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

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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 movies issue

Hi, I am a recent convert to Mac so this may be simple to some but really anoys the **** out of me. saved some MPG files to the Movies folder in the HDD and these showed in the Front Row/Videos/Moves folder. When I deleted the movies and emptied the trash these videos are still in front row.
Question is how do you remove these movies from being played?.

Found the answer - now on to figure out the artwork

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.

MBP - Playing music from my Ipod with Front Row?

So that I don't clutter up my MBP HD with a bunch of mp3 files, I simply connect my ipod via its USB cable to my MBP when I want to listen to music.
However, when I click on Front Row, and select my albums to play, it doesnt show anything at all. It only wants to show items in the Library folder.
Is there a way to make Front Row play from my ipod or do I really have to have everything in the Library folder instead?
Thanks

Anyone know how to import songs into library without
copying files?
Thks!
I'm not sure this is totally right but here it goes:
First make sure that your settings are for manual addition of songs for your ipod, otherwise when you get to "adding playlists" like I mention below, it will be a nightmare.
You need to have your mp3 files as DATA on your iPod - not just as the songs that regularly play nicely through the iPod. So enable data use, and have all of your songs on the iPod in data mode.
Then what you need to do is open all of your music files. Essentially what will happen is that your iTunes will add them automatically to your library as a LINK to the Data on your iPod. When your ipod is not connected, the files will not be playable and will have the ! next to them.
Place all of the songs (which are now really links) into appropriate play lists.
This, in my mind sounds like it works. All I remember is that when you have an MP3 on your desktop, and double click on it, it adds it to the library from the Desktop location.
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE "ADD A COPY OF MUSIC TO ITUNES FOLDER UNCHECKED" under advanced settings, or your music will be copied to your computer.
Good luck, I hope this works for you, it would seem that it does.

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)

MBP Clamshell Mode - DVI to TV Adapter - Front Row Works - But No Video?

Hi all,
Have picked up an Apple DVI to TV adapter for my MB Pro. Have successfully got it to work in clamshell mode displaying Front Row on the TV without the external Mouse or keyboard.
However, it will not play videos or movies on the TV.
If I keep the lid open, it will play the video/movie on both displays as hoped. However, when I close the lid, all other Front Row stuff works - but no video picture! Is this some sort of overlay issue? How can I fix this? I do NOt want to burn my LCD when using it this way - would be a waste.
Please pass on any thoughts!
Thanks,
Stu

I also have this exact same problem. A little annoying since I have just spent $A35 on the mini dvi to dvi adapter and another $A50 on a good quality DVI cable. My LCD tv is set to millions of colors so that is not the issue.
I have a 2.0Ghz Core2Duo Macbook. A quick google search If anyone knows how to fix it I'd be very grateful.

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 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

Front Row won't install on 17" MBP

I tried installing Front Row, but it says that are errors when trying to install. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

i think he means the latest update witch is version 1.2.2 and it is avalable from Software Update.

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 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.

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.

Controlling Front-Row?

I'm a linux lover that was recently bewitched by the new MacMini and specially by Front-Row, so I decided to "get me one of those" However I wanted to run a few tests before, so my best friend, who just bought one, brought it to my place yesterday.
I want to use front row to play both DVDs and DivX videos stored on my linux sever thru a Wireless G LAN. We plugged the mini to my plasma TV next to the Wireless router and connected to it. After installing the propper codecs, and mounting a link to the directory on my linux server where I keep the videos in my Movies folder, front row was able to navigate thru my entire video collection and to play them. QuickTime did a fantastic job reading ahead in order to compensate for the wireless bandwith. It was a great experience. However there are two things I couldn't resolve:
1) When playing DVDs and DivX videos in FrontRow, I always get horizontal bars on the top/bottom of the screen. if I get out of front row and play the DVD with the DVD Player or the Video with QuickTime pro, I can get rid of the bars by altering the aspect ratio, but I really want to do it from FrontRow. We looked around but couldn't find how to alter the Front Preferences to change the aspect ratio. Can this be done?
2) We tested the Mini on my TV upstairs which is next to my wireless access point with no signal degradation. However I want to use it on my tv downstairs (http://erasmix.net/typo3temp/pics/5fa0c608eb.jpg) which is much further away from the router. We couldnt test this because it will take some work to plug in the vga cable on that tv (I might have to lift it). My question is, how would quick time behave playing videos thru my Wireless G conecction if I have a reduced bandwidth (5 Mbps or less) due to signal degradation?
MacMini Core Duo Linux Server
MacMini Core Duo Linux Server
MacMini Core Duo Linux Server

I finally got to test my macMini downstairs where my wireless signal is weaker. In the beginning I experienced a lot of annoying video freezes, which I seriously suspect were due to Front Row waiting to get the next block of video over the degraded wireless.
So I bought an Airport Express and used it to extend the range of my linksys router (which already has a speed booster itself), using WDS. I placed the Airport upstairs in the hall, an open area, but not in line of sight with the Mini Downstairs.
Now signal strenght is A LOT better. I have full signal on the mini most of the time. However I still experience annoying video freezings (not as many as before). I'm positive it is due to signal, because when I place the mini upstairs, in the same room with the linksys router I experience no such freezes.
I think Front Row could do a better job reading ahead, just like a "Skip Free" CD player does, and create a copy of the entire movie while I'm playing. Is this somthing that's planned? Any comments/suggestions?

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.

Front Row -- MBP, question?

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