back to article Your jingle to take into the weekend: QuickTime security fixes to apply

Apple has posted an update to its QuickTime media plugin, addressing multiple remote code execution flaws for Windows 7 and Windows Vista users, The Cupertino giant said that the QuickTime 7.7.9 patch will address a total of nine CVE-listed memory corruption vulnerabilities in QuickTime. Each could be targeted by loading a …

  1. AMBxx Silver badge
    Happy

    Quicktime

    Is it 2001 again? Didn't realise it still existed!

    1. AegisPrime
      FAIL

      Re: Quicktime

      Sadly if you work in film/TV you can't bloody avoid it - if anything it's becoming even more entrenched. The latest cameras shoot ProResXQ which Quicktime for Windows can't even read *sigh*

      You'd think someone other than Apple would've come up with a decent acquisition/intermediate codec but since Microsoft don't give a flying f**k about video we're still saddled with Apple's junk.

      Avid make DNxHD/R (also reliant on QT) but they haven't exactly been pushing it so ProRes has proliferated pretty much unopposed.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

        1. AegisPrime
          Meh

          Re: Quicktime

          CinemaDNG's great for top-quality acquisition and colour-grading but not so hot (actually, borderline useless) for editing. It also has obscene storage requirements (64GB gets me 12 minutes of 1080p compressed DNG on my Blackmagic camera).

          ProRes and DNxHD are a good compromise because they have high data rates, are visually lossless (but not mathematically) and they can capture in 10-bit (up to 16 for ProRes 4444/XQ I believe). They work very well in editing applications (unlike long-GOP formats) and are second only to DNG for grading.

          There's a few recorders around that'll capture to DNxHD from SDI and/or HDMI but the most common acquisition format these days is ProRes (with some hardware-specific 8-10 bit MP4/AVCHD/MXF thrown in). And don't get me started on the mess that is H.265...

          1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. DesktopGuy

      Re: Quicktime

      Quicktime is not simply a crappy media player.

      It's and entire codec/media platform and has been around since 1991!

      These days, it's mainly about ProRes - a quicklime codec.

      A lot of commercials are actually shot on Canon 5D cameras and HDMI output to attached ATOMOS ProRes capture devices.

      Edits are done direct off footage - not really seeing much EDL creation these days.

      Times have changed - reliance of the majority of the video industry on Quicktime has not.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

        Re: Quicktime

        It defines a crappy file format too that, unfortunately, seeded the MPEG 4 container standard. QuickTime X was supposed to fix all of that but it seems that it was never finished much beyond AAC and one of the worst implementations of the H.264 codec. Upgrades since then have been in the form of poorly distributed codec plugins.

  2. AegisPrime
    Boffin

    ProRes started gaining traction as Final Cut began to win industry acceptance. Admittedly for a long time it was exclusively an intermediate codec and frequently used in its 'Proxy' and 'LT' flavours purely for editing (and of course, requiring lengthy transcodes) - prior to that the QuickTime Player and bundled codecs were somewhat of a (divisive) novelty on the PC - some of the codecs were useful (the Animation codec got a lot of use in the early days of CG) but for the most part it was a slow, buggy piece of crap that didn't offer much value to Windows users. These days it's a necessary evil.

    Mac-side the story was different since QT was an integral component of the OS - QuickTime's always been understandably more robust there.

    And yeah, the industry's changed a bit. If you're shooting Hollywood stuff then Red cameras use their own format (Redcode) and the Arri Alexa shoots ProRes. Typically a DIT will apply a rough grade to footage on-set which'll be provided to the Editor (and Colourist) as LUTs so the footage can be screened to the Director and DP without it looking like ass (footage is recorded in-camera in Log modes for maximum dynamic range).

    Editing computers are easily powerful enough these days to work with lightly-compressed 4k footage so once the edit's ready to go to the Colourist, all that's needed is an XML or AAF of the edit. The Colourist will work with the original footage and will be responsible for the final render of the movie. VFX stuff happens in the background whilst all this is going on with stuff getting added to the film right up to the final render. VFX is delivered in the highest quality possible so might go to the Editor as ProRes but most likely will go to the Colourist as DPX, EXR or ProRes 4444.

  3. Jan Hargreaves

    Whether you like iTunes or not, it requires Quicktime to run. And a lot of people on Windows have iTunes installed.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    QuickTime security fixes to apply?

    "Apple has posted an update to its QuickTime media plugin, addressing multiple remote code execution flaws for Windows 7 and Windows Vista users"

    This would be a flaw in Windows 7 and Windows Vista would it not.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Mushroom

      Re: QuickTime security fixes to apply?

      Wow how original.....checks, yes 3rd party apps can compromise Linux as well. Now go back under the bridge.

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