Playing movies in front row of an ext hdd

I want to buy a mini as a media centre where i can rip my dvds into however because of the mini small int hdd i wanted to buy a 250gb ext hdd and put the dvds in there but can i somehow move the movies folder to the ext hdd and play the stuff of from there in front row

In addition to this, you can also configure iTunes to NOT copy files when they're added to the library, and just add them from the external disk.
I'm currently using both approaches for different things, and both work well. They also work well for network mounted file systems, for those of us who don't want to leave iTunes running (and accounts logged in) on machines all over the place for Bonjour to work, especially when the file server is an early Power Mac G4 with very little memory.

Similar Messages

Playing movies through front row from ext HD

I recently bought Lacie HD firewire 800 1 terabyte and was thinking of loading all my movie files into the new HD and run from it. I've tried aliasing in movies directory in my Imac main HD but it still taking up space in my main HD. Can anyone help ?

I use Front Row to play movies from a different hard drive. Put the movies (they can be organized in sub-folders) in a folder on the external drive and Command-Option-drag that folder to the Movies folder in your home folder. When you choose "Movies" in Front Row, select "Movies Folder", then the folder on the external drive.
If the movies are still using space on your boot drive, it means you didn't delete them from the boot drive (and empty the trash) after copying them to the external drive.

Playing movies in Front Row one after another automatically?

I have a number of short video clips that I can watch with Front Row. However, every time a clip ends, I have to go and click “play” on the next clip and this is annoying. I am wondering if there is a way to make movies play one after another without stopping. Thanks for the help!

David,
Thanks for the help. I'm still thinking there must be SOME way to pull this off. It seems like Mac's can do just about anything if you take the time to figure it out. Why wouldn't the people who designed Front Row not add this feature? It doesn't make any sense. There has to be a way. Anybody else have any ideas?

Airport Express Playing Audio From Front Row

Can AE be directed to play the audio through Front Row. Obviously it would be nice when playing Itunes through the Front Row Interface, but I was more interested in getting the Full sound while playing movies through Front Row.

I read on former posts this was a previous options that was removed during a upgrade. That's shameful. I don't understand why such feature would be removed after being available previously. I assume it has to with trying to profit from a migration to apple TV. Something I would never do and never with the uncertainty such another purchase would loose features as this one.

Remove certain movies from Front Row

Hi guys!
I appreciate any advice or guidance on the issue; thank you in advance.
I have my movies in iTunes; they play fine in FR. A good chunk of them have terrible resolution from being compressed over and over with bad setting choices, mainly digitized vhs footage from home movies. Anyways, these movies look pretty bad.
Luckily, I have the originals on a external hd. They are mostly .avi and are in a better quality. I've realized I can just bring these into my "movies" folder, and they work fine, thanks to Perian. I do not do this though because I don't want to occupy space on my main hd, so I just make aliases and bring them into the "movies" folder.
Now, this is okay with me, but I'm a picky guy, and I like my style...
I want to change the metadata so that I can show "artwork" rather that a frame from the movie, plus have a description etc. On a side note if anyone knows of a better way then I am doing it, I am all ears!
So, I open the movies in Quicktime, and save as a reference movie. I then bring the reference movie into MetaX (which lets me add artwork, etc...) Then I can just pop those into iTunes.
Now, this is where it gets tricky/weird. I realize that:
1. I can drop these files in Itunes.
2. This takes up space on my main hd (which I do not want if I do not have to)
3. I now have duplicates (a low rez and a good quality version)
4. Syncing my iPod will bring the reference moves along "for the ride"
ok, so I can just choose which movies to sync to my ipod by checking which movies I want in the setting menu, so no worry about the reference files coming with.
I was wondering is there a way to make an alias of the reference file so that it doesn't take up any space on my main hd?
Irregardless of that situation, I am still stuck with 2 versions of my movies in iTunes.
I want the poorer quality movies on my iPod and iTunes, but only my good quality movies in Front Row. Is there a way to remove the poor quality moves from Front Row while still keeping them in iTunes?
Okay, one last question, which probably should have been the first one. What is the difference between a reference movie and an alias, outside of being able to change meta data? Is a reference movie the equivalent to the "box" that a dvd comes in? You know, it has some pictures on it, cast, description etc...?
If I bring a reference file onto my iPod, will it bring the original (good quality) movie instead? Or have I now got some sort of super awesome compressed version of the movie without any quality loss (or is this some sort of fantastic dream)?
Thank you for any advice. I'm sorry that this is a little long-winded.
I expect someone to replay with "No." as the answer. LOL
Thanks everybody,
Ethan

You're kind of on your way with the solution.
I would like to have posters for my good quality film in itunes+FR, but not on my ipod.
I want the low quality ones on my ipod, but not in my front row.
I've come up with a semi-solution so far.
I've brought the good ones into itunes, with the "copy files to itunes music folder" unchecked. I changed all the info in itunes, and posters etc.... Then I marked all of my low rez movies as tv shows, in a show called "movies"
it is not an ideal solution, but what I am really after is having a "clean" look in itunes when you choose "movies". This might be as close as I can get.
I would prefer something better if at all possible. But I can live with this if I have to. My main concern is that my "tv shows" folder is overflowing with shows. Luckily, they are grouped together by show, and not just in random order.
One thing that would really help, I do not know if this is possible. This would be the ideal solution: if you could create a "show name" folder in the "movies"tab (in itunes/FR)(not to be confused w/ the "movies" in finder) as you can in the "tv shows" tab in itunes.
I've found that because front row has a lack of preferences, and itunes's preferences do not give you enough control; this just turns into a mess.
iLife should be simple, hence the "i" in iLife. LOL
Ethan

Can't shuffle songs or play music through front row anymore !

Hi I can't seem to play anything with Front Row since the last OS update. i get the spinning grey thing that just never ends and i have to force quit. anyone have the same issue?

I have the exact same problem.
I think that the problem is related to a read/write permissions / "file in use" type of problem that is specifc to network drives in some way.
I have two computers, and my iTunes library is stored on a usb-harddrive connected to a Airport Extreme wireless router.
When I have opened iTunes on computer1, and try to start iTunes on computer2 it says that the Itunes library is locked.
I guess the same thing is happening when FrontRow tries to connect to the iTunes library, while iTunes is open.
Message was edited by: krabbetegne

Movies on front row

i have some movie files in my external hard disk, my external hard disk is in ntfs format....
im just wondering how can i see these movies in front row???
thanks

Create a folder in you external HD and put the movies in it.
Create an alias of this folder (right-click on the folder and select Make Alias)
Put the alias in the Movies folder within your home folder.
This way whatever movies you put inside that folder in your external HD will be available in Front Row.
You can also create an alias for each movie you have in the external HD and put those alias in your Movies folder but I think it is easier doing it the other way because you do not have to keep creating aliases.

Mac mini turns off after watching movie in front row

we were watching movies through front row on my mac mini (intel core duo from 2004, 1 gb processor) and it turned off a few times, all within about 15-30 minutes of each other. I just upgraded to leopard a few months back but have not had any issues until now. the mac mini is also connected to a hard drive where we store our movies.
Has this happened to anybody else?

I have the same problem. It's pretty annoying and renders the app useless. For now I solved the problem by preventing my Macbook going to sleep via the power settings. Since this is a waste of energy, I would appreciate any suggestions.

Which movies will front row play.

My itunes library is on an external disc, however some large movies are put into my itunes libraries as QT reference files to movies held on another external HD. This all works very well in itunes, although sometimes there is a slight delay while itunes searches for the files or the other external HD wakes up.
Front row won't play these reference files, or it won't for me and seems to cause some issues when I try.
Is this something I should expect or can I fix it.
If this is to be expected, is it because the files are on another external HD (although all my itunes files are on an ext HD anyway) or is it because the files they are referenced to are not mp4's (think they are .dv or .mov)

They simply don't play and when I press menu or escape I get a message saying that itunes has quit or had problems. I rather suspect any problems I'm having are down to sharing with front row 1.2.2. it seems I get differing results every-time I try to share some video. Actually 1.2.2 seems very dodgy at sharing.
The .mov and .dv are on a desktop G5 (no front row) so I am unable to test them directly without sharing or copying to anther mac. But I have never had one play yet with sharing. I have had mp4's not play sometimes and then play the next time I try, so I'm tending to believe it's a sharing issue, especially when I play the mp4's from the same mac (no sharing) they work every-time.
I suppose the next thing to do is to copy one of the .mov's to a mac with front row, but they're all so big, anyhow I'll give it a go.

Making play list of movies in front row

In iTunes I created playlists for music videos I downloaded from youtube. I can play them just fine on my iPod. How can I do that with Front Row? The videos show up in the "movies" section. The playlist I created in iTunes shows up, but there are no files showing in them. Can this be done or is this something an update needs to address. I hope this is an easy fix. Something tells me it may not be. Any help would be great.
Thank you.

Right now Front Row does not support video playlists. I think we can expect this in the future, as some of Apple's hardware (like the third generation iPod nano) support video playlists. I would suggest you send Apple some Mac OS X feedback and let them know this feature is important to you.
-Doug

Playing rental movies with front row

Is there any way that they can upgrade front row so that i can watch rented movies through it? I'm a very lazy person and i want to watch my rented movies from my bed without moving. I can use the remote to watch most things but it won't let me play rented movies with it.

Unfortunately, rental movies do not appear in Front Row. I believe this is because of the inability of Front Row to alert you (and have you click "okay") to the rental agreement requirements. It may also be because Front Row does not give iTunes feedback about when you started playing the movie and/or when you're done. If you would like to see rental movies in iTunes, as do quite a few people who post in this forum, I would suggest you send Apple some Mac OS X feedback (since there's no form specifically for Front Row):
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
-Doug

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.

Hiding Movies from Front Row

I have a couple of 'adult' themed .mp4 and they show up in front row regardless of where I move their folder location. The names of the files are generic however a thumbnail of the content shows up and very much gives away what they are.
Is there anyway to place these .mp4 somewhere that is more private?
thanks

Front Row looks in three places for videos: You iTunes, your user's "Movies" folder and in the "Sources" option that looks for other computers with iTunes sharing turned on. If you movies aren't in iTunes, you can move them from your "Movies" folder and put them somewhere like your "Documents" folder. They'll still play with the QuickTime Player application (or other video player utility). If you have QuickTime Pro you could add one last frame that's different and set that as the "Poster frame". Then the preview would be that frame and not something else...
-Doug

Aliases of movie files in ~Movies/ for Front Row usage

Hi everyone.
In the first place I apologise for my bad English.
I want one applescript for folder action wich will make an aliases of all movie files (.mov, .avi, .mpeg, .mpeg, .divx ,etc.) in freshly mounted CD/DVD/HD in ~Movies/ folder because I want to play those files in Front Row.
Another Script is needed for deleting unwanted aliases upon unmounting that CD/DVD/HD.
I figured out that all CD/DVD/HD are mounted in /Volumes folder, and I created such two scripts:
On mounting drive:
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
try
tell application "Finder"
make new alias file to these_items at "Macintosh HD:Users:USERNAME:Movies:" with properties {name:"Movie"}
end tell
end try
end adding folder items to
On unmounting drive:
on removing folder items from this_folder after losing these_items
try
tell application "Finder"
delete alias file "Macintosh HD:Users:USERNAME:Movies:Movie"
end tell
end try
end removing folder items from
I attached those two scripts as /Volumes folder action and they are working good, but there is a problem.
When I mount CD, and then when I connect my iPod, alias of CD is moving to trash and new alias to iPod is created with same name. Also, when I connect iPod, and then CD and then I disconnect iPod alias to CD is moving to trash. ****, that's not quite what I am looking for.
Apparently I have and idea, but I lack experience with applescript.
Creating alias script should work like that:
on mounting drive in filesystem
1) Scanning about 2 levels for QT supported files
2) Making alias to each movie file in those 2 levels in ~Movies/
3) Adding constant Spotlight comment (for alias removing purposes in other script) to those alias files in ~Movies/
Removing unwanted Aliases:
on unmounting drive from filesystem
1) Scanning ~Movies/ For alias files with constant spotlight comment
2) removing those alias files (moving to trash preferably, for security purposes)
This way script would make only good aliases, and there could be multiple drives mounting into system. Apparently, after unmounting any drive aliases with constant spotlight comment will be moved to trash, but I don't have any idea for that.
Can someone help me?

Hello imrik,
Firstly, I don't use OSX myself, so the rest of this post is based upon my experience under OS9 and some knowledge from OSX documentations, etc.
Folder Actions suite (terms for Folder Action's handler) is defined in StandardAdditions.osax, that is located at (probably):
/Library/ScriptingAdditions/StandardAdditions.osax
In brief, the dictionary states (under OS9):
on adding folder items to fda after receiving aa
-- fda is alias of the folder that receives new item(s)
-- aa is list of aliase(s) the folder fda received
end adding folder items to
on removing folder items from fda after losing nn
-- fda is alias of the folder that loses item(s)
-- nn is list of aliase(s) or list of item name(s) the folder fda loses.
end removing folder items from
* Open the dictionary of the OSAX in Script Editor for more details.
As far as I can tell (under OS9.1, AS1.8.3), 'removing folder items' handler always provides list of names that the folder loses, in spite of the description in OSAX dicitonary.
I don't know the reason why 'removing folder items' handler provides {} in 'after losing' argument in your environment. It should provide list of names of unmounted volumes (unless '/Volumes/' directory is something so special as to deceive Folder Action Server in some way.)
(Possibly your method to check the handler's arguments is not appropriate.)
If you want to check the class of value/object in AppleScript, the proper way is to use a code such as SCRIPT1:
-- SCRIPT1
set x to (path to desktop) -- alias
--set x to {1,2,3} -- list
set c to class of x
display dialog ("" & c) -- this will show class name string of x.
return c -- this will return class of x in result window (when run in Script Editor).
-- END OF SCRIPT1
And to check the contents of value/object, you may try SCRIPT2 (for AppleScript's native value/object):
-- SCRIPT2
-- in target script (run in e.g. Applet or Folder Actions)
set x to {1, 2, 3}
tell application (path to frontmost application as text)
activate
set the clipboard to x
end tell
-- in checker script (run in Script Editor)
set y to the clipboard
return y -- y is given in result window of Script Editor.
-- END OF SCRIPT2
So as a whole, you may try something like SCRIPT3 as your test Folder Action and SCRIPT3A as its corresponding checker:
-- SCRIPT3
on adding folder items to fda after receiving aa
tell application (path to frontmost application as text)
activate
set the clipboard to {fda, aa}
display dialog ("" & (class of aa) & return & (class of (aa's item 1)))
end tell
end adding folder items to
on removing folder items from fda after losing nn
tell application (path to frontmost application as text)
activate
set the clipboard to {fda, nn}
display dialog ("" & (class of nn) & return & (class of (nn's item 1)))
end tell
end removing folder items from
-- END OF SCRIPT3
-- SCRIPT3A (to be run in Script Editor)
set y to the clipboard
return y -- clipboard contents is displayed in result window of Script Editor.
-- END OF SCRIPT3A
That's all for now.
Good luck,
H
Mac OS 9.1.x

Need to add movies to Front Row

I have *.avi files that I've added to an external LaCie hard drive. Front Row does not show these movies, only ones in the Movie folder on the main drive. How do I get movies on the external drive to be available in Front Row?

I have movies on an external drive and watch them via front row on my Mac Mini.
Front row recognizes aliases so what you need to do is creat an alias for the folder your files are in and then move that alias to your movies folder. Front row will then recognize the files and you should be able to play them.

Playing movies in front row of an ext hdd

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