Troubleshooting QuickTime 6.1: Sorenson Squeeze crash; No Mac OS 9 version; Booting problems; more

Sorenson investigating Squeeze 3 issue Sorenson Squeeze 3 is incompatible with QuickTime 6.1, crashing if audio is selected for an MPEG-4 compression. The Sorenson support team says it is working on the bug, originally submitted to MacFixIt by Tony Martin. A support engineer writes:

"[...] We have been able isolate and duplicate the problem. The crash occurs after an update to QuickTime 6.1 if audio is selected for an MP4 compression. If audio is not selected, the crash does not occur. We have reported this issue to our developers and assigned it the highest priority possible. We will get a fix out to you and for general distribution as soon as possible."

No Mac OS 9 version available? QuickTime 6.1 may be the first major QuickTime release that Apple has not delivered for Mac OS 9 - at least as a simultaneous release. An update is not accessible via either the Mac OS 9 Software Update control panel (which displays the most recent version as 6.0.2), not Apple's Web site.

A confusing Knowledge Base article [#61776] states that QuickTime 6.1 requires "Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later," but later refers to "Mac OS 9 and Windows" automatic updating.

Booting problems Scattered reports indicate that some users are unable to startup their systems after applying the QuickTime 6.1 update. Brian Rellinger writes:

"I just updated via the Software Update system preference and now cannot boot into Mac OS X. It starts to load, but after the splash screen it just displays a blue screen. I can boot into Single User Mode, and can boot from a CD."

Classic failure Scattered reports pin failure of Classic on the QuickTime 6.1 update.

MPEG-4 encoding Several readers note that Apple has removed the ability to choose between "Faster" and "More accurate" in the QuickTime 6.1 MPEG-4 encoder. Terell Smith writes:

"So which are we left with? Apple says the upgrade to 6.1 provides 'faster MEPG-4 encoding.' Does it do it by removing the 'More accurate?" Pro encoding?"

Better DivX compatibility Multiple users report success playing some DivX movies (especially with MP3 soundtracks) under QuickTime 6.1 that could not be viewed in previous releases. Oddly, one reader reports that the update broke DivX playback on his system.

F1 2000 racing game Chris Ong reports that the Feral F1 2000 racing game displays strange video artifacts and a blank screen after updating to QuickTime 6.1.

"I installed QuickTime 6.1 this morning. Now Feral's F1 2000, which worked fine a couple of days ago, doesn't work anymore. When I run the game, the screen flashes to indicate a change of resolution, but then remains black (except for the arrow cursor and/or spinning beachball), although the music from the game is playing. Cmd-Q works to quit the game, returning me to the finder and my original resolution."

UPDATE: Robert Engström notes a post from Dair Grant on the MacGamer forum that explains why Feral F1 2000 stops working after the QuickTime 6.1 update:

"Unfortunately QuickTime's full screen mode API was updated in 6.1, so the blanking window is now created in a different window layer than before (it's actually on top of the game window).

"We will be releasing a patch shortly to address this, but in the mean time if you would like to try a beta of the patch send some mail to f1support@feral.co.uk and we'll send you a build."

If you've had problems with any other multimedia applications after updating to QuickTime 6.1, let us know at late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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