Is it correct that QT7 has been dropped from Mountain Lion and now it's just QTX? with Apple moving away from QT to AV foundation?

If so how will that impact QT import and export from Media Composer? Is the legacy backend, as used by MC for QT export still present? Or will the QT export become much more limited?

According to Apple, QuickTime Player 7 is still compatible with Mountain Lion.  You have to download and install the Snow Leopard version, but it should work.

Kevin Klimek:

According to Apple, QuickTime Player 7 is still compatible with Mountain Lion.  You have to download and install the Snow Leopard version, but it should work.

And is that what MC users need to do to get the "normal" QT export options?

What do they get if they don;t have QT7 installed?

Here's my understanding...

Avid uses the QuickTime X engine for all imports and exports, so Avid will export without QuickTime 7 installed.  But if you want to have export options out of QuickTime itself, you need to install 7, as there is no QuickTime X Pro. 

Personally, I always export Same as Source out of Avid and then let QuickTime 7 Pro create the files I need, usually smaller QuickTime or Windows movies for postings.  (I have always found SAS exports faster, and then it doesn't tie up Avid while QuickTime Pro does the rest.)

I detest the QuickTime X Player so much that I have changed the default so all .mov files are opened in QuickTime 7.

A lot of info in this thread is incorrect. There is a difference between QuickTime players and QuickTime APIs. QuickTime Player 7 is not installed in 10.8 but the APIs are so you do not need to install the player to get Avid to work correctly.

Also, there is no QuickTime X API. Since 10.7, QT Player X has used AV Foundation which Avid is not using for importing or exporting QuickTime media. Avid is still using the QT7 APIs.

More info:
http://www.digitalrebellion.com/blog/posts/quicktime_7_and_x_frequently_asked_questions.html

Thanks, Jon.

You obviously have a more technical understanding about the entire QuickTime engine than most of us do here.

I guess the point is, which is what often confuses people, unlike on a PC (or in the OS 9 days of Mac), you don't have to worry about the version of QuickTime installed.  As long as you are using a qualified OS, it will work, and it doesn't matter whether or not you have QuickTime 7 Player installed for Pro exports, because it will work regardless.

QTX also is very buggy in Mountain Lion. Keeps crashing if I attempt to shuttle through footage. Video trim function is terrible. So much better in QT7. It has been iMovied!