for movie data. Movie resources may be exchanged between applications on a single Macintosh computer or between applications on several Macintosh and non-Macintosh computers.
This chapter describes atoms, the basic storage elements that, taken together, make up a movie resource.
- IMPORTANT
- The information in this chapter is intended for developers who need to know about the content of movie resources. You need to learn about movie resources if you want to create movies on other computer environments and import them to the Macintosh environment, or if you want to interpret QuickTime movies on other types of computers. Developers of Macintosh applications do not need to know about the layout of movie resources--the Movie Toolbox functions handle the details of movie storage and exchange.
The chapter is divided into the following major sections:
To understand fully the information presented in this chapter, you should be familiar with the Movie Toolbox (see the chapter "Movie Toolbox" in this book). In particular, you should read about the characteristics of movie, track, and media structures.
- "Storing Movies in Files" describes the two ways that QuickTime movies may be stored in files.
- "Atoms" describes the format and content of the most basic movie storage element and the standard atoms that may be found in a movie resource.
- "Overview of the Movie Resource Atom" provides a look at the movie resource structure of a QuickTime movie.
- "Using Media Information Atoms" provides examples of the media information atoms.
If you are developing a movie application that runs on another type of computer, you do not have the facilities of the Movie Toolbox available to you. If you want that application to exchange data with QuickTime applications on the Macintosh computer, you need to know the format of QuickTime movie resources.
Chapter Contents
- Introduction to Movie Resources
- Storing Movies in Files
- Atoms
- Atom Types
- The Layout of a QuickTime Atom
- Overview of the Movie Resource Atom
- Movie Atoms
- Movie Header Atoms
- Track Atoms
- Track Header Atoms
- Media Atoms
- Media Header Atoms
- Handler Reference Atoms
- User-Defined Data Atoms
- Clipping Atoms
- Clipping Region Atoms
- Track Matte Atoms
- Compressed Matte Atoms
- Edit Atoms
- Edit List Atoms
- Media Information Atoms
- Video Media Information Atoms
- Video Media Information Header Atoms
- Sound Media Information Atoms
- Sound Media Information Header Atoms
- Data Information Atoms
- Data Reference Atoms
- An Introduction to Samples
- Sample Table Atoms
- Sample Description Atoms
- Time-to-Sample Atoms
- Sync Sample Atoms
- Sample-to-Chunk Atoms
- Sample Size Atoms
- Chunk Offset Atoms
- Shadow Sync Atoms
- Using Media Information Atoms
- Finding a Sample
- Finding a Key Frame
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