The QuickTime preference controls how movies will be played back on your computer whether within your browser or within the QuickTime Player. If they look familiar to you, that’s because the same settings can be accessed from within the QuickTime Player itself (QuickTime Player/Preferences/QuickTime Preferences). No matter which way you get there, the pane looks like this:
The Plug-In tab controls how movies are played and downloaded when using the Internet. Selecting Play movies automatically causes selected movies to being playing as soon as they are able with no further action required. Leave this deselected and the movie will download, but you’ll have to click the Play button to play it. Selecting Save movies in disk cache causes the operating system to save the movie in a temporary folder on your hard disk, so it’s there if you want to play it again…or again…or again or again or again. Enable kiosk mode hides the mouse drive n controls that usually pop up, requiring the user to operate the movie using the keyboard. (Kiosk node gives you a bit more security over who can control the playing of your movie like if you were playing it in a shopping mall, hence the name. To read about the keyboard commands you would use, click here.)
If you click on the MIME Settings button, you’ll get a window entitled “Select the MIME types you want QuickTime to handle”. The list will include: Streaming (streaming movies), Video (video only and video with audio formats), Audio (audio only formats), MPEG, MP3, Images, and Miscellaneous. The window will pop up with the top name of the group selected, you can use your “up” and “down” arrows on your keyboard to cycle through the list. If you click on a name with your mouse, the item will be selected or deselected, depending on what its last state was. Clicking on the grey arrow in front of the name will expand the list will display the possible media types within each category and allow you to select or deselect a type as desired. To see that media types without having to expand each items, simply cycle through each category using the keyboard and look for a list of the formats associated with each type under the Media Format and Media Format/Extensions headings at the bottom of the window. If you want to reset the types of media that QuickTime handles to its defaults, simply click on the “Use Defaults” button in the bottom left corner of the window.
As you can see, the Connection tab allows you to set the download speed of your Internet connection so QuickTime can optimize its streaming of video to your desktop. Settings range from “28.8/33.6 Kbps modem” to “Intranet/LAN”. Select a speed that is slower but the closest to your actual Internet download speeds. How do you know what that is? Well, if you’re on dial-up, simply check what speed you’re usually connected at by opening the Internet Connect window either via System Preferences or the modem status icon in your menu bar (if you set it up to be displayed, and I always find it helpful to have that.) If you’re on DSL or Cable, find one of the broadband speed check sites on the web and run a speed test. (Here’s the one I like to use: http://www.houston.rr.com/SpeedTest/speedTest.html)
If you just want to set a speed experientially, select a speed and play a video looking for jerky video playback. If it’s not, go higher until it is. If it is, select a slower one and repeat until it is not.
Other settings on this tab are Allow multiple simultaneous streams (something to select only if you’re on broadband), Instant On, and Transport Setup.
If you click on the Instant On button, a window allowing you to set a time delay before a movie starts playing will appear. To enable or disable Instant On, click on the Enable Instant On button. If enabled, you can then set a slider that ranges from Immediate to Short Delay.
Transport Setup contains settings that allows QuickTime to determine the best transport protocol and port settings to use for streaming movies across the web or that allow you to set them. Choices are UDP and http for transport protocol and ports 554,7070, or Other.
The About QuickTime button displays the About QuickTime box containing version and copyright information. The Registration button allows you to fill in the registration number you got from Apple that turns the Standard Edition QuickTime Player into QuickTime Pro.
The Music tab allows you to select a music synthesizer that can be used to play music and MIDI files. QuickTime sets up with one of its own that is selected by default. If you have another one you’d like for it to use and it is installed, select it and then click on the Make Default button.
The Media Keys tab displays keys that allow access to secured media files (like a Quicktime file that was encrypted). If you received one of these, the distributor will have supplied you with a “key” (code or password) that will allow you to unlock and play the file. This is where you would enter the key. To do so, click on the Add button and fill in the Category and Key windows that pop up.
The Update tab sets whether QuickTime will automatically update its own software and when you want it to check for updates.