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Using aliases to extend Front Row's capabilities

by Sang Tang Oct 1st 2009 at 8:00AM

While Front Row's integration with iTunes and iPhoto provides a nice, seamless experience, there are times when your needs demand a not-so-integrated approach -- say, for example, if you have an external hard drive full of videos that you'd like to watch on Front Row, but don't necessarily want to import into iTunes or copy into your Movies.

One solution to this is to create an alias that points to said external hard drive or any other folder on your computer or network. For new PC-to-Mac converts, an alias is the equivalent of a "shortcut" on Windows. To create an alias, right-click on the file or folder (in our case, folder) and select "Make Alias." Now, place said alias in the your Movies folder, which is located in /Users/username/Movies.

Now, you'll be able to browse and play movies of the folder that the alias points to. And if QuickTime can play the file, then so too can Front Row.



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While Front Row's integration with iTunes and iPhoto provides a nice, seamless experience, there are times when your needs demand a...
 

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chowee2

I've tried to use the applescript pointed here ( http://blog.vladalexa.com/2008/05/08/avi-movies-in-front-row-and-itunes/ ) to flag my files as movies since most of them doesn't play in Front Row (black screen with audio).

Unfortunately Snow Leopard seems to have broke the ability to drag a file on an applescript droplet.

Is there a way to make this work again ?

October 02 2009 at 7:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Peter Knapp

A great tip, thank you.

I've just tried plex and set my external HD as a source, but front row is simpler to use.

October 01 2009 at 8:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
homan2

In theory, can I just move all my itunes converted videos onto an external, link them with an alias, and have access to them in itunes (for transferring to iPhone, playing on TV, etc)?

Would be a huge space saver on my anemic 250GB internal

October 01 2009 at 4:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to homan2's comment
S

Actually, you can do something even better, IMHO: Put the movies on your external drive, and then drag them to iTunes while holding the Alt key down. When you do this you will notice that you no longer see the "+" symbol, and this is because doing this will not copy the movie to your iTunes folder. Instead iTunes will only keep a reference to the movie on the external disk.

I have all my music in my iTunes folder in the normal way (i.e. dragged without Alt key -> they get copied), but the movies I keep on an external drive and Alt-drag.

October 01 2009 at 5:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike liang

Another tip: to add artwork of your movies to Front Row, name the file "Preview" captitol P and Front Row will display the artwork from your ripped DVDs stored on extrenal HD.

October 01 2009 at 10:31 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Geoff

Dear TUAW. I have a real web browser on my phone. PLEASE stop redirecting me to crappy iPhone formatted versions. That was the whole point of the iPhone.

October 01 2009 at 10:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Geoff's comment
charli

Dear Geoff. Stop posting your requests in places that have nothing to do with your complaint.

October 01 2009 at 11:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
michaelB

I love that feature, thats how all of my home dvds are stored on my server that way all my computers have access to my movies. Hello movie extravaganza. Now if only apple could build a "Mac not so Pro" with fewer pci express slots and internal bays, and I would be hooked up.

October 01 2009 at 9:40 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
valexa

Apple aliases are created by holding alt+cmd while dragging

The reason some files do not play in it is because they are not flagged as movies , see http://blog.vladalexa.com/2008/05/08/avi-movies-in-front-row-and-itunes/ for details to fix it

October 01 2009 at 9:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
artaxerxes

It works for any folder on your mac... so just find the Movies folder (ctrl + click - show in finder).

October 01 2009 at 8:35 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jigme

does this work with movies rented from iTunes? for some arcane reason, FR doesn't seem to list those...

October 01 2009 at 8:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Daniel

Does this also work for the Apple TV? This would be awesome!!

October 01 2009 at 8:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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