Over the past month or so the internet has been lit up with posts and discussions about Apple abandoning Quicktime for Windows and the impact of this on video editing software. Rather then wait for Apple, Adobe has jumped right in and announced that they will basically circumvent Quicktime altogether, going to direct native support of ProRes, DNxHD & DNxHR files in a soon to be future releaseof Adobe Premiere. Once this happens Windows based Adobe Premiere editors will be able to edit these formats without having Quicktime installed on their machines. SWEET! GREAT JOB ADOBE!!
Red Shark
All those looking for an easier way to work with ProRes on Windows might just have had some of their wishes granted with a forthcoming update to Creative Cloud.
Adobe announced the new functionality via a blog (see below) post from David McGavran, the company’s Director of Engineering for Adobe Pro Audio and Video. Referencing recent security issues related to QuickTime 7, he writes that the company has always had the aim to be able to natively handle ProRes— i.e. access the media essence in a wrapper without relying on third party technology such as QuickTime.
The QuickTime security worries, which led to organisations such as US-CERT recommend Windows users uninstall the software following Apple’s decision to can security updates for it, have seen Adobe accelerate work already underway to support native reading of ProRes. The company says that this new capability is fully licensed and certified by Apple, and, barring any unforeseen issues, should be included into an update to the relevant products in Creative Cloud ‘shortly’.
“Additionally,” McGavran writes, “we are planning on adding native export support to .mov wrapped files of DNxHD and DNxHR. This shows our commitment to the DNxHD/DNxHR codecs. This support augments our currently supported import of DNxHD and DNxHR in .mov and .mxf and native export in .mxf. Similarly, in an effort to allow as many legacy files to be supported as possible we will also be supporting the reading of AAC Audio and PNG Compressed frames and the reading/writing of Animation frames.” read more...
Adobe blogs by David McGavran
Apple QuickTime on Windows: Update
Recent security issues related to Apple’s QuickTime 7 on Windows have been of concern to users of Adobe’s products on that platform. It’s always been Adobe’s opinion that as a company we want to provide high performance native support for as many formats as possible. Native support means that our software is able to access the media essence in a wrapper without relying on third party technology, such as QuickTime. Adobe’s view has been informed by an understanding of end-to-end workflows, which means that we want to be able to import / decode as many formats as possible and to export to as many industry standard formats as possible.
Today we’re pleased to announce that Adobe has been able to accelerate work that was already in progress to support native reading of ProRes. This new capability is fully licensed and certified by Apple, and barring any unforeseen issues during pre-release, these fixes will be included into an update to the relevant products in Creative Cloud shortly.
Additionally, we are planning on adding native export support to .mov wrapped files of DNxHD and DNxHR. This shows our commitment to the DNxHD/DNxHR codecs. This support augments our currently supported import of DNxHD and DNxHR in .mov and .mxf and native export in .mxf. Similarly, in an effort to allow as many legacy files to be supported as possible we will also be supporting the reading of AAC Audio and PNG Compressed frames and the reading/writing of Animation frames.
When these fixes are released most Windows users will have a seamless workflow for virtually all popular codecs even with QuickTime removed from the computer; however, we do anticipate that some older, less used legacy formats may not be directly supported and therefore no longer be accessible. Users may need to find a method of transcoding their legacy media.
Adobe thanks Apple for their support and timely certification of our new native technology for our Creative Cloud applications. We’d also like to thank our users for their support in helping us test our work as we have accelerated release of our native media support plans.
Quicktime is a mismanaged codec wrapper – This is a decent workaround, but professionals need an OPEN standard not based on a single company’s business whims. Postscript is a well managed, highly distributed platform owned by one company, but Apple would never done the same if they invented Postscript – We would still be paying $100 per font and printers would be $2,000. I ask that Adobe work to establish a better way to encode and distribute next gen video files? Why are we still using Quicktime for anything? How many developers are actively improving Quicktime at the phone company?
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