Fullscreen video turns pink and green in QuickTime/iTunes

Question

Level 1

44 points

Fullscreen video turns pink and green in QuickTime/iTunes

After upgrading my Mac mini 2012 to High Sierra, when I play any video in fullscreen in QuickTime or iTunes, the video colors skew pink and green as if the blue channel is dropped entirely. It happens immediately after I take my hand off the mouse and let the onscreen controls disappear. As soon as I move the mouse again, or if I leave the mouse over the onscreen controls to keep them active, the colors return to normal.

If I use Screen Sharing on another Mac to connect to the Mac mini, the colors return to normal as if Screen Sharing keeps the screen active in the same way that moving the mouse does.

Changing ColorSync profiles does not help. Turning off hardware acceleration or running in safe mode might help, but there is no way to do that in recent versions of QuickTime.

It does not happen in VLC or any web browser.

This seems to be a common issue; see below for links to other questions that seem to describe the same symptoms. Hopefully we can consolidate and get more attention on this.

Pink and Green full screen

Itunes 12.7 color artefact

iTunes 12.7 screen turns green

movie playback color changing

Mac mini (Late 2012), iOS 11.0.2

Posted on Oct 8, 2017 7:32 AM

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Answer 1

Silverhammer Author

Level 1

44 points

Dec 7, 2017 9:59 AM in response to Silverhammer

The underlying QuickTime software in the macOS 10.13.2 update appears to fix the "pink and green" bug.

Unfortunately, now I'm seeing a new bug. The video player apparently keeps frames of previously played videos in the graphics memory, so now I see a frame from a previously played HD video (16:9 ratio) peeking around the sides of the currently playing SD video (4:3 ratio). All the other symptoms — both iTunes and QuickTime, fullscreen video, happens immediately after the mouse cursor stops moving and the onscreen controls disappear — are the same, so I assume it's related to the "pink and green" bug.

Can anyone else confirm this new bug? It might be difficult since SD videos are rare these days. Mine are ripped from old DVDs.

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Answer 2

Silverhammer Author

Level 1

44 points

Oct 8, 2017 9:17 AM in response to Keithlocutus

My Mac mini 2012 is running as a media center and home server. It's connected via HDMI to a Samsung 5 Series television. Everything worked fine before I upgraded it to High Sierra, and everything else other than QuickTime/iTunes still works fine.

Given all of the very similar reports I've seen, I think this is a specific bug in the QuickTime 10.4 codec (which iTunes also uses) running on Mac minis. I don't think it's something we can resolve ourselves. If it's not resolved soon by another High Sierra update, I may downgrade to Sierra.

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Answer 3

Silverhammer Author

Level 1

44 points

Dec 4, 2017 8:37 PM in response to Silverhammer

A minor update, just so we're all on the same page…

This is a known bug in the new video drivers in High Sierra for the integrated graphics chipsets (e.g., Intel HD Graphics, Intel Iris) that were used in Mac minis and MacBook Airs, circa 2012–2014. Apple is aware of the bug and supposedly working on it. Thanks but we don't need any more reports. I'm not trying to mean, but I get pinged every time someone replies to this thread, and more of the same reports simply are not helpful at this point.

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Answer 4

LVB1770

Level 1

22 points

Dec 4, 2017 7:39 PM in response to Silverhammer

Have the same problem with my Mini 2014. VLC works fine as does screen sharing and AirPlay. With the VLC workaround, I’m not planning to revert to 10.12...yet.

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Answer 5

Oct 8, 2017 8:06 AM in response to Silverhammer

Silver hammer:

Yes diagnosed as exactly the same. In fact I was on apple care call with panda a great senior advisor. He wanted to witness this problem and I shared my screen with him as they can access your conputer remotely. As soon as he accessed my computer the pink or green screen disappeared. I felt like I was imagining it. Another data point I have 5 Mac atv’s mappped to my iTunes and the sharing is not affected by this phenomena. The people sharing the library do not experience the pink and green screen. Please let me know if you figure out a solution.

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Answer 6

Oct 8, 2017 8:27 AM in response to Silverhammer

Another thought have you completed a clean install? I tried this and then completed a time machine backup. problem returned. Panda the senior advisor suggested perhaps a clean install then a clean reinstallation of all programs and files. This is an ungodly thought. My mac mini is a late 2014 -- 1 TB fusion maximum ram etc.

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Answer 7

Nov 29, 2017 2:53 PM in response to Silverhammer

I have the same problem, but only when switching to fullscreen mode. Watching a video in iTunes does not show the issue if I stretch the window to the largest that fits on the monitor.

Clearly Apple isn't performing regression test on older hardware. I use the Mac Mini as a video server to Apple TVs without a problem; the problem is with direct-attached monitors only.

Late 2014 Mac Mini with Intel Iris 1536 MB graphics chipset.

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Answer 8

Silverhammer Author

Level 1

44 points

Oct 10, 2017 1:24 PM in response to RampartsAddie

I wonder if it's relevant that the Mac mini 2012, the MacBook Air 2013, and the Mac mini 2014 (at least the 1.4 GHz config) all use Intel HD Graphics in their chipsets.

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Answer 9

Nov 1, 2017 11:12 AM in response to jaypeterson1

Yep same problem. I thought with the update to the os a solution but nothing. This really is technically unacceptable. I understand the hd files are over scanning but can they fix the **** drivers please!

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Answer 10

KALKevin

Level 1

8 points

Nov 26, 2017 7:53 PM in response to Silverhammer

I'm having this issue, as well, but only on Home Movies that I've burned myself, not movies bought from iTunes. Home Movies look fine in full screen when I start them, but as soon as the playback controls at the bottom of the screen disappear, the screen turns green.

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