New Mac Mini Unibody connected to HDTV via HDMI cable.
When accessing the mini remotely through either "Back to My Mac" or Timbuktu, I'm unable to see photos in iPhoto or Preview, unable to open iMovie, and unable to see movies in Quicktime. The TV is off when accessed remotely. The photos in iPhoto and Preview open, but all that can be seen is a light grey window in the edit window of iPhoto or in Preview. iMovie app won't open at all and returns an error "Quartz Extreme Required..." Quicktime opens, but just shows a black screen.
I can remotely access another mac mini (older version, no HDMI) on the same LAN from the same remote computer, accessing an identical (backup) iPhoto library, but can see and edit photos. No grey screen. Other programs work, too.
If I turn on the TV that's connected to the Unibody HDMI mini, all those things work. The bug only seems to be when the HDMI mini's TV is not turned on, which is 90% of the times I remotely access it.
Called Apple support and chatted with MobileMe support. Both have escalated to higher levels and will get back to me.
Googling about the Quartz Extreme Error, I saw some discussions that others received a similar error when trying to open DVD Player on a Unibody mini connected via HDMI to a display that was turned off. I confirmed that DVD player gives me the same error. In these discussions, it seems that the DVD player loss of functionality may be intentional and related to the copyright protection included in HDMI.
At this point, I think it's a bug that is also preventing me from seeing my photos and home movies in iPhoto and iMovie.
Any thoughts or alternatives are welcome.
PS:
The reason I mention this and bother posting is that we use this mini as the main photo library. Because it's on a big screen, it's great for showing photos, but not great for editing them or deleting the bad photos after importing from a camera. I tend to use another mac to remotely edit and delete photos. When they showed up blank / grey, Apple support was unaware of the bug and had me delete the entire iPhoto library (14,000 photos). Yes, I had a time machine backup that covered all but the last 400 photos, however those 400 photos would have been lost (and in this case they were exceptionally and irreplaceable important photos.)
When accessing the mini remotely through either "Back to My Mac" or Timbuktu, I'm unable to see photos in iPhoto or Preview, unable to open iMovie, and unable to see movies in Quicktime. The TV is off when accessed remotely. The photos in iPhoto and Preview open, but all that can be seen is a light grey window in the edit window of iPhoto or in Preview. iMovie app won't open at all and returns an error "Quartz Extreme Required..." Quicktime opens, but just shows a black screen.
I can remotely access another mac mini (older version, no HDMI) on the same LAN from the same remote computer, accessing an identical (backup) iPhoto library, but can see and edit photos. No grey screen. Other programs work, too.
If I turn on the TV that's connected to the Unibody HDMI mini, all those things work. The bug only seems to be when the HDMI mini's TV is not turned on, which is 90% of the times I remotely access it.
Called Apple support and chatted with MobileMe support. Both have escalated to higher levels and will get back to me.
Googling about the Quartz Extreme Error, I saw some discussions that others received a similar error when trying to open DVD Player on a Unibody mini connected via HDMI to a display that was turned off. I confirmed that DVD player gives me the same error. In these discussions, it seems that the DVD player loss of functionality may be intentional and related to the copyright protection included in HDMI.
At this point, I think it's a bug that is also preventing me from seeing my photos and home movies in iPhoto and iMovie.
Any thoughts or alternatives are welcome.
PS:
The reason I mention this and bother posting is that we use this mini as the main photo library. Because it's on a big screen, it's great for showing photos, but not great for editing them or deleting the bad photos after importing from a camera. I tend to use another mac to remotely edit and delete photos. When they showed up blank / grey, Apple support was unaware of the bug and had me delete the entire iPhoto library (14,000 photos). Yes, I had a time machine backup that covered all but the last 400 photos, however those 400 photos would have been lost (and in this case they were exceptionally and irreplaceable important photos.)