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analogika · Sep 29, 2006, 03:27 AM

Hey people,

I have a 1.25GHz G4 Mac mini, 1GB RAM, with my entire music collection on an external firewire drive (set as iTunes Music folder, copy songs there when added to library, maintain folder switched on).

Whenever I try to switch to CoverFlow mode, it tells me that it cannot do so on this computer. List view with covers at the left works fine.

Apparently, it's still cached the art in ~/Music/iTunes/Album Artwork/.

Any ideas why it's not working? I couldn't find any info about minimum graphics card requirements for CoverFlow, so I'm assuming it's a bug regarding music collections kept on an external drive?

jasong · Sep 29, 2006, 12:12 PM

I have an ancient PII Dell laptop that I am using as an iTunes server (yes, I know this is below the Windows minimum requirements, but it works) that also displays this message. Interestingly enough, I never saw the error until I moved my music off the main drive. Although, I also get this error when browsing the iTunes store, which does not cache the covers locally, so I doubt that is related to the external drive. There must be some code in coverflow that has minimum GPU/CPU requirements

analogika · Sep 29, 2006, 12:56 PM

Except it apparently works fine on 1.42GHz G4 Mac minis, from other threads... same GPU.

Macola · Sep 29, 2006, 01:21 PM

i don't think it's the external drive, since I have a similar setup (all music on external drive) and it's working fine on my MacBook.

rozwado1 · Sep 30, 2006, 08:32 AM

I don't get the error, but since 7.01 the coverflow view kills my GPU and "freezes" 3/4 of the iTunes screen, making it unusable. I have to hit the green 'maximize' button to force the screen to redraw after I switch back to album view or song list. I figure this is apple's way of letting me know my mini needs to turn into a MacPro more sooner than later.

1.42GHz mini/32VRAM/1GB RAM/1900x1200 Dell 2407fpw

moonmonkey · Oct 1, 2006, 09:54 AM

my 1st gen mac mini (1.4ghz +1 gig ram) does it fine, music served of external firewire.

Something else is going wrong, it also runs bearably on an 800 mhz g4 I have.

long shot but try changing screen resolution or checking screen is on millions of colors.

analogika · Oct 1, 2006, 03:20 PM

Didn't help.

Maybe because I don't actually have a display attached, but only run it via Remote Desktop?

all2ofme · Oct 1, 2006, 03:34 PM

analogika - might be that, actually. I had a 1.25GHz mini that wouldn't use Coverflow over VNC. I wish I'd tried it with a screen plugged into it before I sold it, now...would have liked to have been able to give you a more helpful answer.

moonmonkey · Oct 1, 2006, 09:16 PM

I use iTunes on my mini via remote desktop fine, but its connected to a monitor (the TV).

Try plugging a screen into it to check if thats the issue.

Todd Madson · Oct 3, 2006, 05:49 PM

I suspect it may be related to corevideo. If your video card isn't capable of that,
it might not allow you to do it.

analogika · Oct 3, 2006, 06:00 PM

Unlikely, since moonmonkey's Mac mini had the same graphics card.

CatOne · Oct 3, 2006, 06:58 PM

Originally Posted by analogika

Didn't help.

Maybe because I don't actually have a display attached, but only run it via Remote Desktop?

rofl. seriously? Ummm... yeah. You can't display GPU accelerated stuff over ARD.

Sheesh.

analogika · Oct 4, 2006, 03:13 AM

Bullshit.

roflololol. or whatever. because, see, moonmonkey actually HAS it working over ARD.

It just apparently won't work IF THERE IS NO ACTUAL DISPLAY HOOKED UP.

jerk.

Sheesh.

SynApple · Oct 4, 2006, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by rozwado1

I don't get the error, but since 7.01 the coverflow view kills my GPU and "freezes" 3/4 of the iTunes screen, making it unusable. I have to hit the green 'maximize' button to force the screen to redraw after I switch back to album view or song list. I figure this is apple's way of letting me know my mini needs to turn into a MacPro more sooner than later.

1.42GHz mini/32VRAM/1GB RAM/1900x1200 Dell 2407fpw

That's exactly what happens to me as well.
I'm running iTunes 7.0.1 on a PPC Mini 1.42 - 1GB RAM - 32VRAM attached to an external Apple 20" display; music is on an external hard disk.
Could it be our screens our too big for the mine to correctly load coverflow?

goMac · Oct 4, 2006, 12:39 PM

Originally Posted by Todd Madson

I suspect it may be related to corevideo. If your video card isn't capable of that,
it might not allow you to do it.

CoreVideo and CoreImage don't have anything to do with CoverFlow. CoverFlow is all done in OpenGL. CoreVideo is only used in video editing, and CoreImage is only used in image editing. CoreAnimation would be what you'd do something like CoverFlow in, but that's only in 10.5 anyway.