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.

Similar Messages

Iphones 3gs movies in Front Row

I can watch the movies I take on my iphone 3gs fine from within Quicktime; however, when I try to view them in Front Row all I get is the audio. My guess is because the aspect ratio of the movie is weird (basically the width is narrower than the height). Is there any quick way to fix this problem?

If you know that you have watched the movie, you could deselect it in iTunes - this should prevent it showing in Front Row
Go to the list view in iTunes, and then uncheck the ticked box next to the movie's name. You can use this for songs etc too...

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

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.

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.

Bought av adapter to watch iPad on tv. Plugged it in iPad and received message not compatible. Both are apple products. Unable to view movies on tv from iPad. I also used hdmi cable

Bought av adapter to watch iPad on tv. Plugged it in iPad and received message not compatible. Both are apple products. Unable to view movies on tv from iPad. I also used hdmi cable

Every consider an AppleTV for same? no cables, no fuss, LOTS of free content, very handy.

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.

Unable to view movies

Bought an itouch for our daughter for Christmas. Also bought the movie UP, which came with digital copy and downloaded to wifes mac book. Downloaded movie to itouch and daughter was able to view movie several times but now the 'not able to play movie' pots up on screen. Get same message when attempting to open other movies or videos. We have the latest itunes installed and itouch is synced the mac book where movies were downloaded from. Thanks.

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.

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.

Problems viewing trailers on Front Row

For some reason, Front Row is now showing an error message every time I attempt to play a movie trailer.
I get the message "The selected video could not be played. The format was not recognised."
I can't think why this has happened so if anyone knows what's going on, I'd be very grateful to hear from them!
Thanks!

I had similar problems when viewing trailers using Safari - the same trailers worked fine last week! I seem to have fixed it by manually setting the date to two weeks ago!
Here's what I did:
- Open "Date & Time Preferences"
- Untick 'Set date and time automatically'
- Set the date to 8th Jan 2010
- Quit System Preferences
- Quit Safari and QuickTime Player
- Open Safari and goto www.apple.com/trailers
- Click one of the HD trailers (...this time the Hubble 3D trailer worked)
- Open "Date & Time Preferences"
- Tick 'Set date and time automatically'
- Restart iMac (& verified I could view the trailer again)

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.

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?

Some TV Shows appearing under Movies within Front Row

I've started experiencing this particular behaviour since installing the recent updates (10.6.1 & iTunes 9). Within iTunes, I've checked the 'media kind' and it is set correctly.
All the content was purchased from iTunes. I'd be grateful for any advice.
Thanks,
Andy.

The problem happened again to me - I was fiddling with my music videos (some 664) and did a mass tidy up - selected all and then checked the box to make sure they weren't skipped or resumed half way through. Also ticked the box that they were music video.
Back in Front Row suddenly all my movies were swamped with hundreds of music videos. And they were clearly marked as "music video" when displayed in Front Row Movies.
I did the following: selected all the music videos, changed the type to TV shows, exited iTunes. Checked in FR - all gone from Movies. Back into iTunes and then changed them all back to Music Video. Exited iTunes. Checked FR - still gone!
So maybe try changing them to something else (music video or movie in your case?) and then back again - make sure you exit iTunes after though (maybe it commits changes to the iTunes database or something ... ?).

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

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for