SA Mac Version 32-bit Support?

[John Dilworth]

Apple has confirmed that macOS will no longer provide full support for 32-bit apps following High Sierra. Eg:

 https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/02/27/how-to-see-which-applications-on-your-mac-are-32-bit-and-wont-be-supported-in-the-future

How will this affect the Mac SA V5 32-bit version, and especially Quicktime-dependent functions?

[Synthetik]

It's my understanding that the next osx 10.14 will support running 32 bit applications. This is what Apple stated at last years wwdc to developers.

There is already a 64 bit Studio Artist build for mac. We've been looking at options for the post quicktime world to extend the 32 bit app's movie capabilities into the 64 bit build. 

[John Dilworth]

Thanks, very glad you're on to this.  I was beginning to get that sinking feeling when reading that Quicktime is now dangerous on Windows, and near-obsolete on the Mac...

[Synthetik]

There are a lot of people still using quicktime on windows. As long as you are working with videos you make yourself, or acquired from a reliable source, it's not really a problem. Just don't instal the browser plugin (the installer has this turned off as a default).

[Donna Kuhn]

i updated and get these messages saying your mac is not optimized for this app, including studio artist, (both versions) and then it opens and i can use it fine. what will quicktime be replaced by?

[Synthetik]

OSX 10.13.4 brings up that message the first time you run a 32 bit application on it. It's kind of misleading. They should just say that it's a 32 bit application and at some point in the future 32 bit application support may be removed from the mac os.

It's our understanding that upcoming OSX 10.14 will still support 32 bit applications. That is what apple told developers at last years WWDC. Until i hear differently, that's what i'm going to assume. I'm assuming we will hear more at the next WWDC. 

To be honest, i don't think apple will ever replace the complete quicktime api functionality. AVFoundation replaces some quicktime functionality. It does not support all of the existing quicktime codecs, and also does not support all of the functionality of the old quicktime movie editing api calls.

An interesting question is what will happen to your old movie files when apple drops quicktime support. Given their lack of support or care for old file formats and associated older applications, i don't have a warm and fuzzy feeling about it.

What people can do is run an older osx version in a Parallels virtual environment. So if apple drops 32 bit support (and quicktime) in osx 10.15, then you could still access it in a Parallels virtual environment running osx 10.13 or 10.14. My guess is that this will be the only way to access older quicktime codec file formats not supported by AVFoundation once 32 bit support is dropped from the os.

[Donna Kuhn]

when i tried to open the 64 bit version it told me another reason why i can't use that one either but they both worked. i miss quicktime pro and iMovie 6 still and have them on an older computer but it is just too slow.

[Synthetik]

You can still run Quicktime Player 7 Pro on osx 10.13.4.

[Donna Kuhn]

There's something wrong with my computer where certain software doesn't work like iMovie and Compressor and Quicktime Pro. I would have to wipe everything clean and start over but I didn't want to so I just work around it.

[John Dilworth]

A year later, and the impending arrival of MacOS Catalina will kill off 32-bit apps entirely.

Will new alternatives for the missing 32-bit Quicktime functionality be available in the Mac 64-bit version of SA soon?  (You had said that “We've been looking at options for the post quicktime world to extend the 32 bit app's movie capabilities into the 64 bit build.”) 

Thanks much, John

[Synthetik]

We're working on future proofing the Studio Artist code base. We'll discuss more on the specifics of what that means later.