Will Quick Time Pro solve problems watching video on external hard drive

I need to review raw footage for a documentary that's been loaded to an external hard drive, but although the first frame comes up in Quick Time and it will play for a few frames, it hangs up. Also there are no timecodes. Would buying Quick Time Pro solve this problem?

No.

You haven't mentioned how the drive is connected, nor have you mentioned what format the footage is in. These things need to be known before we can give you a meaningful answer.

QuickTime Pro & video on external hard drive

It's high def footage. The connection is through a USB port, the only port provided on the hard drive. Any thing else I can tell you? My expertise is in writing, not technology, so I fumble a lot with technology details. But thanking you in advance for your help.

If it's a USB2 port, I have found the problem.

You will probably want to find a faster connection to view or work with HD footage through an external drive -- something like Firewire 800 (a standard in the video industry), eSATA, USB3 or Thunderbolt if you have it on board. Of all the connections mentioned, USB2 is by far the slowest, and combined with the speed of your drive probably can't transfer the file fast enough.

Should changing the connection standard isn't an option, you'll need to copy the file onto your own boot drive (or another external connected to a faster standard) in order to view/work with it smoothly.