A recent fix concerning video podcasts reminded me that I was recently able to solve a problem with iTunes.
Although I've never purchased video content from Apple, I was intrigued by the animations on Channel Frederator, and psyched I could download them like a podcast. Well, the first vodcast I downloaded took quite a while, then crashed iTunes (unexpected quit error). I repeated the download several times with the same result. I even downloaded the vodcast directly from Frederator and double-clicked, but still had the same result. Subsequent episodes also crashed iTunes. I could play these files with VLC or other video players, just not iTunes.
I posted my problem on the Apple discussion forums, and found others had similar problems. One person figured out the cause for his crashes -- and fortunately it resolved my own as well.
The problem was with a shareware plug-in for iTunes called OSS 3D. It's a neat plugin (shareware) that allows you to use a wide variety of audio settings and an advanced equalizer. Unfortunately, the version I had (don't know if it has been updated) crashes iTunes if you try to open video content. So, if you have this plug-in, remove it from the iTunes plug-in folder if you have such problems.
I also want to point out that such crashes might be discovered by viewing the system log files. Lesson learned.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20051222072543550