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

Similar Messages

How Do I Use An External Drive Folder For Front Row???

I have recently bought a 1 TB external drive for my media vidoes and music and have moved all my files over to the external drive and want to use the new folders for movies on front row.
When i go to front row it only has movie folders found on my built in Harddirve, and no folders from the external drive. How to i select this drive to play movies on front row from the external drive?????

oh man thank you so much i was having a brain **** about how to run them on front row. I can't believe i didn;t think about that.
Thank you again
Jer

Remote for front row

I just upgraded to Leopard and was checking out Front Row. I can use the arrow keys to navigate but since I am on a Powerbook I have no remote or sensor to pickup one. I am curious if there are third-party remotes available for older Macs. I have an EyeTV Hybrid which came with a remote. Is it possible to use something like this with Front Row?

I too have a Powerbook running Frontrow and I just bought this off eBay for cheap. http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/errf1/ this is a remote made by Keyspan for Frontrow.

What is the best older version of iTunes for Front Row?

Can anyone share some opinions please on which older version of itunes I should download that has the least amount of bugs when using "front row" (I currently have 9.0.3 and Mac OS X 10.5.8)? . Also, should I download the regular version or the 64-bit version? What's the difference/advantage between the two?
Many-many thanks in advance.

I am right up there with iTunes biggest proponents, and try and to recruit anyone who will listen...
I've got about 75 "complete season" Television DVDs, and it was really time consuming to decide which series and episode I wanted to watch by pulling out a box, reading each episode summary that came with the DVD, then take it out of the box, insert it, view it, put it back etc. etc....all for one episode!
Then I heard about adding video files to iTunes and viewing them via Front Row (or iTunes)...couldn't wait to try it. Was totally won over by Front Row's little opening fanfare and the look of the table of contents/episode screen etc. Every feature worked fine.
Since downloading 9.0.3 (from either 9.0 or 9.1) however, I inherited that scrolling issue were it skips and jumps to the last TV Show played or occasionally a random episode, and keeps reverting to that one as well. With my previous version, that scrolling issue appeared, but only several times in about a 3 month daily viewing period then stopped doing that altogether. With that version of iTunes, it seemed to stop after I held the up and down buttons on the remote and let it rapidly scroll up and down (from top to bottom) throughout that particular series. That doesn't work now, and even scrolling up and down/back and fourth, full speed ahead, I can see it semi-pause for a split second on a specific episode. This now became constant problem.
Now a newer problem. I had some misc. TV shows that were catalogued in iTunes as Misc., which front row correctly displayed as such and were properly filed in it's own iTunes folder. I tried to rename that folder, and since then, the iTunes window displays the new name correctly, but Front Row doesn't. I tried dragging that folder to the desktop, creating a new one in the iTunes folder, then dragging those desktop files (sans folder) into the new one and it's still back to square one! I've got about 840 TV shows, with 145 GB of free space remaining.
Again, thanks all for your help.

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

Setting poster frame for front row

i am in the process of putting a bunch of videos on my hard drive to use in front row. the problem i am having is that front row basically shows the 1st frame as the poster frame. so i have no clue what the episode is about.
if i set the poster frame in quicktime pro and then save it it saves it as a .mov file. my videos are .mp4. how can i change it so it saves them as .mp4 or does this really not make a difference ?

Thanks for the answer. Didn't think about that. Guess my brain is still formatted as Windows.
Though I don't get the preview:
http://localhostr.com/files/534186/img.jpg
I have checked the "Show icon preview" in the View Menu, and relaunching Finder didn't help.
Neither does removing the .DS_Store (Terminal).
Tried with a few JPG's.

VIDEO_TS meta data for Front Row?

Front Row in Leopard supports playing VIDEO_TS folders. You can also add cover art by saving a file as preview.jpg in the parent directory. The folder structure would be like the following.
/Users/fred/Movies/The Day the Earth Stood Still/VIDEO_TS/
/Users/fred/Movies/The Day the Earth Stood Still/preview.jpg
/Users/fred/Movies/Cloverfield/VIDEO_TS/
/Users/fred/Movies/Cloverfield/preview.jpg
/Users/fred/Movies/Attack of the Killer Tomatoes/VIDEO_TS/
/Users/fred/Movies/Attack of the Killer Tomatoes/preview.jpg
This works great, however I was wondering if there is any equivalent method for adding meta-data to VIDEO_TS folders. Obviously you cannot do the normal process of storing it as MPEG4 tags in an MPEG4 video file via iTunes. If it was possible I would presume the most logical method would be to store an XML file in each folder something like this.
/Users/fred/Movies/The Day the Earth Stood Still/VIDEO_TS/
/Users/fred/Movies/The Day the Earth Stood Still/preview.jpg
/Users/fred/Movies/The Day the Earth Stood Still/metadata.xml
/Users/fred/Movies/Cloverfield/VIDEO_TS/
/Users/fred/Movies/Cloverfield/preview.jpg
/Users/fred/Movies/Cloverfield/metadata.xml
/Users/fred/Movies/Attack of the Killer Tomatoes/VIDEO_TS/
/Users/fred/Movies/Attack of the Killer Tomatoes/preview.jpg
/Users/fred/Movies/Attack of the Killer Tomatoes/metadata.xml
I suspect that unfortunately this is not currently possible but does anyone know for certain?

Unfortunately it looks like currently there is no way to do it and Apple have been sorely neglecting Front Row (it has fallen well behind even the Apple TV which is far from state of the art). As Snow Leopard is concentrating on performance enhancements rather than new features, I do not hold out hope for any significant change for well over a year.
Note: Apple TV is not necessarily a bad product, indeed I bought one for my parents, it is merely like Front Row extremely limited, too limited for many people which is why it sales are (allegedly) so poor. I think the comment raised by more than one pundit that it fails to replace a box under your TV is an extremely important one. It does not replace your DVD player (there are still comparatively few movies on the iTunes store - assuming you are in a country which has any at all), the movies are too expensive compared to DVDs and do not offer either as good quality or as many features. It also fails to replace a video recorder or these days a DVR since it has no TV capabilities. As such it has to be treated as an additional box if at all, and as an additional box it increases the spaghetti factor and thus fails the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) even if it is by far the easiest to use product.
I have therefore switched to using Plex which is a Mac version of XBMC. Plex allows you to use VIDEO_TS folders just like Front Row (indeed the same folders can be used in both), but it does have a built-in 'library' which stores meta-data and artwork for these VIDEO_TS folders and any other videos you might have. It uses plugins called 'scrapers' to search sites like http://www.imdb.com for metadata about the movies, I have even written a 'scraper' to search Amazon for those few DVDs not listed on IMDB.
See http://www.plexapp.com
Since Plex does an excellent job handling VIDEO_TS (i.e. DVDs) it can 'replace' a box - the DVD player and also means the kiddies do not destroy your fragile discs.
PS. Horror of horrors, even Microsoft Media Center is 'better' than Front Row. This is practically the only category Microsoft has actually genuinely earned first place in rather than cheating/bribing/stealing/buying its way to.

Best Format For Front Row

Hi what is the best format for videos in front row? Most videos I have are avis so I had been saving them as .mov files instead until recently when I discovered I could export them to Mpeg4 and in the process make them widescreen - I also noticed that when I saved these videos as .mov they took up about 5 gb but as mp4 they took up 500mb. So anyone have any opinions on what is the best way to do it?
Cheers

AVI and MOV are both simply "containers". The video and audio files inside them can be many formats with less or more compression. The MPEG-4 compression can be very good, of course, depending on the quality of the original file. The MOV files you saved must be using a different type of video compression that may be better quality but takes up more hard drive space. The "best" type of compression is probably a personal choice. What type of software are you using to save the files? QuickTime Pro?
-Doug

Using Mac Mini with Front Row on my TV

OK, this is probably answered a million times already, but I couldn't find a simple explanation anywhere.
I want to use my Mac Mini on my TV, so basically I can use Front Row with the remote on my regular television. I see there's a $20 video adapter to make the video appear on my TV, but what about the audio?

For audio, you will need to route the mini's audio output jack (stereo mini-jack) to the same input on the TV as the mini's video is connected. If the TV is not of the HDTV type, you'll typically be limited to s-video or composite input. I is normal for either of these to also have audio jacks to which the mini's audio can be connected with an appropriate lead (often stereo mini-jack to left/right RCA). The audio will then play with the video when that input on the TV is selected.
Alternatively, you could route the mini's audio to an external amplifier, and play it that way.

What's the best version of iTunes for Front Row?

Can anyone share some opinions please on which older version of itunes I should download that has the least amount of bugs when using "front row" (I currently have 9.0.3 and Mac OS X 10.5.8)? . Also, should I download the regular version or the 64-bit version? What's the difference/advantage between the two?
Many-many thanks in advance.

I am right up there with iTunes biggest proponents, and try and to recruit anyone who will listen. (I've got over 18,000 song files on my storage Mac, about 1,000 on this Mac).
I've got about 75 "complete season" Television DVDs, and it was really time consuming to decide which series and episode I wanted to watch by pulling out a box, reading each episode summary that came with the DVD, then take it out of the box, insert it, view it, put it back etc. etc....all for one episode!
Then I heard about adding video files to iTunes and viewing them via Front Row (or iTunes)...couldn't wait to try it. Was totally won over by Front Row's little opening fanfare and the look of the table of contents/episode screen etc. Every feature worked fine.
Since downloading 9.0.3 (from either 9.0 or 9.1) however, I inherited that scrolling issue were it skips and jumps to the last TV Show played or occasionally a random episode, and keeps reverting to that one as well. With my previous version, that scrolling issue appeared, but only several times in about a 3 month daily viewing period, then stopped doing that altogether. With that version of iTunes, it seemed to stop after I held the up and down buttons on the remote and let it rapidly scroll up and down, from top to bottom several times, throughout that particular series. That doesn't work now, and even scrolling up and down/back and fourth, full speed ahead, I can see it semi-pause for a split second on a specific episode. This now became constant problem.
Now a newer problem. I had some misc. TV shows that were catalogued in iTunes as Misc.(Show), which front row correctly displayed as such and were properly filed in it's own iTunes folder. I tried to rename that folder, and since then, the iTunes window displays the new name correctly, but Front Row doesn't. I tried dragging that folder to the desktop, creating a new one in the iTunes folder, then dragging those desktop files (sans folder) into the new one and it's still back to square one! I've got about 840 TV shows, with 145 GB of free space remaining.
Again, thanks all for your help.

What's Best older version of iTunes for Front Row?

Can anyone share some opinions please on which older version of itunes I should download that has the least amount of bugs when using "front row" (I currently have 9.0.3 and Mac OS X 10.5.8)? . Also, should I download the regular version or the 64-bit version? What's the difference/advantage between the two?
Many-many thanks in advance.

I am right up there with iTunes biggest proponents, and try and to recruit anyone who will listen...
I've got about 75 "complete season" Television DVDs, and it was really time consuming to decide which series and episode I wanted to watch by pulling out a box, reading each episode summary that came with the DVD, then take it out of the box, insert it, view it, put it back etc. etc....all for one episode!
Then I heard about adding video files to iTunes and viewing them via Front Row (or iTunes)...couldn't wait to try it. Was totally won over by Front Row's little opening fanfare and the look of the table of contents/episode screen etc. Every feature worked fine.
Since downloading 9.0.3 (from either 9.0 or 9.1) however, I inherited that scrolling issue were it skips and jumps to the last TV Show played or occasionally a random episode, and keeps reverting to that one as well. With my previous version, that scrolling issue appeared, but only several times in about a 3 month daily viewing period then stopped doing that altogether. With that version of iTunes, it seemed to stop after I held the up and down buttons on the remote and let it rapidly scroll up and down (from top to bottom) throughout that particular series. That doesn't work now, and even scrolling up and down/back and fourth, full speed ahead, I can see it semi-pause for a split second on a specific episode. This now became constant problem.
Now a newer problem. I had some misc. TV shows that were catalogued in iTunes as Misc., which front row correctly displayed as such and were properly filed in it's own iTunes folder. I tried to rename that folder, and since then, the iTunes window displays the new name correctly, but Front Row doesn't. I tried dragging that folder to the desktop, creating a new one in the iTunes folder, then dragging those desktop files (sans folder) into the new one and it's still back to square one! I've got about 840 TV shows, with 145 GB of free space remaining.
Again, thanks all for your help.

Using Smart folders with front row

I have several video files on my Hard Disk, and would like to see them without having to move them to the MOVIE folder.
Creating aliases doesn't work because I always have new files and can't synchronize all of them manually!
Best way would be to create a Smart folder INSIDE movies that will be automatically populated with all the videos on my computer.
Any ideas on how to do it?
thanks,
P.

I don't think a "smart folder" is going to work. A "smart folder" is not really a folder itself, it's a text file that remembers the criteria you selected for a search. It's a little Mac OS X magic that makes the Finder think it's a folder. Front Row thinks it's a text file. You won't be able to browse the contents of a "smart folder" with Front Row. Now, why Apple couldn't add smart folder technology into the Front Row interface, I have no idea. I would think they could implement this. I would send them some feedback and request this option:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
-Doug

Using your plasma with front row

I am currently using front row with a second display (plasma Tv). While viewing videos or photos, is it possible to turn of the Imac's display ?

select arrangement, you will see two dispalys, theone on the left has a white line across the top of it. this is the minu bar. drag it across to the other and there you have it. all videos/music/ photos etc from front row will be on the plasma and the imac display will be off.

Can I use Concatenate function for multiple rows?

I have a lead list that contains 5000 leads. The format of this list contains address data that is saved in separate columns (ie: address, address 2, city, state, zip). I need this data in 1 column. I tried to use the concatenate function to combine the data for 1 row and it worked perfectly. I tried to do this for multiple rows and the function is greyed out. Is there a work around or way that I can combine this data for all 5000 rows without doing it 1 by one?

Look at this table;
In B9, the formula is;
=B2&" "&C2&" "&D2&" "&E2&" "&B3&" "&C3&" "&D3&" "&E3
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) dimanche 18 octobre 2009 20:51:47

A thought - Syncing for Front Row

I have 2 AppleTVs, several iPods, 3 Macs and 2 MacBooks in use around my house. We use Front Row on the 2 MacBooks a lot. Unfortunately we don't keep our Movies and TV Shows on the MacBook HDDs. They use shared libraries from two different iMac desktops, inside of Front Row. The other night I was using one of the AppleTVs and started to wonder if I could sync the MacBooks to the iMac desktops like I sync my AppleTVs, iPhone and iPods. That way when we're away from the house (like on Vacation) I could have the most recent Podcasts, TV Shows, Movies, etc. automatically on my MacBooks without having to manually move the files there.
Does anyone know if this is possible?
If so, how do I do that?
If not, any idea why it can't be done?

I've got the problem.
My config:
1) build 8G1171.
2) From system profile:
Boot ROM version: IM41.0039.B00
SMC: 1.1f2
Chipset: ATY,RadeonX1600
VRAM (totale): 256 MB
Fornitore: ATI (0x1002)
ID device: 0x71c5
ID revision: 0x0000
EFI version: 01.00.063
3) I've partioned and therefore rinstalled the system. I don't know if yhe machine had the same problems with original factory installation.
Summarizing:
*) Front Row video tearing and flickering with ghost images
*) iCal dragging window -> video tearing problem
*) Selecting a large amount of icons and dragging them in Finder -> video tearing problem
*) Second install DVD broken (still awaiting replacement from APPLE)
*) Runnig Apple Hardware test -> VRAM shows 128MB not 256 (It seems to be a minor bug), System Profile, instead shows 256MB.
Apparently I have no other problem with network (via ethernet or via airport) or USB (only right button on the migthy mouse, sometimes doesn't respond to the pression).
I don't have an idea if this is a software or hardware problem. I hope software because the machine is fantastic (outside the problems) and vide hasn't dead or broken pixel, so I'm not happy to substitute it.
iMac core duo 20" Mac OS X (10.4.4) 256MB VRAM - 1GB RAM - 250GB HD

Using my TV for Front Row

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