Some Important Quicktime Truths:

1. Quicktime is made by Apple, but can run in Windows.
2. Quicktime is the utility that many multimedia programs require to run their videos/animations. It also works with your internet browser.
3. Quicktime is free and comes in many different versions. www.quicktime.com
4. You can and may have to have several versions of Quicktime, as newer versions are not fully backwards compatible with older programs that were built with older versions of Quicktime. This is particularly true of any program made using 2.x series. You CAN have several versions installed.
5. Quicktime will want to become the default player on your computer and will occasionally annoy you with upgrade requests.
6. If you have Windows VISTA you need to download the latest free version of Quickime for many programs to run.

Slow playing animations or related audio problems are a common technical support inquiry. Most multimedia programs that have video and animation use a program called Quicktime to play them back on your computer. It's free from www.quicktime.com  It usually comes with the software. It has settings you can adjust to work best with your sound and video drivers. It has many different versions. It can also be buggy. Here are some of the common problems and the solutions to them.

Slow playing or stuttering videos/animations...

The #1 reason an animation or video will stutter is low system resources, ie, low ram. This can include low system ram, and low video ram. Make sure you have all other programs turned off, such as anti virus software. Make sure you don't have programs "hiding" in the background eating ram. That's a common problem too. Type msconfig in the Windows RUN box and click the StartUp tab to see what's loading up at start-up, (in other words "eating ram").

Check out our article about how to determine what type of videocard or graphic chip you have and how much videoram you have.

If you have at least 64 megs of RAM and 8 megabytes of videoram on your graphics/videocard, videos and animations should run smoothly. But some of the system ram may be being bled off by other programs running in the background.

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If you are running a program which uses QuickTime and experiencing audio break-up, snapping, hissing, popping, etc.,

Solution 1: Change the SOUND OUT properties in your Quicktime control panel.

The Quicktime control panel is found in the Windows Control Panel.

Make sure you open up the BLUE Q icon, and not earlier 2.0 versions which use a Black Q icon.

What's the issue? Quicktime doesn't like every possible sounddriver on the market. Fortunately, Quicktime and Windows leave you with alternatives.

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If you still experience sound problems and have Windows 98 and an older PC: adjust the size of the sound buffer QuickTime uses -doing so in the Quicktime control panel. Larger buffers reduce the chance of drop-outs, but increase latency for interactive uses of sound.

Adjusting the size of the Sound Buffers

1. Open the Control Panels window.

2. Open QuickTime Settings.

3. Select the Sound Out panel.

4. Select the WaveOut or DirectSound device

(Depends on your computer configuration.)

5. Click on the Options button at the bottom of the control panel.

6. Adjust the settings

7. Test the movie you were experiencing problems with.

8. Keep adjusting the settings until the audio problem is corrected.

DirectSound Settings

The size of the sound buffer is set in milliseconds. Increase the buffer size until the drop-out is corrected.

WaveOut Settings

There are two numbers to adjust, the number of buffers and the size of each buffer in milliseconds. Adjust the number of buffers until any drop-outs are corrected. If you hear a stuttering, increase the individual buffer size until the stuttering is corrected.

You can also try adjusting the voice/sound playback rate to 22mhz. The default is 44mhz sound. 22k will sound just fine in many applications and the lower data rate going through your card will help your card stay up with the multimedia.

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Garbled Sound, Hissing Sound, Sound too rapid, Sound drop-out....

To find this panel, click START | CONTROL PANEL | QUICKTIME (make sure its QT 4, not 2.0) | and follow the suggestions given in the following discussions:

Possible changes to the Quicktime control panel to get rid of sound problems in Quicktime videos.

Change "sound out" from "directsound" to "wave out."

Alternatives if the above doesn't work: Locate and double-click the QuickTime icon. A window titled QuickTime Settings will appear. In the drop-down menu at the top of the window, select Sound Out. In the Choose a device for Playback drop-down menu, select Wave Out. In the Rate drop-down menu, select 44.100 Khz. In the Choose a Device for Playback drop-down menu, click Directsound. In the Rate drop-down menu, select 44.100 khz. Close the QuickTime Control Panel, and restart your computer.

If the voices are still too fast, repeat the procedures above, adjusting the rates to 48.000 khz. Restart.

Please note: Part of the problem may be that your sound drivers need updated and you may need the latest version of DirectSound from Windows. Both of these are free.

If you still have some crackling/stuttering in the voice file/animation, try setting the RATE seen in the Quicktime Control panel from 44mhz to 22mhz. This worked for me on one of my computers.

Director Error, Black Screen at opening of program, such as Good Sam CD

Many programs open with a videoclip/animation. Some computer drivers don't get along with some video codecs or Quicktime. Fortunately, Quicktime has some adjustments you can try. Double click the Blue Q icon in your Control Panel, click Advanced, and select GDI safe mode and see if the problem goes away.

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Other Quicktime Issues & Annoyances

Quicktime 4.0's "Upgrade" Notice keeps popping up.... is this annoying or what! You can't get rid of it unless you buy their full-blown version off their website. This is NOT recommended. Dear Apple Computer Co., WHY did you do this!

In Windows Vista...  the Upgrade Notice continues to pop up when an older program is trying to use an older version of Quicktime (which it should be allowed to do).  Dear Apple, Quit torturing us!

Upgrading your Version of Quicktime... New versions of Quicktime come like clockwork as Apple tries to tweak the program to fix bugs. You can download the latest free version of Quicktime from http://www.quicktime.com. Perhaps this will solve your problem. Vista really needs the latest version of Quicktime to be on the safe side.

NEVER let Quicktime DELETE older versions of itself. Quicktime installation will ask you if you'd like to search and destroy older copies of Quicktime. Never let it do it. In all my years of saying "no" to this process, it has never caused a problem. I suspect this "search and destroy" feature is a marketing issue --they want their later more "controlling" versions to control your software --and take over your icons.

Please note: Quicktime 4, 5, and 6 are not backwards compatible with the 2.0 series. MOST older Christian software prior to 1998 used Quicktime 2.0 and still require it to be installed on your harddrive. If that program's videos/audios stop working, reinstall quicktime off the CD. You CAN have multiple versions of Quicktime on your computer.

We have encountered some odd Quicktime errors that can ONLY be solved by uninstalling all versions of Quicktime and then REINSTALLING from the oldest first that you need (2.0 series). Make sure you uninstall Quicktime using the Windows Add/Remove Programs feature.

Quicktime 3.0 was generally considered "flawed" and should be deleted. Install Quicktime 4, 5, or 6.

You may encounter SOME OLDER programs which require their particular version of Quicktime version 2.x to run their animation/video. Pathways Through Jerusalem CD in our catalog is one such program. It must have it's 2.0 version of Quicktime installed.

Copyright Neil MacQueen & Sunday Software, www.sundaysoftware.com