TechNote (Archived)

Media files don't play with QuickTime 7 (Acrobat 7.0 on Mac OS X)

Issue

When you try to play a QuickTime movie (for example, an MOV or AIF file) in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader, the application returns one of the following error messages:

-- When you try to play a QuickTime movie: "The media requires an additional player. Please click 'Get Media player' to download the correct media player."

-- When you try to use the Movie Tool to insert a movie into a PDF saved with Acrobat 6 compatibility: "There are no media handlers. Please install handlers before using this feature."

Detail

You have QuickTime 7 installed.

Solution 1: Install the Acrobat 7.0.8 update or the Adobe Reader 7.0.8 update.

In Acrobat or Adobe Reader, choose Help > Check For Updates Now to install the update.

Alternately, you can download the update from the Adobe website:

-- For Adobe Reader or Acrobat 7.x: Download the 7.0.8 update from the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/downloads/ .

-- For Adobe Reader 6.x or earlier: Download the full installation of Adobe Reader 7.0.8 from the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html .

Solution 2: Use an earlier version of QuickTime.

On Windows XP or 2000 install QuickTime 6.5.2.

On Mac OS X v10.2.8-10.3.9, install QuickTime 6.5.2.

Important: You can not run versions of QuickTime earlier than 7 on Mac OS X v10.4.

Background information

Adobe Acrobat 7.0.5 and Adobe Reader 7.0.5 are compatible with Mac OS X v10.2.8 - v10.4. However, an issue prevents the playback of QuickTime content embedded in PDF files when using QuickTime 7 Player on all supported versions of Mac OS X. Updating to Acrobat 7.0.5 or Adobe Reader 7.0.5 corrects the problem.