Critical problems with QuickTime 7.7 and QuickTime 7.6.6 build 1787

There are widespread reports of problems with the latest version of QuickTime (QuickTime 7.7 on Leopard and QuickTime 7.6.6 build 1787 on Snow Leopard and Lion). This update is installed as part of Security Update 2011-006 for Snow Leopard and OS X 10.7.2 for Lion.

(The security update is the most likely culprit but it may alternatively have been caused by the iTunes 10.5 update that was released at the same time.)

The problems include:

Unable to play certain movies

Several people have been getting the message "An invalid public movie atom was found in the movie" when playing back in QuickTime Player. Final Cut Pro will either crash or display a white screen.

This seems to especially affect HDV files created by Focus Enhancements storage products. Focus has acknowledged the issue here (PDF).

The recommended solution is to downgrade QuickTime or restore an earlier version of your system from a backup or clone.

Update 2011-11-09:
Matt Geller of Meta Media Creative came up with another way of solving the problem. Replace the following files with the versions from a computer without Security Update 2011-006 installed (or alternatively extract them using Pacifist):

/System/Library/QuickTime/ApplePixletVideo.component
/System/Library/QuickTime/AppleVAH264HW.component
/System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTime3GPP.component
/System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeComponents.component
/System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeFireWireDV.component
/System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeH264.component
/System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeIIDCDigitizer.component
/System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeImporters.component
/System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeMPEG.component
/System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeMPEG4.component
/System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeStreaming.component
/System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeVR.component

Reboot your computer and the problem should be solved. Remember to make a backup of the files you replace, just in case.

Related forum threads:
Apple Discussions: Invalid public movie atom was found in movie
Apple Discussions: Help!!! Upgrading to iTunes 10.5 has destroyed all video in Final Cut Pro
Apple Discussions: Problems after QuickTime 7.7 update
DV Info: Public atom?
LAFCPUG: Invalid public movie atom was found in movie

QuickTime-based applications crashing at startup

Some people have had problems with Compressor, Cinema Tools, Final Cut Pro and QuickTime Player crashing at startup.

The crash log says:

Dyld Error Message:
Symbol not found: _ValidateAudioChannelLayout
Referenced from: /Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeComponents.component/Contents/MacOS/QuickTimeComponents
Expected in: /System/Library/Frameworks/QuickTime.framework/Versions/A/QuickTime

To fix this, copy /System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeComponents.component to ~/Library/QuickTime, overwriting the existing file in that location. Backup the file before you do this.

If you are using Lion, your user Library directory will be hidden by default. Use System Toolkit to make it visible.

Related forum threads:
Apple Discussions: Compressor 4 crashes at startup
Apple Discussions: QuickTime crash on Lion
Apple Discussions: Quicktime 7.6.6 (Pro) quits on launch when in Lion

Because of these issues, I would recommend steering clear of the latest security and iTunes updates on your editing machine, especially if you're using Focus Enhancements products. Anyone with this issue should notify Apple so they understand how widespread the problem is.

Posted by Jon Chappell on Monday November 7 2011 3:51 PM to Apple, Software, QuickTime
1 comment Posted Permalink

5 great Lion features for editors

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion was released earlier today. I've heard a couple of people say they're not enthusiastic about it and, with features like Autosave and Launchpad, it's mainly geared at consumers. I completely disagree and here's my list of five features that are great for editors and video professionals (in no particular order).

AirDrop

Even in the 21st century, many people I know still use good old Sneakernet to distribute files between computers. People still use such a low-tech method of transferring files because the machines don't need to be networked to each other, there's no setup process and you're not opening yourself up to potential security issues (assuming the files and the drive are virus-free, of course).

AirDrop allows you to send files to people physically located nearby who are not necessarily on the same Wi-Fi network. When you want to send a file to someone, both of you click the AirDrop icon in the Finder sidebar and you then drag the file onto the person's name. If they accept the file, it is encrypted and sent directly to their Downloads folder.

You only appear to other users on the network if you have the AirDrop folder open. This provides greater privacy and security than having regular file sharing running constantly.

Lion Server and Xsan

Every Mac now has the potential to be a server for just $50, giving you a great deal of control over your system and the users that access it.

Lion now includes Xsan, a network file system popular with video editors. This used to cost $999 so it's a huge saving for large installations.

AV Foundation

Love it or loathe it, you can't deny that Final Cut Pro X is built on a great technical foundation. AV Foundation ships with Lion and allows developers to utilize the same technology in their applications. It's something we plan to explore to improve future versions of Pro Media Tools.

It's also worth noting that the QuickTime 7 API is still there so existing QuickTime applications will continue to work. Final Cut Pro 7 runs just fine in Lion.

Merging folders

This feature has been part of Windows for decades and I'm surprised it's taken this long to make it to the Mac. If you drag a folder onto another folder with the same name, it now gives you the option to merge the two together. This is a huge timesaver.

Versions

We're big fans of incremental backups, which is why we created FCP Versioner. It's great to see something similar included in the OS for applications that support it.

Other nice features include the ability to encrypt an entire drive without a perceptible performance drop (according to Apple's marketing), OpenGL 3.2, Resume and Time Machine local snapshots, for recovering files when you're on the road without your Time Capsule or backup drive.

Lion seems faster too - I've seen noticeable performance improvements in all of our applications when run under Lion.

Of course, there are downsides too. Firstly, it's only available from the Mac App Store. If you are running OS X 10.5 Leopard, you will need to first upgrade to 10.6 Snow Leopard in order to access the store and download Lion. Apple will be selling Lion USB keys for $69 in August for users on Leopard or without broadband internet access.

Secondly, Rosetta is dead. This means that applications built for PowerPC computers will not work on Lion, including the Final Cut Studio 2 installer.

Thirdly, for some reason Apple decided to invert scrolling in Lion, meaning that dragging two fingers down scrolls up and vice versa. This would work well on a touchscreen but feels unnatural with a scroll mouse or trackpad. Fortunately it can be disabled in System Preferences but I don't know why Apple decided to make this the default.

Fourthly, features that some professionals have been demanding for a while, such as OpenGL 4.1, 10-bit monitor support and Blu-ray playback via third party drives still haven't materialized.

Overall, I think Lion is a step forward for professionals that provides much-needed additions to OS X. Driver and application support will likely take a while to catch up, despite the beta period, so as a rule I wouldn't recommend using it for professional use until the .3 or .4 update ships, even though I've actually found it to be quite stable in my testing.

Posted by Jon Chappell on Wednesday July 20 2011 7:13 AM to Apple, Software, Analysis
0 comments Posted Permalink

iMovie DV files contain no audio when imported into FCPX

A common problem on the Apple forums from Final Cut Pro X users has been the inability to hear audio from DV files imported from iMovie.

iMovie creates raw DV files (.dv) which contain video and audio data but no metadata or other information. It's essentially a DV QuickTime without the surrounding QuickTime structure.

This means that Final Cut Pro X can't find the audio because it's mixed in with the video data and there's no index or track structure to point it in the right direction.

To get around this, you must convert .dv files to QuickTime movies. Here's how to do it:

1. Open up the .dv file in QuickTime Player 7, which should be in your Applications/Utilities folder. If you don't have it on your system, you will need to install it from the Snow Leopard DVD.

2. Go to File > Save As and make sure the option to make a self-contained movie is checked.

3. Click Save. It shouldn't take very long because it is restructuring the data rather than recompressing it.

Posted by Jon Chappell on Saturday June 25 2011 2:07 PM to Apple, Software, Final Cut Studio
0 comments Posted Permalink

NVIDIA Quadro 4000 machines won't boot up after 10.6.7

NVIDIA is reporting that Mac OS X 10.6.7, released a few days ago, removes drivers for high-end NVIDIA Quadro 4000 cards, so machines with these cards will refuse to boot up after installing OS X 10.6.7.

There is an updated driver for OS X 10.6.7 here. The support post is a little vague and doesn't state if the new driver can be installed before updating to 10.6.7 to prevent the issue from occurring, or if it must be installed afterward. If the latter, the article states that you should install a different graphics card in order to boot up to install the new driver, but I'd only advise that if Safe Mode and Target Disk Mode fail.

Update: TUAW is reporting that the NVIDIA support article is inaccurate and that Quadro 4000 machines will boot up just fine but without 3D acceleration and other features. Just install the new driver and these features will be restored.

Posted by Jon Chappell on Wednesday March 23 2011 10:58 AM to Hardware, Software
0 comments Posted Permalink

Restoring the default Compressor settings

Does your Compressor settings window have missing items or is completely blank? Here's how to restore the default Apple-supplied settings.

1. Close Compressor if it is open.
2. Navigate to your Applications folder.
3. Ctrl-click on the Compressor application and select Show Package Contents.
4. Navigate to Contents/Resources/English.lproj (or whatever your language is).
5. Cmd-click the following folders to select them: Apple Devices, DVD, Formats, Other Workflows.
6. With all of them selected, ctrl-click on one of them and select Make Alias. Four aliases will be created with filenames like "Apple Devices alias" and "DVD alias".
7. Move the four aliases to ~/Library/Application Support/Compressor.
8. Launch Compressor.

Posted by Jon Chappell on Wednesday January 26 2011 2:01 PM to Apple, Software, Final Cut Studio
0 comments Posted Permalink

Bootcamp volumes can cause Final Cut Pro hangs

You can add one more item to the ever-expanding list of things that break Final Cut Studio: Bootcamp. Yes, if you have a Bootcamp partition, Final Cut Pro can in some instances hang at startup and refuse to launch.

Luckily the fix is very simple. It seems to be caused by Spotlight indexing and users have confirmed that adding their Bootcamp volume to Spotlight's Privacy list in System Preferences solves the issue for them. Apparently you need several restarts to get the setting to stick but once it does, Final Cut Pro should be able to launch again.

If you did experience this issue, please let Apple know.

Posted by Jon Chappell on Wednesday January 26 2011 1:59 AM to Apple, Software, Final Cut Studio
0 comments Posted Permalink

Mac OS X 10.6.6 breaking Final Cut Studio

Last month I reported that ProKit 6.0.1 was breaking Final Cut Studio (primarily DVD Studio Pro) for some users. Well, it would appear that OS X 10.6.6 automatically installs ProKit 6.0.2* which is causing the issues all over again.

Here are some forum threads on the topic:
LAFCPUG: WARNING: Mac OS 10.6.6 UPDATE (ProKit 6.0.2)
LAFCPUG: I think I installed ProKit 601 by mistake - crashing
Apple Discussions: Prokit 5 v 6 Cant use DVDSP and iLife at the same time

Not everyone will suffer problems with ProKit 6.x but if you're one of the unlucky few, follow these steps to downgrade to ProKit 5.1. Note that this will probably break iLife '11.

It is clear that Apple's engineering team is having difficulty working out what the problem is, so if you are experiencing this issue you should file a bug report (requires free developer registration) and give them as much information as possible.

* For some reason I still have ProKit 5.1 after installing OS X 10.6.6. I don't know why this is but I'm not complaining.

Posted by Jon Chappell on Sunday January 16 2011 12:03 PM to Apple, Software, Final Cut Studio
0 comments Posted Permalink

QuickTime 7 and X Frequently Asked Questions

Posted by Jon Chappell on Sunday October 31 2010 10:06 AM to Apple, Software, QuickTime
3 comments Posted Permalink

Restoring an older version of ProKit

ProKit 6.0.1 has been breaking Final Cut Studio for some people and so far there has been no fix from Apple.

Here is how to restore an older version:

1. You will need to obtain a copy of the old ProKit.framework file either from a friend, another computer on the network or a Time Machine backup.

Update: I have discovered that the version of ProKit 5.1 on Apple's site that is supposedly Leopard-only is also Snow Leopard-compatible. You may need to install ProKit 5.0 first. Before installing, open up the Terminal in /Applications/Utilities and type sudo pkgutil --forget com.apple.pkg.ProAppRuntime, then enter your admin password.

2. In the Finder, navigate to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks and copy the ProKit.framework file to your desktop.

3. Ctrl-click on the file on the desktop and select Compress "ProKit.Framework".

4. Delete the original file from your desktop and empty the trash. Leave the compressed file there for now.

5. Copy the older ProKit.framework file to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks, overwriting the newer one. You will most likely need to enter an administrator password to do this.

6. Final Cut Studio applications should now work and it should be safe to delete the compressed file. If they do not, try restarting your computer.

7. If something goes wrong, decompress the compressed file and copy it back to the PrivateFrameworks directory.

(The reason for compressing the file is to ensure that OS X doesn't continue to recognize it as a framework and potentially try to link to it.)

If the installer refuses to install, try using Pacifist to extract the files or try this manual method (be careful).

Posted by Jon Chappell on Tuesday October 26 2010 3:15 PM to Apple, Software, Final Cut Studio
37 comments Posted Permalink

ProKit 6.0.1 breaking Final Cut Studio

Posted by Jon Chappell on Monday October 25 2010 7:03 PM to Apple, Software, Final Cut Studio
1 comment Posted Permalink