Front Row soft exit?

Is there a way to exit Front Row and keep my music playing?
I usually hit escape but iTunes seems to have no connection and I have to find and restart the song I was listening to. Maybe if I start the song via iTunes instead of Front Row... but it's such a nice feature to be able to control via the remote.

Is there a way to exit Front Row and keep my music playing?
Not with Front Row in Mac OS X 10.5.x (Leopard). In Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger), Front Row would actually open iTunes in the background to play your music. If you exited Front Row, iTunes would still be running. In Leopard, Front Row has direct access to your iTunes library and iTunes itself is not opened. So, if you quit Front Row you quit the application that's playing the music.
If you want to play music without using Front Row, why not just open iTunes directly? The Apple remote will work directly in iTunes.
If you don't have an Apple remote but have a Wi-Fi network, you could use an iPod touch or an iPhone with the 2.0 software and Apple's "Remote" application to remote control your iTunes. There are also third party remote control devices you might be able to use.
-Doug

Similar Messages

Auto-Quit Front Row on exit?

Hi everyone.
Having just received a new MacBook with Leopard, I've been playing around with the new version of Front Row. First off, it's great, runs smoothly and exactly as I want it to. However, I've noticed that Front Row.app uses an awfully big chunk of RAM. This is understandable for when it's active/running - it's a hefty app. The thing I don't like is that after I've exited Front Row, it's still running (as shown in Activity Monitor), still using a big amount of RAM. Is there a way to change the behavior of it, so that when I exit Front Row with the remote it actually quits the Front Row.app process? It's kinda annoying to go into Activity Monitor to quit it manually. Also, the Front Row app icon, now available in Leopard doesn't show it as actively running, so no help there. Does it eventually quit on its own, and I'm just jumping the gun by going to Activity Monitor?
Thanks!
William

Saying it will 'eventually' quit is a little vague. Any idea how long it floats around running in the background for? I have an external drive I use with my MacBook, with aliases that point toward it in my movies folder (so that I can view movies stored on the external drive). The problem is that until Front Row /quits/ I cannot eject the drive. So I have to fire up Activity Monitor and quit Front Row that way. Rather annoying, especially when I just want to eject the drive, close the laptop, and get moving.

Unable to view movies in Front Row

Hello all
I have been having some issues since updating front row to the latest version when I attempt to view movies I have downloaded from the net. I save the files in the right location under Movies and when I navigate via Front Row I can actually see the files displayed correctly however as soon as I try and play them front row just exits out...
I honestly have no clue what is wrong and would thus apprciate any help on troubleshooting this issue.
Thanks
-Pavan
iMac 20' Intel Core Duo, 2GB RAM, 256GB RAM ATI x1600 Mac OS X (10.4.7) Logitech s530 Mac wireless laser keyboard and mouse

This tends to happen when Front Row encounters a file format it is not familiar with. If it is a Divx file you need to have the quicktime divx components installed. Front Row uses quicktime to read the files so in general as long as quicktime can open it Front Row can. If the file has AC3 audio it may also crash if the proper codecs are not installed.

Soft subtitles in movies and Front Row problem solved

Hi,
Sorry for this long post but I hope this will help other users of Front Row.
This is how I create a testmovie.mov file from an DVD, TS_FOLDER or other source and the subtitles (soft) will work in Front Row, Quicktime, iTunes, without Perian or other special plugin. In my case the subtitle is NOT burn into the video. It is a track in the testmovie.mov file.
Also I use Elgato turbo h.264 HD to speed up coding. Not necessary.
1. Create a .m4v movie file (h.264 codec)
In my case I start the application that comes with Elgato turbo h.264 HD device, called Turbo.264.HD
2. Drop the DVD, TS_FOLDER or other video to convert, onto Turbo.264.HD application or other video converting application.
3. Click on the little "i" info symbol and the select Audio. The source maybe contains different languages. Click OK.
4. Select Format. In my case "Apple TV" format (I will use this video on my Mac Mini). Click Start. After a while the video is finished. In this example I call it testmovie.m4v
5. Download subtitles from Internet. Google: subtitles download
6. Open the testmovie.m4v in RoadMovie application. This application works for me, but there may be others. http://www.bitfield.se/roadmovie
7. In RoadMovie, click on Subtitles button and then open the downloaded subtitle file. In this example called testmovie.srt Also, click on the "little eye" Preview. In this view you can adjust the time offset for the subtitle to sync with the video.
8. In RoadMovie select "Export for: Flattened". This will create a testmovie.mov file with a new subtitle track in it, without ecoding the video.
9. Open testmovie.mov in, in my case, Quicktime Pro and the select Show Movie Properties.
10. Select the video track and set the Transparency to Composition. Layer 0
11. Select the subtitle track and set Transparency to Straight Alpha. Layer 0
12. Save changes and close Quicktime Pro
13. Move the testmovie.mov to Movies folder
14. Start Front Row and select Movies->Movies Folder->testmovie.mov
Voila!
/rob

So, as far as I can tell, it's a one-or-the-other situation. Either Front Row doesn't display subtitles (actually, no video at all), or it does (with this workaround). Can't seem to toggle them. If anyone knows of a better way...
So, good job in finding a (multi-step, multi-application, convoluted) way to get this to work, but I'd hardly call this "solved." Don't get me wrong, I'd have never figured this out in a million years. Just...not quite ideal, is it?
I gave Plex a spin, and while it does offer the ability, in theory, to toggle subtitles, I haven't been able to get it to work, either with with this trick or without. I can't believe this is so hard to get right...Apple, if you're listening, there are people who use Front Row. Keep working on it! How about using that middle button of the remote for bringing up an options menu for the currently playing track, rather than duplicating the play/pause button?
Sorry, just frustrated; I finally got a Mac Mini for hooking up to the TV, and now I'm discovering how hard this is.

Exiting Front Row

What is the quickest way to exit Front Row? So far I've found I have to hit "escape" for every sub menu I've gone into, is there a faster way?

Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
The safest way would be to "esc" out of each window. However, you should be able to use the command-option-esc key command to exit immediately. (This is a force-quit command.) Mac OS X is based on Unix, so force-quitting an application shouldn't affect any other programs. But, I'd recommend using the "esc" key or the "menu" key on the Apple remote to exit.
EDIT: Hmm... I've never tried to "tab" out of Front Row. While Front Row did quit after hitting "tab", the mouse pointer was not visible in Safari (my previously front-most application). I had to hide Safari before the cursor/pointer reappeared.
-Doug

Front row crashes on particular Video_TS file stored on other Mac

Hello, I have an iMac with some soft copies of movies I own. I use the iMac to serve up Video_TS folders to several other Macs in my home. I notice that on all of the Macs (including the iMac hosting the shared folders,) if front row ever crashes when reading the file or anything interrupts the initial read causing it to exit early, that folder will never be readable my that Mac again. No matter what I do there seems to be some kind of cached file that makes front row crash when I try to read that same file again.
I can login as a different user on the same Mac and it will work. Is there a user specific cache for front row that can be cleared? Thanks for any advice, pointers or assistance. Joel

Can you play the same video_ts folders using the regular DVD Player application? Or do you get (maybe) a more detailed error?
-Doug

When will Front Row be updated???

No way to select a 5.1 audio track? No way to rent or buy content without exiting to iTunes?
I can buy a HD movie with a 5.1 track through iTunes, but can't play it through Apple's main media software? Not cool...

Couldn't figure out what is the version of my system and what is the latest one. I'd made an upgrade to 2.1.7 using pacifist trying to fix a bug (I'll post my own topic). As I read, it should be in System Preferences (where is it).
This is kind soft that should be updated frequently because there is allways something new about multimedia. My FronRow doesn't play mkv files (it's now very popular) and some other formats doesn't play audio.
You pick an small app made by students in sourceforge and it plays more media with more resurces... but I still like Front Row a lot, hope Apple give us some credit.

99% CPU on Front Row with Snow Leopard, possible workaround...

This might be helpful for some who have experienced this issue as well. It seems that Front Row will continue to work in the background when you exit from it using Apple - Q, but if you exit using the remote, holding down the Menu button for a couple of seconds it completely quits. You can check using Activity Monitor.

I have similar problems.
I have an AirPort Extreme with two USB hard drives connected to it. One drive is for media such as our iTunes library and some movies. The other drive is used as TimeMachine backup.
After upgrading to Snow Leopard we only have sporadic access to the media drive with our two laptops (MacBook Pro and MacBook) and the TimeMachine backups have stopped working completely because TM can not connect to drive. Sometimes Finder can se the drives, but most of the time it does not. When drives are visible in Finder, most of the time we can not browse the folders on the drives at all.
AirPort Utility can detect the AirPort Extreme but when I attempt to configure the unit manually the program can not read the AirPort Extreme's configuration.
The AirPort appears to work all right when it comes to accessing the internet.
Apple needs to fix this AirPort debacle ASAP!

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.

Itunes won't start, iPhoto / Front Row Hang after Leopard install

I upgraded a Intel 2.0MHz 24" iMac this morning. I have never had any upgrade problems before. Last night the iLife 8.1.1 update was installed. Was using iTunes all morning. I got my Leopard CD via Fedex and popped it in. Install went smoothly with no issues. The only thing out of the ordinary during the installation was that I hit cancel when the Time Machine setup opened because I don't have a hard disc ready for it yet.
All seems to be OK except for iTunes, iPhoto, and Front Row.
1. iTunes hangs every time I try to start it and I have to Force Quit. Library is on an external drive that is available and working in Finder.
2. iPhoto will open and show my library, but hangs anytime I chose Edit. Library is on main drive, but I have preferences set not to have iPhoto copy items to the library. I tried rebuilding library but that hangs too.
3. Front Row hangs when I choose music or movies. I can't exit it and have to do a hard shutdown.
This is my first disappointment since switching about six months ago. Any insight on how to fix this would be appreciated. I am fully backed up prior to install, but it was not a bootable backup.

I seem to have located the problem. I disabled my Perian install and iTunes, iPhoto, and Front Row started working. I also reinstalled the MPEG2 support for Quicktime, but I believe Perian is what fixed the issue.

Stuck with Front Row

My mother was trying to email two simple jpg files from "Documents" folder. I don't know what she clicked. She ended up with Front Row stuck on her screen. Could not exit. Mouse did not work, neither was the keyboard. She also remembered hearing excessive HDD scratching.
When she described the problem, I did not understand because I've never seen Front Row. I had to drive clear across the town to help her out.
I had to yank off the power in the back. Then boot. Everything is a o.k. now.
How could one end up with Front Row? Especially from an email environment?

Alex DeSlim wrote:
My mother...
How could one end up with Front Row? Especially from an email environment?
That is expected behavior from mothers
btw - instead of "yanking out" the main, you could just hold down the power button on the Mac until it shuts off.
-mj

Front Row really slow browsing movies

I just upgraded my RAM to 4GB and my HDD to 500GB 7200RPM Seagate (clone made with Disk Utility) and noticed something that never happened before.While browsing movies in Front Row it becomes unresponsive for 10 to 30 secs.This does NOT happen with music,podcasts,photos or everything else in front row where everything is working great.I've always been using front row with no problems at all and have been really satisfied.
What is happening?I tried with iTunes turned on and off but makes no difference.Also running Leopard,did not upgrade to Snow yet.It's really annoying cause Front Row is really cool and I use it all the time.
Thanks in advance.

I've also noticed that after exiting Front Row the program actually continues to run in the background.Using Activity Monitor I can see it using 1GB virtual ram.I don't know whta that means or if it 's normal.
Thanks

Cmd-esc undesirabley launches Front Row?

Hi
I have LiteSwitch installed (www.proteron.com/liteswitchx).
According to its documentation, hitting esc while toggling through the apps (with CMD-TAB) would exit it without switching to the selected app. However, on my machine, hitting esc (while CMD is still being held) starts Front Row.
What am I missing here?
How to avoid that specific CMD-ESC from launching Front Row?
Alternatively, is there a way to change the hot key that launches FR by default?
Thanks!

As Apple does not make Liteswitch, your question would be more suitably directed to Liteswitch support and query them why their product is not working satisfactorily.

Front Row Auto Play

I went to play music on Front Row like I used to on 10.4 on my new 10.5. I started the music fine and it played, but when I tried to get out by pressing the menu button on my remote, when I get to the main screen the music stopped. Is this suppose to happen? With 10.4 it usually kept playing and I could go on with what I was doing. Also, Front Row doesn't let you play music while viewing photos. Is this also supposed to happen? Is anyone else having these problems, I am using a newly updated intel MacBook Pro.

yes, this is normal behavior for the *new* Front Row, which is based on the Apple TV paradigm. as soon as you exit the "music" menu area, it will stop playing music. although it does not directly address your question, it is possible to set up a photo slideshow to play a particular playlist.

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

Front Row soft exit?

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