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Buzz Out Loud Lounge: Why you have to pay for Quicktime 7 Pro

by MacTom - 4/27/07 8:41 AM
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Post 1 of 6

Why you have to pay for Quicktime 7 Pro

by MacTom - 4/27/07 8:41 AM

In Episode 460 Tom mentioned he received something from an "anonymous instant messenger", the unnamed was peeved from the warning about Quicktime Pro keys, when installing Quicktime 7.... This is pulled directly from the Quicktime 6 and 7 FAQ, which can be found at

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301521

"Will my QuickTime 6 Pro key work with QuickTime 7?
Because QuickTime 7 includes royalty-bearing technologies, a new QuickTime Pro key is required to unlock Pro functionality in QuickTime 7. If your key no longer works, visit the Apple Store to purchase a new one."

Quicktime 7 now uses H.264 instead of H.263 or H.261 which were used in previous versions of Quicktime, so new encoder means you have to pony up and pay the $30.

Hope that helps calm some feathers and gives the Caps Lock light some rest on some keyboards. ;-)

Post 2 of 6

hmmm...

by Kokoro-Kun - 4/27/07 8:57 AM In reply to: Why you have to pay for Quicktime 7 Pro by MacTom

is it me or does this sound awfully like the $1.99 Apple's charging for 'firmware update' because of accounting practices?

Post 3 of 6

This is not a NEW policy

by mwaldyke - 4/27/07 3:24 PM In reply to: Why you have to pay for Quicktime 7 Pro by MacTom

I understand that people are put out by having to buy a new QuickTime Pro key, but nobody has mentioned that this is not a new policy. Several years ago I got a QuickTime 4 Pro key with my purchase of FinalCut Pro 1.5. When I subsequently upgraded to Quicktime 5, I received the same warning that I would have to purchase a new Pro key if I proceeded with the upgrade. Sure enough, the key I got with FinalCut Pro would not unlock QuickTime Pro 5. I got my rant over with back then. Annoying, yes, but the improvements in QuickTime have probably been worth it, IHMO.

Post 4 of 6

Not only is it not a new policy,

by snodman - 5/1/07 8:54 PM In reply to: This is not a NEW policy by mwaldyke

it is one that actually makes some sense if you know why Apple charges for QT Pro keys. The single reason you ever need QT Pro is to ENCODE video. You can play back movies for free and always have been able to with just the regular flavor of Quicktime. But if you are using the codecs included in QT Pro (over 25 different codecs including the excellent H.264 codec, MPEG4 and a couple of Sorenson codecs) two things are true - #1 you are MAKING something using those codecs and therefore #2 Apple has to collect royalty payments and pass them along to the codec rights holders. H.264 is not free. Neither is (obviously) Sorenson or most of the others. Rather than deal with all the micro payments each time you use a codec in QT Pro to make something or transcode something, Apple just sends the codec rights holders a check every time a customer buys a key.

Post 6 of 6

Yes but...

by mc4_a - 5/2/07 9:29 AM In reply to: This is not a NEW policy by mwaldyke

If I'm using iTunes 7 and I do not need Quicktime Pro 7 I either have to choice to loss my Quicktime functionality or paying additional money. I would say the connection of these applications is tenuous at best.

It's bad business and I would say an anti-trust issue.

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