Front Row Suggestion

Ok, I have a suggestion about Front Row... Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, I just thought here would be the best place to post, if not let me know.
I use a Powerbook and a Powermac G5, I thought it would be a cool idea if Apple released Front Row publically to any of their systems IF you have a wireless remote. The other day I purchased the Griffen AirClick, and It would be nice to use that with something like Front Row.
Just thought I'd throw that out and have some talk about it. What do you guys think?

These discussion forums are mainly other Apple users helping each other out, and is not a place where Apple reads for feedback. Try going to Apple's OS X Feedback page at: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
This way you can ensure Apple will read your feedback.
Hope I could help,
Stephen
<edited by host - see Terms of Use section 2.6.3>

Similar Messages

Front Row Movie Playback Suggestions

Intro....
I'm loving the new front row, especially since i can watch my Video_TS files. After using the software for a few weeks, I've realized a behavior. I want to watch movies at home similar to the movie theater. Specifically, I want to watch trailers before my selected movie.
Suggestion....
1. User selects movie, in my case under the movie folder
2. One randomly chosen trailer plays from the Theatrical Trailers section
3. Another randomly chosen trailer plays (the amount could be a preference)
4. A 10 sec intro movie welcoming people to my theater (I even tell people to shut off phones
5. Feature presentation
Conclusion....
I believe this will be a great option. Good for Apple because more people will watch the trailers. Good for users who like to watch trailers (in the theater you don't select your trailers), and good for people who have a custom movie intro (like me and Kaleidescape users). Seems like an easy thing to incorporate.
Any additional suggestions to this. If there is an applescript that can do this, please let me know.

The green status bar at the bottom shows how much data frontrow needs to grab before it thinks it can start playing the video. It doesn't show the amount of data transfered relative to the total file size. If the bar is 100% green it means that frontrow thinks there's enough of a cache to start playing the file without interruption until the end. By the time it's finished playing this cache more data will have already downloaded so it can keep playing etc etc.
In other words, it hasn't downloaded the Star Trek trailed 8 times. It starts playing before the whole thing downloads but then stops when it runs out of data to play. Basically, the cache is set too small for your connection. There's a preferences for this kind of think in the Quicktime system preferences panel but there doesn't seem to be one for Front Row. Its suppose to be automagic... unfortunately it looks horribly broken. Very very distracting actually... makes the whole feature useless in my opinion.

Front Row Feature Suggestion - Current Song Transfer

Just a thought for a Front Row update - if you have iTunes open and start Front Row, the now playing data will be transferred. So if you navigate to audio and select the same song, it will continue playing where iTunes left off. Then, when you close Front Row, the current song data is back in iTunes, allowing you, again, to start right where you left off. This makes sense for me because I often have to leave Front Row to do something, but I want to keep the music playing and don't want to have to search for the song again. I know I could just use the remote with iTunes itself, but it would be nice to have this feature.

Hi Jon,
Finally!
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1164
Kady

How can I use apple remote with Mountain Lion? Any Front Row alternative?

Hi All,
I recently upgraded from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion.
All great except for my Apple Remote control.
Before, I could effectively control my iMac media with Apple Remote by using Front Row (music, photos, videos, good integration with iTunes and iPhoto).
Now, as I understand, Front Row is expired.
So, my Apple remote still works but with very limited options (just music, forward, backward and volume), and it's a real pity.
Any of you Guys know how to restore Front Row?
Otherwise maybe suggest an alternative (sth similar, should allow iMac media control by Apple Remote)?
So far I tried to restore all Front Row files by a Time Capsule Snow Leopard backup (as indicatred on some other Communities).
To restore was easy, but then, no way to launch it.
Any advice will help!
Thanks in advance/all the best.
Marco

Thanks Klaus1 for your prompt answer, although I went again through a dated discussion.
I also got the feeling that somehow they want to push Apple TV..
But, respectfully speaking towards our Friends at Apple, is it fair to promise what you don't deliver?
I have choosen apple because I percive it's different.
At currently published link: http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MC377Z/A/apple-remote
they do promote the following:
Apple Remote with Mac
The Apple Remote gives you total command of your music, photos, videos and DVDs from anywhere in the room. It works with Front Row - a menu-based, full-screen interface - to make accessing the digital content on your Mac as simple as navigating your iPod. When you press the Menu button, your desktop fades and the sleek, Front Row interface takes its place, to give you control over your music in iTunes, your photos in iPhoto, the videos in your Videos folder and your DVDs. Turn up the volume. Shuffle. Skip to the next chapter on your DVD. Play a slide show, a home video that you made in iMovie, even a film trailer.
Compatible with Apple products introduced in 2005 or later that have a built-in infrared (IR) receiver. Not compatible with MacBook Pro with Retina display.
Cost for this is 15£ (19€).
Now, I have iMac and Mac Book Pro (no retina display) both with Mountain Lion installed, and I understand both of them are not compatible with Front Row.
Actually I adore apple tv and I got 2 at home nicely working on 2 different TVs.
So I accomplished twice their wish of selling this product to me.
Why shall they deceive me (and many others, as I read) by killing a still promised service?
Should I read all forums before buying a trusted-brand-product like apple, to ensure that id does what declared?
Don't get me wrong, I'm an enthusiast user of the whole apple family, since many years, and still I am.
Just politely complaining for this decision, which creates to Many an easy avoidable disservice.
Cheers
Marco

I am running OS 10.6.8 and Safari 5.1. Option-Command-Escape now brings up Front Row. How can this be fixed?

I am running OS 10.6.8 and Safari 5.1. Option-Command-Escape now brings up Front Row. How can this be fixed?
Also, trying to copy portions of articles from Safari (5.1) to MS Word now results in the twirling ball. Any solutions?

Try using the other Option (Alt) key. The reason I suggest that - the real command combo for Front Row is Command-Escape; yet yours was being activated when you pressed Command-Option-Escape. That would indicate that Finder was not responding to the inclusion of Option in the key combo. The simplest explanation for that would be that the Option key you are using is not working for some reason.
One other 'simple' possibility - just to make sure (in case you are using a non-Apple keyboard), Option is the key adjacent to each Command key.

Two problems with Front Row

Hello.
I have all my music on my iMac and I am streaming it to my Mac Mini connected to my TV and stereo. What I have noticed is that the cover art on my music tracks don't show when I play any of the shared tracks or playlists, just the default picture with the two notes. Is there something I can do that will display it? I have tried to start iTunes and connect the shared library there before starting Front Row but that didn't help.
I also have a problem with listing my pictures in Front Row. I have an external drive connected to my Mini that has all my pictures and movies. I have no trouble playing the movies (I created an alias in the Movies catalog to the Movies catalog on the external drive), but if I create an alias in the Pictures catalog to the Pictures catalog on the external drive the catalog isn't shown in Front Row. Do I have to import all the pictures into iPhoto? I don't use iPhoto at all because I always use the program that came with my Nikon camera that shows all the picture information, such as focal length, what lens I used, white balance setting, etc. (or Adobe Photoshop Elements it I want to make some changes). Is there something I can do to fix this too?
Thanks,
Erik Aleksander Moe

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 movie trailers -- not connected to internet message?

I'm new to Front Row, even though it's been on my laptop for a while! Anyway, when I click on Movie Trailers, I get a message saying I'm not connected to the internet, even though I am (via Airport). I looked at Network Diagnostics as both the message and Apple Support site suggested, and everything is reported as fine (as I knew it would be; I can get to the internet with no problem). The only other thing I found in Support was for machines with more than 1 Ethernet port, which I don't have.
Is there something special I need to do to get Front Row to see I'm connected to the internet? Thanks for any suggestions!

I believe you've encountered a bug with Front Row. If you can, try plugging in an Ethernet cable even if it's not actually connected to the Internet itself. Sometimes Front Row looks only for an Internet connection through the Ethernet port even if the port, itself, is not connected to the the Internet. I think the trailers will play through the AirPort connection anyway...
-Doug

Can I use Front Row with macMini (PowerPC)?

Is Front Row compatible with macMini PowerPC version and Tiger? Or does it need Intel?

Do you think that I can successfully emulate an Apple TV by setting up my MacMini (PowerPC) with a third party (someone suggested Keyspan) remote, Front Row application, and using Front Row to access iTunes music, TV shows, and videos (same as APple TV),and using Safari to access .mac web gallery (now available on Apple TV2)? The interface on the AppleTV is probably more elegant and seamless, but really, I could access the same content with the macMini, right? Also YouTube videos and Picasa photos can also be accessed via Safari. It will just look and feel more like a computer if I use Safari, vs a Media Centre! Do you think it's worth giving a try?

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

Ugh. help me if you can! Proplem w/ front-row. no music on slideshow

forgive me if this is a small problem that I should be able to resolve on my own.
When using Front Row to access a slideshow, the music that I added to the show doesn't play! Yet, when I launch the show from iPhoto, it plays. This happens on only one particular slideshow. ..I did delete the "plist" for iPhoto, but this didn't fix it (this was a sort of "fix all" tip that I found using the help menu.)
Any suggestions? Front Row is pretty cool - I'd hate to not be able to use it.
Thanks in advance.

Yes, thank you, i realised that headphones with noise canceling are something i must get....but, i cant belive that the same headphones with touch and nano produce such dramatic different experience...i can hardly belive that nano has better what..sound procesor, amplifier than touch...it shouldent be that way.
i am thinking it must have something to do with ..say latest regulations regarding volume imput in some countries or what, and i thought that it must be the program that cansels it..or so..since i have wireless on this thing.
Message was edited by: ljut123

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.

Does Front Row update playcount (and other attrbutes) in iTunes?

Excuse this question please which I could theoretically test myself, just don't have the resources at hand right now to try it out:
As I understand FR under Tiger uses iTunes to play music. So logically any smart playlists based on 'last played' or 'playcount' attributes will stay up to date?
However, since the new FR (Leopard) handles everything itself my question is, will it also update these iTunes attributes?
My previous quick test, seemed to suggest not. Pretty annoying cos I'm planning to use a MacMini as a mediacenter, connected to the TV and it seems to defeat the object of Front Row if I end up having to play music from iTunes in order to fully utilise my smart playlists.
Cheers,
Rich
PS And why do I have Front Row 1.0 installed on a brand new 10.5 iMac? I thought the Leopard version was FR 2.0 ?

...still don't umderstand why it's version 1.0 though!
The "Front Row" that is in your Applications folder may be "version 1.0" but it's really only a shortcut to the actual Front Row application that's inside your /System/Library/CoreServices/ folder. That's the application that is version 2 now and is actually displaying on your screen. I think Apple added this shortcut for people who don't have an Apple remote so it's easier to open Front Row.
-Doug

Using my TV for Front Row

First of all, apologies if this question has been asked before. I did search for it, but couldn't find it anywhere.
I have an iMac on my desk, and right next to my desk I have a 32" Samsung HD TV (Model No: LE32C450). As I don't have a DVD player for my TV, I was wondering if there was any way that I could connect my iMac to my TV for watching movies using Front Row? And before anyone says it, I know I could just buy a DVD player for like £20, but I wouldn't just be using this for DVDs.
Now, I'm not all that good with the technical side of stuff, such as which cables and adapters I'd need, or if I'd need any special software and things like that. My iMac has a Mini DisplayPort, and my TV has 3 HDMI slots, and according to the manual for the TV, one of them is DVI.
I know it's possible to use a TV as a monitor, but would it work for what I want? The iMac doesn't seem to have an Audio Out slot, so I guess I couldn't use my TV's speakers? And would the resolution be good enough for things like movies? I believe the TV is 720p (so not full HD) if that makes any difference. Basically, I don't want to spend money on this if the picture and/or sound are going to be poor.
Sorry for such a long question, but any help would be much appreciated. If you need any more info, just ask and I'll do my best.
Thanks

Actually, it's a little more complicated than Kappy suggests. "Pairing" the remote means only ONE remote will control the device that's been paired. However, that same remote will still control other devices. So, unless you have two remotes and can pair each one with one device (computer & Apple TV), one device will still receive stray commands.
If you do have two remotes, then pair one to the Apple TV and the other to the MacBook. Then they won't get confused. Pairing a remote with the Apple TV does NOT appear in Mac OS X help at least not in either Mac I checked. However, pairing a remote with a computer does:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/8993.html
Pairing your remote with the Apple TV:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1555
If you only have one remote, in the MacBook's Security System Preferences, check on the option to disable the built-in IR receiver. With the receiver off, the MacBook won't react to any signals from the Apple TVs remote.
-Doug

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 won't read most of the music in iTunes

When I go to my iTunes folder playlists from the desk top I get everything that I expect to see there. When I open with the remote, almost everything I see, for every playlist, says it can "shuffle songs" but there are no individual songs listed.
This applies to music bought from the Apple store and CDs I have copied to iTunes. I have played with preferences to no avail.
This is a new MacBook Pro with all the software updates available as of last night.
Advice welcome ... otherwise this Front Row / remote is a silly piece of add on equipment that isn't worth anything.

sorry for the slow reply, but what format are the songs in? mp3? AAC?
i would suggest converting to AAC if it is in anything other than these 2 (if it is in apple lossless, its fine....)
ben

Front Row Suggestion

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