QuickTime Player has been used by Mac users as the default media player for quite some time. If you are not satisfied with QuickTime Player, there are several other alternatives. And ReelBean from JS8 Media is one of them. ReelBean Pro is a media player. So it lets you watch videos and DVDs and listen to music.
What you can do with ReelBean Pro is pretty much the same as what you can do with QuickTime Pro. In order to open a file, reach your Mouse to File. Then just choose Open File for audio and video files. For example, you can open an MP3 file and listen to music. (See Screenshot 02.) If you want to play a DVD, then you need to select Open DVD. That’s actually one of the features that QuickTime Player doesn’t have. On the other hand, ReelBean Pro doesn’t play reference MOV files unlike QuickTime Pro. Anyway, as we tested, ReelBean Pro plays DVD from a DVD disc and an image disc, but not from a VIDEO_TS folder.
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If you are familiar with QuickTime Pro, you probably know that you can crop and trim frames by setting In & Out points. How about ReelBean Pro? ReelBean Pro doesn’t have markers for In & Out points. But if you go under Edit, there’s a command that says Trim to Selection. (See Screenshot 03.) The following is how ReelBean Pro works. Go to Edit and choose Show Edit Controller. Move your slider where you want to place an In point. Then hold down the Shift key and move the slider the right. And release the Shift key. If you do that, the timeline will be sort of highlighted. (See Screenshot 04.) Now, you have a selection. You can then choose Cut or Trim to Selection from Edit.
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There are other features in ReelBean Pro that resemble those that are available in QuickTime Pro. For example, if you extend your Mouse to Window, you will see something familiar – Show Movie Info. (See Screenshot 05.) There’s a command that says Movie Track Properties under Window. That’s another feature (See Screenshot 06.) available in QuickTime Pro. And this function lets you extract individual audio and video tracks out of a media file.
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Just like QuickTime Pro, ReelBean Pro lets users export movies in basic formats such as AVI, DV, MOV, MP4, VOB and WMV (with Flip4Mac). In order to export a video, click on the red button at the bottom right corner. Then a drawer opens. Choose any of the formats or presets and click on another red button at the bottom. (See Screenshot 08.) If you choose QuickTime Movie, for example, you will see a familiar export window. (See Screenshot 09.) Furthermore, there’s another button at the bottom of the drawer. If you click on this button, ReelBean Pro will let you save a screenshot. (See Screenshot 10.)
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So far, we are talking about the features that are also available in QuickTime Pro (or MPEG Streamclip) + VLC Media Player. There are features like Joint Movie, Split Movie and Set Fill Color that are unique in ReelBean Pro. Set Fill Color, by the way, lets you choose the background color of the screen other than black.
Next, let’s see what’s missing in ReelBean Pro. First, if you choose Split Movie under Edit, you can separate a single movie into 2 segments at the playhead. (See Screenshot 11.) That’s a nice feature. And if you open Movie Track Properties under window and extract an audio or video track, the file will be saved at the desktop. You have no control over where to save split files or extracted tracks. So it will be nice if the developer designs the application in the future so that we can choose the default location.
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Another missing function in ReelBean Pro is Drag and Drop. Unlike other media players including MPEG Streamclip and VLC Media Player, ReelBean Pro doesn’t support Drag and Drop. So you have to extend your Mouse to File > Open File each time you want to open a file.
Finally, let us go over the formats that ReelBean Pro does and doesn’t support. ReelBean Pro decode such media formats as AVI, DV, MOV, MP4 MPEG, OGG, VOB and WMV but doesn’t support AC3 and MKV (Matroska). So if your video contains an audio track compressed in AC3, ReelBean Pro will not product audio. And just like QuickTime, ReelBean doesn’t open an AVI movie whose video stream is compressed in H.264. Furthermore, ReelBean Pro’s split function doesn’t work with multiplexed formats like MPEG.
In conclusion, ReelBean Pro has a few functions beyond QuickTime Pro. It allows users to export movies in different formats. The Split function can be quite useful. But the fact that Drag and Drop is not supported can really hurt ReelBean Pro users. Besides, there isn’t much to see in ReelBean Pro beyond QuickTime Pro (or MPEG Streamclip) plus VLC Media Player, which does decode AC3, MKV. VLC Media Player also open VIDEO_TS folders.
ReelBean Pro is a product of JS8 Media.
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