Eliminate iTunes’ Stutter

iTunes stutters. Y-Yu-Y-You heard me. It didn’t always do this, though. When I first ran iTunes on my PC, it was a wondrous revelation… but recently, probably after a software update, it developed a stutter. I got fed up tonight and searched until I found the answer buried in an Apple messageboard, away from Google’s prying eyes. The culprit: DirectSound.

Yes, Apple is now using Microsoft’s pitiful DirectSound via QuickTime to play iTunes music. I don’t know if it’s always been this way (I don’t think so), but the way to remedy the stutter is to close iTunes, open QuickTime preferences, and change the ‘Sound Out’ from DirectSound to something more reasonable, like ‘Wave Out.’ Close QuickTime Preferences, open iTunes, and poof! Stutter banished.

Yes, I know I should buy a Mac. I have. Actually, five. And that’s just the new ones over the years. But I use my PCs, too, and with 1GB of ram, my 2.4GHz main desktop PC should not have had any trouble with iTunes… Our Powerbooks sure don’t.