Apple put out a preview version of Quicktime 7 for Windows. The excitement here is of course that it includes the H.264 codec for HD video.
The good news is that I've never seen that kind of quality at ridiculous resolutions like that anywhere. I'm speechless that they could get the bit rate below 1 MB/sec, but they did it. The bad news is that even on my overcloked-to-hell Athlon, running almost equivalent to a 3 GHz P4, it's still not fast enough to keep up. The 1080p stuff hits about 4 fps, and the 720p stuff can do about 12 fps, half of what you really need.
Still, I'm impressed. Remember, I started professional life as a broadcast guy, with a particular geek passion for digital video (still not in the hands of the general population in 1999 when I left it all). To see this now... it's amazing. I wish I had the hardware to see it.
It's clear to me now that the next video camera that I buy has to be HD, preferably 1080p. I think we're a year or two off before you can buy a camera under two or three grand that can do it, but the software and display devices are very quickly coming down in price. The day you can watch a movie at that resolution at home is the day that I think movie theaters will be obsolete.
Now if only I had something to put in my copy of Avid Xpress HD... ;)
I wonder if the new Quicktime version Apple is developing will take advantage of new technology in the Intel/Apple processors Apple is going to start using.