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.

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Will Front Row play VOB files?

Good afternoon.
I have several movies in DVD format and am wondering if front row will play these? If not, does anyone know if Media Central will play them?
Thanks.

Front Row will only play what Quicktime can play, so it will not play DVDs stored locally.
According to here, Media Central will play DVDs stored on your HD.
VLC will also play VOB files.

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.

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.

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

How can I import a movie into iMovie 09 from a hard drive? The movie will open and play in idvd but breaks into separate files that can't be downloaded when I try to import. Can it be done?

How can I import a movie into iMovie 09 from a hard drive? The movie will open and play in idvd but breaks into separate files that can't be downloaded when I try to import. Can it be done? I am trying to create a disc of player highlights for a collegiate coach, and I am using movie files downloaded to my hard drive from a DVD created on a PC.

No unfortunately it won't open in quicktime either. It does the same thing that Imovie does, separates it into two file folders audio and video, and if i select video it opens to reveal 8 files that cannot be selected. VIDEO_TS.BUP, VIDEO_TS.IFO, VIDEO_TS.VOB,VTS_01_0.BUP, VTS_01_0.IFO, VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VB, VTS_01_3.VOB. All of which cannot be opened or selected.
Opening it in Idvd and folllowing your suggestion works and I get a format code of NTSC. Is that the same? Thank you for your time and response.
CaCanuck

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.

Here is a crazy problem. My home movie will no longer play in iTunes.

I created a home movie using Final Cut Pro X. I shared it to ITunes. The video played ok. I then changed the name of the video under the "get info" tab in iTunes, and the thumbnail view of the video changed from the first frame of the movie to a picture of a film reel and the movie will no longer play. I tried changing the name back to the original, shutting down iTunes and the computer itself, copying the movie, all to no avail. I also tried accessing the movie from the finder, and it would not open using QuickTime or VLC. Any ideas?

The lack of a purchase date, although I am not quite sure why it happens, does not in itself prevent the track from being authorized and played. However, since the account name is correct and they have disappeared from your purchase history, something may have been corrupted.
Unless someone here has a better idea, you should take it up with iTunes Customer Service.

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.

What movie file types will front row recognise?

will it play any windows media or asf files?

Besides playing DVD movies, Front Row does not really "play" anything. It will open iTunes in the background and play your music. It will open iPhoto in the background and play your pictures. If you choose the "Movies" section, it will open the QuickTime Player in the background and play your movies. So, as long as you can open and play your movies manually with the QuickTime Player, you can access them in Front Row.
-Doug

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?

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

Front row plays music but will not show photos

When i try to view my photos in Front Row all that happens is music plays but no photos are shown. Front row says that there are 186 photos to show, however, there is nothing to view once I start the show.
Any help with this?

Any help with this?

Front Row plays audio but not video of MP4 H264 AAC files

SL 10.6.6
Here's the problem:
Take an MP4 movie file encoded with H264 and AAC thats plays with no problems in QT, iTunes, Front Row
Open this file in QT7Pro, add a mask using a GIF file then export as MP4 using video and audio pass through to avoid re-encoding
The new video file plays OK in QT and iTunes but only plays the audio track in Front Row - the video is just presented as a blank screen
This happens to every file i've tried it with.
I've tried trashing all front row caches/prefs/app support folders, installing/uninstalling/re-installing perian. i've tried changing the file extension to .mov .m4v .3gp - still the same problem the file plays perfectly except in Front Row
All the posts I can find on this topic seem to refer to subtitles causing a problem - these files have no subtitle track
Any suggestions?

I have faced the same problem exactly. Some seasons and one movie I have detected so far, do not show any video at all. If I open the same files in iTunes, they show ok. If I open the same files in QuickTime thought no video also. I guess it has something to do with QuickTime then. Try it yourselves in order to see if it is the same problms with you guys. If that is the case I will try to extract an older version of QuickTime from the installation package via Pacifist and see if that works.
Even if it doesn't work I am pretty sure they will come up with a new update fixing this, but the point is that Apple isn't used in making bugged updates, up until recent. What is wrong with them lately?
Anyway, as soon as I have news in the afternoon I will let you know

Which movies will front row play.

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