QuickTime Playback Compatibility Chart

Updated Mon, Jan 21, 2008 – for feedback & corrections e-mail the author:  – Terms of use…

To print the chart please, download the PDF version (176KB).

Flash Support Dropped

With the release of QT 7.3.1 and later QT’s Flash media handler has been disabled except for a limited number of existing QuickTime movies that are known to be safe, see Apple KB article. Apple had done that once before (QT 7.1.3) giving users the option to reenable Flash. This option does not exist in the latest release.

Audio Codecs for QuickTime Media

Release dates are listed below the version no.; = read-only, = read&write
QT 3

March 30, 1998

 QT 4

June 8, 1999

 QT 4.1

Dec. 17, 1999

 QT 5

Apr. 23, 2001

 QT 6

July 15, 2002

 QT 6.3/6.4

June 3, 2003/
Oct. 16, 2003

 QT 6.5

Dec. 18, 2003

 QT 7

April 30, 2005

 Audio Codec  read-only/
read&write
          (improved)     AAC  
                ADPCM  
                aLaw 2:1  
          (download, included since QT 6.4)     AMR (“ARM”)  
            since QT 6.5.1 (March 28, 2004)   Apple Lossless  
                GSM  
                IMA 4:1  
                MACE 3:1  
                MACE 6:1  
                MP3 CBR  
                MP3 VBR  
                MPEG-1 1   
        (commercial add-on)       MPEG-2  
                MPEG-4 (AAC)  
                Qdesign Music 1  
                Qdesign Music 2  
                Qualcomm PureVoice  
                µLaw 2:1  

Video Codecs for QuickTime Media

Release dates are listed below the version no.; = read-only, = read&write
QT 3

March 30, 1998

 QT 4

June 8, 1999

 QT 4.1

Dec. 17, 1999

 QT 5

Apr. 23, 2001

 QT 6

July 15, 2002

 QT 6.3/6.4

June 3, 2003/
Oct. 16, 2003

 QT 6.5

Dec. 18, 2003

 QT 7

April 30, 2005

 Video Codec   read-only/
read&write
                Animation  
                BMP (Apple BMP)  
                Cinepak  
                Component Video  
                DV PAL/NTSC  
                DVCPRO PAL/NTSC  
                Graphics  
                H.261  
                H.263  
                H.264  
  (download for Mac & Win)        (Win-only)  (Win-only)   (Win-only) Intel Indeo 5
(Win & pre-OSX only!)		  
                Intel Raw  
                Microsoft RLE  
                Microsoft OLE  
                Microsoft Video 1  
                JPEG 2000 (OSX only)  
                Motion-JPEG A  
                Motion-JPEG B  
                MPEG-1 1   
        (commercial add-on)       MPEG-2  
                MPEG-4  
                Photo-JPEG  
            (OSX 10.3 and later only)   Pixlet  
                Planar RGB  
                PNG  
                Sorensen Video  
                Sorensen Video (rev. 2) 2   
      (5.0.2)         Sorensen Video 3  
                TGA  
                TIFF  
                Video (Apple Video)  
1) For further information on MPEG-1 media see KB doc 61608.

2) QT4 came with a revised version of the Sorensen codec that is backwards-compatible with QT3.

QuickTime can playback the following formats as long as they use a supported codec.

Release dates are listed below the version no.
QT 3

March 30, 1998

 QT 4

June 8, 1999

 QT 4.1

Dec. 17, 1999

 QT 5

Apr. 23, 2001

 QT 6

July 15, 2002

 QT 6.3/6.4

June 3, 2003/
Oct. 16, 2003

 QT 6.5

Dec. 18, 2003

 QT 7

April 30, 2005

 Format Ext. 3
          (download, included since QT 6.4)     3GPP .3gp
                3GPP2 .3g2
                AIFF .aiff, .aif
                AU .au, .snd
                AVI .avi
                BMP .bmp
                DV .dv
  3 3 4 5  5  5 5 (see note), no Flash support since QT 7.3.1 Flash (vers.#) .swf
                GIF .gif
                JPEG .jpg
                MacPaint .pnt
                MIDI .mid
                MP3 .mp3, .mpu
                MPEG-1 (audio/video) .mpeg, .mpg
        (commercial add-on)       MPEG-2 (audio/video) .mpeg, .mpg
                MPEG-4 (audio/video) .mp4, .m4a
                PICT .pct
                Photoshop .psd
                PNG .png
              (OSX 10.4 and QT 7 only) Quartz Composer Composition .qtz
                QuickTime Image .qtif, .qif, .qti
                SGI Image .sgi
    1 1 1 1 1 1 SMIL (vers.#) .smi
                TGA .tga
                TIFF .tiff, .tif
                WAV .wav
(download Flip4Mac) (download Flip4Mac) Windows Media .wmv
3) Only the most common file extensions are listed.

QuickTime Proprietary Technologies’ Support

  • QuickTime VR for cylindrical panoramas/object movies are supported since QT 2.
  • QuickTime VR for cubic (spherical) panoramas are supported since QT 5.
  • QuickTime Vectors (Curve codec) are supported since QT 3.
  • QuickTime Sprites are supported since QT 2.1.

JavaScript Support

  • QuickTime 4.1 is scriptable using Netscape 4 or 5 on Windows and Macintosh.
  • QuickTime 6 is scriptable using Internet Explorer on Windows, and most or all Netscape or Mozilla-based browsers on Windows or Macintosh.
  • Plug-ins are not scriptable using Internet Explorer for Macintosh.

For more details, see ADC: JavaScript Support in QT 4.1 and the JavaScript Scripting Guide for QuickTime.

Other resources of interest…

Compiled by Martin Sammtleben with help from the members of the QuickTime-Talk List, and QuickTime Product Marketing.
© 2003–2008, Martin Sammtleben

Terms of use

I encourage you to link to this page as it will be updated regularly. If you want to republish the chart or any of its parts in another context don’t hesitate to contact me ; in general I ask for a copy of printed reproductions.