New QuickTime releases are usually accompanied by a rash of bug reports — not necessarily exclusively the fault of Apple’s; maybe it simply reflects the widespread use of the QuickTime APIs and the general fragility of digital video. We’ve heard surprisingly little, though, from the visual community about QuickTime 7.5.

Macfixit does report some major issues with audio performance:

“The problems brought about by QuickTime 7.5 have proven so dire — an issue with choppy or stuttering playback is most common — for some users that downgrading to a prior version of the multimedia architecture has become an attractive option. Fortunately, downgrading to QuickTime 7.4 is a relatively easy process and is proving successful at resolving many previously document. “

QuickTime 7.5 (#4): downgrading to an older version; No sound — fix; more [MacFixIt]

Sounds delightful … to which a chorus of VJs respond, wait, what? You listen to the audio on video clips?

Despite the gloom and doom, in this case it’s unclear whether these problems are largely on PowerPC, how widespread they are, and what other codecs or third-party software may be involved in the issues. So no reason to panic here. What is useful about the MacFixIt article is that it includes a reminder that Pacificist can be used on Mac to downgrade QuickTime. (Windows users can just reinstall.) I think if you’re going to use computers at all, you have to be prepared for a little of this sort of dirty work — and, naturally, not touching anything leading up to a gig. As an aside, I caught a lot of flak for pointing out audio issues on OS X Leopard recently on Create Digital Music. That case was very different, though, in that we had isolated the source of the issue, it was relatively widespread, and caused reproducible problems with hardware and software from a variety of variables, many of whom reported the issues through their support channels. The bottom line for me, though, is that none of us wants to be the person with a problem, whether we’re alone or not — and sometimes collecting anecdotal experience is the only way to find out what’s up.

Let’s get the anecdotal feedback going:

So far, I’m having good luck on both Mac and Windows (XP and Vista). If you gig regularly and have developed a healthy and understandable fear of updating too early, you may have steered clear of this so far, but we’d love to hear from you. How is QT 7.5 working for you? Be sure to be specific about OS version, apps you’re using, the exact circumstances of any problems, and whether you’re on an Intel or PowerPC processor on the MAc side.

In case you haven’t seen, Apple has made a vague public mention of Snow Leopard, the next major release of OS X. Cost: unknown. Availability: a year out, roughly. Contents: "quality" improvements. (I talk about some of the confusion Apple’s software strategy has caused over on Create Digital Music.)

Here’s the visualist tidbit: on the official announcement page, Apple mentions that a key feature will be QuickTime X. I figure this could be fantastic news — or terrible news. For now, we mostly have questions:

• Will QuickTime X be back-ported to Tiger/Leopard? Will it be on Windows? (Normally, I wouldn’t even ask, but it’s listed as a "Snow Leopard" feature)
• What does this mean: "features optimized support for modern codecs and more efficient media playback"? (Which codecs? Efficient how?)
• What will it break?
• Why is this "media technology pioneered in OS X iPhone"?

What could be good news: this may mean real multi-threading in QuickTime playback, at least on Mac OS if not (wishful thinking) on Windows, where QuickTime is a fourth-class citizen.

There are some other juicy bits, as well. For fans of the GPU, there’s a new OpenCL library for doing general-purpose computing on the GPU. (GPGPU) And hidden in the OS X Server announcement for Snow Leopard, multiple video inputs:

"Support for dual-video source capture lets users record both a presenter and a presentation screen, allowing a picture-in-picture style ideal for podcasting lectures."

I imagine we could do some damage with that beyond lecture podcasting.

Unfortunately, OS X is generally covered under NDA until it’s released. So now, we wait — and hope that QuickTime X doesn’t cause compatibility issues with our favorite VJ apps.

The typical user likely has no idea that Flash is even supported in QuickTime. But VJ apps like ArKaos VJ and other applications (like Max/MSP/Jitter patches that use this support) rely on QuickTime to support Flash. Unfortunately, as of Leopard — or any Mac updated to QuickTime 7.3.1 — that support is gone, and will most likely never return.

What’s the reason? Security:

Multiple vulnerabilities exist in QuickTime’s Flash media handler, the most serious of which may lead to arbitrary code execution. With this update, the Flash media handler in QuickTime is disabled except for a limited number of existing QuickTime movies that are known to be safe. Credit to Tom Ferris of Adobe Secure Software Engineering Team (ASSET), Mike Price of McAfee Avert Labs, and security researchers Lionel d’Hauenens & Brian Mariani of Syseclabs for reporting this issue.

About the security content of QuickTime 7.3.1 (thanks to n0s10pm for the tip!)

In case this isn’t clear, this impacts only embedded Flash files within QuickTime, not Flash itself. But because some apps use QuickTime as a way of hooking in support for Flash animations, that’s a big deal — at least for someone. Windows users are impacted, too; this covers both platforms, though at least Windows users have the option of using Flash integration features available only on that OS.

Now, admittedly, the small niche pushing the limits of QuickTime and digital visuals is dwarfed by the potentially-enormous crowd who could be impacted by this vulnerability. But there’s clearly a philosophical problem here we’ve seen before: instead of fixing the vulnerability and providing a replacement, the entire idea is axed. Necessary? Perhaps, but I would love to see Adobe address ways of more easily integrating Flash technology with other applications. As the Flash/Flex platform grows, the potential here could be wide enough to justify the effort, especially as applications (not just VJ apps) add rich client features.

And in the meantime, if you use a tool that uses this support, you may want to hunt down an old installer or hold off upgrading. (Reverting to older versions is, unfortunately, really hard — you have to completely uninstall QuickTime, and you’ll only have luck if you’re on Tiger or earlier as far as I know.)

Yesterday Apple released iTunes 7.3.1 and Quicktime 7.2. With updated h.264 transcoding, numerous bug fixes and free fullscreen support for those without Quicktime Pro. It also provides iPhone exporting options and seems to enable 640×480 captures from certain iSights which were limited to 320×240.

Oh, and it breaks Rosetta.

Ok, not to be overly sensational, it does not break Rosetta for everyone, but a large number of users are reporting issues opening PowerPC applications on Intel Macs post Quicktime 7.2 update. It seems as though installing the OS X 10.4.10 Combo updater after installing Quicktime 7.2 has fixed the issue for some.

You might want to sit this one out for a while folks until the dust settles. You can read about this issue over at Mac Fixit: The QuickTime 7.2 disaster: Breaks all CFM apps on Intel-based Macs (Office, Photoshop CS2) for some; Problems playing Flash.