Quicktime skipping / getting hung up during playback

I am experiencing the exact same problem you are, except in my case it's with a new iMac G5 20" 2GHz with 1.5 GB RAM. As you say, even after an "erase and install" of Tiger, my Mac still stutters while playing QuickTime movies.

I have found that the effect is more noticeable with movie files that have fairly high bit-rates, such as iMovie reference files. If I launch the Activity Monitor and watch "Disk Activity" carefully while such a movie is playing, it will read data nice and evenly off the HD at about 7 or 8 MB/s, and then suddenly plummet down to as low as 0 MB/s when the movie starts to stutter. I have also found this to be the case when copying files across my home network to another Mac...

I have an external Lacie hard disk and when I play QT movies off of that drive, everything works fine: no dropped frames. I would be curious to hear if you can get smooth playback from your external HDs as well.

I can't help but think that this is a hardware issue, but I don't know if it would lie with the HD itself or whatever it's connected to inside the computer. I should say that this is my second iMac in the last two months... The first worked for about six weeks and then "lost" its internal HD. My local Apple Store replaced the HD but that didn't solve the problem, hence the second iMac and my concern that replacing its drive might not help...

Thanks for the info, Jeron. I'll keep you posted if I find out anything as well. And be sure to let us know if your LaCie drive gives you better results!

I'm having the same problem- with a Powerbook G4- and it started with Tiger. I didn't have any video playback problems before that.

The .mov files don't work any better in MPlayer or in VLC either, strangely enough.

This is kind of interesting (badly translated French aside):

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://forum.macbidouille.co m/lofiversion/index.php/t128188.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3DMaxtor%2B6B250S0%2BBANC1 E50%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den

The drive these people are having problems with is the same model and revision number as mine:
Model: Maxtor 6B250S0
Revision: BANC1E50

Is that the same as yours, Jeron? Perhaps there was a bad batch...

I think the next step is to determine if all of these drives have problems under Tiger or if it's only a few of them. That way, we'll know if getting them replaced by Apple would make any difference.

I've posted a poll in the iMac G5 "Usage" discussion area about this issue:
Gregory Gillis, "iMac 250GB Hard Disk Help Needed", 06:58pm Aug 23, 2005 CDT

Hopefully this will shed some light on the situation 🙂

Hi,

I don't want to rain on everyones parade. But.... I have a Dual 2.0 4Gb,
using panther. I had a directory failure on a "Maxtor 6Y250M0" and installed a "Maxtor 6B200S0" in the second bay and saved as much of my original HD as I could. (90%, thanks diskwarrior).

Since then the 200GB is the system drive. I re-installed iMovie HD and Final cut studio pro. My iMovie is useless and the quicktime player is just as bad. But scanning with the play head is snappy. Is it a video card problem? I have an ATI 9800 pro installed.
So its not just a Tiger problem.

Thanks

Since then the 200GB is the system drive. I re-installed iMovie HD and Final cut studio pro. My iMovie is useless and the quicktime player is just as bad. But scanning with the play head is snappy. Is it a video card problem? I have an ATI 9800 pro installed. So its not just a Tiger problem.

That sounds all too familiar...

I had an online chat with AppleCare about this issue yesterday. The "product specialist" I spoke to said that he hadn't heard about any large-scale problems with Maxtor drives in Macs, but that Apple would find out if they started getting a bunch of drives sent in to be replaced.

The PS agreed that I had already tried pretty much everything I could to resolve my HD issues, short of rebuilding the drive's partition table. He said if that didn't work that I should just order another HD from Apple's replacement parts web site.

Needless to say, I gave repartitioning the drive a try but it didn't help, so I've since ordered a replacement. I'll let everyone know if the new one works any better when it arrives. I hope it does work properly because I'm getting tired of being in "HD limbo".

Perhaps 10.4.3 will help...

UPDATE: Cloned the new hard drive to the old with CCC. NO DIFFERENCE!!
Still, iMovie and QT are useless.

The manual scan with the play head is lighting fast. I don't think this is a HD problem. SW sounds more likely. Is it a PRO app. problem? Do all you use Final Cut 5, or Motion 2 or the studio bundle. My problem started after my install of FCS.

Pat

The manual scan with the play head is lighting fast. I don't think this is a HD problem. SW sounds more likely. Is it a PRO app. problem? Do all you use Final Cut 5, or Motion 2 or the studio bundle. My problem started after my install of FCS.

I do own Final Cut Express HD, but I haven't gotten around to re-installing it again after my erase-and-install of Tiger. Nevertheless, the QT stuttering problem occurs for me even after a fresh Tiger install. Network file copying operations also stutter in a similar fashion, but this isn't really noticeable unless you're watching the Activity Monitor closely. It just seems that video software makes this problem jump out at you, as it were.

I'd venture that 10.4.2 is perhaps somehow not fully compatible with the latest revision of Maxtor's HD firmware, but then some users have reported not having any problems with this configuration. If Apple is indeed working on a software fix for this, it would save them some money from sending out replacement drives if they'd let us know...

Thanks all for your insight.
The pro-tools digicore was my problem. Once disabled, QT and iMovie works. SO.....
I've upgraded on one hard drive to 10.4.2 and upgraded Pro-tools to 6.9.2 and use the most current Digicore.
All is ok,....so far....

thanks

The pro-tools digicore was my problem. Once disabled, QT and iMovie works. SO.....
I've upgraded on one hard drive to 10.4.2 and upgraded Pro-tools to 6.9.2 and use the most current Digicore.
All is ok,....so far....

thanks

me as well. I have to give up using quicktime as it annoys. Try VLC 0.8.1 not the latest one which is piece of junk as quicktime 7.