Automatically start Front Row

I've ditched the AppleTV in favour of a second Mac Mini. Much better. I'm streaming HDTV bitstreams and DVD (MPEG) bitsreams from a USB drive attached to Airport Extreme. (Simple alias creation in the MOVIE folder and additional components installed for Quicktime). No loss of quality through converting to h.264. No waiting around 24 hours to encode. Front Row interface is MUCH better than AppleTV interface.
Two questions which I can't find the answer to: First, is there a way to automatically start front row? I would like the Mac Mini to automatically turn on (easy) and then automatically start the Front Row interface.
Second, is there a way to modify the Front Row menu structure?
All I would like is simply Videos: Movies. I would like ro remove (or hide) Sharing... Trailers... etc.
Any help would be appreciated.
Many thanks.

You can write an AppleScript, that you add to your user's login items, that will open Front Row each time you login. You can find the instructions here to write the script:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2148108
I don't think there's anyway to change the built-in menu structure, though. It's hard-coded into Front Row. You can add folders and sub-folders to your user's Movies folder. Front Row will follow them down into all your video files.
-Doug

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Automatically switch Front Row display to a second monitor

I know that it is possible to change the "primary monitor" in the System Proferences, start Front Row, and then manually change to primary monitor back later on, but is there a way to do this automatically?
Thanks

Hi Susan....
I occasionally use my MBP with my lcd TV and didn't want to mess around with stuff all the time, so I just mirror my MBP display onto the LCD TV. The MBP normally changes it's display to match the TV, and changes back when I disconnect. I also turn the brightness down to zero on the mbp to save the display!
Problem solved!

Auto start Front row when insert DVD

Bonjour,
May the subjet has been already discussed, but is anyone
know an applescipt that can auto start front row when a DVD is
loaded?
Thank you

I couldn't get this suggestion to work on two different Macs. I don't think the Front Row.app is handled the same way as other applications. For example, you can't launch Front Row by double clicking on it inside the CoreServices folder.
-Doug

Starting Front Row while the screensaver is on

Why can't I start front row with the remote once the screensaver has started?

I've submitted a bug report to Apple about this, as I imagine surely it was an oversight they can easily correct. Otherwise, it's a pretty big problem. I used to go days/weeks without ever having to use a keyboard or mouse with my HTPC, being able to do all I needed to only with the Apple remote. Now when my screensaver kicks in, I'm essentially locked out of the machine until I go turn on my bluetooth mouse. Not a big deal for a regular computer, but definitely a problem for a HTPC.

Apple tv starts front row

my wife just bought a mac book pro so now we have 2 on my apple extreme router. I keep all but my movies on external disk upstairs on a old g5. Now when i switch to apple tv downstairs it opens up front row on her mbp. i have to turn off her computer and restart itunes to get it working with tv. Any ideas thanx.

your remote is not PAIRED. Pair yours to your Apple TV and Pair hers to her to Machine. Out of the box the remote will operate all Apple TVs and Mac Machines with infrared.

Refresh content list in Front Row?

I'm using Front Row on a Mac Mini as a mediacenter for my LCD-TV. This Mac is only turned on as soon as I'm actually using it for listening to music, watching movies and video podcasts, etc.. When turned on it automatically starts Front Row and iTunes. Via iTunes I subscribed to various video podcasts which are downloaded as soon as a new episode is available.
The problem is that when new podcasts are available, iTunes actually starts downloading but they are not displayed in Front Row until I quit both Front Row and iTunes and restart Front Row. If I don't do this Front Row either says that there are no podcasts at all (even not the old ones) or it just doesn't display the new ones although they are finished downloading.
Is there a way to refresh the content list (eg for podcasts) in Front Row, either automatically or manual, without performing the sequence above? Or is it possible to make Front Row download the new episodes of the subscribed podcasts by itself without using iTunes?
Thanks.

first question:
are your movies in itunes also, thus appearing in front row with all the proper meta data? If so, you'll have to delete them from itunes also. Deleting just the movie from the HDD isn't enough

Front row in Lion 10.7 issue (-70012) and video_ts not playing issue -solved

Hi all,
thought I just post my solution to the front row issues in 10.7. I looked for a solution for days, and when I found it, I thought it would make other peoples live easier if I combine everything in one post.
I actually had a couple of issues:
PROBLEM:
first front row stopped playing VIDEO_TS files in 10.6.
the second issue occurred when I thought upgrading to 10.7 would solve the issue; Front row still couldn't play the VIDEO_TS, because FRONT ROW was gone...
SYMPTOMS:
both issues always showed the same symptoms:
when a dvd-back folder was selected, front row would show a black screen, and then, caused by my frantic pushing the ESC button, front row would give me the dvd player not valid -70012 error.
CAUSE:
so what happened? I chose to buy my MBP 17" with the smallest HDD (yep sorry, was cheap-s-ing). Then later that year, I decided to buy the HDD caddy and switch my internal superdrive for a SSD. I ended up placing the original HDD in the hdd caddy, which I then put in the Superdrive's slot, and I placed the SSD in the slot where the original HDD was residing first. I now had a MBP 17" late 2011, with vertex3 SSD. I forgot, I also put in 16 GB, replacing the 8 GB.
So, when I back-upped all my favorite DVDs as VIDEO_TS files, (no I did not download dvds through usenet), grabbed the popcorn, and started Front Row, the disappointment began. No VIDEO_TS file would play, always the same -70012 error message. So after a lot of internet research I stumbled upon a guy who said: yeah, you have to upgrade to 10.7. After the upgrade my FRONT ROW was gone.
SOLUTIONS:
In 10.6:
As Apple's DVD player is always looking for the internal dvd player as a prerequisite to start, Front Row, which uses Apple's DVD player as video player, will throw up the -70012 error. 'Cause it finds the HDD in the HDD Caddy instead of the SuperDrive. So in 10.6 (and in 10.7 also) you can use the following solution:
(I got this solution partial from http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20070591-263.html)
1: modify the DVDPlayback framework that the DVD Player uses so that it will recognize external drive as a valid DVD playback device. (The HDD Caddy came with an external casing for the SuperDrive)
2: download a hex editor (I used Hexedit 220 from http://hexedit.sourceforge.net/ )
3: Go to the folder /System/Library/Frameworks/ and back up the file "DVDPlayback.framework."
4: Open Hexedit_220 and use it to open the following file:/System/Library/Frameworks/DVDPlayback.framework/Versions/A/DVDPlayback.
5: Using the editor's find&replace through COMMAND-F, replace "Internal" with the text "External" and save the file. Note that Hexedit also saves a backup automatically.
6: Close the file once saved, and then run a permissions fix on the boot drive using Disk Utility. Then restart the system and you should now be able to play DVDs off the external drive using DVD Player. That is, If you use an external dvd player (which I don't use).
7: I inserted a very small USB stick in the MBP with no data on it, and Front Row and Apple DVD Player accepted this. I could now play my backupped DVDs.
ofcourse, I still wanted to upgrade to 10.7, so here's the solution to 10.7
10.7:
upgrading was a simple click with the mouse, worked like a charm, Office still worked, and some minor updates installed through software.
Front Row however, gone...
I used the steps outlined in http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/21/front-row-for-mac-os-x-lion/ to get Front Row back:
- first get the package from Madhatter: Download the free package installer by MacHatter
- install, or customize the install
- all done.
Then I used the steps from step 3 through 7 outlined above in solution 10.6.
Catch:
So I did not find a solution to fooling the DVD Player / Front Row with the USB stick. So everytime I watch VIDEO_TS in Front Row the USB stick must be inserted. But, the good news, I can still use my remote control for something.
Hope I helped some guys out there with this solution.
Regards,
Johnno

The issue has previously hit Apple TV owners. I think people came to the conclusion that it was a HDMI handshake problem. Basically the process where the device and TV greet each other, make up some rules about communicationg and what their secret key is and so on.
I haven't tried this yet, but my local service center says that basically I can do one of two things:
- Downgrade to 10.7 and then download the 10.7.1 update from Apples website. To do this without having a Mac OS X Lion disc, you can hold down CMD + R when the computer boots to be able to access the recovery partition on newer Macs that come without the OS disc.
or..
- Put something in between the computer and TV. For example, if you're using an amplifier as a part of your home theather set up, this will probably work. The service guy said he has his Mini connected to the amplifier, which in turn is connected to speakers and a projector. The inverted colors still appear, but only once per night (i.e. after the first problem is reset by resetting the link then it's fine).
For now, I'll do my little dance of changing the source on the TV from HDMI 1 to HDMI 2 and then back again to reset the link... But, I'll probably try downgrading in a few days.

Using Front Row on a second display

TVRow version 2 is now available:
http://sites.google.com/site/robijnx/products/tvrow201
This allows the user to select which display Front Row uses. It is useful for home entertainment (eg using a projector or plasma TV).
This topic is covered in an archived discussion:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1374039&tstart=0
and some more background at:
http://users.tpg.com.au/aoaug/mac_video.html#frontrow
(eg external displays on an iMac G5)
It would be useful if this option was available directly in Front Row settings.

Having used TV Roow 2 for a few weeks, I do find it as nuisance that I cannot swap displays with Front Row running. Sometimes I want to run Front Row on the iMac and other times on the projector. I need to select TV Row from the Dock and change the display option to achieve this. In some respects Version 1 was better because starting TV Row automatically sent Front Row to the projector, whereas starting Front Row with teh Apple Remote left it on the iMac.
Still waiting for Front Row to include a menu to select the display to use...

Two problems with Front Row

Hello.
I have all my music on my iMac and I am streaming it to my Mac Mini connected to my TV and stereo. What I have noticed is that the cover art on my music tracks don't show when I play any of the shared tracks or playlists, just the default picture with the two notes. Is there something I can do that will display it? I have tried to start iTunes and connect the shared library there before starting Front Row but that didn't help.
I also have a problem with listing my pictures in Front Row. I have an external drive connected to my Mini that has all my pictures and movies. I have no trouble playing the movies (I created an alias in the Movies catalog to the Movies catalog on the external drive), but if I create an alias in the Pictures catalog to the Pictures catalog on the external drive the catalog isn't shown in Front Row. Do I have to import all the pictures into iPhoto? I don't use iPhoto at all because I always use the program that came with my Nikon camera that shows all the picture information, such as focal length, what lens I used, white balance setting, etc. (or Adobe Photoshop Elements it I want to make some changes). Is there something I can do to fix this too?
Thanks,
Erik Aleksander Moe

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 video

i dont know what it is.. but front row is VERY slow when i wanna play videos (even mpeg4 and h264 videos) i tried to install divx, but it isnt getting better.. everytime i start front row and choose videos its horrible, i have to wait for 2 minutes, then my videos are listed, when i wanna go back it takes me nearly 5 minutes, i dont know how to close front row manually. any ideas to get this thing faster?
tomorrow ill get my memory, maybe it will get faster..

i think it is the latest version of front row, there is no update available on the update service of macosx..
i dont have ANY things in my itunes database
the movie folder konsists of 6 files à 300mb
but i think MOVIES, are much bigger than that.. so it shoul handle it..
why the **** sells apple computers with only 512mb of ram? seems so tiny!

Front Row Issue When iTunes is Running

On my Mac Mini (which is our media centre), I've noticed some strange behaviour. Namely, if I leave iTunes running and then start Front Row, after a while (up to 24 hours sometimes), Front Row can no longer see the iTunes library. With iTunes shutdown this doesn't happen.....

I have confirmed that this issue only exists with a library on a network share. Local libraries seem to work fine. I have submitted a bug report to Apple.
To anyone from Apple who may be reading: this is a huge degradation in capability for those of us who use our Macs as media servers and need the ability to simultaneously use front row locally and share the music library with other computers. I am looking forward to a fix.

Front row - black screen with audio

I recently installed Leopard on my old iBook.
When i start Front row, I can see the menus , trailer list, movie list etc., but when i play anything, the screen goes blank, i can see a progress bar moving(which auto-hides), and audio is also OK, but there is no video.the screen just goes blank and remains that way.
I have perian installed on my machine and all videos work OK in quicktime, VLC etc.
any possible solutions for this? has anyone else also faced this issue ?
thanks.

I can get a picture with Quicktime...but if I try to get enlarge the screen, the picture often becomes corrupted. I'm just rather annoyed that I spent $40 on this series and am having these issues. I only downloaded iTunes because there was no other option of getting this show. I've waited 24 years to see the entire "Liberty Stone" Mini-series (there was a problem with the tapes DIC released and they were missing eps)...so this just feels like a taunt.
I'm hoping this gets fixed quickly. It sounds like there is a lack of standardization with the DRM being used on these files.

Front Row and iTunes Radio

Hi,
I found no other forum for my question.
Therefore I post my message here:
I have a brand new iMac G5 20" (build in iSight) and I missing the iTunes radio station in Front Row.
Is this not supported yet?
Sorry for my bad english. I'm from germany
Greetings, Bernd

Hello David,
same problem internet radio and itunes.
Sorry, I mean "internet radio" too and not an real radio
Work around
make a new playlist called radio
Drag the radio linke into it then start front row and
you should see the Radio playlist
Thanx, I will try it.
Greetings, Bernd

Does Front Row use Quicktime plugins during play?

Hi,
Just curious - does Front Row play everything that you've set up Quicktime to play? For example, if my Quicktime can play Divx files that my Toast 7 creates, does that automatically mean Front Row can play them as well? Or, does Front Row have it's own feature set of things it will and won't play?
Thanks

Yes, it does. Any app that uses the QuickTime architecture has available everything else that QuickTime does.

I need sherlock and Front Row 1.3.1 Back! New Front Row is USELESS!

I need sherlock back, I used it all the time, now its missing!
, also the old Front Row 1.3.1 was AMAZING, the new one looks really bad and the fonts are too small to use from far away (as what it was intended for) I used it before now its just to hard to read from my bed and looks ugly too. I like the 4 animated Icons when you start front row, and also liked the animated preview of a movie instead of a frozen frame.
Apple downgraded a major part of what I use for $129
Please help me get the old front row and sherlock back from my tiger DVD's.

Computeradam wrote:
I need sherlock back, I used it all the time, now its missing!
, also the old Front Row 1.3.1 was AMAZING, the new one looks really bad and the fonts are too small to use from far away (as what it was intended for) I used it before now its just to hard to read from my bed and looks ugly too. I like the 4 animated Icons when you start front row, and also liked the animated preview of a movie instead of a frozen frame.
Apple downgraded a major part of what I use for $129
Please help me get the old front row and sherlock back from my tiger DVD's.
Well, you can install Tiger on an external drive and boot into it when you need to. I am NOT being sarcastic. I use Sherlock all the time and was disappointed to find him "retired" and back to bee keeping. Even MS still has Watson, don't they?
My G5 is dual boot - I planned it that way. One internal drive is Tiger, the other Leopard.
I will partition my external LaCie drives so that one partition will be a bootable Tiger clone, the rest of the partition for Leopard's TM.
The best of both worlds is to have both worlds, right? Then the decision becomes moot. Keep "Plan A" and "Plan B" and you can't lose.

Automatically start Front Row

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