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macososx-lionquicktime

Writing QuickTime components for custom container and codec

I am new to Mac programming and as the title to this post suggests I have some questions on how a component for QuickTime is written. I have listed my questions as points, feel free to answer any, if not all, of them. Thanks in advance.

  1. Which QuickTime component type is for codecs? Is it image decoder component type?

  2. What component type is for custom containers? (Non .mov files)

  3. How does QuickTime determine appropriate container and codec handler? Does it query every component listed under '/System/Library/QuickTime' until it finds a component that works?

  4. I looked into projects such as Perian which have '.exp' files which export names like '_AC3MovieImportComponentDispatch'. With the prefix '_AC3' how does component manager recognise this as a dispatch function?

  5. I created a 'test.component' bundle with very similar Info.plist as other components files and placed them under '/System/Library/QuickTime'. Component Manager documentation suggest they are registered 'automatically'. When do new component files for QuickTime get registered? Is call to 'RegisterComponentResourceFile()' necessary?

My system is:

Mac OSX 10.4.11 Tiger

Solution

  • For information about writing file container reader and decoder for QuickTime 7 go to http://sanje2v.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/writing-file-container-reader-and-decoder-for-quicktime-7-faq/