ITunes Locks up when I try to play a video

Question

I have purchased a few TV shows from the iTMS. Historically they have worked fine. I rented a movie a couple of days ago. I went to watch it and iTunes locked up after playing about 2 seconds of audio.
I have done the following trying to fix the problem but so far nothing has worked:
1) I upgraded iTunes/Quicktime... as indeed there was an update available - Tried to play video again... it locked up... and had to terminate program.
2) I deauthorized all computers... and the problem computer... and then reauthorized the problem computer - Tried to play video again... and it locked up the computer
3) Playing all video content I've purchased/rented locks up iTunes.
So, I'd like to get this fixed. I have "23 hours" left to watch the movie I rented... but I can't watch it.

Answer 1

Did you get a suitable answer? I am having the exact same problem. I have been using iTunes for years and suddenly I began having this problem. I noticed it first with videos but it also happens with music. A movie will play for about 4-5 sec and then lock up. The spinning time thing comes on. If I wait long enough, it will finally go away and the movie will play, although often with jerks. I removed and reinstalled iTunes. That did not help. Then I removed everything from iTunes and built a new library. That did not help either. I can play any of these same files from Quicktime without a hitch. In fact, that is what I do now to play a movie. I use iTunes to find a movie, then use the Command-R to show it in the finder, then load it in Quicktime. So it is not the files or the hard drive. It is iTunes.