Quicktime Sucks on the PC

[RedWolf]

It's rant time.

Man, I hate Quicktime.  Every time a web page has some embedded MPGs or MP3s, my browser (Firefox 2) calls upon Quicktime and the whole thing comes tumbling down in a nice big crash.  Sadly, I told Firefox not to associate those files with Quicktime, and yet here I am, still crashing.  Something fishy going on here. 

And just when I uninstall Quicktime, I need it to play some MOV file, so it keeps me coming back for more pain.

Funny enough, Quicktime works great on the Mac platform.  But in the PC world it's like a bug that crawls under your skin and runs around.  You can never catch it and it screws everything up.

Any advice from my friends out there?

[Andrew Armstrong]

Quicktime works great on Macs? What world are you living in? It takes over all my file associations (Bad Apple!) cannot be removed (Bad Apple!) and still can crash Firefox (Bad Apple!)

It does work quite well, I'll say that, better on Windows, but for me I wish I could just control it more!

But, on Windows, I suffice with Media Player Classic and an install which includes the Quicktime codecs for media (in a mega pack, which is not always the best idea, but works fine for me. Careful if you delve into installing it blindly. I'm fine, it's all I use ) - I've never been on a necessary site which *requires* Quicktime, so my Firefox just flags up it is needed to play it and that's that. Sorry, that wasn't much help...however...

...The same site provides a guide to installing quicktime (in a good way), and removing it too, which might be your ticket to a better install!

Then there is Quicktime Alternative (which is probably how the mega pack plays quicktime things). Not sure about browser compatibility.

I also only currently run XP and Firefox 2.0 (until a plugin I use is updated, I'm happy). Firefox 3.0 has a "Plugins" panel next to "Addons" - if Quicktime is there, you might want to uninstall or find some "Firefox without Quicktime" guide. If you install the mega pack though and don't care about quicktime at all, it'll remove it anyway.

One thing I should get around to doing is checking out if I can install quicktime somewhere, have it lie dormant, then attach only to Opera which I have as my secondary browser, allowing me to get on all the hip and happening Quicktime sites

[Konata]

Quicktime sucks in general. Use the Quicktime Alternative MPC pack Andrew was talking about.

[t3hfr3ak]

I... fucking... HATE.... QUICKTIME! 

[RedWolf]

Thanks for the advice, Andrew.  Hehe, I guess Quicktime works well on the Mac when you want it to.  When I used my iMac all the time, I could never find a decent audio/video player I liked, so I stuck with Quicktime.

I'll try to get some alternative codecs.  I always thought I had some that played MOV files, but when it came down to it, I didn't -- so I would install Quicktime again.

Can't wait to rip this beast out of my system once more.  It's almost as bad as RealPlayer. 

[Andrew Armstrong]

You still use Realplayer?! 

[Konata]

It's almost as bad as RealPlayer. 

Awww man, don't rip on Realplayer! Sure, now there's better stuff, but on my OLD HP, it was the only player that could play without stuttering like a Fatboy Slim/BT co-produced album on meth.

[RedWolf]

You still use Realplayer?! 

Nope, but I did in 1997.  My wife installed it a few times because she needed it to play videos in Realplayer format sent by her school.  It was bad in 1997, but it's 100 times worse now.

[t3hfr3ak]

#1 player in opinion is mplayer2... or VLC whichever one works best for the certain format

[Andrew Armstrong]

I always keep VLC installed as a self-contained backup since it can read some more formats, but it's support for subtitles is a bit lacking sadly (whereas Media Player Classic can use ffdshow and VobSub properly).

I should grab mplayer for PC, but it's a bit rubbish on non-Linux platforms (the Mac versions is absolutely abysmal. Utterly unusable, and can't open some things without crashing, urg).

[RedWolf]

My favorite player on the PC is Media Player Classic.  It's simple, unbloated, and it works.