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The plugin let you access to the QuickTime multimedia architecture by using either static global methods or built–in objects.

You can use global methods to perform well defined and, often limited, tasks in a straightforward way. Moreover, there are global methods that let you retrieve general environment informations, and other that you can use to create instances of QTPlugin classes.

Though, usually, you will gain deeper access to the QuickTime API using plugin objects; in fact, you will notice that, often, global methods will require them as parameters as well.

As the guys at RealSoftware suggest to avoid using global methods in plugins in favor of methods placed in modules, we have added to plugin’s modules a lot of methods that supersede those defined here. Also, a few of global methods have not replacement method at all and you should not use it anymore. Anyway, you should stop using in your code the methods marked as Deprecated and use the replacement methods instead.

In the Cocoa version of the plugin (available since version 6.6 of the QTPlugin) global methods are not implemented.

The document provides you with an exhaustive list of deprecated methods, properties, constructors and constants






(m as movie, w as integer, h as integer) as picture
use this function to extract from the movie specified by the m parameter the image that corresponds to the poster time. If no poster time for the movie has been assigned, you will obtain the movie image that corresponds to a time value of 0. You control the dimensions of the resulting picture by setting the requested width (the w parameter) and height (the h parameter)
returns a RealBasic picture (nil on failure)
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the QTPlgContainer’s method or the QTPlgMovie’s method instead
(m as movie, mTime as integer, w as integer, h as integer) as picture
use this function to extract from the movie specified by the m parameter the image that corresponds at the time specified by the mTime parameter expressed in movie’s time scale. As usual, you control the dimensions of the returned picture by indicating the requested width (the w parameter) and height (the h parameter)
returns a RealBasic picture (nil on failure)
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the QTPlgContainer’s method instead
(m as movie, mTime as integer, roi as ) as picture
by this function you can crop the movie’ frame that corresponds at the time specified by the mTime parameter. You can establish a rectangular clipping area by setting the roi parameter. The coordinates of the clipping rectangle are intended to be relatives to the original movie’ dimensions
returns a RealBasic picture (nil on failure)
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the QTPlgContainer’s method instead
(srcFile as folderitem) as picture
if QuickTime is able to handle the data contained into the file specified by the srcFile parameter, this function returns an 80x80 pixels thumbnail of it. If the original picture dimensions do not fit into a square, then the picture will be scaled and centered into the thumbnail mantaining its original proportions
returns a RealBasic picture (nil on failure)
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the method of the plugin module instead
(srcPict as picture) as picture
use this function to obtain an 80x80 pixels thumbnail from the RealBasic picture specified by the srcPict parameter. If the original picture dimensions do not fit into a square, then the picture will be scaled and centered into the thumbnail mantaining its original proportions
returns a RealBasic picture (nil on failure)
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the method of the plugin module instead
(m as movie) as picture
use this function to obtain an 80x80 pixels thumbnail of the image that corresponds to the poster time of the movie specified by the m parameter. If no poster time for the movie has been assigned, you will obtain the thumbnail of the image that corresponds to a time value of 0. If the original frame dimensions do not fit into a square, then the picture will be scaled and centered into the thumbnail mantaining its original proportions
returns a RealBasic picture (nil on failure)
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the QTPlgContainer’s property or the QTPlgMovie’s property instead
(m as movie, mTime as integer) as picture
creates an 80x80 pixels thumbnail of the movie’s frame that corresponds to the time specified by the mTime parameter. If the original frame dimensions do not fit into a square, then the picture will be scaled and centered into the thumbnail mantaining its original proportions
returns a RealBasic picture (nil on failure)
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the QTPlgContainer’s method instead

(m as movie) as integer
this function counts the total number of tracks in the movie specified by the m parameter
returns the total number of tracks in the movie
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the property of the plugin class instead
(m as movie, fType as string) as integer
this function counts the total number of samples in the movie specified by the m parameter that belong to the track(s) of the type specified by the fType parameter; this is a is a four character string specifying the mediatype for this operation (for example "vide" for video track)
if the function does not point error out, the result is a positive number that represents the total number of frames that belong to the track(s) of the specified mediatype; otherwise the result is –1 or another negative error code
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the method of the plugin class instead
(m as movie, tmRange as , fType as string) as integer
this overloaded version of the QTPlg_MovieFramesCount method, allows you to limit the samples search within the time range specified by the properties of tmRange object. If you pass a nil value for the tmRange parameter you will obtain the same result as the version above.
if the function does not point error out, the result is a positive number that represents the total number of frames that belong to the track(s) of the specified mediatype; otherwise the result is –1 or another negative error code
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the method of the plugin class instead
(m as movie, tmRange as ) as double
the function returns the size, in kilobytes, of the sample data in the segment of the movie specified by the properties of the tmRange parameter. The value returned corresponds to the amount of movie data that will be retrieved when you call the method. Setting the tmRange to nil will force the method to return the size of the entire movie
if the function does not point error out, the result is the size, in bytes of the specified sample data; otherwise the result is 0.0
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the method of the plugin class instead

(m as movie, trkIndex as integer) as integer
the function returns the total number of samples (frames if the track is a video track) contained into the track specified by the m and trkIndex parameters.
returns the number of the samples associated to the track; if the function encounters any error, the result is set to –1
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the method of the plugin class instead
(m as movie, trkIndex as integer, sPos as integer, ePos as integer) as integer
this function counts the number of samples (frames if the track is a video track) standing within the time range specified by the sPos and the ePos parameters.
returns the number of the samples associated to the track; if the function encounters any error, the result is set to –1
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the method of the plugin class instead
(m as movie, trkIndex as integer) as string
returns a four characters string that specifies the type of samples data associated to the track you are finding out. Possible values are "vide" (video),"soun" (sound), "text" (text), "musi" (music),etc.
returns the type of the track as a four character string
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the or the properties of the plugin class instead
(m as movie, trkIndex as integer) as integer
this function allows to you to determine the time difference between the start of the track, indicated by the trkIndex parameter, and the start of the movie that contains it, specified by the m parameter
a positive integer value,expressed in the time scale of the movie that contains the track, that indicates the track’s offset from the start of the movie. If the function fails the value returned will be set to a negative integer value indicating an error code
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the property of the plugin class instead
(m as movie, trkIndex as integer) as boolean
this function allows you to determine whether the track specified by the m and trkIndex parameters is currently enabled
returns true if the track is enabled and false if the track is disabled
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the property of the plugin class instead
(m as movie, trkIndex as integer, enabled as boolean) as integer
set the status of the track specified by the m and trkIndex parameters. A disabled track will not be played
returns an error code (0=no error)
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the property of the plugin class instead
(m as movie, trkIndex as integer) as integer
returns the duration of the track specified by the m and trkIndex parameters. As every track starts at movie time 0, the duration corresponds to the ending time of the track in the movie’s time coordinate system
returns an integer value indicating the track’s duration; this value is expressed in the time scale of the movie thet contains the track. If the movie specified is invalid the result is set to –1
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the property of the plugin class instead
(m as movie, trkIndex as integer) as integer
use this function to find about the offset in the source data file of first sample of data belonging to the track specified by the m and trkIndex parameters
returns the data offset or a negative error code if the function fails
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the property of the plugin class instead
(m as movie, sPos as integer, ePos as integer, trkIndex as integer) as integer
this method allows you to determine the size, in bytes, of the sample data in the segment of the track specified respectively by the sPos and ePos parameters. The time values must be expressed in movie’s time scale. You select the target track by supplying the source movie (the m parameter) and the index of the track (the trkIndex parameter)
if the function does not point error out, returns the result is the size, in bytes of the specified sample data; otherwise returns –1
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the method of the plugin class instead
(m as movie, sPos as integer, ePos as integer, trkIndex as integer) as integer
returns the size, in bytes, of the sample data in the media segment determined by the sPos and ePos parameters; the media is that one related to the track specified by the m and trkIndex parameters. The time values must be expressed in movie’s time scale. Note that the value returned does not necessarily correspond to the amount of sample data used in the track that contains the media. Some samples in the media may not be used in the track, and others may be used more than once
if the function does not point error out, returns the result is the size, in bytes of the specified sample data; otherwise returns –1
[Deprecated]: since version 6.5 of the plugin this method is deprecated and will be removed from a future plugin version; use the method of the plugin class instead