Myriad Quicktime Issues - QT 7.5 and Mac OS 10.3.9 - RTSP, VLC, etc...

Question

Alright, first I should describe the set-up. I have a Clamshell G3 300 running 10.3.9 on 320MB ram, accessing the INet via Airport. Overall, it runs surprisingly well. However, I've had a devil of a time getting video to load or display on QT 7.5. As I'm sure you are all well aware, an old G3 with a 4mb VRAM card simply isn't going to be competent with Flash. However (and I've used this trick on P3 Windows machines), m.youtube.com uses 240p and 360p 3gp files, which the ibook can handle without problem... when it actually gets them via RTSP. That has been very rare. I've gotten the below difficulties at home (WEP) and at school (unsecured).
The main problem I am having is: when I load a video (and I've tried many dozens of them in both normal and high-definition format) from m.youtube.com and my browser (I've tried this with Opera 10.10, Opera 9.64, Camino 1.6.11 and G3 Optimized Camino 1.6.11, Safari 1.3.2, and Firefox 2.0.20) attempts to open the stream, I get one of several errors. No one error seems to happen any more often than the others, and once in a blue moon, I do actually get the video (or the audio from the video), but that can't be more than 1 in 20, and is usually ONLY the first video loaded in a session. Sometimes, however, the first video does not even load after a reboot.
1. Quicktime says "configuring..." and then says "Bad Request"
2. Quicktime says "connecting..." and then says "Disconnected"
3. Quicktime says "reading media (countdown in s)" and then nothing happens.
4. Quicktime says "reading media (countdown in s)" and then it begins buffering and nothing happens.
5. Quicktime says "reading media (countdown in s)" and then begins buffering and then an approproate timebar starts indicating playback but with no video or sound.
6. Same as #5, except only sound plays.
7. Reloading a video will often times result in the time clicking away with no sound or video.
8. Quicktime says "Buffering (countdown in s)" and then begins playing only audio.
9. Quicktime says "Buffering (countdown in s" and then plays blank media, like in #5-7.
I'm totally perplexed by this behavior. I tried 7.4.1 before this, and 6.5.2 before that, and had some problems, though I didn't stick with either long enough to really test out their relative merits, because I'd prefer to have the most updated and stable version my OS can handle. I even deleted every conceivable QT related file and reinstalled once without any change in the situation.
I'm also having a (potentially) unrelated problem. When I try to play files with VLC 0.8.6(any of the iterations, up through , have been tried), I run into an error message: QT does not support any appropriate chroma. While this issue does not pop up in VLC 0.8.4 (which supports fewer formats), part of me suspects some problem with my QT installation is to blame for this problem. And, yes, I've noticed that my particular error message with VLC is NOT unheard of, but most there blame problematic QT installs or something with QT. Given my extreme rtsp problems, I'm inclined to agree.
Any help would be much appreciated, and sorry for the length - just wanted to be detailed. QTKirk, come and save me!

Answer 1

Thanks for that. That site must have changed how they code and deliver video over the last year, because I was able to stream it on old comps before using VLC and/or QT. However, I installed RealPlayer 10 yesterday (despite the awful memories of RP that most computer users rightfully have) and the site now works flawlessly with pretty decent quality and playback. So, all is well again. And, using an old version of mplayer (the port no longer being developed, from 2004 or 2005) instead of VLC, I'm now able to play 640p horizontal xvids smoothly!
To your last point, I definitely disagree. I have had brand new laptops over the last 5 years, and I'm disavowing them. I'm very utilitarian, and I feel it is wasteful to purchase new laptops when most of the development is in artificially wringing out 20-40% profit margins by dint of planned obsolescence (like Tiger "requiring" firewire for installation, or Snow Leopard making G5s obsolete only 2 years after they were being sold new). I feel like I'm wasting the labor and human cost involved in researching, designing, manufacturing, and promoting top-of-the-line computers. Considering what most users need, computers today are grossly overpowered, and it would have been far more environmentally and socially responsible to develop simpler and more efficient applications for slower hardware than to push consumers into a frenzy that in no way benefits them. Using a G3 optimized port of Camino (and Opera for other tasks), Appleworks 6.2.9, etc..., this 6/7th generation processor is easily capable of handling what 80-90% of users would ever need. The only things that injure it's usefulness are arbitrary and artificial - like docX format and the huge amount of AJAX clutter slowing web access for all parties. Their benefit is anywhere from negligble to non-existent, but their cost is high to consumers.
Put another way: I'm recycling in a very responsible way by keeping this computer alive, and I don't feel like I'm making any real sacrifice by doing so. Win-win!