Filed under: Software, Video, Hacks, How-tos
Reader video: Front Row on a Mac mini
TUAW reader, Zeno, wrote in tonight from Switzerland, having just managed to get Front Row running on his Mac mini with a few "tweaks" (it is currently only included with and supported on new iMacs).
He recorded a video as proof of his success, and included the following notes: "Details: - Front Row transition effects run smooooth on the Mac mini (keep in mind there's no G5 in the mini and it only has 32MB of vram). First time you launch it, you'll be blown away, that's for sure. - Front Row can be controlled from the keyboard (4 arrow keys, space bar and escape) - As you can see in the video, I managed to remote-control Front Row from my SonyEricsson K700 via Bluetooth: using one of the built-in Bluetooth HID profile (no Salling Clicker needed, even if, of course, you could do that with Salling Clicker too) - Because of those 'tweaks' (ok, call them 'hacks') Front Row on the Mac mini is not working 100% properly (Videos and Photos were ok, but had some problems with DVD and Music)"
Pretty cool. The video is awesome, as you can really tell how completely stoked Zeno is about the whole thing. We like it so much, that we decided to host it for him. You can grab your copy here (13MBs).
Thanks, Zeno! You rule!
Update: Here's a Flickr set of another Mac mini running Front Row. Thanks, Matthew!
Update again:
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 17)
Jaws said 12:49AM on 10-25-2005
I got it working on both my old iBook and G4, albeit with problems. Is anyone else experiencing the problem of the "titles" in Front Row (like Music, Photos, etc.) showing up upside down? It's happening on both my Macs, and I'm not sure why or how to fix it.
Reply
Jaws said 12:49AM on 10-25-2005
I got it working on both my old iBook and G4, albeit with problems. Is anyone else experiencing the problem of the "titles" in Front Row (like Music, Photos, etc.) showing up upside down? It's happening on both my Macs, and I'm not sure why or how to fix it.
Reply
Brett Berish said 1:30AM on 10-25-2005
here's something unique: I'm no programmer, but if this was intended to be an iMac only toy, wouldn't it glitch out on computers that run a resolution different from the iMac? But nope, I played around with resolution settings, and I'm already on a widescreen powerbook, and it still works. Hmmmm.
Oh, I think that the I CAN'T TALK TO ITUNES is related to iTunes itself.
...and update for which was just released. Gonna get that and see what happens.
my 1ghz titanium G4 runs it fine, but it feels sluggish otherwise, I think I'm gonna put everything back the way it was.
-------!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ON THAT NOTE, ANYONE DOING THIS: NEVER REPLACE SYSTEM FILES. MOVE THEM. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!--------
I don't know if anyone pointed this out but for God's sake trust me on this one.
I already had whateveritwas.framework file in that folder, so I moved it and put in the new one. another tip: give one of the items a color label so you can tell it apart.
Reply
loren Cox said 1:42AM on 10-25-2005
Got the torrent, put the Front Row app in the Apps folder and the CoreServices folder, rebooted... works great! Haven't tried DVD's yet but everything else works pretty smooth on my Powerbook 1.5Ghz.
Reply
bryan c said 1:48AM on 10-25-2005
has anyone else noticed that at the bottom of the product page for the ir remote on apple.com, it now says-
"Compatible with Apple products introduced in 2005 or later that have a built-in Infrared (IR) receiver."
man i cant wait for january ;)
Reply
nicholas said 2:25AM on 10-25-2005
got it running on my mini, but when i go into frontrow and come back up all the minimize buttons on most of my apps are gone. i have no idea whats causing this
Reply
mike said 2:34AM on 10-25-2005
Yeah, and he is going to wake up to Apple legal calling him
---
Singing telegram from Cupertino, sir.
Reply
Sebastian said 2:57AM on 10-25-2005
Following the guide above, I'm now running Frontrow on my iBook G4 1,0 GHz! It's great, and apart from DVD playback (DVD player communication error), everything seems to work fine at reasonable speed!
Reply
Sebastian said 3:09AM on 10-25-2005
You're right. Minimize buttons of Safari, Vienna, iPhoto, iTunes, Finder - all of them are inactive and can't be clicked! WTF?!
Reply
EJ said 4:01AM on 10-25-2005
I accidentally replaced my folder also. I'm running Front Row on my Mini. Is there anyone out there that can help me out where to retrieve the old folder if there's any way! Thanks.
Reply
fra said 4:09AM on 10-25-2005
oh my god...
that was just SO good.
Told shift and launch Front Row... *joy*
And I'm running the base model mini with 256MB of ram... and, It runs at quite a nice speed
Reply
Kyle Brown said 4:58AM on 10-25-2005
Wow, nice guide, except that's a ridiculous way to do it. Go to http://thefifthrule.com/T5R/?p=76 and (if you have bitTorrent) download the front row .app and frameworks. Follow the EASY steps of copying the files over to your system folder, and you have a perfect copy of front row. I just installed it on My 15 inch PB.
Reply
chris said 5:17AM on 10-25-2005
Beware... it broke my quicksilver. CTRL+Space no longer works! If anyone has any idea how to fix this let me know.
Reply
chris said 5:26AM on 10-25-2005
Answered my own question... on a reboot quicksilver works, but front row is no longer able to communicate with iTunes or iPhoto.
Thinking that this is something to do with that Bezel file...
Reply
Sebastian said 5:58AM on 10-25-2005
I created a HID profile to be able to use Sony Ericsson K750/K700 mobile phones with Frontrow. Download the file http://www.geekly.de/Frontrow.hid , send it to the phone and there you go!
(this will only work if Frontrow is activated by pressing F8)
Right softkey: activate Frontrow
Left softkey: Back
Navigation stick click (or 5): Enter
Navigation stick directions (or 2, 4, 6, 8) : Controls
Reply
R said 6:37AM on 10-25-2005
enano275]
Thank you!!!! goes to you and the Mac Serial Junkie. It works perfectly. I had a lot of glitches. Now it works like like it did for him on his Mac Mini.
Reply
R said 8:00AM on 10-25-2005
To fast forward and Rewind use the left and right arrow keys.
Reply
Cyberwhore said 8:19AM on 10-25-2005
Icon for Frontrow
http://www.eden.org/eric/blog/?p=90
Plenty more around if you look.
Reply
Angawi said 8:24AM on 10-25-2005
I downloaded Xkeys but the installer file seems to be corrupt, it won't install. Any help?
Reply
Steve Jobs said 9:01AM on 10-25-2005
Hi. I have two things to say. First, DVD player does not work. Seccondly, I would like an icon for front row :)
Reply