Cupertino, California-based Apple said the video format called MPEG-4 offers more flexibility than the MPEG-2 standard, used on DVDs.

If the format is adopted widely, as the company expects, it would allow the niche personal computer player to compete squarely with bigger competitors, since media producers would not have to modify their content for Apple.

QuickTime already runs on both Apple's Macintosh computers and PCs running Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system, but the format of the content is another issue.

Apple, Microsoft and RealNetworks RNWK.O , the leading makers of Internet video and audio players, now support different media formats, all of which could be supplanted by the next-generation MPEG-4 that Apple backs.

"It's like a cold war. We are all battling for our turf and the content producer and the consumer loses," Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller said in a telephone interview.

Apple also rolled out a preview of its QuickTime Broadcaster software package for creating digital video in MPEG-4.

The computer maker also filled out its consumer computer line with by allowing consumers to buy the all-in-one eMac, an updated version of the original iMac which packed the guts of the computer around a bulky cathode ray tube display.

The roughly $1,100 eMac, which was recently developed specifically for schools wanting a cheap low-end computer with more power than the iMac, sports a 17-inch screen and the latest generation processor, the G4.