Providing data as needed for QTMovie

Question

I understand that if I wanted to provide a QTMovie with data from an arbitrary source as it is needed I probably have to deal with the QTDataReference class, but unfortunately my experience with anything similar is limited to an audio data callback with Audio Buffers on the iPhone.

If I initialized the QTDataReference with some NSMutableData, how would I know when it needs more data and furthermore, how would I "clear" already played movie data and provide it again when the user seeks back (I want them to be able to)?

Basically the movie data I want to provide would in the end come from a set of files (which are really just one movie file split up), which become available sequentially during playback. This part is crucial.

Anybody who gets me going in the right direction can get beta access to the first Mac OS X Usenet movie streamer ;)

Answer 1

You likely can't do this using QTKit. Start with the QuickTime Overview and go from there.

The first idea that occurs to me is creating a QuickTime movie that directs QuickTime to look to the files you expect to download (or even to look directly to their remote URLs) for its media, then siccing QuickTime Player/QTMovieView on it and hoping that QuickTime's support for progressive download patches over any rough spots.