Quicktime 7.6.4 Error - Audio, but no video

[sportscoat]

Hi,

My name's Alex. I'm having trouble getting QuickTime 7.6.4 to play nicely with Shadowbox-JS. The gist is that since updating to QT 7.6.4 we can hear the audio, but can't see the video.

I've searched for any other leads, but I can't find much since this update of QuickTime is still fairly new. I'll try and present the problem as clearly as possible, but thanks in advance for your patience.

Here's an example of the behavior we're seeing (click the image to launch the video):
http://www.msjphotography.com/index.php/2009/09/photoshop-workbench-196-non-destructive-shape-layer-masking/

Everything was working fine for us up until around this weekend, when we started getting emails from readers who were hearing the audio, but unable to see the video. If you open the video in a new tab/window it plays fine. It's only when it's inside of the shadowbox that we're getting this problem.



I didn't notice the problem sooner because it works in some browsers/operating systems but not others. I tested using different browsers and got the following results (not working = audio, but no visual):

Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Safari 4 - Working
Firefox 3.5 - Working *
Opera 10 - Not working

* It didn't work the first time I tried it, but it did the second time. I then used the Web Developer Toolbar to disable the cache. With the cache disabled it doesn't work, with the cache enabled it does work.

Windows XP
Safari 4 - Working pre-update to 7.6.4, not-working post-update
Firefox 3.5 - Working pre-update to 7.6.4, not-working post-update
Opera 10 - Working pre-update to 7.6.4, not-working post-update
Google Chrome 3 - Working pre-update to 7.6.4, not-working post-update
IE 8, IE7, IE 6 - Working pre-update to 7.6.4, not-working post-update



We're using the Shadowbox JS plugin for WordPress by Matt Martz (http://sivel.net/wordpress/shadowbox-js/). I thought the plugin might be causing problems so I implemented Shadowbox JS directly on a test site: http://www.msjphotography.com/dev , but we're getting the same behavior.

I've searched for similar problems, and the only leads come from the Apple support forums regarding a problem that started with an update to Quicktime 7.6.4. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2171395&tstart=0

I know there are a ton of variables in play here, but if anyone has any suggestions or leads I'd greatly appreciate the help. Please let me if you have any questions or if there is any other information I can provide that would be helpful.

All the best,
Alex

[Wizzud]

It seems a lot of people have the same problem, and it's nothing to do with Shadowbox in particular, but more specifically with QT v7.6.4 playing web-page embedded QT movies.

The only thing I could find - apart from a load of people complaining about it! - was that someone reckoned removing the scale param had 'fixed' it.

Since I don't have v7.6.4 I can't test at all (and I now have no intention of upgrading from 7.6.2!) but it might be worth a try? I don't know what the scale param should do - the example given in the post I read had scale set to 'tofit', whereas Shadowbox sets it to 'aspect' - so the effect of removing it might not be desirable.

Anyway, if you want to try, edit the shadowbox-qt.js file in the players/ folder and comment out line 82...

//                scale:      'aspect',

Beyond this suggestion I have no idea ... like Apple it appears!

[sportscoat]

Thanks for the lead. We were defining the aspect ratio directly in each link as a fixed height and width in pixels, and not using the scale param, but I tried commenting it out just to see if it had any effect. It didn't change anything.

I used your phrase "QT v7.6.4 playing web-page embedded" (and some variants) and found more links to other people having trouble viewing embedded QT videos. Hopefully these will generate more possibilities. I also posted on the WordPress forums, just in case anyone in that community has any ideas.

Thanks for your help Wizzud. I'll repost if I find any solutions.

[sportscoat]

We weren't able to find a solution, so we've switched to Flash for the time being. It's a short-term fix, but until more info is available about Quicktime support I don't know what else to try.

[James]

I commented out the scale parameter as described above and video started showing for me. Just in case anyone is wondering. Thanks for the solution.

[pherank]

I would think Shadowbox would have to be involved if you consider that QuickTime movies all seem to play if you just open them in a new browser window. It's only when trying to display them within Shadowbox that the movie either doesn't play at all, or only audio is heard.

Wizzud wrote:

It seems a lot of people have the same problem, and it's nothing to do with Shadowbox in particular, but more specifically with QT v7.6.4 playing web-page embedded QT movies.

[Wizzud]

pherank wrote:

I would think Shadowbox would have to be involved if you consider that QuickTime movies all seem to play if you just open them in a new browser window. It's only when trying to display them within Shadowbox that the movie either doesn't play at all, or only audio is heard.

Well, according to ...
(a) sportscoat (the original poster), who specifically states that he got exactly the same results when embedding the movies into a page without Shadowbox, and
(b) the reports I found on Apple's support pages about similar problems encountered by other users of QT v7.6.4
... I would venture to suggest that you think wrong!
Just "opening them in a new browser window" is not the same as purposefully embedding them into a web page, and it seems to be the embed part that causes some people problems. Whether it is Shadowbox that does the embed for you, or whether you do it for yourself, the end code/HTML is going to be very similar, if not exactly the same. Therefore, if the problem can be reproduced - as it has been! - on pages that don't have Shadowbox anywhere near them, then there must be some other factor involved. So far, the common denominator appears to be the specific version of QT, but whether the browser model/version, client/server operating system, the movie itself, or any combination thereof, also play a part, I, like many others, have no idea.
If you can find a solution for embedded movies playing absolutely reliably in QT v7.6.4 then please post it, both here and on Apple's support pages. A number of people would probably be extremely grateful.