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), macOS High Sierra (10.13)

Posted on Oct 8, 2017 8:01 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 26, 2017 5:48 AM in response to timlindabury

If you've got a Time Machine backup that you can use to revert to an older version of the OS.

Before you begin, it's important to note that when you restore from a backup, you'll wipe everything on your startup disk. That means any work you've done since you upgraded will be lost. So… back it up. You can use Time Machine to do this, too. If you don't use Time Machine, clone your startup disk to a spare external drive or at the very least make a copy of any files you've created or modified since you upgraded. If you've got photos in the Photos app and you don't use iCloud Library, manually export them to an external disk so you can re-import them later.

Once everything’s backed up, restart your Mac with the Time Machine disk connected and while holding Command and R until you see the Apple logo.

When the options

appear on screen, choose 'Restore From Time Machine Backup' and click Continue.

The next

screen will show the words Restore from Time Machine, click Continue again.

Next select

your Restore Source - your backup drive.

The next

screen shows all your backups over time, pick the last one you made prior to updating to the newer version of the Mac operating system. (You can tell which version of macOS the back up was made in).

After you have restored the older version, you can recover the files you created in the newer version from your Time Machine back up. Just click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and select Enter Time Machine. You can now navigate to the most recent backup and the files you want and retrieve them.

If you used another tool to back up your files, use its restore facility. If you copied them manually, copy them back.

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Answer 2

Dec 7, 2017 9:52 AM in response to Silverhammer

I was having the same problem. It seems that the new iTunes update (12.7.2) has fixed it. Although, after the update I did have to point iTunes to my library again. Now when the cursor disappears during full screen playback, I get the last tv prog/film in the background of the movie I'm trying to watch, albeit only a still image of the first frame. The movie plays fine in the foreground. Making progress, but still annoying.

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Answer 3

Nov 16, 2017 5:19 PM in response to KD7NKN

Still waiting on a solution from the engineers. Apple has been on the phone with me every couple of days for the past few weeks. Using a time machine backup, I reverted back to the day before I installed High Sierra. Everything went back to normal. Made a partition on my HD to do a clean install of High Sierra and redownloaded a previously purchased movie. The problem returned. At this point we know it’s a High Sierra issue. Just waiting on a fix.

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Answer 4

Oct 19, 2017 3:01 PM in response to Silverhammer

Same issue. Reverting back to 10.12.6 with iTunes 12.7 resolved the problem.

Using 10.13, I also had problems with overscan on my 1080p TV. Apparently, the display drivers are still in beta.

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Answer 5

RBOwens

Level 1

11 points

Nov 8, 2017 10:03 AM in response to Silverhammer

Heres a little something to add about this longtime problem.

First I have 2 Mac mini units, and both units have the Fullscreen Quicktime/iTunes color issue.

But heres the kicker

I Have bootcamp and Windows 10 on one of the units and when I load Windows 10

and run iTunes, the same videos work PERFECTLY in full screen.

Every TIME, no problems

Ouch Apple, fix the video drivers will you please. Obviously not a hardware issue.

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Answer 6

Silverhammer Author

Level 1

44 points

Dec 4, 2017 9:27 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 rude, but I get pinged every time someone replies to this thread, and more of the same reports simply are not helpful at this point. If you have new information, of course, please post. Otherwise, just know that we know. Thanks.

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Answer 7

Silverhammer Author

Level 1

44 points

Dec 7, 2017 9:52 AM in response to John Wilkie

The latest update does indeed fix the "pink and green" bug, except I think it was the underlying QuickTime software in the macOS 10.13.2 update that did it. I saw no change after installing only the iTunes 12.7.2 update.

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 8

Rysz

Level 8

44,455 points

Oct 21, 2017 9:10 PM in response to Silverhammer

If you want to call Apple’s attention to this issue, file a report at the link below.

You won't get a reply, but Apple reads and catalogs all feedback.

To submit your comments or bug reports directly to Apple use this link http://www.apple.com/feedback/

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Answer 9

Nov 26, 2017 2:21 PM in response to Keithlocutus

Yes, as I said in another post, doing a clean install of High Sierra won’t help. I was responding to the question of how to revert back to Sierra. This solved the problem (at least for me) until Apple can fix the issue with High Sierra.

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Answer 10

Nov 26, 2017 6:35 AM in response to RJLanning

Dude I am one of the originals to this thread. I tried to clean install according to the instructions you provided. Had apple care walk me

Through it as well. Still the same problem. iTunes / QuickTime drivers are over scanning. It is a software issue because the drivers are still in beta.

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Answer 11

Silverhammer Author

Level 1

44 points

Oct 12, 2017 5:59 AM in response to Keithlocutus

I posted the same question in both the QuickTime forum (this one) and the iTunes for Mac forum, in order to get more coverage. You've been replying to the other one:

Fullscreen video turns pink and green in QuickTime/iTunes

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Answer 12

Oct 18, 2017 11:56 PM in response to Silverhammer

Same exact problem. I was on the phone with Apple, screen-sharing for most of the evening. I was able to show them a video capture of the issue. No solution yet, but the problem has been bumped up to the engineers. I should be hearing back from them on Monday. I'll let you know what I find out.

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Answer 13

Silverhammer Author

Level 1

44 points

Oct 21, 2017 9:31 PM in response to Rysz

I’m curious: did you really think we don’t already know that and needed to be told? What part of this thread gave you the impression we’re that basic?

When I said “get more attention on this”, I meant that we should share information and describe the issue as precisely as possible in order to let other users know they‘re all experiencing the same issue. What they do after that — open support cases, submit feedback, downgrade to a previous version, whatever — is their own business. I saw a handful of poorly titled, poorly worded, but obviously related questions, and I thought we could do better. For you to come along and blithely say “Hey, that’s what the feedback page is for” is not helpful.

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Answer 14

Dec 9, 2017 11:29 PM in response to Silverhammer

I think we should keep this open because I have the latest iTunes installed and am all up to date on system updates and I still have the pink and green bug. Would be nice if others could comment on if this is fixed on their end or not.

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Answer 15

mtegel

Level 1

8 points

Dec 10, 2017 9:21 AM in response to maiklohse

The bug appeared to be fixed at first (full screen just worked fine for a couple of days after the 10.13.2 update), but unbelievably the bug has returned today for me! The app which is causing trouble for me is BBC iPlayer.

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