Front Row choppy

hello,
my Front Row is choppy and sometimes freezes when I click on something. Does anyone know how to make it faster and less choppy?

Hi everyone,
same problem with me. I noticed that sometimes lauching Front Row while quicktime is running is not the best thing to do and quitting quicktime does do the trick.
But sometimes neither quicktime or iTunes are running and still, Front Row is slow and choppy. This is not a ram issue because my imac G5 isight has 1Go DDR2 SDRAM.
Any help from someone??

Similar Messages

MKV x264 Movie plays great on QT X but choppy at Front Row

When I playing 720p .mkv (x264) files with QT X (with Perian) at fullscreen there is no problem, movie plays at great speed. But when I tried to play with them Front Row it is always choppy (I waited for buffering ending).
I uninstall Snow Leopard and install Leopard but the problem is unsolved (QT 7 Pro plays movie without a problem at fullscreen).
What is wrong with Front Row? It uses the same Quick Time Framework.
I can not use my Mac Mini 2.1 as a home theatre system because of that.
My conf: Mac Mini 2.1 2 Ghz Core 2 Duo 4 GB RAM Superdrive

It could be a 'difficult' form of Matroska file. FYI Matroska is just a container like MOV or AVI, and some mkv have the video encoded with Real Video Codec (RV9 RV10). Perian+QT can't decode this, but VLC will play .mkv files just fine on OS X, as long as they don't use H.264!
It's a bit of a lottery until Matroska decide to support the Apple platform. I have found this:
http://mkv4mac.free.fr/index.php?lang=en&p=lec
which may help.
But there may be another workaround: 1. Get Info the mkv file
2. Change to extension to wmv. Save as wmv and that could work better.
Or this link may be helpful:
http://www.squidoo.com/mkv-converter-mac
Recently, a poster (ZachP14) suggested this:
"There's a program called Plex that runs .mkv files awesome on my 2.0 ghz macbook."
http://www.plexapp.com/
Maybe worth a try?

QT choppy, iTunes and Front Row fine

I have a Core Duo iMac, 2 GB RAM, and QT Pro, with all software up to date.
Movie files play back beautifully at full screen under iTunes and Front Row. The same files show horribly choppy video when played back at full screen using QT Pro. Audio is fine regardless.
Video files in question include DVD slideshows intended for TV and authored on my Mac, home movies made with digital cameras, and handbrake .mp4s coded with a wide range of quality settings and resolutions, from very undemanding to demanding.
Why doesn't QT Pro work properly at full screen? That is, is there something wrong with my software or hardware, or is this just a QT Pro bug?
Thanks for shedding any light.

Chris, appreciate the reply, but I think you may have posted into the wrong topic...

Leopard Upgrade - Front Row 2.0 Video Playback Choppy

Hi Everyone,
I just upgraded from Tiger to Leopard and all is well except for video playback via Front Row. I'm playing video_ts files - which play back fine if I use the Apple DVD player application. In the new version of Front Row they tend to 'studder' and are choppy from time to time. I have 1GB of RAM installed, and I'm wondering if that is enough??
Another note about video playback... I was watching the Dallas vs. Greenbay game last night via a live stream on the Internet using my Mini on a hard wired connection. Unfortunately, it was choppy for both audio and video. My G4 Powerbook did a perfect job. It also has 1GB of RAM, it's running Leopard - and I was watching the game over a wireless connection. Audio and video were almost perfect.
Do you think that Leopard requires more memory than Tiger on my dual core Mini? I'm wondering if I should upgrade to 2GB's of RAM - or maybe re-install Leopard from scratch. (I did an upgrade install the first time.)
(Also - My Mini is connected to a 37" 1080p Sharp LCD display via DVI.)
Thanks for the help and advice!

Thanks for the response Boece...
My startup drive has 15GB of free space. The files are playing from an external Lacie HD (via USB 2.0) that has 20GB of free space.
It's odd that all files will play perfectly when using the DVD app to view the movies. Front Row 2.0 will have intermittent problems when viewing the same file.
Nothing else is running on the Mini when I am using Front Row.
The only other time that I have seen choppy video playback is with the screen saver. I really like the new 'Mosiac' option for pictures - but with this display the Mini can't zoom from one picture to the next at all without being all choppy. It's almost like the graphics card is having trouble. The other options for 'Collage' and 'Slideshow' work fine - with smooth flowing playback.
I'm planning on hooking the Mini up to a 19" monitor today to see if the problems go away.
I'll report back with the results.

Slideshows are Choppy in Front Row

Hi all, thanks in advance for any advice you may have.
I can view slideshows smoothly when played directly from iphoto. However, when I view the same slideshow from within Front Row, there is a slow down when transitioning from one image to the next. This means the show gets out of sync with the music. I use the slideshows for my business, so this is unacceptable.
I'm fairly certain that this started happening with I upgraded to from Leopard to Snow Leopard.
Any ideas on what I could try to fix this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrew

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Have you also inquired over in the Front Row forum? Your situation hasn't been discussed before here as far as I can tell.
Try clearing out iPhoto's cache folder, User/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto, and rebuild the library's database, backup and launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed to rebuild the library. Select the last three options.
Click to view full size
See if that makes any difference.
If the slideshows are critical you might want to consider creating them as QT movies so the music stays in sync and playing the movies in Front Row.

IPhoto Slide Shows are Choppy in Front Row

Hi all, thanks in advance for any advice you may have.
I can view slideshows smoothly when played directly from iphoto (08). However, when I view the same slideshow from within Front Row, there is a slow down when transitioning from one image to the next. This means the show gets out of sync with the music. I use the slideshows for my business, so this is unacceptable.
I'm fairly certain that this started happening with I upgraded to from Leopard to Snow Leopard.
Any ideas on what I could try to fix this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrew

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Have you also inquired over in the Front Row forum? Your situation hasn't been discussed before here as far as I can tell.
Try clearing out iPhoto's cache folder, User/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto, and rebuild the library's database, backup and launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed to rebuild the library. Select the last three options.
Click to view full size
See if that makes any difference.
If the slideshows are critical you might want to consider creating them as QT movies so the music stays in sync and playing the movies in Front Row.

Front Row DVD Playback

When ever I watch a DVD in front row, the progress bar appears at the change of every title. In the middle of the movie when it changes layers it pops up on screen. Does anyone know of a way to stop this?
Thanks

I got on the discussion board to see what people were saying about the new front row. I read your entry and thought I would see if I would experience the same problem. Sure enough I did. I put a DVD in that I had watched a few days ago before leopard came out and it would play perfectly in the old Front Row. Now it is so choppy! Sorry, I can't help you with a solution, but at least you know now you aren't the only one having this issue.
KJESPOKO

Kiosk-like Finder/Front Row Alternative?

Hello,
I'm working on a geek-project for personal use and wondering if anyone has any suggestions. Basically, I'm taking an older G4/667 with S-Video out, no monitor (well, a TV, but no good for actually viewing Finder, navigation, etc.) and my only navigation tool is an Apple Remote and Mira (software) - basically, trying to create a very oldschool/simple "media center" out of it.
Front Row chokes on this machine, and alternative tried thus far with no success are:
- CenterStage
- MediaCentral
- iTheater
- mMedia
So, I'm ruling out "Front Row" like apps 'cause they're just not working. What I'm looking for now is an alternative for Finder that displays the navigation large enough that it's useable on a TV screen. Something that I can navigate finder and launch media files?
I dunno. Maybe I'm wasting my time, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!
Thanks,
Kristin.

Elgato's EyeTV software is spec'ed to work with a G4/500 or above. And it has a full screen menu mode that works with the Apple remote. Converting Quicktime to a format playable on that machine without choppiness is going to be the hardest part, as it takes twice as long as the length of the video to encode MPEG-2s on a G4/733. So imagine something a bit longer, even if you max out the RAM.

Front Row 2 - Why a standalone application?

Perhaps this thread can consolidate some of the various other complaints against Front Row 2 that seem to stem from the same issue that I, at least, perceive as being a big part of the problem: that FR2 is a standalone application in Leopard rather than a front-end interface for media-handling applications in the background, as it was in Tiger.
So I'm just curious and would like to hear from those who may be more "in the know" why Apple made this move? Why is Front Row "better" as a standalone application? When in Front Row in Tiger, if you watched a movie, QuickTime would be handling it in the background. If you listened to music, it was iTunes that was handling it. If you watched a slideshow, iPhoto was responsible. If you were watching a DVD, DVD Player was doing the work. In Leopard, however, Front Row handles all these media files/types by itself, and I've only seen that as a negative so far.
For example: in Tiger, a custom slideshow I had created in iPhoto would be displayed exactly as I had specified (including custom timings, photo framing, etc.) when viewing that slideshow in Front Row. In Leopard, not all those settings are carried over and the slideshow doesn't display as I've set it up (although it continues to display perfectly in iPhoto). In Tiger, all my album artwork in iTunes was displayed correctly in Front Row. In Leopard, the artwork of several albums will not display even though the album art is visible in iTunes (and via CoverFlow and QuickLook in Finder). And, of course, there's the issue that many report that music playing in FR2 will stop if FR2 is exited, or even when you just exit the music section of FR2. Why the disconnect? By having Front Row be a standalone application, it just opens the door for issues where the files/media isn't being correctly handed over from its proper application to what we see in Front Row.
While I do mostly love the new interface of Front Row (although I miss the desktop fading into the background effect upon launch of FR2), I've seen it take a pretty significant performance hit. Some HD movie trailers that played flawlessly in Front Row on Tiger are sluggish and choppy on FR2 on the same hardware. These same trailers play just fine by themselves in QuickTime, however. Tiger's Front Row properly showed previews for all my slideshows and movies almost instantly, while FR2 takes quite awhile to create previews for everything - and isn't able to create previews at all for some files (Apple's own HD movie trailers, for example).
Since FR2 is trying to handle all the media and filetypes by itself, rather than handing off the tasks to the proper applications in the background that can handle them more efficiently, it seems to become a bloated system hog. After spending about 15 minutes in FR2 going through various media, I noticed it seemed to slow down more and more. I exited to check Activity Monitor, and even though Front Row wasn't even running anymore, it was using almost 1GB of RAM. Evidently, all those previews it has to create (starting over each time you get into FR2, I might add) really start to take a toll over time with heavy use. For someone with a HTPC-Mac who wasn't accustomed to ever having to exit Front Row in Tiger - much less actually restart the machine because of it - it seems like a horrible step backwards.
So again, I'm hoping someone can offer some insights into why Front Row was changed to a standalone application instead of being further enhanced as a front-end UI for the proper media applications running in the background. I understand why they wanted to change the interface to be AppleTV-like, but I don't understand the loss of features and the backwards step in performance.

That's a benefit to the PPC users, of course, but I can't imagine that was a major influence on Apple's decision to do it. Would they really remove features and hinder overall performance just to cater to old hardware? That doesn't seem very Apple-like. Nor does it make much sense to handicap Front Row for everyone who does have a capable Intel Mac just so others can run it on old PPC machines (which likely can't get the best performance out of Front Row anyway, given the way it gobbles up system resources by bearing the burden of dealing with so many forms of media/files by itself all at once).
Maybe the bigger picture - which is harder to see now only a few days after the launch of Leopard - involves better long-term development of Front Row features that will be easier to implement with it being a standalone application rather than a front-end UI. So while it will be great when/if the performance is improved and new features are added, it's little consolation to those who upgraded to Leopard (and I do love most of the rest of 10.5, really) but think we took a major step back with Front Row.
Front Row isn't a big deal to those who use it infrequently, but for those who were somewhat dependent on it as a vital component of HTPC, these "little" issues add up and are pretty frustrating.

Force HD TV show to SD in Front Row

I previously purchased an HD TV show from iTunes for my older MacBook Pro HTPC. I get horrible choppiness when watching in HD, but not for SD in iTunes. In iTunes, I can set a preference for watching the show in HD or SD (right-click on the episode and choose the SD version).
How do I force Front Row to do the same?
TIA

I'm replying to my own thread, but the only way I can think of doing this (and I've been successful), is to physically move the HD files out of the TV Shows/title directory somewhere else. Then, Front Row can only play the SD files.
Seems to work...

Is there a way to open Front Row without the remote?

I wonder, is there some keyboard shortcut that will open front row?
I ask because a while ago I was about to force-quit an application(cmdoptesc), and then I cancelled(esc) that and toggled to another application's window(cmd+tab), etc., all of this using only the keyboard. But because of the application that wasn't working right, things got slow, and after waiting a couple of seconds for the other window to appear... Fron Row just appeared in front of me!!!
I don't know if it was some keyboard shortcut that i accidentally pressed, or just a bug. Does enyone know?

Command + Escape
arrow keys
return
and escape to bail
good luck
-j

How Do I Use An External Drive Folder For Front Row???

I have recently bought a 1 TB external drive for my media vidoes and music and have moved all my files over to the external drive and want to use the new folders for movies on front row.
When i go to front row it only has movie folders found on my built in Harddirve, and no folders from the external drive. How to i select this drive to play movies on front row from the external drive?????

oh man thank you so much i was having a brain **** about how to run them on front row. I can't believe i didn;t think about that.
Thank you again
Jer

Remote for front row

I just upgraded to Leopard and was checking out Front Row. I can use the arrow keys to navigate but since I am on a Powerbook I have no remote or sensor to pickup one. I am curious if there are third-party remotes available for older Macs. I have an EyeTV Hybrid which came with a remote. Is it possible to use something like this with Front Row?

I too have a Powerbook running Frontrow and I just bought this off eBay for cheap. http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/errf1/ this is a remote made by Keyspan for Frontrow.

How to Delete Item from Front Row?

Someone sent me a short imovie project and it was automatically downloaded to my "Download" folder. When I opened Front Row, the project name it's right under "Movies" along with "iTunes Top Movies", "Theatrical Trailers" and "Movie Folder".
I then moved the project file from "Download" to another folder created under my "Movie" folder. When I went to Front Row again, the original project was still under the list in Movies, now it's also in "Movies Folder". So basically it's showing up twice in Front Row in different places.
I see that once I play the movie from my Movies folder directly from the folder, it's automatically set to Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Movies. So it's showing up in Front Row via iTunes, and it's also showing in Front Row via my Movies Folder.
I just want to organize Front Row so that I don't have a long list of projects immediately under "Movies" in Front Row. I want these projects to neatly go in one personal movie folder only.
Is there a way to reorganize the items list in Front Row?
How do I delete the item that's originally placed under "Movies" in Front Row?

Assets are organized in various apps - primarily iTunes for most of us.
That said, you may benefit from this series:
http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/59317.html

How can I move Front Row to a different display?

I love using Front Row with my MacBook, but I'd love it even more if I could move Front Row from my main display on my laptop onto my second display--a TV screen. I own a Apple mini-DVI to RCA & S-video adapter, and I use this to connect to my TV screen. Obviously, I can get Front Row on my TV screen by turning on Mirror Displays or setting the TV screen as my main screen (dragging the menu bar icon to the second display in the Displays system preference), but both these methods require me to sacrifice use of my desktop on my laptop while I use Front Row.
Simply put, can I possibly (even sneakily) move Front Row to my second display? Thanks for any help.

Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
Unfortunately, since Front Row has no preferences you can actually change, there's no way to change the screen now. (Besides the work arounds you've already discovered.) I would send Apple some Mac OS X feedback (since Front Row is considered part of OS X, not a stand-alone application) and let them know you'd like to be able specify the screen. You're not the first person here to ask for that option.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/
-Doug

Front Row choppy

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for