Front Row on an External Display

**Note that this is for Leopard's Front Row and only may not apply to Tiger's**
Here's an explanation of the bugs/irksomes now facing Front Row
1. The screensaver option can be buggy so go to preferences within Front Row to disable it.
2. Whatever screen you use front row on, the other will be black.
3. Front Row does not play video in mirroring mode, period.
4. Front Row, when opened, will display on whatever monitor is set as your primary display at that time.
5. Even after exiting it, if you check it the activity monitor it will still run in the background for 30 minutes (not sure on that time frame).
6. If you open it up again before it is shutdown, it will try to display on whatever was set as the primary display when it was first launched.
Okay, now that you understand that, here is somethings to keep in mind
-When you initially open it, the settings get stuck, so if you opened it with the wrong display set as your primary monitor, just quit it in the activity monitor, switch the main monitor in your display system preferences, and then reopen it.
-You can trick it to display on your secondary display by enabling mirror-mode, opening front row, exiting front row (not quiting), disabling mirror mode, and lastly reopening front row. Effectively, it gets stuck to display on the external display and does so once you turn mirroring off. This isn't even remotely elegant but is my preferred method.
-If you have your external display connected while your computer is asleep, pressing a button on your remote will automatically wake it and use the external display as your primary/only monitor. This means that Front Row will display on your TV very easily if you put your computer to sleep then wake it with the remote BUT you must always be mindful that if you had opened it recently, you may have to quit it first.
The only last suggestion I have is that if you want quick and easy access to quitting front row, you can create an applescript to quit it with this
tell application "Front Row" to quit
If anyone knows how to change primary displays using applescripts please post as ideally a script could be created that would just make sure Front Row was quit, switch displays, then would open it streamlining the entire process.
Well really ideally apple would make Front Row a little more dynamic with the option to display on the external display and smart enough to know which one that is but this problem existed in the last version too and they never fixed it then so....

Well,just putting the display in sleep mode won't work as, for some reason I don't understand, sleeping the display turns off the external monitor.
Thinking a little more clearly now, the method of sleeping the computer only works for the portable Macs as the lid must be down while it wakes up for it to work.

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Front Row unusable on external Displays

Hello,
I decided to install Leopard this morning but I have finally decided to go back to my Tiger disk clone and wait for 10.5.1. Leopard is full of problems.. but this message is regarding Front Row.
Basically!! It's totally unusable with external displays!!
- No matter which display you set up as primary (by dragging the menu bar in Display Prefs), Front Row will always show up in the laptop LCD.
- If you decide to mirror de display, instead of extending your desktop, then there's another problem: the video will disappear! Yes, that's right, there's no video output when mirroring the displays, just a black screen with the movie's audio.

Interestingly enough, I made an "Archive and Install" and FrontRow opened up on my external display. It's quite strange.

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

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...

Front row on an external screen

Is this possible yet, it really would be handy.

When you drag the menu bar to the external display (e.g. your television) using display settings you can use Front Row on it, but it will then black out the main display.
It would be great if Apple could make it optional where to display the FR interface, without the need to dig into the display settings.
My 20-inch display is very nice, but I rather watch hour-long stuff on my tv from my couch than sit at my desk.

Front Row and an external hard drive?

I would like to be able to access files--pictures and movies--using Front Row and the remote, but would like to access these files from an external hard drive. Is this possible to set up/do? Thanks for the help!

Jack,
Create an alias to any folder on your MBP and you can then modify it to point at a folder on your read-only drive. Just open the Get Info window on the alias and Select New Original from the General section. It might not refresh to look as if it's changed the path, but it has. Close the Get Info window and re-open it to see that it's changed. Rename the alias to something more appropriate and move it to the Movies folder of your MBP. Front Row will display the folder in the Movies section of Videos.
MacBook Pro 15", 1.83GHz, 2GB, 100GB 7200rpm Mac OS X (10.4.7)

How do I get front row to see external drive

I have my home movies stored on an external drive connected to my iMac, but front row can't seem to see the external drive. Anyone help me on this?

Never mind. I figured it out. I have to create an alias folder of the movie folder on the external drive and stick it in the imovie folder on the mac.

Volume control when using front row with an external audio interface

Hi,
I got my macbook last week, and so far, I love it. But I've got a small gripe with FrontRow - in my room at college, I have my macbook plugged into an oldish Tascam US-122, which I use a lot for recording. The Tascam is connected to my expensive active speakers, and ideally, I'd like to be able to play back via FrontRow to the Tascam, to the speakers, while retaining remote control. This isn't a problem for selecting Photos/Videos/Music etc, but the problem arises when I want to change the volume - the remote simply controls the volume of the macbook's internal speakers, not affecting the output of the Tascam.
I know I could just connect the speakers via the headphone output, but that would mean more cables, and more chopping and changing system preferences to suit whether I'm making music or just listening.
*So - is there any way at all that I can make the macbook's global volume control (using the volume hotkeys and remote) affect the signal its sending (via USB) to the Tascam?* I know its not impossible, because until recently I used it with a PC running XP, and that allowed me to use the volume control app to boost or cut the Tascam's volume. Perhaps its an issue with the Tascam's OSX driver?
The Tascam has its own physical volume knob, so its not like I'm stuck listening at deafening or very quiet volumes, and I know this sounds like an issue with my laziness rather than FrontRow or the macbook, but surely it defeats the point of FrontRow if I have to walk across the room every time I want to turn the tunes up or down?!
Any help would be much appreciated!
Cheers,
Thom Bishop

hmm, yeah, thats kinda what i suspected - i reckon this is to do with the way the frontrow interface is set up, but theres no way (as far as i can see) to make everything pass through the main system stereo channel BEFORE going to an external audio interface... which is COMPLETELY bizarre, since system sounds/alerts get passed to the audio interface fine.
and no, i very much doubt whether ANY external audio interface would respond to apple remote (gap in the market, perhaps?).
this would be a fairly simple problem to solve, if only apple were aware of it... of course, i COULD try getting to grips with audio units and seeing if i couldnt fix it myself, but ive frankly not got the time to learn how that works! how can i make apple aware of this issue?? are they already aware??

Displaying front row on external monitor (extended desktop)

Hi,
I've buyed a MacBook (black) and a VGA cable to connect to an external monitor. I've configured as extended desktop, no problem to work with regular apps...
But i would like to display Front Row on the external monitor, and not on the internal... it should be possiible as i see many people talking about this kind of configuration, but i do not success...
Can someone tell me how to display front row on the external monitor, or point me where i can configure front row ?
Thanks in advance

Thanks, it's a good beginning, but it make the external display also the default for everything else like menu bar,... i do not want to use the whole macbook on the TV, i just want to use the DVD, video clips, photos,... on the TV... it seems for me a regular use : using the mac for the softwares,... and the TV only for the multimedia display...

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.

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

Front Row Doesn't Display Album Artist?

Hi
One thing I have just noticed about Front Row is that it does not seem to make use of the Album Artist field from iTunes. In my library I have featured artists included in the Artist field, with the main artist displayed in the Album Artist field. For example, the song Smooth by Santana would have the Artist as Santana Ft. Rob Thomas, with the Album Artist as Santana.
This is all fine in iTunes - but in Front Row, when browsing by album, it displays such an album as by Various rather than whoever the album artist is. This seems particularly odd, considering in Cover Flow in iTunes, and even on the iPhone, the Album Artist field is used in correctly.
Is this just me with this problem? Or is it something that Apple are aware of and hopefully will correct? Surely it can't be that big a fix...

Hello there,
this maybe not will answer your question, but it explains issues with missing artwork in front row i've experienced.
2 albums of my collection refused to display their artwork in front row (these artworks were displaying perfectly fine in itunes, coverflow, finder songs icons and ipods off course).
After trying different things like deleting & replacing artwork, changing size of picture, and so on, nothing changed so i felt really disappointed...
until....I remembered that i have created an itunes music store "wishing list", with 2 songs of these 2 albums. After deleting these 2 songs from the wishing list, everything is back to normal, and front row display correctly the artwork..
thank you for reading, and hope it will help some of you guys.

Front Row doesn't display masked videos correctly

I have an Mpeg2 file (640x480) that I've masked using Quicktime Pro so that it removes the black letterboxing (625x362). When I play the video back using quicktime, it displays fine, taking up the full width of my screen and not quite filling the height.
However, when I play the same file back in Front row, it takes up the full height, and doesn't quite take up the full width. However, the letterboxing has been removed, so the result is that my video plays back kinda "skinny".
Am I doing something blonde? Is this expected behavior?

Hello there,
this maybe not will answer your question, but it explains issues with missing artwork in front row i've experienced.
2 albums of my collection refused to display their artwork in front row (these artworks were displaying perfectly fine in itunes, coverflow, finder songs icons and ipods off course).
After trying different things like deleting & replacing artwork, changing size of picture, and so on, nothing changed so i felt really disappointed...
until....I remembered that i have created an itunes music store "wishing list", with 2 songs of these 2 albums. After deleting these 2 songs from the wishing list, everything is back to normal, and front row display correctly the artwork..
thank you for reading, and hope it will help some of you guys.

Tiger and using FrontRow On External Display

Looking for a way to use FrontRow so that it comes up on my TV. So far the only easy way I have come up with is to use Mirror mode, but that does not support the native display or settings of my TV like it does when spanning. I tried TVRow but that requires Leopard. Before I start mucking around with Terminal, I want to make sure that is not a Leopard only solution. I would prefer a TVRow-type solution, or a simple script. I do not want to move my entire desktop to the second screen either by moving the menu bar to the ext. display.
Is there a way to permanently edit FrontRow preferences? Sine I only use Front Row on my external monitor, that would be the easiest way to fix this. Whatever settings TVRow temporarily changes, a permanent change would work for me. I especially like the idea of HD trailers in Front Row ...

Yes, Woodwyn already mentioned that in the original post.
I should have been more clear in my post. I was suggesting that there might be a settings file for Front Row even in Tiger that could be modified directly, without using TV Row. It seemed to me that the most expedient way to get an answer about Tiger would be for Woodwyn to contact the TV Row author directly, who might have a little better idea than we do.
It might be impossible for Front Row itself to output on a non-primary monitor under Tiger, but that isn't a TV Row issue.

Why won't Front Row play movies located in my iPhoto Library?

I currently have a little over 300 short movies from my digital cameras. I keep them in subfolders located at /Users/shared/Shared Movies/digital camera movies/ and Front Row plays them just fine under each user account since each user has an alias to /Users/shared/Shared Movies/ located in their "movies" folder within their home folder.
Recently a buddy convinced me to import my short digicam movies into iPhoto as an easier way to organize the short .mov and .avi files. I have over 14K image files in my library so I liked the idea of browsing my video shorts using iPhoto. I created a smart album in iPhoto for all file names ending with .avi or .mov and that works great to quickly locate the relatively few video files in the sea of digital stills.
BUT... WHY won't Front Row locate or play the movies that are located inside of iPhoto's Library? Did they just forget this functionality? Front Row's Video player displays Video Podcasts located in iTunes why wouldn't there also be an automagic category that appears in Front Row for movies located in your iPhoto Library?!
Front Row chokes if I attempt to play the smart "movies" album I created in iPhoto. It just keeps spinning the little "train tracks" progress thingy and never shows a movie. I finally just hit the menu button on the remote to "back out" of that selection.
The other work around I tried to play these movies located in iPhoto was a smart folder located at /Users/shared/Shared Movies/ that displays filenames that contain .mov and .avi located in my iPhoto library folder. This doesn't work. Front Row's Video player will not display the movies found by a smart folder the same way it does for an alias to a folder or file.
I don't want to keep duplicate copies of these movie files on my HD. I'll have to keep them located outside of iPhoto so I can enjoy browsing and watching them "on demand" using Front Row.
What is the fix? Work around?

Thanks for the suggestion but that isn't an option. Think about how iPhoto stores images and movies you import into the photo library. It will import files originally located in one folder and scatter them by storing all the files in hundreds of folders and subfolders based on date. Originally I had my movies in my home movie folder and even used an alias to the shared movies. That all works fine and it isn't the issue. The issue is when you try to use the only tool Apple provides to organize your digital images, both still and moving pictures. Once you import your movies into the iPhoto Library they become invisible to Front Row's video player.
Once iPhoto imports my 300+ files and scatters them into hundreds of subfolders based on the date -how in the world would you even begin to maintain aliases in a folder that point to these files. That is NOT an option, who would do that?! That is why I decided to try the smart folder since it would dynamically locate all the files with .mov and .avi in the file name located within the iPhoto library. Good idea but Front Row will not play these files listed in the result set of a smart folder. It will follow an alias but not play the contents of a smart folder.
Front Row should handle movie files within the iPhoto library the same way it deals with videos within the iTunes library. Poor design, oversight, bug, whatever -it should be fixed. There should be an automatic category that appears under the Front Row video player for "Movies in iPhoto" and if you have no movies in your library it displays something like it does when you have no video podcasts, or no TV shows, or no music videos in iTunes. Come on, how many users have those items vs. an iPhoto library with movies from their digital cameras? I bet more users have movies from their digital cameras that currently drop through a gaping hole in the design of Front Row if they use iPhoto to manage their digicam movie files.

Front Row on an External Display

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