DVD's in front row

I have set my system preferences for Front Row to launch automatically when a dvd movie is inserted into the drive. Sometimes the movie will play. However at other times all I have is a full dark screen with the dvd being non-responsive. This has occurred with more than a couple of dvd's.
Any assistance would be appreciated.
Andrew

Yes, Front Row handles DVDs fine. If Front Row is already open, a new section called DVDs appears after the Mac reads and mounts the disc. If you insert the DVD and let it be read and mounted first the new DVD section will be there when you open Front Row.

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DVD player vs Front Row

I've always played DVDs on my Mac Mini through Front Row but have recently been having some audio dropout issues. I was searching around here and just read that Front Row plays DVDs through QuickTime, whereas the Mac DVD Player is different.
Is there a preference from the forum between using Front Row or the DVD Player? Could using Front Row be causing some of these audio issues I'm having?
(I posted something similar on the Mac Mini discussion thread, but thought this would be a better place, so please excuse the double post)

Oh yeah, and I can still view the DVD in Front Row with no problems.
Jeff

Playing DVD's in Front Row

Was trying to get DVD movies to play in Front Row using a external firewire superdrive. They will play using the internal superdrive in my MacBook but, not the external one. It won't give me the option with the external drive. Does anyone know if this can be done or if I just have to use DVD player?
Thanks,
Barry

There is no way to do this with Front Row. However, this can be done with the regular DVD Player application. The on screen "controller" for the DVD Player can give you direct access to different audio channels or video angles.
-Doug

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.

Front Row pauses during DVD play

I've played at least 5 (3 of which were brand new) different DVD's in Front Row that randomly pause during play. After a few seconds the movie continues to play. I took the computer into the store to have the optical drive replaced, but it keeps happening. I tried just using DVD player and the same thing happens. Since the drive has been replaced, now I get "skipping over damaged area" when it pauses (only in DVD player). These are BRAND NEW dvds, there's no way they can be damaged already. Any ideas, suggestions, anything???

That's interesting. Since it doesn't seem to be a hardware problem, you might use the Accounts System Preferences to create a brand new user. Log out and log in as the new user. Does the DVD Player application give you the same trouble when logged in as the new user? If not, then a preference or setting your original user has must be interfering. Or some kind of preference file corruption. If the new user does have the same trouble, it might be time to run the Disk Utility and make sure your permissions are repaired and the disk is repaired. If that still doesn't help, it may be time to do an "archive and install" of Mac OS X to get a good copy of the DVD Player application back...
-Doug

Does Front Row DVD player have any options and preferences?

Are there any preference options for watching DVD's in Front Row?
I have been watching DVD's on my Mac through the DVD Player which has lots of useful options like Zoom and De-Interlace etc. But DVD player leaves the mouse pointer on screen and Front Row seems to be a better way to watch films.
My problem with Front Row is when I play a DVD like West Wing it needs to be zoomed to fill my 17inch screen and it needs to be played De-Interlaced. I can't find any way to access options in Front Row DVD player to do this. With no mouse pointer I can't get a drop down menu so is there a short cut key that would give me some options?
Thanks
Phil Carr

Welcome to the forums!
But DVD player leaves the mouse pointer on screen
Not if you drag it to the bottom of the screen.
Front Row seems to be a better way to watch films.
Debatable for the reasons you mention!
I much prefer VLC to DVD Player:
You should definitely consider having the free VLC Player from http://www.videolan.org/ in your armory, as this plays almost anything that DVD Player might not.

Front Row: DVD audio Controls

Is there way to scroll through various audio channels while playing DVD's in front row? For example I want to jump from the regular audio channel to the Director's Commentary...is there a short cut to do this?
jon

There is no way to do this with Front Row. However, this can be done with the regular DVD Player application. The on screen "controller" for the DVD Player can give you direct access to different audio channels or video angles.
-Doug

Front Row - DVD won't play

I can't get Front Row to play DVD, I would only get "DVD Loading" then a blank screen. Any fix?

Can you play the movie with the DVD Player application? Is the Mac asking you to choose a region code before it can play a DVD movie? Front Row won't display this dialog but the DVD Player should.
-Doug

DVD menu navigation in Front Row - HOW?

Just got my new iMac. When I start Front Row, insert a DVD and select "DVD" in Front Row, I select the menu.
Then what? The remote still controls volume only, front and back buttons do nothing. How do navigate the DVD menu and start playing the DVD?

Insert a DVD into your computer’s DVD drive.
Press the Menu button on your remote to open Front Row.
Use the Next and Previous buttons to choose DVD in the Front Row main menu, then press the Play/Pause button.
Use the Volume Up and Volume Down buttons to navigate the Front Row DVD menu. You can play a DVD, turn muting on and off, display the DVD's menu, and eject the disc.
An alert message appears if you haven't inserted a DVD into your computer's DVD drive. (The message may also appear if your computer hasn't finished reading the disc you've inserted.)
While a movie is playing, use the Volume Up and Volume Down buttons to adjust the sound volume. Press the Next and Previous buttons to jump to the next or previous chapter. Press and hold Next and Previous to fast-forward and rewind. While a movie is paused, press the Next button to advance to the next frame of the movie. Press the Menu button to stop the DVD and return to the DVD menus. Press the Menu button again to go to the Front Row DVD menu.

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?

Problems with new MacBook Pro when using Front Row

I posted this in the MacBook Pro forum, but someone suggested I post it here, so here goes...
I just picked up a new 15" MacBook Pro 2.4 last night. I was very excited, as I've wanted one for a while now, but when I tried to watch a dvd in Front Row a few strange things happened that I've never seen anyone post about on this board.
First, when I selected play from the DVD's menu, Front Row quit. I launched it again and everything seemed fine as the dvd was now playing, but then I noticed that the backlit keyboard would light up and turn off every minute or two. This went on for the whole time I was watching the disc... about a couple of hours... the keys would light up then they'd be unlit and then light up again.
Finally, while I was watching the dvd the screen went blank... there was still audio, but no picture to go along with it. After I touched the trackpad the video came back. This happened a couple of times.
I don't think it should matter, but I'll also mention that I was using the MacBook Pro on battery while all this happened.
So, has anyone else experienced these issues? I tried looking through all the posted topics, but couldn't find anything related to my experience with Front Row. I'm debating on whether I should exchange my MacBook Pro as I may just have a lemon.
If anyone has any advice/tips I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

I would be curious to know if the same kinds of things happen when you are using the AC power? It's possible that the ambient light was just at the point where the keyboard backlight would turn on and different parts of the movie would make it just light or just dark enough to turn the backlight on or off...
-Doug

How to play .cdr files in Front Row without Toast

I just created an image of a few personal home DVD's using the Disk Utility and created as a CD/DVD Master images having extension .cdr . They load fine and I am able to play them via DVD Player, but I wish to see it in Front Row.
I found from the internet that one can use Toast to load such images but I do not have Toast and cannot shell out USD 70/80 for it.
I cannot use Disk Assist as well since this will mean I will have to copy folder from disk to another folder which will be a pain. I certainly will not want to have 2 copies. I don't wish to delete the .CDR .
Is there another way I can see those DVD's in Front Row?

Try the Front Row forum at http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1164

Front Row Automatically Switch to 2nd Display

It's a gripe of mine that Front Row couldn't automagically be sent to a 2nd monitor in Tiger; is this fixed in Leopard?
Basically, I have a 19" Samsung LCD plugged in via DVI to my MacBook Pro, and I'd like to have Front Row on it, but the main menu/dock on my MacBook Pro's screen. I know I can open up Displays in System Preferences and rearrange them to get Front Row on the external, but this seems to be an annoying thing to deal with. Is there any other way?

Well, after many hours of research, I found that I could design some AppleScripts or programs to help do this, but (a) I don't have the time to invest in that, and (b) I will simply resort to DVD player. Front Row is nice, but without the ability to go through a 2nd monitor, it's pretty much useless to me, because there's no way I'll sit back from my computer and use the Apple Remote to navigate a movie on a 15" screen, when I have a 22" screen right next to it.

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

Front Row's audio flux

I set up my Macbook Pro to show movies via a projector using the DVI port. Apparently with Leopard, Front Row backslid into not supporting audio through Airport, so I hooked a Logitech 2.1 THX sound system to it via the headphone jack.
This setup has been working out fine, but for an audio problem I've just recently noticed-- every 15-20 minutes or so, the audio levels will fade in volume, play at a lower volume for maybe 15-20 seconds, and then rise back to proper volume again. The drop and rise are quick but gradual; not abrupt.
Googling (and searching this forum) hasn't turned up any similar reports. It seems like it could any number of culprits in the signal chain-- the dvd, the MBP, Front Row, jack, the cable, the speakers, etc. I have not been able to reproduce this problem at will; in fact, some DVDs play through fine without any issues.
I have two theories that seem most likely to me--
#1- maybe Front Row or computer is getting "tired" RAM-wise... perhaps when doing some kind of internal maintenance (or something). I try to close all apps when playing Front Row but sometimes I don't.
#2- maybe it's the DVD itself. The quality of the transfer from film seems to range widely on the DVDs in my library.
It could be something else entirely, of course. I first thought maybe very deep or very loud sounds were causing the Logitech system to protect itself, but it actually happens regardless of what's coming through the speakers.
I'm posting here in case anybody has had the same issue or knows of it. Thanks!
_Randy

Sometimes this appears to be a timeout being hit getting the information from the trailer server. Did you try backing out of the Trailers section and re-selecting it?

DVD's in front row

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