Update - If you are having this issue, please read the rest of this post plus the comments at the bottom of the post.
I just upgraded to itunes 7. I'm on Windows XP by the way. I was really excited to try out the new feature, Cover Flow which according to Apple "With Cover Flow, you can flip through your digital music and video collection just as you would CDs."
The update seemed to go fine. I then selected "Music" in my Library and hit the
Cover Flow button. Much to my surprise, I got the error listed below "iTunes is unable to browse album covers on this computer."
I googled, searched blogs, searched Apples support and found nothing. Then I remembered I had set my video card to disable hardware acceleration. Sure enough, when I cranked up my hardware acceleration, iTunes worked fine. I'm blogging this here because I know tons of you musicians out there use iTunes and this post could save you hours of chasing your tail - especially since the error is not very clear that the issue is related to your video settings.
Possible remedies:
- Enable hardware acceleration
- Use 32-bit True Color
These settings can be accessed by , Right clicking on your desktop, select the "Settings Tab". Select 32-bit. To turn on hardware acceleration, click advanced.
Then click the "Troubleshoot" tab and slide the Hardware acceleration slider to the right.
Update to my original post:
According to http://completelygeeked.com/, two other issues might cause this:
Possibility 1: QuickTime is out of date...
Possibility 2: Video Driver is out of date...
CompletelyGeek also sites this forum on Apple.
See comments link below for even more discussion about this issue.
Mark Mosher
www.modulatethis.com
www.markmoshermusic.com
Copyright 2006, Newecho Productions, LLC
I'm running at a higher resolution than that. I wonder if there is an update to your video driver that might allow you to go higher.
Posted by: Mark Mosher | October 01, 2006 at 08:11 AM
THANK YOU!!!
Posted by: Brian F. | October 01, 2006 at 02:50 PM
It might also just take closing some other programs. I get this error in Itunes with Google Earth open but it works after I close it.
Posted by: Dave Dipper | October 01, 2006 at 06:20 PM
Dan Tepper: Thank you very much. I tried and it works. I thought I might had to buy a new video card. I just save a lot of money.
Posted by: Manuel | October 10, 2006 at 07:56 PM
Any other ideas anyone? My directX, vid drivers, itunes, quicktime, and everything else mentioned are up to date. Cover Flow worked perfectly for me when I first installed iTunes, now about 3 weeks later it just suddenly stopped working. Doesn't coincide with any change in my system that I can recall.
Posted by: Ryan | October 16, 2006 at 05:40 PM
I have gone through just about every method to fix this problem that i've seen, but none are working, and i have run into a roadblock. In one post it said to run the "dxdiag" and make sure my direct3d drivers are enabled. I tried this but it says the directdraw, direct3d, and agp texture acceleration are unavailable. Does this mean i need a new video card?
Posted by: Eric | November 18, 2006 at 01:14 PM
Making the "Hardware Acceleration" to "full" fixed my problem!
Posted by: Pattrik | November 30, 2006 at 07:26 PM
What do you do when your manufacturer's website does not have an update for your video driver?
Posted by: Pierry | December 23, 2006 at 06:56 AM
What do you do when your manufacturer's website doesn't have an update for your video driver?
Posted by: Pierry | December 23, 2006 at 06:57 AM
I am having this problem, but when i went to follow the steps to solve it, i noticed that my computer only has 24 bit as high color quality and i don't have the option of 32. does this mean that i cannot get the album covers? is there a way to fix this? help me please!
Posted by: Lorelai | December 28, 2006 at 09:12 AM
i am having the same problem and i followed the steps to solve it when i noticed that my highest color quality was 24 bit, not 32. does this mean i cannot get album covers? is there a way to fix this?? help me please!!
Posted by: Lorelai | December 28, 2006 at 09:15 AM
I just worked it out. I had Google earth open.
Posted by: john Mccarthy | December 29, 2006 at 09:16 AM
I had google earth open. closed it and displaying art work again. :-)
Posted by: john Mccarthy | December 29, 2006 at 09:18 AM
Changing to 32-bit worked for me.
Posted by: GP | January 04, 2007 at 07:47 PM
Tried all of the above. Latest iTunes, latest Quicktime, Latest Video drivers (Matrox G550 Duel Head), 32 Bit Colour, full hardware acceleration. dxdiag shows DirectDraw Acceleration enabled on both screen, Direct3 Acceleration enabled on both screens, AGP Texture acceleration enabled on screen 1 but not available on screen 2. (Running iTunes on Screen 1 BTW).
This still doesn't work for me. Anyone got any further suggestions?
Posted by: Ian M Butterfield | January 07, 2007 at 03:45 PM
I have a Matrox G550 DualHead too, have done all the steps and.... nothing happens!
Posted by: AlvaroCastroJr. | January 16, 2007 at 07:40 PM
If you have read this much you probably had the same problem I had.
dxdiag was telling me I only had directx 9b installed, and any attempt to upgrade to 9c failed.
Here is how I fixed it.
I uninstalled XP SP2.
Installed Directx 9c (from download).
Had to reinstall my latest graphics card driver as I believe SP2 removal x'd it.
Reinstalled SP2.
Voila.
Hope this helps
Posted by: G Drake | February 01, 2007 at 01:48 PM
i have this problem too...and my color doesnt go past 24...how do i fix that?
Posted by: jessie | February 11, 2007 at 04:37 PM
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
That's all I can say.
Posted by: NWJR | March 08, 2007 at 04:04 PM
Yes indeed. I resolved the problem by increasing colour depth from 16 bit to 32bit.
Posted by: Robert | March 22, 2007 at 01:09 AM