2 Front Row questions: Documentation? Low volume?

Love Front Row, especially since I bought an Apple Remote; HOWEVER... I can't figure out how to add videos (my own, not iTune stores) so I can watch them in 'Movies.' Can you only watch video (other than physical DVDs) that resides in iTunes? And I cannot understand why the volume, song-for-song, in Front Row is a LOT lower than in iTunes, even cranked all the way up.
Is there some documentation, somewhere, on working with Front Row? Everything I've seen says "Go to 'Mac Help' and look up 'Front Row;' which I have, with these anemic topic results:
About iTunes
Apple Remote buttons to use with Front Row
If you don’t see a DVD menu in Front Row
If “Your computer is not connected to the Internet” appears
Shortcuts for Front Row
Turning off the screen saver in Front Row
Using Front Row to play music from a shared iTunes library
I'd like to do much more with 'Front Row,' but I need more information -- can anyone help?
Thanks!
Bart Brown

If you can play your own videos using the QuickTime Player application, you can put your videos into your user's "Movies" folder. Front Row will look in there for loose video files that are not in iTunes. If you can't play your videos using the QuickTime Player application, they won't appear in Front Row even if they are in your user's "Movies" folder. There are a couple of plug-ins for QuickTime that might help you play more types of video files.
Front Row version 1.x in Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger) used to open iTunes in the background when you played a song. This would give the Front Row interface access to all features of iTunes including the "sound check" option to adjust the volume of all songs so they're similar. Front Row version 2.x in Mac OS X 10.5.x and 10.6.x has direct access to your iTunes library without using iTunes. Unfortunately, this access does not seem to touch all features, like "sound check". My impression is also that Front Row is a bit quieter than playing music in iTunes directly. However, for me, it's not too noticeable.
-Doug

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Use front row to control airtunes volume

is there any way to use front row (and remote) to control volume on external airtunes speakers instead of system volume? i understand how to select them, just want to know how to do volumes. thanks.

You're talking about using the volume slider within iTunes? Or using the remote to actually control the speakers?
If the former, than try the App called iRedLite. It lets you remap the remote's inputs to different functions.
If you're familiar with AppleScript you can make the up and down buttons control the volume slider.
Open Script Editor, then open the iTunes Dictionary. Find the "volume up" and "volume down" and use those in iRedLite.
This should work, hope I helped.

Front Row questions

1. Is the movie trailer list automatically updated? If so how often?
2. In the music section, the top two options I see are 'Top- Titel' and Top - Musikvideos'. Now I might be missing something but these appear to not be in my native language! Is there a regional setting somewhere?
Any help much appreciated.

Hi Matt,
1.) Yes. The trailer list is connected to Apple.com/trailers. There is no specific time frame in which the trailers are updated, but every time a trailer is added to the Apple.com page, your Front Row is also updated.
2.) I also have 'Top-Titel' and 'Top Musikvideos' on Front Row. I know German, and this is the language. I think that it is somehow accidentally connected to the iTunes Store language. One day, I changed the store language to German for one day, and then changed it back to English. From that point onward, Front Row music is now in German. But, this is not right, since everything else in Front Row is in English. (I am assuming you are the same.) Have you ever done language-changing to you iTunes Store? If not, then it must be an unrelated bug in Front Row. If so, I tinkered with iTunes languages, and nothing worked.
Sorry.
~Christoph

Thinking of buying iMac, Front row Question

I'm thinking of getting a new iMac that would be hooked up to my media center downstairs and used by my wife for non-front row purposes (email, internet access). My problem is I've read somewhere that Front Row might not work with music from a connected iPod or shared libraries over a home network. Since my 140GB music collection is upstairs on my G5 this is an issue I need to have clarified because not being able to view content on any of my networked macs would negate one of the reasons I'm buying this mac.
So, can Front Row play music from my networked G5 upstairs or am I going to be better off fixing up my old Pismo to give to my wife and buying something like the Squeezebox (http://www.slimdevices.com/) for my media needs?

Front Row needs the audio files to be in the designated iTunes folder. However, I don't believe this folder needs to be on the iMac. If you changed the iTunes Folder Location in iTunes Preferences to the networked G5 then I believe Front Row will play those tracks from the G5 as long as you have the G5's hard drive mounted via File Sharing.
The following is from iTunes Help:
If you try to play a song in Front Row on your iMac G5 (iSight) but the application can't find the song because it's not in the default iTunes library, you'll see an alert message that either says, "iTunes cannot play this song" or "Communications error." If this happens, just show Front Row where you keep your music.
If you keep all of your music in one folder location:
Open iTunes.
From the iTunes menu, choose Preferences.
Click the Advanced tab, then click the General tab below it.
Click Change next to the "iTunes Music folder location" section.
Navigate to and select the folder that contains your tunes.
Click Choose.
Click OK.
If your music is stored in different folder locations:
Open iTunes.
From the Advanced menu, choose Consolidate Library to copy songs from all locations to your default iTunes Music folder. Let the consolidation process finish before you go back to Front Row.
Tip: If you want to play just one song from another folder, play the song in iTunes first. Front Row will be able to find it once iTunes knows where the song is located.

Front Row 1.2.1 No More Volume Control

Installed Front Row 1.2.1 on my iMac G5 iSight through Software Update, along with the other updates, and repaired permissions afterwards. The volume cannot be adjusted using the keyboard arrow keys or the Apple Remote. When + or - is pressed on the remote, the volume slider appears, but now the volume is on maximum, and cannot be adjusted. This is not limited to iTunes, it also occurred when playing QuickTime movies. The regular volume keys on the keyboard continue to adjust the main system volume, but we now lost the remote volume control. Hopefully there will be a fix soon.

Solved my own problem through troubleshooting. The HK SoundSticks were the problem. When I got the new iMac G5 iSight, they worked great. Somewhere along the lines, the HK's got confused and my sound preference pane said No settings for this output device.
Browing the discussion boards, this has been a known issue...but the cause is difficult to determine.
If I boot from my external FireWire, all is well. The internal iMac drive, problem. Something could have happened with the migration from my PowerBook to the iMac, or a system update caused trouble.
I tried the quick solution...changed USB ports. Problem solved. The balance control is back and Front Row can control the volume once again. Bizarre, isn't it?

Front Row - Movies Without Sound

I have imported a good portion of my DVD library using different software packages. The imported movies play fine on my iPod, in iTunes and everywhere else I have tried to play them, however, I hear no sound when playing them through Front Row. What would prevent the sound from being heard only in Front Row even though the volume is set all the way up?

My Quicktime Player is version 7.2.0 and Front Row is version 1.3.1. Front Row was actually updated yesterday and I was hoping that the update would have fixed it. I actually have all of the updates downloaded and on my system.
I set up a new test user, as you suggested, to help determine if it is just some configuration issue. The test user, however, still had the same problem in that Quicktime and iTunes could play the movie with sound bu Front Row could not.
Please let me know what I can do from here. Would you like for me to send a portion of the movie file to you so that you can test it out on your end? Let me know.

HP Split x2 low volume solution?

I have searched and found the question of low volume asked but no answers.
I have gone though all the settings options and nothing changes. There is sound but it is very difficult to hear even with everything set to 100%. The test sounds are a very little bit louder than any other audio.
None of the solutions for other laptops work either.
Is it just because the onboard speakers suck?

kh54brew wrote:
I have searched and found the question of low volume asked but no answers.
I have gone though all the settings options and nothing changes. There is sound but it is very difficult to hear even with everything set to 100%. The test sounds are a very little bit louder than any other audio.
None of the solutions for other laptops work either.
Is it just because the onboard speakers suck?
I have the exact same problem. It seems to come and go. Sometimes the sound is very good and then sometimes, it's little more than a whisper.

Front Row: two questions

Hi,
I have two questions to Front Row:
1. Front Row have problems with playing video podcasts? Is this right so? I can't see video podcasts with Front Row
2. Front row have problems with sleep mode of my iMac G5 20".
When I use the Apple Remote to wake up my iMac from sleep mode, Front Row doesn't start here. I see only the Mac finder. Why?
Sorry for my bad english.
Greetings, Bernd

Bernd, since your comp is still under warranty you may wish to give the online tech support a try -->HERE<--</a>. Click on the "Chat with a support agent" link.
If you don't want to go that route, then I suggest that you call them over the phone. Hopefully, you have the AppleCare Protection Plan if your 90 day warranty ran out.
Good Luck.
G5 20' iMac w/iSight/Remote, 2.5GB RAM, 250GB HD Mac OS X (10.4) OS 10.4.3

FRONT ROW NOT INCLUDED IN LION????? (Rephrased as question since they erased my post!)

So I won't get my post, that many people we're discussing and figuring out a work around for Front Row, deleted by admin's I'll rephrase as a question.
WHY DID APPLE DELETE FRONT ROW? WILL THE REPLACE IT WITH ANOTHER APP? AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT THINKS APPLE TV IS POINTLESS IF YOU HAVE A MACBOOK WITH HDMI OUTPUT?
I hope instead of the admin's deleting this post (which to me shows they don't like the fact that we're downing Apple TV) they will give us an answer or some better work around. Otherwise the remote is pointless because if you can't see iTunes small text from across the room there's no way to control your Mac from across the room. Please discuss & don't delete.

No, like I said, Apple TV doesn't have a hard drive, so you can't download anything to it. You can only stream content in real time from other sources, either your Macbook, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or the internet. There is content available from Apple (and Netflix and MLB) that you can stream from the internet directly to your Apple TV, but it isn't always the same as the downloadable content. For example, you might be able to download a copy of the latest "Parks & Recreation" to your Macbook hard drive and then watch it by streaming it from your Macbook to your Apple TV. But that same episode might not show up in the Apple TV menu as a program available for direct streaming.
I think it's fair to say that Apple TV is an interface and works very similarly to Front Row, it's just makes things more convenient because you don't need to hook your computer up to the TV or worry about balancing your laptop on the edge your entertainment center, etc. It's the size of a hocky puck and fits seamlessly into the rest of your entertainment center.
Are they getting rid of FrontRow because they want to increase Apple TV sales? I don't know, but sometimes I get the feeling that Apple does things more out of a "let them eat cake" arrogance than outright greed. They probably decided in a meeting somewhere that Front Row wasn't "necessary" anymore because Apple TV provides a much more "elegant" solution. The fact that not everyone wants to shell out $99 for an Apple TV is probably not much of a concern to them.

Front Row playing shared TV video and using Fast-Forward question

I'm playing a shared TV video on my Black MacBook from my iTunes running on my PowerMac G5 across my home ethernet 10/100/1000 network. The TV video plays just fine and I can pause it using the Remote just fine. However, according to the documentation for the Remote while using Front Row in this manner, the Remote's Fast-forward is supposed to fast-forward the video if it's pressed and held down. It does not do this! It simply shows the progress bar for the video with played time on left and remaining time on right. I held the button down for at least 30 secs but to no avail. I let up on the button and press and held down for another 30 secs or so but it still would not fast-forward as the documention says it should.
My MacBook is updated with all the latest Apple software downloads for MacBook.
Have others experienced this problem, and if so is there a soln to this at this time or does one simply wait for Apple to fix it.
I will be sending feedback to Apple on this issue.
Thanks for any insights in advance.

Update...
I left Front Row paused on a shared TV Video all night. In morning time screen was black and I could not resume playback.
I backed out all the way to Desktop and restarted Front Row and selected same shared TV Video - and this time the fast-forward button worked as documented. Go figure this one
However, when I tried several Shared TV Videos I only got audio in some cases and when I did get a video feed it was not moving yet audio kept rolling along. I had to back off to the Desktop several times and restart Front Row to get things working correctly. If you enecounter this just do what I did here and you'll get things going - just don't give up on it, is my advice. :-))
This raised another issue - It appears that pause/play Remote button will not work (at least for me) after extended pause time (like for 8 hrs).
Apple has some fine tuning to do on this Front Row feature - although I will add they've done a pretty darn good job with its initial release IMO.

Front Row: Volume Contol

So I have this great new setup in my dorm using the Airport Express to conect my speakers on the other side of the room and I wanted to contol the volume of my music with the remote going through Front Row and noting happened. The volume just stayed at the same level. Then I started looking into the discussions and found nothing helpful. I think that some of you (readers) can relate to this. If there is anyone that can tell me somthing that I havn't already read that would be great. Because this frankly doesn't make any sence to me...why have the remote if it will not integrate with all Apple products.
20" iMac Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Currently Front Row only controls the system volume through the analog output, it only adjusts the system volume, not the volume control inside iTunes which controls the volume sent to the Airport Express.
One potential solution is to use Romeo or Sailing Clicker with a mobile phone to control the iTunes volume.
iFelix

Noob questions about front row and back up...

Dear all,
Please can you assist with the following for a proud new mac owner?
1) Why do some songs/albums not play in front row but work in itunes?
2) I have an external hard drive, iomega 500gb, which is very noisy. So i keep it switched off from the back. Can time machine still back up or does the external HDD have to be switched on?
Many thanks...

Hi Fireball Dragon
1. I don't have a definite answer for you, but it sounds like a problem with your iTunes Library or the way you Imported your music into it. Go to: *Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility* and run *Disk Utility Repair Permissions.*
Also how are you selecting Music to play in Front Row, Shuffle or by Albums, Artist, Songs?
2. No Time Machine will not backup with the External HD turned off, but it will resume backup as soon as it is switched on mounted. I personally don't run Time Machine backups every hour, I only switch it on for a few backups every day or after adding important files.
Dennis

Front Row -- MBP, question?

Hi,
I have the following computer listed below...
I also have a 22" LCD w/DVI connected to my computer... I have my computer setup so that my 22" extends the space of my MBP screen...
But -- When I launch Front Row, it launches on my MBP screen, not the 22". So, each time I want to use Front Row, I have to goto Monitors, and change so that 22" is my primary display........ This is really annoying, is there more a simple fix, so that I don't have to change things like this every time I want to use Front Row? I want MBP to be set as my primary display, 22" extending my desktop, but launching Front Row on my 22" ...
Help help appreciated..
Thanks,
J.

Unfortunately, right now Front Row only displays in the "main" or "primary" screen. This is the one that is displaying the Dock and menubar. Since Font Row doesn't really have any preferences you can access to change the display screen, there's no way to change it now. If you want, in the Displays System Preferences, there's an option to "show displays in the menubar". This will give you a menubar option to "mirror" displays pretty quickly without opening the Displays System Preferences. Then you could open Front Row with the remote and it would display on both screens. But, there's no real simple way to change the primary display quickly or switch back.
I might suggest you send Apple some Mac OS X feedback and suggest you'd like an option to select the display:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/
-Doug

Question about front row and screen saver

I just got my Imac 20 inch screen computer. I've done every thing the directions say about starting my screen saver but it just wont start. Also in my itunes music library, that little remote control that lets your music play automatically while showing the album covers for the songs that are playing. Thats called front row. I see in preferences in front row that it says my screen saver is on but still it wont show my screen saver of which I chose from the apple menu. And front row only plays a few of my songs from my itunes library. Most of the songs, when I am trying to let them play automatically from the remote, will not play. When I try to click on a song from the remote that is not playing I get this sighn that says "front row cannot play this song. Return to Menu". All the songs in my Itunes library play fine when playing them directly from the library. It just seems like this "front row" thing is not working properly. Any one got any suggestions?
Thanks

I think I can verify that the screensaver should NOT be activating during a (DVD at least) movie; I've watched several without any screensaver intervention. Apple's been smart enough to disable the screensaver during DVD playback for quite some time - my brother was surprised when his Windows box at work interrupted his DVD with the screensaver.
However, the screensaver (and password) did activate during FR iTunes play today. That was fine until I needed to pause playback and take a phone call. Can't pause without entering password, so I just closed the MBP's lid to put it to sleep. Annoying. Clearly, there are folks who'd prefer the screensaver never start when FR is active. Other security-minded folks might feel differently; fine, give us a preference pane.
As my brother likes to say, whenever faced with the rare Apple problem, "Fix it Steve!" (Neither of us bother with "Fix it Bill," we know that's futile.)
MacBook Pro 15" Mac OS X (10.4.7)
MacBook Pro 15" Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Remove certain movies from Front Row

Hi guys!
I appreciate any advice or guidance on the issue; thank you in advance.
I have my movies in iTunes; they play fine in FR. A good chunk of them have terrible resolution from being compressed over and over with bad setting choices, mainly digitized vhs footage from home movies. Anyways, these movies look pretty bad.
Luckily, I have the originals on a external hd. They are mostly .avi and are in a better quality. I've realized I can just bring these into my "movies" folder, and they work fine, thanks to Perian. I do not do this though because I don't want to occupy space on my main hd, so I just make aliases and bring them into the "movies" folder.
Now, this is okay with me, but I'm a picky guy, and I like my style...
I want to change the metadata so that I can show "artwork" rather that a frame from the movie, plus have a description etc. On a side note if anyone knows of a better way then I am doing it, I am all ears!
So, I open the movies in Quicktime, and save as a reference movie. I then bring the reference movie into MetaX (which lets me add artwork, etc...) Then I can just pop those into iTunes.
Now, this is where it gets tricky/weird. I realize that:
1. I can drop these files in Itunes.
2. This takes up space on my main hd (which I do not want if I do not have to)
3. I now have duplicates (a low rez and a good quality version)
4. Syncing my iPod will bring the reference moves along "for the ride"
ok, so I can just choose which movies to sync to my ipod by checking which movies I want in the setting menu, so no worry about the reference files coming with.
I was wondering is there a way to make an alias of the reference file so that it doesn't take up any space on my main hd?
Irregardless of that situation, I am still stuck with 2 versions of my movies in iTunes.
I want the poorer quality movies on my iPod and iTunes, but only my good quality movies in Front Row. Is there a way to remove the poor quality moves from Front Row while still keeping them in iTunes?
Okay, one last question, which probably should have been the first one. What is the difference between a reference movie and an alias, outside of being able to change meta data? Is a reference movie the equivalent to the "box" that a dvd comes in? You know, it has some pictures on it, cast, description etc...?
If I bring a reference file onto my iPod, will it bring the original (good quality) movie instead? Or have I now got some sort of super awesome compressed version of the movie without any quality loss (or is this some sort of fantastic dream)?
Thank you for any advice. I'm sorry that this is a little long-winded.
I expect someone to replay with "No." as the answer. LOL
Thanks everybody,
Ethan

You're kind of on your way with the solution.
I would like to have posters for my good quality film in itunes+FR, but not on my ipod.
I want the low quality ones on my ipod, but not in my front row.
I've come up with a semi-solution so far.
I've brought the good ones into itunes, with the "copy files to itunes music folder" unchecked. I changed all the info in itunes, and posters etc.... Then I marked all of my low rez movies as tv shows, in a show called "movies"
it is not an ideal solution, but what I am really after is having a "clean" look in itunes when you choose "movies". This might be as close as I can get.
I would prefer something better if at all possible. But I can live with this if I have to. My main concern is that my "tv shows" folder is overflowing with shows. Luckily, they are grouped together by show, and not just in random order.
One thing that would really help, I do not know if this is possible. This would be the ideal solution: if you could create a "show name" folder in the "movies"tab (in itunes/FR)(not to be confused w/ the "movies" in finder) as you can in the "tv shows" tab in itunes.
I've found that because front row has a lack of preferences, and itunes's preferences do not give you enough control; this just turns into a mess.
iLife should be simple, hence the "i" in iLife. LOL
Ethan

2 Front Row questions: Documentation? Low volume?

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