Some New MacBooks Afflicted With QuickTime Problems

On Apple's discussion forums and elsewhere, some users of newer MacBook laptops complain of problems with QuickTime movie playback. There's evidence that Apple is trying to isolate the problem, although the company hasn't released a fix yet.

According to customers suffering with the difficulty, some MacBook laptops show flickering when playing back MPEG-encoded videos, including MPEG-4 videos available from Apple's Web site, such as video of the recently iPhone SDK event in Cupertino.

RAM and system configurations vary, but they all appear to be newer MacBooks, even those that are new from the factory with the latest operating system and system updates installed.

The lack of consistency in reproducing the error is disconcerting: It only appears to afflict certain MacBooks, and hasn't been consistently repeatable on display units in the Apple Store and elsewhere.

Apple, for its part, has acknowledged hearing of the problem, according to the reports on the discussion forum.

"Apple has received reports similar to the behavior you are describing and we are investigating those reports. Further information will come in the form of a Knowledge Base article, Software Update, or Software Release," reads an AppleCare e-mail quoted in the forum thread.

Apple hasn't yet announced a course of action, however. An Apple spokesman could not provide a comment when Macworld asked for additional details.