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General discussion

Apple's Safari Quicktime plug-in won't play Quicktime videos

Aug 7, 2007 1:04PM PDT

I don't know what this problem has come from, but for the past several weeks, I have noticed that my Quicktime plug-in for Safari on my Mac has a serious problem with doing its job; playing Quicktime videos online.

It loads the normal online Quicktime menu bar that we're all so familiar with, but the bar is centered in the space where the video would normally be. Audio loads fine, but there's no video, wasting the time when I could have been watching something.

It is occurring just on the Apple site (so far) so I can't view ads and videos regarding the new iMac and some Leopard stuff that I was checking out. Even the old Mac ads that I've already seen stop loading now.

I don't want to have to save the files to watch them. I want to be able to fix this so I can watch videos and stream them in the Safari page. I have tried multiple times to fix it, but there seems no option for it. My MBP is up to date.

Any tips? My preferences don't seem to hold the key, unless I'm mistaken.

Discussion is locked

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I don't have a clue.
Aug 8, 2007 4:32AM PDT

But then again, I've never dealt with the new mac-intel machines.

If we were talking about a G4 or G5, I would say it was a problem where there was not enough RAM. As it is an MBP we are discussing, I assume you have at least a Gig or more of RAM. Could some of your memory be bad? I use Rember to test my RAM. Try it out and see, but be sure and close out everything and do it when you go to bed, since the process can take a couple of hours sometimes.

Then again, if you think it is QT, you could always throw it away and reinstall. For that matter, you might want to archive and reinstall the whole OS. A buddy of mine had to do that recently after Firefox became buggy and wouldn't reinstall correctly. Actually he ended up zeroing out but he does go to extremes sometimes.

I don't know if this would help but I got to ask if you remember to occasionally repair permissions with your Disc Utility?

grim

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... Dunno
Aug 8, 2007 7:35AM PDT

I update the OS through the Software Update.

I heard that certain updates had been ruining people's Macs, but I thought I was unharmed by them.

Maybe I wasn't.

I don't feel comfortable messing with Quicktime because it works fine if you open it from the Dock and works fine with all my videos. It's just this thing with Apple's page.

I have 2GB of RAM, and the TechTool Deluxe program that comes with AppleCare runs normally and has picked up no problem within the past few weeks that this has happened.

I have quite a bunch of stuff that I don't want to bother with either, so I'm not taking this to an extreme. However I may have to fix up my permissions because a friend sent me some songs that wouldn't allow me to add info like artist data and pictures. iTunes said I didn't have permissions to write stuff to it, but I'm the admin. My whole Hard Drive is read and write, yet those files were locked up!

I guess I'll need to look into it. I may need help doing it so if you have advice on Disc Utility, please add it here if you want. I'll probably find it somewhere.

The Mac works fine with everything else, and QT works great when I save files to the Desktop and view them in HD. But now I can't watch trailers from Apple, ads, or other videos.

"Sigh", I'll have to figure out what's wrong with my plugin.

Thanks,
-BeatleMegaFan

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Aha! Rosetta is messed up!
Aug 8, 2007 9:31AM PDT

I rummaged around Apple's threads for Quicktime. I learned of two important things.

QT 7.2 has been wrecking people's QT players all over the place.

The other thing is this: a guy posted that for Intel users like me, Rosetta would have to be enabled to try to fix this problem. As I recall, I believe that I enabled this long ago for other reasons. Of course, the "audio but no video" problem started when I updated QT, I found that DISABLING Rosetta FIXES this problem. I don't know if I'll need it enabled in the future, but my problem is solved for now.

I repaired some permissions regarding the flash plugins in Disk Utility, so I suspect the true problem lies in there, and Rosetta is just a switch on it.

I hope others who have experienced this QT problem find this because I have no wish to post on Apple's page.

More info later. Cheers.

-BeatleMegaFan

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Good to hear from you!
Aug 8, 2007 11:09AM PDT

So many folk find a fix but don't post back. I know from past experience that google's web crawler will add references about fixes that are posted on CNet forums into their list of search results. By posting back, you may have solved someone else's head aches as well.

cheers

grim

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Thanks, I've got more
Aug 8, 2007 12:12PM PDT

Thanks. I'm just trying to help myself and others who need it. I also want others to suggest things to me if I have trouble myself. Now:

I've been trying to clean out some plugins in my system library by replacing them with more current versions so that I know what they are.
(Note: I haven't tried to mess with the QT plugins yet, if I could figure out where to get them. I think reinstalling QT does reinstall the plugins. If somebody knows that if that's right, tell me and I'll try it and let you know what happens.)

Anyway, I found a Shockwave plugin that I don't think I downloaded. I do recall downloading a file from Adobe that told me to run Safari in emulation mode, but that may have been the flash player. As I write this, Flash has reinstalled itself as the Intel version (if it wasn't already), and I'm re-downloading Java stuff.

WARNING: Don't do this if you don't know what I'm talking about. I don't want people messing up their Macs' browsers and QT files because of my posts. I'm only downloading stuff to replace unknown or misnamed files in my system library for me. This way, I can give a more accurate answer to my blog by using the most current plugins and apps.

Now I said that the Apple online videos and trailers loaded for me AFTER I returned Safari to native mode. This is still working for me and will work for others, I'm sure.

BUT, I had Rosetta on for the whole time. An Apple forum said that running Rosetta would help if you were experiencing problems. I have a theory why my MBP was screwing up, but I'm unsure if it works for other people.

This is what happened. I downloaded an Adobe file (Flash or Shockwave) that required me to run Safari in emulation mode. I switched to Rosetta, downloaded the player, and still the Mac was running well. I left Rosetta on, should I need it on to use the player. It wasn't until the QT 7.2 update that I began experiencing this issue.

I think that either (1 and very likely) the QT update didn't cooperate with emulation mode, (2 and unlikely) the Apple site wasn't optimized for an Intel Mac in emulation with the faulty update, or (3 and more likely than 2) the Shockwave plugin that I found in my library wasn't working with QT because Shockwave is still for PowerPC Macs meaning that Rosetta has to be enabled to use it. Supposing 1 and/or 3 are correct, turning emulation OFF allows the QT plugin to function better. 2 is probably wrong, but I through that possibility out because my PCs used to have serious problems downloading iTunes updates and QT updates from the Apple site.

So either some people are running Rosetta unknowingly, making their Rosetta plugins clash with the native plugins or their native plugins are clashing with other native plugins.

Either way, the QT update is glitched, but QT still should be able to run in both modes. Perhaps this glitch is the cause of that.

My next move in this Mac chess game is to remove the Shockwave file that I found, turn on Rosetta, and see if my problem returns. If it does, I'll may just reinstall it, then I'll re-download QT and replace my remaining plugins.

Remember, I appreciate any advice. If this works for others, post here. If it doesn't work, then maybe the problem fluctuates in different areas. I'd like to receive feedback on this post.

I'll post back again once I finish my inspections and installations.

Thanks to grim and whoever may post here.

-BeatleMegaFan

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Removed some Shockwave plugin, but to no avail.
Aug 8, 2007 12:49PM PDT

I removed whatever plugin that said Shockwave in its name, turned Rosetta back on, and went to Apple's page.

This time, when I tried to play the new iMac video, it went to the page, but then it came up with the "watch it again" sign. When I hit it, all I got was a white screen. No audio on this. Other videos went white, but had audio.

Rosetta DOESN'T like the QT update! I just turned it back off and I got images and sound again! Now my problem is to fix it so that I can run Rosetta when needed without a problem. I'll try to put Shockwave back on, which requires Rosetta if you have an Intel Mac, and try again.

That might not change it, so I may try to reinstall QT.

FYI: I'm using Safari. I read on Apple Support blogs that other browsers were working fine on Apple. I'm trying to fix the Safari issue, so I just thought readers may like to know this. If you don't use or like Safari, then maybe you don't need to know this.

Always trying to help,
-BeatleMegaFan

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Nope problem persists
Aug 8, 2007 1:38PM PDT

Tried replacing QT.

Rosetta still won't work right. I looked again at my plugins, and it seems that some plugins still won't change or something. Oh well.

Hopefully, Apple will make a patch for this before Leopard comes out. If not, we'll have to wait for them to fix the Rosetta problem.

... Now I'm wondering if the new iLife '08 may help because one of the plugins was for iPhoto. I doubt it. I want to get a hold of the new software that's ben released, but I don't know if I should wait to get it with Leopard or not. Might as well considering the major upgrades.

If anyone has a solution to the Rosetta problem, post here please. I don't even know why I want to fix it. I guess I just hate leaving loose ends.

I've done all I think I can.
Thanks and to readers, your welcome.
-BeatleMegaFan