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Quicktime Playback Issues
I have recently been having some annoying playback issues with clips in Quicktime Pro 7.5.0 (861). Any and all quicktime files and types have a sometimes very very slight kick and sometimes major kick in playback at random intervals through a clip. You can go back to try and repeat the kick at the same point and it is always slightly different but will still kick. It can also be described as a slight slowdown in playback and or dropped frames, as if the system is struggling for resources. This only occurs in a Quicktime Viewer…Same files in VLC, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, or Combustion do not kick and also playback smoothly on output through my Kona 3 over SDI. There is no heavy load on the system at the time of playback. The same clips playback perfectly in Quicktime under Windows XP bootcamp. This started directly after updating my system to Leopard, which during that process Quicktime was also updated. These same files on my MacBook Pro under Tiger do not kick…there sometimes are slight kicks but far far less frequent and usually due to resources. This has been tested both with files that I have created and with downloaded clips from Quicktime trailers. My system is a Mac Pro with OS X Leopard 10.5.4, Dual Quad 3.0Ghz Xeons, 9GB of RAM, ATI X1900, a 2TB RAID 0 Media Array, and a AJA Kona 3. I had also purchased a 7800 GT card to test if it might be the video card and the new card did not resolve the issues so I sent it back. My laptop should not have smoother playback! My system had been fine until the update to Leopard. Any and all help in this matter would be welcome.
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6 Replies
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I am having same exact problems, I was checking everything from my hardrives to really odd ball stuff. I’ve read about using pacifist.
https://www.digitalrebellion.com/blog/posts/using_pacifist_to_downgrade_quicktime.html
https://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14993
https://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20080702161327188
Currently i’m trying to find a work around by exporting as something other than quicktime. This sucks really really bad. If you find something let us know!
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Glad to hear I’m not alone! So when you try playing the files in VLC or under bootcamp they play fine? I have checked everything, multiple hardrives etc…same issue. But my laptop under tiger does not have the issue. After my currrent projects are done I may wipe my system and re-install Tiger and see what happens. I’m surprised more people havnt noticed it…it is very slight though.
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You are right, quicktimes in VLC (even in OSX for me) play fine! It looks like reverting back to an older quicktime is the solution but honestly I’m afraid to do it. (my boss is not a video guy, and i would get stomped if something went wrong….) Is it an easy thing to do??
I found Larry Jordan’s site that had the warning, then when i stared searching for quicktime 7.5 studders and chopping there is a TON of people having problems. Those little kicks are a perfect description of the playback problem. And its random!
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It is certainly not an easy thing to do and I don’t think I would use Pacifist to do it. May be best to use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup your system drive to an external just in case…then try re-installing the OS and not running any Quicktime updates to see if that resolves it. I am going to probably try it this weekend. The annoying thing is that my laptop is on the same version of Quicktime but under Tiger and does not exhibit the problem…at least as frequently. I will post as soon as I know anything. Could you post a link to the sites where you have found people with similar issues? Thanks.
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what version of FCP are you running? Might the latest ProApps update be to blame if it’s installed, OR, if it’s NOT installed, might 7.5 require the latest ProApps update?
Reid C
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Well I have further news and no solution. I have wiped my system and installed both Tiger with no updates and Leopard with no updates. Both bare bone installs with basic Quicktime installs (7.1 and 7.3 respectively) had the same stuttering playback in the quicktime player. However I have discovered a strange abnormality…if played in the upper half of the screen it plays back smoothly..if played in the lower half of the screen it plays back stuttery. VLC does a much better job of playback but does kick on rare occasion in the bottom portion of the screen. Again these stutters in playback only occur most notably in the quicktime player and in the bottom half of my screen with any and all quicktime files whether downloaded from quicktime or created in any pro app or encoder. None of the Pro Apps have these problems….FinalCut, After Effects, Combustion…etc… on either the preview windows or the SDI out of the Kona 3. Windows under bootcamp has no such problems. I am at a loss as to what this problem is! Any help would be great…though I think I am alone. I’m beginning to wonder if it is the slot the video card is in and whether there are some lanes in the PCI express slot that are damaged do to changing out the video card a few times, which in turn causes stuttery playback in the lower portion of the screen. Another thought is the Kona card maybe causing some resource conflict with quicktime player? Either way my laptop plays back everything fine…which shouldn’t be the case when my workstation is a Dual Quad 3.0GHz, 9GB RAM, 760GB System Drive, 2.0TB Raid 0 Media Drive, with a Kona 3.
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