Screen saver at front row

How can I stop the screen saver to star up when I at front row?

I regret to inform you that the only way that you can turn off the screensaver during FR is to disable it completely (at least while you are using FR). This is again, something that apple does need to fix.
Hope this helps,
Cory

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Is there any way to change the screen resolution in Front Row?

Hi all,
I've got a Mac Mini plugged in to my TV, and I want to be able to change the screen resolution depending on the content I'm watching (as some content is in 4:3 aspect ratio, some is in 16:9, and I'd prefer to have the picture filling the screen completely). Unfortunately, the TV doesn't have a "stretch" mode for making an 4:3 picture fit a 16:9 aspect ratio. If I know what I want to watch in advance, I can set the resolution accordingly using system prefs on the mac, but if I'm just sitting back choosing what to watch with the Apple Remote, it's annoying to have to leave front row, walk over to the computer and change resolution once I've decided what to watch, open system prefs, change resolution, re-launch Front Row and find what I wanted to watch again.
So I was wondering if anyone had figured a way to allow the screen resolution to be switched from within the FrontRow UI. I've seen that people have written python based plug-ins such as PyeTV and Understudy that allow different types of content to be added to FrontRow, but I've not found any utility plug-ins such as what I'm looking for on the net (nor could I find SDK documentation on this API in the stuff that comes with XCode).
I guess the other approach might be quick keys: has anyone had any success hooking up quick keys macros alongside front row in response to apple remote events? (seems too few events to be able to choose from, but I've never tried it, so I won't assume!) Or how about is there a way to trigger an AppleScript from within Front Row? And, of course, I'm very open to any other ideas you might have!
Thanks very much in advance for any ideas on this.
Andy
Message was edited by: Andy__D

Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), set a good rez there.

White screen when activating front row?

Hi all, I'm wondering if anyone has experienced this problem. I have my mac mini going dvi/hdmi into my receiver(onkyo 605) then HDMI into my tv (LG 720P). Front row works fine when I first start up, but if the computer goes to sleep, after I wake it front row goes to a white screen if I call it up.
Has anyone seen this? I think it has something to do with my receiver. It has an upscaling feature, but I'm not sure if that's the problem, or if it's the fact that the EDID gets lost when it sleeps. The screen loses the signal if the mac mini goes to sleep, but I can get it back on by switching some things on and off with out restarting the computer. I've tried taking the mini straight into the tv, bypassing the receiver, and it doesn't have the same problem, as far as I could tell in my brief test.
Any insight would be really appreciated
thanks
Ted

i have had the same issue once in a long while. dont know the cause though. i just restart when it happens.

Front Row Appears & Disappears...

When I press cmd+esc or use the apple remote to start front row, the screen briefly fades into the black screen that normally happens when front row begins but it then that instantly fades back onto my normal screen, it seems that front row begins but then aborts.
Has anyone had this problem or know how to solve it?
Im using latest version of leopard and have reinstalled front row latest software update to no effect.
Cheers,
Steve

my apologies, found out the answer, read an answer to a previous discussion and found out that i was running a custom screen saver that front row didnt like so had to take it off. hope that sorted it out if anyone else had a similar problem

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 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.

Macbook and TV - Front row controls.

I'm connecting my Macbook to TV through MiniDVI - S-video and i am working with front row with it and it works fine.
My question is... Is there a way that i can turn on Front Row on screen of my TV while having normal desktop screen on my MacBook? I thought i could turn this on by turning off "mirror screen" but it still shows Front Row on both screens?

No, Front Row takes over. One screen will be dark while Front Row is running in the other screen.
-Doug

Mysterious music in my Front Row

I'm not a huge Front Row user -- I pretty much just use it for DVD viewing. One day I explored a bit more and checked out the "Music" section, and found a bunch of music I didn't recognize, especially considering the titles were in Japanese, and I don't speak Japanese. Check it out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/endquote/2124583368/
I have no idea how that stuff got there. (I also have no idea how to take a screen shot of Front Row -- that's an iPhone pic.)
I have two Macs, a newish dual-core MacBook Pro, and an old Powerbook G4, which acts as a music server. I have an Airport Extreme providing network access to everything and two Airport Expresses for Airtunes use. The wireless network is using WPA password protection, and I just changed the passwords tonight. None of this music shows up in iTunes on either Mac. The only other devices on the network are an iPhone and a Wii.
What's going on here? Is there a security issue? Am I hallucinating? It's just so strange.

He he! I haven't actually seen a screen shot of that yet, but you're not the first to report this issue. Some people have resolved this issue by deleting the Front Row preferences. You can find the file in this path:
<Macintosh HD>/Users/<YourUsersShortName>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.frontrow.plist.
You'll need to log out and log back in after deleting the file. For some reason, your iTunes store preference has changed to the Japanese store.
-Doug

Can't use my screen saver while using front row for music?

When I work I have my computer on the desk next to me, usually I have music playing and my very large image library running through my screen saver. I used to be able to start up my music using the remote, going through front row. I'd start up the music and back out. It would just return to my screen saver at that point.
Now when I try to do that, I can't back out of front row without also backing out of my music. It's kind of annoying... I mean, I can just start up itunes and go from there, but it was a nice function that I really got used to.
Does anyone know of a setting that I can adjust that would allow me to do this again?
Thanks

The way it used to work, I'd already have my screen saver running, I'd open front row from my remote, and just start up itunes through that. I'd never actually see the itunes app because it would just open on the toolbar. As soon as I backed out of front row it would automatically go right back to the screen saver while still playing my music. All from across the room.
Now I have to go over to my computer, open up itunes, start that up, windowshade it to the dock, then hot corner my screen saver again. All sitting right at the desk.
It was a nice convenience. I don't understand the loss. At least give us the option to open it in the background in preferences. I've always appreciated the fact that Apple let us use our computers the way we like. This just seems counterintuitive.

Screen Saver starts while playing DVD in Front Row (Tiger)

Just recently, Screen Saver starts while playing a DVD in Front Row. This never used to happen and I suspect it's due to some software update. I know that Leopard users now have Settings within Front Row to disable the Screen Saver...but why is this just now happening in Tiger? Playing a DVD in Front Row used to override whatever Screen Saver settings there were.
Part of the convenience of using Front Row is now lost for me. I don't want to have to adjust my Energy Saver settings each and every time I want to use Front Row to play a DVD. And I'm not ready to upgrade to Leopard yet.
Any solutions? Any way Tiger users can adjust settings in Front Row?

Not sure if this works on Tiger, but this may be the solution you are looking for
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/caffeine.html

Front Row & Screen Saver

I wish the screen saver would not come on until the slide show or music is finished. I hate set my aquarium for such a long time just so I can use Front Row without interruption.
David
P.S. I have Hot Corner at upper left set to dissable, but does not help.

You can make a hot corner start the screen saver. That way its really easy to shove your mouse over to the side when you leave your computer. You can also make a hot corner disable the screen saver for when you want to use front row.

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)

Front Row produces screen artefacts

When I search the Front Row discussion forum I find a lot of unhappy users. I for instance cannot understand why Airtunes support was abandoned. Someone in Cupertino must have though: "Hey guys: I have a great idea...".
Anyway: I found another weird bug. When playing music from Front Row, the screens turn black after about 10 minutes. Nothing strange so far. But when the screen is woken, it show block-like artefacts that disappear after about 20 seconds. The artefacts flash with about 1 Hz. What could be wrong?

Someone in Cupertino must have though: "Hey guys: I have a great idea...".
Since this is a user-to-user forum and none of us work for Apple, we can't really speculate about why this decisions was made, if there even was one. You can continue to use iTunes directly to play your music through AirTunes.
When playing music from Front Row, the screens turn black after about 10 minutes.
In the Front Row "Settings" menu, have you disabled Front Row's own screen saver?
-Doug

How do I keep the screen from dimming in Front Row DVD Player

Nothing against the standard DVD Player program, but when I'm using the remote Front Row has more functionality. When I use it plugged in, there is no problem, but on battery power the screen auto-dims like normal and then brightens again and dims again...on and on. It proves to be very distracting.
Is there any way anybody knows to keep the screen from dimming like that while im in front row DVD player?
Newmac

Go to System Preferences > Energy Saver and change the time for screen dim in your prefs for battery operation. You can always change the setting back to the existing setting later, if you like.

Why do I get a black screen in front row when watching some iTunes store purchases? esp Cars 2

We bought Cars 2 a few months ago from the iTunes store. The movie won't work in Front Row, we only get a black screen (except for the blue Front Row controls at the bottom) although the audio comes through just fine. The annoying part is all of our other iTunes store movies work fine in Front Row. Just Cars 2 is broken. I don't think that it is an authorisation problem because it plays okay in iTunes, Quicktime, even via airplay to an appleTV or via Home Sharing to our iPad.
The movie is only standard definition so I am guessing that it is not an HDCP issue; I understand that there is only HDCP on HD movies. We are playing it on a Mac Mini (core 2 duo) on a Sony Bravia via a VGA connector.
After a little bit of complaining, apple let us download the movie again in case the file was corrupted, but unfortunately the same problem with the new version.
The computer did have Perian installed at one point, but uninstalling and restarting made no difference.
I have found lots of reports of movies with missing picture in Front Row but these are all ripped videos, never with an iTunes Store purchase.
Apple won't refund our money as the purchase was more than 60 days ago by the time I gave up troubleshooting and reported the problem.

Yeah! Problem solved: It's a QT issue.
Cause: Mac Update Software downloaded a faulty QT.
Solution: Download QT from Apple's QT site.
Great to have the Video back

Screen saver at front row

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