Controlling DVDs in Front Row on a Mac Mini

I have a Mac Mini I run as a media server on my TV. Most of my movies are digital & I have them loaded in iTunes, so I am able to access them & play them with no problem. Some of my movies, particularly my daughter's cartoons, are not on the hard drive & I have the physical DVD. I popped one in today & was totally lost as to how to navigate the menu with the apple remote (1st gen white plastic one). Up & down changed the volume while right & left either fast forwarded or rewound. The remote is not directional like I assumed it would be.
I do not have a keyboard or mouse hooked up to this machine. Whenever I need to do anything outside of Front Row, I use Screen Sharing on my MacBook Pro. I don't want to have to go in & start the DVD from my MBP every time I put a new one in. How can I control a DVD & navigate the menu with an apple remote in Front Row?

Unfortunately, this is a problem with some individual DVD movies. The menus don't work correctly. Most DVDs work fine but a few have the very issue you've described.
Mac OS X 10.6.3 was released on Monday and does include an update to Front Row. I don't have a DVD that didn't work, so I can't try it for you. But, it might be worth installing the Mac OS update to see if Apple's fixed this known issue.
-Doug

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Using Airport Express to listen DVD via Front Row and Optical Out

I want to find out if this is possible:
I currently have Macbook Black Core 2 Duo. I enjoy watching DVDs using Front Row. The DVI video cable goes to the projector which is at the back of my room. Since the Macbook is close to the projector, I have to run optical audio cable to the 5.1 Dolby Digital home theater sound system at the front of my room.
I am interested in the AirPort Express because it can play iTunes wirelessly and use optical output to hook up the stereo system.
The question I want to know is if it's possible to connect Airport Express optical output into my Dobly Digital sound system so I can watch and listen DVD movies via Front Row? If not, any other alternatives? When searching through topics, it seems the users said Rogue Amoeba has a lag issue. Even I am not sure it can do optical output capabilites. Any thoughts. Thanks!
Mac OS X (10.3.9)

KonradL, Welcome to the discussion area!
To stream non-iTunes music to the AirPort Express (AX) you need Airfoil.

Watching dvds in front row = displays sleeps

hi all - i gots the following problem
watching dvds in front row = displays sleeps - or at least dulls back until i use the trackpad to wake it
i assumed that this would not be issue with front row as it would be obvious that i wanted the dvd shown full screen - any ideas?

Wow, I never found this before. I played the dvd in front row on best performance (battery setting) and the display went black. I closed front row and opened it in dvd player and it played for 15 min and never went black.
Any way I went into energy saver and adjusted custom to never turn off display then opened front row. That seems to have worked.

Front row with a mac pro . . .

hi im just trying to figure out how i cn use front row with my macpro? has anyone figured out a way , or know how to do it? i would prefer if i didnt have to buy a remote but i will if i have to. thanks heaps
luke

Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
Right now, Apple only supports Front Row on Macs that have a built-in infrared receiver and shipped with an Apple remote. However, when Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) is released, it will include Front Row for all Macs that are compatible with Leopard (like your Mac Pro). You can use the keyboard to run Front Row (Apple-esc opens it, for example), so you'll have an option if you upgrade when it's released.
If you want to use similar software now, you can install .
-Doug

Screen Saver starts while playing DVD in Front Row (Tiger)

Just recently, Screen Saver starts while playing a DVD in Front Row. This never used to happen and I suspect it's due to some software update. I know that Leopard users now have Settings within Front Row to disable the Screen Saver...but why is this just now happening in Tiger? Playing a DVD in Front Row used to override whatever Screen Saver settings there were.
Part of the convenience of using Front Row is now lost for me. I don't want to have to adjust my Energy Saver settings each and every time I want to use Front Row to play a DVD. And I'm not ready to upgrade to Leopard yet.
Any solutions? Any way Tiger users can adjust settings in Front Row?

Not sure if this works on Tiger, but this may be the solution you are looking for
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/caffeine.html

How can I read several avi files in single DVD with FRONT ROW?

Hi!
Is it possible to make Front Row read several movie files in a single DVD?
I burned 6/7 avi files in each DVD, but Front Row can't even read the DVD itself!
Thanks!

Hi Imcaet
It sounds as though you have made a Data DVD rather than a Movie DVD. Front Row can only read Movie DVDs. All Data must be in iTunes, or in on of the directories it looks in, such as "Movies" in your home directory.
If you need to combine the movies, you will need something like QuickTime Pro 7, which can be purchased from the Apple website. You need to Select All the movie you wish to Append, Copy, go to the End of the movie you wish to Append to, and Paste. You can then save/export the movie in full.

How do I create a backup DVD OS disk for my new mac mini ?

how do I create a backup DVD OS disk for my new mac mini ?
in case of failure HD etc
no disks came with it

No disk-version of Lion, but a Lion Thumb Drive http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256
For the downloaded OSX Lion form the Mac App Store you can use this http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/39701/lion-diskmaker to make yourself a disk.
And have a read here http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=getting-lion-installers on how-to get/make a machine-specific OSX Lion installer disk.
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Big Mini Trouble with DVD and Front Row

Set-Up
I am trying to use my mac mini as a media centre connected to a 42" sharp aquos 1080HD, for sound i use a 5.1 bose speaker set-up, which is irrelevant to my problem, but the mac interfaces with a yamaha rxv661B 7.1 channel digital home theatre receiver, via DVI to HDMI and sound through head phone to RCA set-up that will soon be upgraded to optical. All connected to the appropriate DVD channels on the recevier, video goes to the TV via HDMI. My set-up has no DVD player other than the super drive on the mac mini, the only other input is a Bell ExpressVu 9200 PVR.
My Problem
1. Playing DVDs the brightness on the picture fluctuates in a very regular wave like pulse. What am I doing wrong?
2. Front Row Crashes the computer whenever I try to access any of the movie files. The files play fine when accessed directly or through itunes but crash the system in front row. DVDs play, and the online movie clips play, and music and picture content are no problem.
Any help would be much appreciated
As an aside does anyone know if youtube will be available to non Apple-TV front row users, as well?
Mini 1.83 Mac OS X (10.4.7) 12" Powerbook G4

Everything is plugged into a three pronged plug using a relatively sophisticated surge protecting power bar, but you may be on to something, the power bar has a light to indicate if it is properly grounded and that has not lit up since its been in use, perhaps the outlet isn't properly grounded, I live in a recently renovated 100yr old home.
As for the files they are a mixture of mpg, mov and a number of m4v (that might be my postal not a file format) I mean the ipod format, a lot of the video files I produce I put directly into the ipod ready format.

DVD through Front Row locks up first time

Hi,
one of my issues with the new mac mini is that the dvd menu is unresponsive the first time I load a dvd. I need to exit the player (menu button on remote) then play from the beginning again and then the disc will work.
Anyone else also having this issue?

that used to happen on my mac mini...have you tried downloading the most recent version of front row?
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/frontrow122.html
Fun, cheap games! Mac OS X (10.4.6) www.ragdollsoft.com || Intel Mac Mini Core Solo-1 GB RAM-Superdrive

Can you play a dvd without front row?

hey,
Is it possible to just insert a DVD and select the DVD player app to look at it or do you have to go through the front row DVD player?
Sorry if this is a strange or stupid question. I am currently a windows XP user.
Thanks
Bjorn

You can also set your computer to auto load the DVD Player when you insert a DVD.
Go to System Preferences under the Apple menu.
Click the CDs and DVDs Preference Pane.
Using the drop down menus you can set the applications you would like your Mac to use when you insert specific kinds of disks.

Best way to get DVD into Front Row?

I have a some non-copyrighted DVD's that I would like to get into Front Row without losing the image quality.
Any suggestions?

I just found a used hi8 camcorder locally with a dv connection so would I be better off
1)transferring 8mm cassettes into imovie as dv
or
2) transferring 8 mm cassettes to my standalone dvd recorder and then ripping them on mac, i have done this with one and takes about 2 hours to rip and encode however when dragging the mov file after dvd conversion into imovie I am getting a reading that it will take up to a day to import into imovie.
I know doing dv to mac is easier then #2 but this will cost me money since I would have to buy this 8mm recorder with a dv connection, will there be a difference of quality.
My goal in the end is to have these 15 home movies that are on 8mm tapes on an ext hd edited and as big as possible or good as possible in quality, then I would probably do more serious edits to them and save as smaller files for viewing either via front row or maybe even burning to dvds.
Message was edited by: rwltrz4

Aspect Ratio on DVDs through Front Row

I've been quite encouraged by FR's new acceptance of DVDs as a source (place ripped DVD movie folders into your ~movies folder or aliases to DVD folder... they appear and play in FR). I have it set up so I can browse over 600 DVDs on various remote drives along with the preview picture (place DVD cover image named preview.jpg in the DVD folder, not the VIDEO_TS folder).
It works great on my 50" Pioneer Elite hooked up to the networked MacMini, and I appear to get surround sound pass through as well.
The problem is that some DVD's I have are encoded in full screen (but in wide mode) so that the video, while actually in the widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, actually appears smaller than the screen so that there is a black border around the entire video. It plays fine, only smaller.
In DVD player, you can do Video Zoom and fill the screen but FR doesn't seem to offer this functionality. I tried changing the defaults in DVD Player, but that doesn't seem to affect FR.
Anyone know of a workaround for this? Any help would be much appreciated.

macguyincali wrote:
I've been quite encouraged by FR's new acceptance of DVDs as a source (place ripped DVD movie folders into your ~movies folder or aliases to DVD folder... they appear and play in FR). I have it set up so I can browse over 600 DVDs on various remote drives along with the preview picture (place DVD cover image named preview.jpg in the DVD folder, not the VIDEO_TS folder).
It works great on my 50" Pioneer Elite hooked up to the networked MacMini, and I appear to get surround sound pass through as well.
The problem is that some DVD's I have are encoded in full screen (but in wide mode) so that the video, while actually in the widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, actually appears smaller than the screen so that there is a black border around the entire video. It plays fine, only smaller.
What you are describing here is 'letterboxed' widescreen. Personally I loath such DVDs and regard them as a stupid mistake by the movie studio. The correct sort of widescreen DVD is known as 'anamorphic'.
As mentioned, the Leopard DVD player now has the ability to 'zoom' the display to best fit your widescreen TV/Monitor. Unfortunately from what you say Front Row 2.0 (in Leopard) does not remember this or offer the ability to do this. In this case your only current realistic option is to see if your TV has an equivalent mode, my Sony Bravia has a button on the remote that cycles through several zoom options. If your TV has a similar option then it may be the easiest solution.
Otherwise, a less realistic option is to make your own custom DVD. I have in the past taken a letterboxed recording, cropped the image, and converted it to a proper anamorphic widescreen DVD. I used ffmpegX to do this on a Mac. In theory with a huge amount of work, one could also do this and keep the subtitles, multiple audio tracks and DVD extras but it is a huge amount of work and not all of it can be done using Mac tools, it can be done with the assistance of some free Windows tools, e.g. IfoEdit, and PGCEdit.
Note: to convert a letterboxed NTSC recording to an anamorphic NTSC DVD, one crops 60 pixels from the top, and 60 pixels from the bottom. You then re-encode it as a standard NSTC DVD resolution of 720x480 but must also tick the option that sets the anamorphic flag. I have not done this with a PAL recording, it is probable that the number of pixels needing to be cropped is different.

DVD to front row with subtitles

Subtitles are a really important option when watching movies. I have searched the internet high and low but not found anything yet that simply rips a dvd to a format you can watch in front row, whilst retaining the ability to watch with subtitles, *or without subtitles*. Have you found some software you can let me know about?

You may be best to give iSubtitle a try (http://www.bitfield.se/). My Aunt is deaf, so often we need to find the appropriate Subtitles to add to a movie or TV show for her.
I know this isn't quite what you were after, but it is a good start.

Access Front Row on older mac?

I have an older Mac Pro tower about 2 years old. I installed Leopard on it.
I recently purchased a new intel tower.
I would like to set up my old tower to my HD television and network to it with my new one.
I could transfer my home movies to it, etc.
I would like to do this and use Front Row as a medium. Is there any remote that will operate
Front Row on an older PC G-5, (sort of like the iMacs come with remotes that work with Front Row).
I tried to use one of those remotes from a friends's iMac, (I purchased a blue tooth module that works with the mouse) but I couldn't get it to work on Front Row on the G-5.
Anyone know of a remote that would work on Front Row on a G-5 running Leopard?

Anyone know of a remote that would work on Front Row on a G-5 running Leopard?
You can't use an Apple remote very easily (there are IR receivers with additional software that can do it). But, you can use the Keyspan RF Remote for Front Row. Originally designed for people with Front Row on a computer that may be hidden (a home theater type device that may be inside a cabinet, for example), it has a radio-frequency remote and USB receiver that can be used by any Mac with Leopard:
http://www.keyspan.com/products/errf1/
-Doug

Remote kicks out after a while of watching dvds with Front Row

Hey there! Recently I have done a lot of dvd watching on Front Row, using the apple remote that came with my MacBook. The problem is, after a while of watching, my remote stops working. The dvd keeps playing and everything runs as if the remote was still working, but no matter what I press, nothing happens. To get it to work again, I have to close my MacBook, wait for it to fall asleep, wait for a little while, then open it again, and my dvd continues from where it left off and my remote is functioning again. However, the cycle then repeats after another period of time.
This is really starting to bug me. Any ideas?

This sounds similar to the problem I describe here. Does Front Row stop responding to the Keyboard (volume keys for instance) as well?

Controlling DVDs in Front Row on a Mac Mini

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