Compare Chroma

Here is a quick overview of Chroma's features.

	Chroma	QuickTime	QuickTime Pro	other players
QuickTime support				usually poor
AVI support		basic	basic	usually good
DivX / XviD		with 3rdparty plug-in	with 3rdparty plug-in	usually
Overlay				some
IntelliAspect™
AVI Subtitle support				some
Audio synchronization				non-existent to good
Windows Media (WMV)	with 3rdparty plug-in	with 3rdparty plug-in	with 3rdparty plug-in	usually not
h.264	with QT7	with QT7	with QT7	some
Additional Plug-In codecs				rare unless using QT
Play DVDs				some
Edit, Transcode				usually not
Mac OS X support	10.2 and later	all	all	usually only latest

QuickTime Support

Chroma uses the same components as QuickTime player does to play .mov files which ensures maximal compatibility.

AVI support

QuickTime never had any good AVI support since it was a competing format. Chroma tries to bridge that by supporting nearly all AVI variants and many common AVI codecs out of the box.

Built-in DivX / XviD compatible codecs

Chroma has built-in support for the more common AVI codecs, like DivX and XviD. This means you do not need to find and install external codecs.

But if you have several codecs installed you can switch between codecs to compare, even while the movie is playing.

IntelliAspect™

IntelliAspect is a feature that removes those pesky black bars around the movie. IntelliAspect only works in fullscreen presentation, and can be turned on and off from the menu or a keyboard shortcut. When on, Chroma will zoom and stretch the movie a little to fill your entire screen.

letterbox		with IntelliAspect

Works with widescreen monitors and TV content too:

sideburns		with IntelliAspect

Picture controls

Chroma has a basic set of picture controls that can be used to touch up lower quality movies.

original (detail)		after picture controls adjustment

Subtitles

Many AVI movies come with separate subtitle files. These are additions to the movie that will add subtitles in a certain language. There are a great number of different subtitle file formats, and it would be nearly impossible to support all. Chroma aims to support the more common ones, and currently includes SubRip (.srt), SubStation Alpha (.ssa and .ass), SubViewer (.sv1, .sv2 and .sub ), SAMI (.smi), MicroDVD (.sub) and MPL2 (.sub).

Play DVDs

Isn't it silly that you need a separate application to view DVDs? We thought so and included DVD support in Chroma. We couldn't help improving it a little by adding things like full scrubber support to go to any part of the DVD (not just chapters), support for the IntelliAspect feature, overlay support etc.

Chroma is also less sensitive about VIDEO_TS folders than Apple's DVD Player, which can be finicky sometimes.

Edit, Transcode?

Chroma is designed to be nothing but a player. It does not have any function to permanently modify the movies. You use Chroma to watch, not to edit.

mini-FAQ

So Chroma is a replacement for QuickTime Player then?

Chroma is not designed to replace QuickTime Player, but has most of QuickTime Player's functionality. There are a few things like viewing QuickTime VR movies that QuickTime Player supports but Chroma does not.

Should I buy Chroma instead of QuickTime Pro?

No. QuickTime Pro is for people who want to edit and transcode movies. Chroma does not do save.

Can I have both QuickTime Pro and use Chroma?

Yes, of course. However, Chroma will not gain any additional functionality that you didn't already have before buying QuickTime Pro.