Apple betters its QuickTime, too

After many delays, Microsoft finally announced its technology for dealing with time-dependent media and digital video for the Windows system. Video for Windows (formerly known as AVI, or audio video interface) provides a scalable video capture and playback architecture for PCS running Microsoft's Windows 3.1 operating system, which includes the multi-media system tools.

Not waiting for Microsoft to steal its thunder, Apple announced a QuickTime upgrade two weeks before Microsoft could take the stage.

In its basic configuration, Video for Windows will allow users to play back digital video sequences in small (320x240 pixels) windows at up to 15 frames per second. The software requires at least a '386 processor running at 16 MHz, with a color VGA monitor and a Multimedia PC audio board for those who want their video with sound. These are the same basic requirements for the MPC standard, so people equipped with at least the lowest-end MPC will be able to play video sequences on their machines.

For capturing video, Microsoft is recommending at least a 33-MHz '386, 4 MB of memory and a third-party video capture or digitizing board such as the Video Blaster, Targa or Intel i750-based boards.

The software package, which will sell for $199, includes a number of complimentary applications and system tools, as well as a clip library of 250 files for unlimited use without requiring licenses. One is Media Player 2.0, an upgrade of software originally included in the Multimedia Windows system.

The new Media Player is now an "OLE server," OLE being Microsoft's object linking and embedding architecture that allows applications to import software objects of any type without further modification to the program. As a result, any OLE application...