Snow Leopard: configuring QuickTime Player Launcher?

[Hippo Man]

In Snow Leopard, I notice that videos which were formerly launched by QuickTime Player in Leopard are now launched by an application called QuickTime Player Launcher. This launcher then causes these videos to actually be launched by the new QuickTime Player X.

I understand all about how QuickTime Player X is now the new default video viewer under Snow Leopard, and how the previous version of QuickTime Player is still present in the Utilities folder as QuickTime Player 7. However, I'm wondering if there is any way for me to configure the QuickTime Player Launcher application, itself, so that it always causes videos to be launched by QuickTime Player 7 instead of the new QuickTime Player X.

I know that there are other ways to cause videos to be launched by QuickTime Player 7 in Snow Leopard, and I am not asking about any of these other ways. I just want to know specifically whether Snow Leopard's QuickTime Player Launcher can be configured to launch QuickTime Player 7.

Thanks in advance.

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[ElDiabloConCaca]

Perhaps you can rename "Quicktime Player X" to "Quicktime Player X Backup," then copy the Quicktime 7 binary from the Applications/Utilities folder into the /Applications folder and name it "Quicktime Player X."

Just a thought. I don't think you can modify the behavior of "Quicktime Player Launcher."

 

[Hippo Man]

Hmm ... I'll try that a little later, but my guess is that it won't work, because the system probably goes by the bundle identifier (com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX and com.apple.quicktimeplayer for versions X and 7, respectively), instead of the app name.

But it's still worth a try.

Thanks!

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[Hippo Man]

I issued the strings command against the QuickTime Player Launcher executable, and it shows that both the string "com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX" and the string "com.apple.quicktimeplayer" are embedded within that executable. This leads me to believe that there might be some logic internal to that app which selects between one or the other of these.

But that's just a wild guess.

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[Hippo Man]

Well, I figured out one way to modify QuickTime Player Launcher so that it now launches QuickTime Player 7 ("QT 7") instead of QuickTime Player X ("QT X"). This is a hacky way to do it, in that involves making a modification to the QuickTime Player Launcher executable. ... post edited and lots of stuff deleted ...

I'm sorry, folks, but my idea doesn't work, after all, so I'm modifying this message and getting rid of what I posted. I'm doing so, because it's a delicate procedure which can mess things up if done wrong, and since it doesn't work in the first place, I don't want to tempt people to try it and run the risk of screwing up their ability to view movies.

I thought it worked only because I was testing it incorrectly.

I'm very sorry for this.

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[fryke]

Too much hassle, I'd say. Although you didn't ask for it, I'll still voice my opinion: Since QT7 is a dead-end street (it won't be around forever, won't get any feature updates) and QTX is the future, I'd try to use QTX for as much as humanly possible. We've seen those transitions in the past.

Most Mac OS users (that already were Mac users at the time of OS 8, let's say) made the transition to Mac OS X with 10.2, I'd say. The early adopters came with 10.0, a few more with 10.1, 10.2 was the "it's ready" time for most, and the "die-hard OS 9, you'll pry my cold dead fingers..."-crowd came along with 10.3. (I'm sure some are still not budging, but their numbers don't count in the market.)

As a user that made all of Apple's big transitions, let me tell you that it's a very informative process to try to adopt early and fall back on the old stuff only where really necessary. While the "sweet point" for the transition might not be there just yet, you'll have learned some things about the new technology (its limits as well as its new features) ahead of the curve. Not only will it help you let go once Apple decides to cut the cord, it will help you understand where they're going in the future.

My guess is that QT7 will be _gone_ in 10.7, and I expect 10.7 to be released in mid 2011. Yes, that's a long time, but on the way, QTX will get updated long before the day of 10.7.

 

[Hippo Man]

Well, I agree that it's a lot of hassle. Also, I have just now modified that message because I was wrong, after all. I incorrectly tested my procedure and thought it was working, when it actually wasn't.

I have now completely removed the procedure from that message, because it's not only incorrect, but risky to perform.

There are many features of QT 7 which are absent from the current version of QT X, and until Apple gets around to adding these features (or others that are similar), I find QT X to be nearly unusable. I'm sure that some day, a future QT X version will have more of these basic and necessary features, but until that happens, I, for one, want the default to be QT 7 for each every movie on my computer.

And there's an almost-as-easy and non-risky way to cause QT 7 to be the default launcher, without altering each movie one-by-one:

1. Do a Get Info on the movie file.
2. In the "Open With" menu, select "Other..."
3. Navigate to /Applications/Utilities and select QT 7with "Always Open With" checked.
4. Select "Change all..."
5. Run this from a Terminal session:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

This configures all movies of that file type (for example, .mov) to be launched by QT 7. Then, repeat those steps for one, single file of each other type: .avi, .mp4, etc. Or if you want to save time, you can repeat steps 1-4 for each type, and then run step 5 after you've gone through all the types.

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