QuickTime Pro v.7.6.4 Won't play full movie

[josh098]

Hi. For some reason, and only lately, QuickTime has started playing only 3 or 4 seconds of some avi movies. The timer bar goes all the way to the end, but only lasts a few seconds. The files play fine in VLC or on my WDTV, but not in Q.T. It seems very selective, sometimes it does it, then it will play just fine the next day. I have Perian installed. I have Tiger (10.4.11)
If anyone could help it would be greatly appreciated. I like Q.T. better than VLC, and would like to keep using it.
(Warranty just ran out on iMac, so I have to start solving these problems myself. Can't convince my wife that we need a new one

 

[jackerin]

(Warranty just ran out on iMac, so I have to start solving these problems myself. Can't convince my wife that we need a new one

You'd rather buy a new computer than try to solve what sounds like a software problem..?

 

[josh098]

If I didn't want to solve the problem, I wouldn't have asked for help. I'd rather buy a new computer than have an old computer, but that's not really the issue. Thanks for your clever reply, but I'm looking for help.
Once again, Thanks in advance to someone who can help.

 

[jackerin]

To me it sounds like broken AVI files. VLC is more resistant to errors, but Quicktime can choke on them. (As with the type of MPEG files that have been manually merged without fixing timecode breaks.) Though that theory goes out the door if Quicktime can actually play a file one day that it couldn't the previous day.

What I would do first is to go through the files that are giving me problems, open the same file 10 times in a row or something, see if Quicktime really does arbitrarily play it completely or not. If it's a corrupted AVI I would fix it by encoding to a new file with audio & video passthrough. If it's a Quicktime problem, I would uninstall/reinstall components until I get it right.

 

[josh098]

Right On

Ok thanks. That is sound advice. Like I said, copied versions of the same files play well elsewhere, so I am more inclined to suspect Q.T. as the culprit. I updated it before posting, but still didn't work. I wonder if its possible for the avi to become corrupted? as opposed to being corrupted from the beginning.
I will try out what you said exactly though, to cover all bases. Thank you very much.
(the reason I mentioned the warranty and so on, is because I normally would take it in around this time every year for a cleaning and tune up, which usually fixes up any little problems that may arise through the year that I can't figure out. {I'll always want a new computer} Thanks again!