Core Video

	Mac OS X Graphics Model Core Video Rendering QuickDraw • OpenGL • Quartz 2D • Core Image • Core Video Compositing Quartz Compositor

Core Video is the video processing model used by QuickTime 7 on Mac OS X. It delivers uncompressed frame data from QuickTime or other video source to the rest of the Quartz technologies in Mac OS X.

Overview

Core Video is the digital video processing pipeline used QuickTime 7 on Mac OS X to interface with the rendering and compositing layers in its graphics model. QuickTime 7 is the first version to fully use the Quartz technologies, and it provides Core Video with decompressed video frames for display. The processing pipeline in Core Video offers both a buffering model and display link to ensure smooth playback.

Core Video can be thought of as the link between a video source and a display context in Quartz 2D. Passing the video frame data as images into the drawing context allows Core Video to maintain a buffer of image data, then feed that data into Quartz 2D for rendering. Images can be further processed by Core Image filters before being composed into a final scene with Quartz Compositor. Core Video replaces older QuickTime methods for interacting with QuickDraw.

Core Video is available in:

• Mac OS X v10.4 and later
• Mac OS X v10.3 when QuickTime 7.0 or later is installed