QT7 Hiccups & No Workee

Question

I'm experiencing a lot of difficulty with QT7 lately.
(1) Can't get mpg4 files to open or play in Safari. A big Q comes up, that's followed by the never ending spinning rainbow disc.
(2) Downloaded mpg4 files do NOT open/play in QT. I get a player window with a white screen. When I scroll the play head I can see pix, but when I press play I get the never ending spinning rainbow disc.
(3) Interestingly, the same mpg 4 files DO open and play in Firefox. I'm also able to save to disk as self contained .mov files. BUT QT WON'T PLAY these converted files.
What gives? I've noticed a lot of similar issues on the discussion pages. Anyone know if Apple's got a fix in the mill? Thanks.

Answer 1

Not all .mp4 files are created equal.
Some use M$ codecs and can only be played using WMP.
Some use other proprietary codecs (PSP) and won't
open in QT Player.
Since yours open via a plug-in (we hope QT) when
viewed in Firefox it doesn't make much sense that the
QT Player can't view the file.
Have you tried the files while logged in as a
different user?
The files open in a QT player-type format in Firefox, so would guess it's using the QT plugin. Have not tried logging in as a different user. I have only one user account on all of my machines (this problem occurs on 1.2 GHz G4 iBook, and dual 1 GHZ G4 tower). Another puzzling part is that the downloaded mpeg4 files actually open in QT7, but won't play. Upon opening I get a white screen. When I scroll the playhead manually I can see pix in the player window. But when I click the play arrow I get the spinning rainbow disk instantly -- and it never goes away until I force quit.
There are occassions in Safari when I'm actually able to play small mpeg4 files (less than 100 MB). But they seem to have the hiccups -- lots of unintelligible audio and herky jerky motion.