Using iTunes 12.x 64-bit with iHomeServer

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*** Updated post for iTunes 12.2 **

Apple released iTunes 12.1 for Windows 64-bit in April.  Although labelled as a minor upgrade, under the covers, Apple has made a major change to the distribution for 64-bit Windows.  iTunes 12.2 has just been released and shares the same issue.

The 12.x upgrade has a major flaw that it has removed support for importing / playing videos for computers with 'old' (in Apple's terms) video cards.  This seems to include virtual machines running iTunes.  It also affects iHomeServer when iHomeServer is running iTunes in the background as a service (because the Windows service session uses a virtual graphics card rather than your real hardware one).

Therefore, if you are using iHomeServer to run iTunes in the background on a 64-bit operating system such as Windows Server 2012, Windows Home Server 2011, or Windows 7 64-bit, you may find that iHomeServer is no longer able to add video files to your iTunes library.  You can verify this is because of the upgrade by looking in the 'Messages' window of iHomeServer.  You may see a message similar to the following (note this message is coming from iTunes, not from iHomeServer):

Video playback is not supported on this computer.

Fortunately, for the time being, there is a quick resolution to this.  Apple has provided an alternative download package for iTunes 12.x that continues to support 'old' graphics cards.  We have started testing this with iHomeServer running iTunes in the background and it behaves as before, correctly importing movie files.  The link for this download is here:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1816

We will continue to work to find solutions for iHomeServer, and hope that Apple expands its compatibility of 64-bit iTunes version to remove this major constraint.  

In the meantime, we ask users not to upgrade to future versions of iTunes until we have verified compatibility or identified similar workarounds.

Feb01

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Comments (11) -

2/22/2015 1:29:05 PM #

Mike

Have you had the opportunity to review the most recent version of iTunes, version 12.1.1 that was release a few days ago?

Mike United States | Reply

3/3/2015 1:54:19 PM #

mag09

Hello and thanks for the advice , I am suffering the problem right now.
One question: will the problem be solved if I run itunes on the desktopn instead of background mode?
If this work, will running itunes on the desktop prevent ihomeserver to work as usual?
O am running ihome server 3.1.7.6 under WHS 2011
Many thanks

mag09 United States | Reply

5/31/2015 9:53:41 AM #

Alex

It may do - it does for me but that's probably because the machine I'm running iHomeServer on has a recent graphics card - it works when iTunes is in the foreground, but I get import problems when running in the background as per the article.  So I think it depends on your specific graphics card.

Alex United Kingdom | Reply

3/10/2015 5:05:56 AM #

Fatimah


itunes message video playback is not supported on this computer

This worked for me.Thank you so much Smile

iTunes 12.1.1 for Windows (64-bit — for older video cards)

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1784?locale=en_US

Fatimah Israel | Reply

5/30/2015 1:43:55 PM #

CVJ

Is this going to be resolved any time soon? It's been three months and I am getting messaged from iHomeServer that my support needs to be extended. Not sure if I want to buy another 12 months support if the last couple of months of my support wasn't actually supported....

CVJ United States | Reply

5/31/2015 10:04:36 AM #

bizmodeller

Although we are looking for a way around this, unfortunately, it's not within our power to fix this specific issue.  Apple has basically prevented their iTunes 64-bit install from supporting basic graphic cards (including the virtual graphics card used to host the Windows Service session) - although iHomeServer sits on top of iTunes; it cannot change iTunes's internal code.

However, the solution of using the alternative iTunes link given above works on the latest version of iTunes (12.1.2 at the time of writing) and still gives you the full functionality of iHomeServer.

That said, we're still looking to see whether we can get video importing working using the original Apple download link and we are also hopeful Apple will fix this issue in a future update to iTunes.

bizmodeller United Kingdom | Reply

9/4/2015 1:17:03 PM #

Bob Swanson

My problem with latest releases (iTunes 12.2.2.25 - iHome 3.1.84) is iHome does not see my library at all any more. In iTunes View tab all I get now are the 4 groups (Library-Purchased-et all) with no content. I thought this was related to your v card issue but I thnk not at this point. Please assist.

Bob Swanson United States | Reply

9/6/2015 7:38:55 AM #

bizmodeller

This is due to a 'feature' in iTunes 12.2 whereby Apple has disabled sharing the iTunes library xml file by default on a fresh install of iTunes.

Please can you manually run iTunes on your computer and under iTunes Preferences on the "Advanced" tab, please check the option to "Share the iTunes Library XML file with other applications". Then you can restart iHomeServer and your iTunes library view will be visible again

bizmodeller United Kingdom | Reply

10/11/2015 5:46:01 AM #

Bob Swanson

Sorry, I did not see the reply. I have done so and no difference. I cannot see my library at all in the iTunes View tab.

Bob Swanson United States | Reply

9/14/2015 8:13:49 PM #

KENNETH HALE

I can play video now, but cannot play music

I get an error that iTunes has detected a problem with your audio configuration.  Audio/Video playback may not operate properly.  

Can we only have it 1 way, because I would really like to be able to use both.

KENNETH HALE United States | Reply

9/17/2015 4:07:57 AM #

bizmodeller

Nope, should work fine with both video and music.  The error you get 'iTunes has detected a problem with your audio configuration' is normal if you don't have a soundcard in your computer and iHomeServer will dismiss this automatically in the background if you're running iTunes as a background Windows service.

Do you have a soundcard in the machine you are running iTunes/iHomeServer on?

If you are trying to play music remotely, are you using Home Sharing or the Remote app to trigger playing music?

bizmodeller United Kingdom | Reply

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