Filed under: Software, Mac mini, Leopard, Apple TV
24 Hours of Leopard: Front Row
How it works: To tell the truth, I kind of liked the spinning icons of Front Row (and so did this kitten), but the Apple TV interface is nice, too. You can play all of your content (and even content streaming from other computers) straight through the interface, and obviously, DVDs, Podcasts, and Photos are all included in there as well. It's all built right in to every copy of Leopard, ready to operate from across the room with the still awesome Apple Remote.
Who will use it: Anyone watching movies or playing media from a distance on their Mac. And especially those of us planning on picking up a mini-- hook up a video out to the TV, and you've now got an Apple TV that does so, so much more.
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
mattcoats said 5:12PM on 10-26-2007
I was hoping my cat would forget about her days as a child star. thanks.
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Mark Ross said 5:14PM on 10-26-2007
#13: I am wondering the same thing, but I can't see how that would work without an AppleTV update as well. Man it would be awesome of it did work, though...
And I want to know about video playlists as well...
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Marcos said 5:35PM on 10-26-2007
The fact that it works with VIDEO_TS folders is huge for us with a Mac mini as a HTPC (although Remote Budyd does a nice job helping with that).
If it works on a second monitor, then I can see a lot of happy iMac users that have their computers in the living room, near the TV.
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Phil said 5:46PM on 10-26-2007
I miss the live previews of the Movies while browsing through the choices. I also DETEST the way the Trailers are displayed - by name, rather than by movie poster - I used to be able to look at a glance which ones I have seen before.
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gg said 9:36PM on 10-26-2007
What happened to the cool transition into Front Row?
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alloallo said 9:08AM on 10-27-2007
Doesn't play through iTunes also means that you can't use anymore AirTunes with Front Row.
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Larry said 6:27PM on 10-27-2007
Front Row works on my PowerBook without the Apple Remote on Leopard!!!!!
for G4 / G5 users with Leopard search Front Row in Spotlight and launch it!!
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sam said 6:45PM on 10-27-2007
why does front row not remember playback positions on video files???????????? this happened when front row was first released then apple fixed it with an update.... dont you think they should have kept it?
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dennis said 8:04PM on 10-27-2007
My Front row with Leopard does not support and extra screen. Connecting to a plasma and no video, non video (cover art) shows but not video of any kind.
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nacho said 12:04AM on 10-28-2007
I just installed Leopard and Front Row works great, but when I connect it to my Sony Bravia TV, everything works fine except the video. I can browse photos, listen to music and sea the album art, but when i go to watch a movie all i hear is the sound with no picture. What's the deal? I've tried everything, it doesn't make sense..anyone else experiencing this?
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Terje said 2:29AM on 10-28-2007
Hi everyone, first post ever on TUAW, so be gentle :) Have been lurking since way back though. :)
Have as many of you installed leopard over there weekend here, and have a quick question regarding front row.
I sometimes have my MBP connected to my flatscreen tv to watch movies and such, and it worked like a charm in tiger. Both with screen mirroring as well as second display, where tiger would start FR on the second display (TV).
In Leopard FR with second display option it starts FR on the MBP still, so tried screen mirroring instead. This works, albeit only to some extent. It starts FR fine and can navigate through FR on both the TV and the MBP, and play music and such, but when it comes to movies, I just get a black screen on my tv, with sound and the controller/progress bar but no movie? the movie is still showing on MBP though, but not on the TV?
Was wondering if anyone could offer some input on this? whether or not its a bug, or it was intended to work like that?
Any help will be much appreciated. Many ThankS! :)
PS. sorry for long post :)
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czantra said 5:03PM on 10-28-2007
I'm glad that Front Row can treat folders like real DVDs, including Resuming and can pick up cover art. I'm not so sure about the aqua progress indicator compared to the black and white of Tiger particularly when I pause during a subtitled movie.
Happily DVD player will also open the DVD folders directly without having to go down to the VIDEO_TS folder and will resume from disk (as well as the expected DVDs).
I also miss the moving previews of the movie files but it will be a great deal less painful when viewing networked folders over airport.
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eugene said 1:33AM on 10-29-2007
Thanks for the information about problems playing movies on an external TV. For me it's a show-stopper bug and I will wait upgrading till they fix it.
If you experienced it, please report it to apple at http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/bugrptform.html so that it is fixed sooner rather than later.
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Matt said 9:43PM on 10-29-2007
With regards to the second display video playing issue: I had it working yesterday, and I have no idea how, but today it's decided to do the same black screen with audio playing thing. If I figure out what I did yesterday, I'll let you know. Was very happy when it worked, albeit briefly, but now kinda dissappointed!
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Matt said 1:25PM on 10-30-2007
Seems to work fine if you:
Open System Preferences
Go to displays, then Arrangement
Drag the menu bar across to the secondary display
Not the most elegant of solutions, but I'm sure it'll work for the time being, till we get a proper fix from Apple.
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Navarre said 5:31AM on 10-31-2007
Leopard version of FrontRow does NOT work on the second display: not even if you do mirroring. I hope it is a bug anyway. For someone, a solution exists:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1196581
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iRobot said 4:29PM on 11-01-2007
I sure as hell, am NOT going to miss the non-alphabetical order in my TV Shows List. Talk about f**king annoying. My favorite part of THAT fearture is the fact that the order would consistently change everytime you added new TV Shows and Movies.
Yeah, bye.
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Doug said 3:52PM on 11-02-2007
I upgraded to Leopard partly to make my Mac Mini a home theater driver with Front Row, but I have such a basic question I haven't seen answered anywhere, maybe you can help . . . How do I start Front Row? I don't see any Icon for it anywhere! Any suggestions??
Thanks
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Topher said 12:31PM on 11-04-2007
For those of you wondering how to get the "old style" front-row back, here's a little How-To that should help.
1.) Go into the System->Library->Core Services folder and archive your current copy of Front Row.app.
2.) Delete Front Row.app
3.) Download and install Front Row 1.3.1 (google it or get it off your Tiger DVD if you have one).
4.) *Optional* Install the Front Row Update off of the Apple Website.
5.) Reboot.
TA DA. The "Old" Front Row is back. Complete with the fade-out transition, and the ability to keep playing music etc when going in and out of FR.
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Topher said 12:33PM on 11-04-2007
@Doug.
CMD+Esc to activate FR - Esc to exit.
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