Comments on: When iTunes iAttacks

By: Tonio

Tonio — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:04:41 +0000

It seems a bit harsh to give up on iTunes over this since I regularly get unplayable DVDs from NetFlix, and I remember often getting unwatchable VHS tapes back when I rented them too.

Pan and scan seems like a bigger gripe.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:05:35 +0000

Fixed with the install of Quicktime 7.4.1 tonight. I can now play protected video content again.

By: Mohicans

Mohicans — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 02:04:00 +0000

The same problem here, i’m using win xp and upgraded itunes to 7.6. And tried to rent some movies. Well since i’m new at this whole rent movies thing, i guess i tried one movie. And while trying to play completed rented movie, guess what? itunes freeze with black blank screen. That’s it. I had to perform end task to be able to close itunes. A lot of ppl having the same problem both on PC and Mac. Why there is no respond at all from apple. Now i still have like 2 hours before my rented movie gone bye bye and i don’t even see the opening credit yet. This is really sucks.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 22:41:21 +0000

During all of the hanging and crashing while trying downloading “300″ and trying to play it, it seems to have deleted itself from my computer. Admittedly, my library is on NAS, but gigabit & raid-ed usually makes for a pretty snappy drive, but iTunes 7.6 is in such a death spiral of hanging and freezing that something went wrong while I was downloading & trying to start watching and now I’m left with nothing 300-like on my computer or NAS.

I contacted iTunes support and after trying a few of their stock answers and coming up empty they refunded my money for “300″ and threw in some free song credits.

iTunes is practically unusable for me until they fix whatever causes the freezing and the playback problems. I might export the library if it will stay up long enough and try to revert to 7.5 if I get time.

By: SkipperJones

SkipperJones — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 18:27:44 +0000

What do I have to get my money back? I will never, ever, never, ever rent another video from Apple. No sound for any of my movies or videos! Nice try but I am not buying a Mac, Steve! Hell, I might even go out today and buy a Zune! Arse!

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 07:58:24 +0000

A quick scan of the Apple support forums reveals that the Windows iTunes 7.6 upgrade isn't making Apple many friends.

By: Alastair

Alastair — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:04:07 +0000

By the way, my own iTunes upgrade experience was a typographical adventure!

By: Alastair

Alastair — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:59:37 +0000

Very odd. I think it's time to call Apple though. "Can't play purchased files after an upgrade" seems like a reasonable support request. I haven't done it myself lately but I know someone who has and that seemed to have a happy ending.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:11:04 +0000

No dice. Reinstalling with F-Secure off didn’t help.

Further investigation reveals that it’s just a problem with audio silence on protected mpeg-4 files. Unprotected ones, even unprotected mpeg-4 videos purchased from the ITMS, play with audio.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:19:44 +0000

Good plan. I’ll check my F-secure AV-über-zealot logs on both PCs when I get home. I didn’t check on the Mac, but I’m currently assuming it’s Windows- and Chris-specific or there would be more substantially more angst out there in Apple forumsville.

By: Alastair

Alastair — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:05:50 +0000

Just out of interest, do the movies play with QuickTime player?

I’ve noticed that QuickTime is particularly sensitive to brain-dead^W overzealous anti-virus software, particularly at installation/upgrade time.

Also: the format is listed on the iTunes Store page for each movie. “Format: Fullframe” is the marketing term for pan & scan (if you’re lucky), or cropping (if you’re not).

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:48:14 +0000

It’s not just “300,” it’s all of my iTunes video content on both my Vista and XP machine since I upgraded to iTunes 7.6.

I’m more interested in a fix or a diagnosis than a refund… so far.

I haven’t got to the point of determining that the movies are pan and scan yet. I YEARN for that luxury :)