Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Quicktimes

Aren't new versions of things supposed to have more features than the old versions?  Apparently not always.  I have a Macbook Pro which came with Quicktime X already installed.  OK, great.  Haven't really used it.  But I recently discovered the joy of not going to lecture.  Our lectures are all recorded and put onto ITunes which is SO NICE.  Since I like to get things done in the morning, I would rather wake up and get it all done, and then watch the lectures on my own time.  If I went to lecture, then by the time I get home I'm exhausted and don't do anything the rest of the day.  Plus I usually ended up re-watching lectures at home anyway because I wold inevitably miss something the lecturer said.  Blah blah no one is ever going to want to lecture for med school again, I'm ruining medical education blah blah blah.  I like watching lectures in my bed.  Sorry.


Quicktime X: Bad News Bears
But everyone since MGM - remember biochem? - (ok not everyone, but a lot of people) have been watching their lectures in Quicktime instead of Itunes on 1.5 speed, or 2 speed so that the lectures go faster.  I had not jumped on that bandwagon.  "No, no, you get more out of it if you watch it at the normal speed."  Wrong.  Recently there was finally one lecturer who spoke soooo slowlyyyy that I decided to try watching the lecture on 1.5x.  AND I COULDN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO IT.  I asked my roommate who gave me very explicit instructions.  But the menu options simply did not exist.



Quicktime VII (just kidding, 7)
So what does someone of my generation do when we have a problem?  Google it and see how other people fixed it.  "Where are A/V controls in Quicktime X?"  GUESS WHAT.  THAT FEATURE DOESN'T EXIST IN QUICKTIME X.  What version does my roommate have? 7 (although I think it should be written as Version VII).  So I had to download version 7 even though I have a newer version so that I could listen to my lectures faster.  And this is not such an easy feat - if you try and download quicktime, it (it = the internet) tries to give you version X obviously because that is the newer one, and why wouldn't someone want the newest version of something?


But all the trouble has changed my life for the better!  One of the other perks of watching the lectures at home is pausing them so that you can make sure you write down every word the lecturer says, but that often turns a 50 minute lecture into an hour and 20 minute lecture.  But when I watch it at 1.5 speed, even with pausing, it only takes about an hour to watch the 50 minute lecture.  Time Saver!

2 comments:

  1. I don't follow your blog, but came across your Quicktime article. QT (Quicktime X) does have playback features similar to those found in v7. You have to click on the fast forward button. Every consecutive click will incrementally increase the fastforward speed. This will undoubtedly create a problem for you. Allow me to explain; the speed will increase something like this; x2, x4, x8. You will need more control. So, holding down the option key and then clicking on the ff button will allow you to increase the ff speed by 0.1 increments. The option key, if I'm not wrong, often says 'alt' on it and is between the apple key and 'ctrl' key.

    Hope that helps.

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  2. This is really delayed, but I just saw this comment. This is really helpful, thanks! I can't believe I couldn't find that this feature existed!!

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