ITunes 10.0.0.68 Crash when watching purchased iStore content (TV) Vista 64

Question

I recently upgraded to iTunes 10. I'm running on a Vista 64 bit machine. I have a number of dvd/blue ray ecopies in my library, along with content from CDs I've purchased, and an iPhone 3GS. This weekend I purchased my first TV season from the iStore (this was after iTunes upgrade to 10.x was applied). I purchased the HD version of the TV shows. So, yes, 2 versions were downloaded. As I understand it, the HD version plays on my computer and the lower res version is used for the iPhone (or other portable devices).
While watching the TV content after it downloaded, I experienced a series of iTunes crashes. When this occurred, the OS reported a DEP error. Of course, you can't set the DEP to not run with iTunes.exe - the system reports that DEP must run with iTunes. It's not clear to me if this is by design on Apple's side or not. So, disabling DEP when running iTunes is not an option for a Vista user.
I've spent the last several hours reading a number of forum posts, including several from this site. I did uninstall everything, per an article on the Apple support site and referenced a couple of times by B Noir as well. It seemed reasonable and when I looked at the Programs installed, I noticed that the installation date for the Bonjour service and Apple Software Update was different than the iTunes. This may not have mattered, but I've seen stranger stuff. I tried a repair of QuickTime before taking this great leap, but this had no effect. I did follow the complete steps as listed, including checking for stray residue after the uninstall ran. I did run a registry sweep after the uninstall and rebooted the system.
iTunes continues to crash when viewing purchased TV show content after all of these steps. As I have nothing to compare it with as far as the performance of previous versions of iTunes with purchased TV show content, I can't say with authority it is strictly an iTunes 10.x event. However, having watched more than 30 minutes of 3 different movies I have in my library (from the ecopy of dvd/blue ray), and playing several cd tracks, I believe I can state that this iTune crash only occurs with purchased content - TV shows in my case.
My iPhone 3GS syncs fine. In fact, I was able to place one of the TV shows on the phone and it plays just fine on the phone. Of course, that is the low-res version.
From the Windows Logs/Application: Application Error, Event ID 1000, Task Category (100) - Faulting application iTunes.exe, version 10.0.0.68, time stamp 0x4c7e6c10, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x00000000, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x00410d60, process id 0x1288, application start time 0x01cb4d7440896ecc.
EventData
iTunes.exe
10.0.0.68
4c7e6c10
unknown
0.0.0.0
00000000
c0000005
00410d60
1288
01cb4d7440896ecc
Note: The first 7 lines of this report are the same for every iTunes crash in the Application logs (and everytime it crashes, the OS pops up with a DEP error info box).
From the Windows Error Reporting:
Fault bucket 1355917958, type 5
Event Name: BEX
Response: None
Cab Id: 0
Problem signature:
P1: iTunes.exe
P2: 10.0.0.68
P3: 4c7e6c10
P4: StackHash_fd00
P5: 0.0.0.0
P6: 00000000
P7: 00410d60
P8: c0000005
P9: 00000008
P10:
EventData
1355917958
5
BEX
None
0
iTunes.exe
10.0.0.68
4c7e6c10
StackHash_fd00
0.0.0.0
00000000
00410d60
c0000005
00000008
Note: The first 11 lines of this report are the same for every iTunes crash in the Application logs.
There are a series of Bonjour Service errors in the Application log as well. All of these occur after the iTunes Application Error and Windows Error Reporting are logged. At this point, I assume they are related to the iTunes crash -
EventData
440: ERROR: read_msg errno 10054 (An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.)
It seems like this problem is occurring for many Vista and Windows 7 64 bit users (with regard to iTunes crashing when trying to play purchased content) and I'm hoping that power users in this forum can take this more detailed report of the problem and figure it out - or convince the Apple team to address it. I'd be glad to try any suggestions or provide logs if desired (let me know where to look for the logs if applicable).

Answer 1

Odd ... that BEX error citing the QuickTimePlayer.dll (like the DEP errors and the unknown module for the iTunes errors) also suggests old, misplaced QuickTime componentry. But the lack of any QuickTime Player launch errors, or at least relentless "software out of date" messages, speaks against that possibility.
... I think we'd better check for old, misplaced QuickTime componentry anyway, just in case. (The symptom-set for that sort of trouble is in a constant state of flux anyway, so the lack of launch errors probably can't be taken as conclusively speaking against it.)
First we'll need to adjust some view settings on the PC.
1. From the Start menu, click Open.
2. In the Organize menu, click Folder and Search Options.
3. Click the View tab.
4. In the "Advanced settings" pane under "Hidden files and folders" make sure that the "Show hidden files and folders" option is selected, and the "Hide extensions for known file types" option is unchecked.
5. Click OK.
Now we'll go looking for old QuickTime stuff in the most likely locations for it to show up.
In Computer, open your C drive (or whichever drive your operating system is installed on).
Open the "Windows" folder.
*If you have a 32-bit version of Windows,* open the "System32" folder.
*If you have a 64-bit version of Windows,* open the "SysWOW64" folder.
What files or folders with QuickTime in the file or folder name can you see in there? (In a standard installation of QuickTime, you should see precisely two files ... QuickTime.qts and QuickTimeVR.qtx ... and no QuickTime folders whatsoever.