Mac OS X 10.5.5: green/purple video.

After the Mac OS X 10.5.5 update, some users have experienced a problem in which video playback seems to be displaying in bizarre green/purple hues. For some this has happened with Elgato EyeTV, but for others it also occurs with other applications.

Apple Discussions poster 11th_door writes:

"Just checked DVD Player and it is also having the same problem with the purple and green video. I sure hope this is fixed. I don't know if the fix needs to come from Apple or ATI but I hope it comes fast."

This issue is documented on Elgato's website, and is reportedly a rare incompatibility that's experienced by users with G5 PowerMacs that have the ATI X1900 video card installed. This seems to be a problem with the latest version of OpenGL of which both Elgato's EyeTV and Apple's DVD Player use to render video.

Currently there are no fixes for this problem, but there are some alternatives which basically encompass avoiding OpenGL rendering of video content.

Workarounds

EyeTV users can disable OpenGL rendering As reported on the EyeTV site, users with this software can disable OpenGL rendering by entering the following command into the terminal:

• defaults write com.elgato.eyetv "use OpenGL" -bool NO

To re-enable OpenGL, enter the command again with "YES" at the end instead of "NO".

Use alternate media players For users experiencing this issue with Apple's DVD player or other media players, alternate media players may help. One which has been reported to work well is VLC (VideoLAN Client), which is a very robust player that supports many media formats, including DVDs and other optical disks. The media player can be downloaded for free here.

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