[G4] Quicktime MP4 problems!

[Richard Klein]

Thomas J. Fobia wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
>    I have a downloaded a drawing lesson that is a video MP4 file. I have 
> a desktop Mac G4 where it doesnt play without jerks and sound dropouts. 
> I burned the file to a CD and took to my laptop where it (the mp4 file) 
> plays without any problems. The difference between the two computer are 
> as follows: (Both using Quicktime 7.1.3)
> 
> My Desktop G4:
> Mac OSX 10.4.8; 1.6 Ghz PowerPC G4 (Upgraded Powerlogix processor)
> Memory: 1.12GB SDRAM
> 
> ATI Radeon 8500:

All those specs should be good enough to play just about any video short 
of 720- or 1080-line HDTV.  I suspect there's something running in the 
background that's keeping your Mac busy.  I don't have a solution but 
here's a couple things you could try:
-Click on the Apple icon and select Force Quit...
  Let us know what programs it lists; maybe we can pinpoint one of them 
as a resource hog.

-Click on the Apple icon and select About This Mac, then click on More 
Info...
  That puts you in the System Profiler program.  In the last section, 
Software, look at the Logs.  console.log, error_log, and system.log are 
probably the most interesting.  Look for any log entries from about the 
same time as when you were playing the MP4 file.

-Finally, while you're still in System Profiler, look in the last 
section: Startup Items.  Let us know what's listed there.

You might want to try playing the file with VLC, too, and see if that 
performs any better than Quicktime.

-- 
Rich