Problems with QuickTime Pro 7 and Mac OS X 10.3.x (Panther)

Several readers report issues with QuickTime 7 when running under Mac OS X 10.3.x. The same issues do not occur with QuickTime 7 under Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).

MacFixIt reader Steve P writes:

"I downloaded the new QuickTime 7.0 and purchased a new Pro key. Operating in 10.3.9, QT 7 quits when you select Show Movie Properties (Command-J), from the Window menu, for an open movie file."

Jonah Lee adds:

"I just upgraded to Quicktime 7 Pro today for my Panther install and decided it was time to try out the H.264 codec I have been hearing so much about, so I compressed a DV Quicktime movie with the codec using compressor. And the movie plays back fine (the files are huge, not at all as small or as high quality as I expected, and there are so few options), but when I try to Show Movie Properties on any of the clips it crashes QuickTime completely."

Graham Wilson writes "I installed Quicktime 7 on my Dual 2ghz G5, running OS X 10.3.9 (no Tiger installation yet). The installation appeared to be fine, but upon restart, the AppleScript that is supposed to launch Quicktime 7 eventually times out. When QT 7 is launched normally, I get one bounce in the dock, and then the application just hangs. Activity Monitor shows 100% CPU usage.

"Attempts to revert back to QT 6.5 have been unsuccessful, as well as additional attempts to re-install QT 7. Reapplying the 10.3.9 combo updater had no effect as well."

Meanwhile, Edwin Burmeister reports that creating a new user account resolves the crash issue, indicating that a user-specific issue may be at hand.

Edwin writes:

"After updating to OS 10.3.9 and installing Quicktime Pro 7, I have found that Quicktime crashes immediately upon clicking on Show Movie Properties.

"I spent over 2 hours on the telephone to Apple support today without making any progress toward resolving the issue. We tried all of the usual tricks, such as removing plist files and even the entire Preferences folder.

"We did, however, discover that if I create a new user, then the Quicktime crashes do not arise when logged in as this new user. This indicates that whatever the problem may be, it doe not involve any hardware issue."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Resources