If you found here looking for how to fix “This movie requires QuickTime, which is not supported by this version of iTunes.”, good it’s here:

• run iTunes in 32bit mode
• and/or update Flip4Mac to 3.x if you’re still on 2.x

General remarks about iTunes

I’ve come to terms with iTunes over the years. I don’t hate it, like so many Apple-haters who “have to” use it on Windows, but neither do I consider it the brilliant piece of software Apple promotes it as. It’s just become essential in every day use for me. However, with every major version since 9 (?) there’s something I seriously dislike(d). I last swore to the iTunes team for taking away iTunes DJ. I still get angry when I think about it – which is a lot.

Fortunately, iTunes runs smoothly and very rarely do I yell “WTF!” because of some strange error message iTunes throws at me. Yesterday night was one such occasion.

QuickTime not supported by this version of iTunes – seriously?

On my Lion MacBook I rented Winter’s Bone from the US iTunes Store, iTunes started downloading and I started watching some 10% into the full download (I love that feature). After 20min I stopped the full-screen movie to answer a Skype call only to see

“This movie requires QuickTime, which is not supported by this version of iTunes”

when I restarted the movie. WTF!? Jesus iTunes, you played the movie already…why can’t you just continue playing it?

Apple has an explanation in their knowledge base:

iTunes 10.4 or later on OS X Lion opens by default in 64-bit mode. However, some older media files in your iTunes library may still rely on QuickTime to play, and QuickTime only runs in 32-bit mode.

Running iTunes in 32bit mode

Apple also offers a solution – just a solution:

1. In iTunes, choose Quit iTunes from the iTunes menu.
2. From the Finder, choose Applications from the Go menu.
3. Locate iTunes in the window that opens.
4. Click the iTunes icon to select it. Then, choose File > Get Info.
5. Enable the option to “Open in 32-bit mode.”
6. Reopen iTunes.

Alternative solutions

Moving file

Various threads on the Apple discussion forums suggest that “This movie requires QuickTime, which is not supported by this version of iTunes” might also appear with artifacts that reside on some external source (external = no on the iTunes host computer). The remedy then is to move the file elsewhere, remove it from iTunes, drag-drop add the file again to iTunes.

Update Flip4Mac

While the “32bit iTunes resolution” did the trick for me I also found that after I upgraded Flip4Mac from 2.x to 3.x the error is gone even in 64bit iTunes. I have no idea why that is but it’s the way better solution.