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Front Row in Mavericks?

Morod

Morod

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 1, 2008
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On The Nickel, over there....
I'm running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and use Front Row a lot. I know FR was removed in Lion and ML. Has it been put back in Mavericks by chance? I'm still not sure if I'm going to upgrade to Mavericks, but if it had Front Row, the decision might be a bit easier for me.
Thanks!
 
No Front Row hasn't been added back. But isn't there a perfectly stable 3rd party media app that does the same thing? I don't remember the name but it's out there. Regardless, you should still consider upgrading to Mavericks because there are a lot of new features (compared to Snow Leopard) and under-the-hood performance improvement.
 
Yes, you really should upgrade if possible. There is this media server called Plex Media Server. Try it, it's free and works so good.
 
I also love Front Row. I created three parts on my hard disk. One is my main OS partition (now with Lion), one I have all my stuff like libraries, media etc. and the other one is Snow Leopard.

Plex and Co are not even close to Front Row. indeed, Front Row is more or less obsolete, but I will stick to it as long as possible.

And to be honest, using a 4 Year old OS not that bad. We still get security updates.
In fall I will update to Mavericks, but will still use my beloved Snow Leopard.
 
There was a 2 part hack (which included the missing frameworks from SL), to get front row to work on mountain lion, I'm using it on my macbook in sig on ML 10.8.5 and it works fine. I installed mavericks temporarily on a separate partition and managed to get it to work in dp1 & dp2 without modifying the ML hack. I've not tried it out on the current dev preview DP7, but i don't see why it wouldn't work there also.


EDIT: I've just tried it out in DP7 and it Still works.
 
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Morod said:
I'm running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and use Front Row a lot. I know FR was removed in Lion and ML.
Click to expand...

As mentioned, your best bet is to wait until 10.9 is released and XBMC and Plex are updated to support. Both are vastly superior options with much better support for media types. XBMC also can be skinned to look pretty close to Front Row.

If you absolutely have to have it, Front Row can be made to work with both Lion and Mountain Lion so it might be worth a go in Mav.

(This requires an install of Snow Leopard to rip the files from)
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4598396?start=0&tstart=0
 
SlCKB0Y said:
If you absolutely have to have it, Front Row can be made to work with both Lion and Mountain Lion so it might be worth a go in Mav.

(This requires an install of Snow Leopard to rip the files from)
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4598396?start=0&tstart=0
Click to expand...

Theres a simpler method to get front row to work in ML & it doesn't require you to have a SL install. Just use a copy of front row enabler, then open up the front row app and hit the esc key.
 
ErikGrim said:
Plex plus Retroplex. You'll never want another Home Theatre software ever.
Click to expand...

Unless you want to play some iTunes video content. I loved Plex (and OSXMBC before it) for a long time, but get tired of jumping through hoops. I always seemed to have some sort of issue (channels no longer working or not being developed, AV sync issues on the mac mini, DD5.1 not working, etc). Once the WatchESPN app came along for the ATV, I finally gave up.

Front Row had tons of promise (and worked fairly well with the EyeTV and Hulu plugins), and it's unfortunate that Apple gave up on it.
 
madmacfan said:
Theres a simpler method to get front row to work in ML & it doesn't require you to have a SL install. Just use a copy of front row enabler, then open up the front row app and hit the esc key.
Click to expand...

This did not work for me (on a clean install). I just assumed it had changed too much; I too really miss Front Row. Would you mind letting me know what you did, if anything? I have a 2012 Mac mini 2.3GHz i7.
 
Same here

alexjohnson said:
This did not work for me (on a clean install). I just assumed it had changed too much; I too really miss Front Row. Would you mind letting me know what you did, if anything? I have a 2012 Mac mini 2.3GHz i7.
Click to expand...

I have the same setup as this for my Home Theater. Please give us a step by step to re-install it. I had it running on Lion and was not sure I wanted to upgrade because of that.....but I did :(
 
A fix

The previous method of enabling Front Row in Lion & Mountain Lion, namely, copying system files from a working Snow Leopard installation (see http://www.mac-hatter.com/blog/frontrowenablerforlion) also works in Mavericks.

Mostly. The following caveats apply:

1. Using the screensaver function in FR will cause it to quit after ~30 s, regardless of whether you are staring at the main menu, playing a video or starting a slide show. To prevent this quitting, disable the screensaver in FR: FR->Settings->Screen Saver->Off.

If FR is quitting before you have time to change this setting, you can temporarily disable your screensaver in System Preferences->Desktop & Screensaver; this will give you as much time as you need to change the setting in FR.

2. Just like on Lion & ML, iTunes playback (music, TV shows etc.) doesn't work in FR on Mavericks, unless you downgrade iTunes to v. 10.3 or below - see http://www.emacconsulting.com/apple/itunes/downgrade-itunes-11-to-itunes-10-7/ for details. (I have no idea if this will work on Mavericks.)

3. Starting FR can be a bit of a pain, as the native 'esc' shortcut and long press of the menu button on the IR remote no longer work. I fixed this with BetterTouchTool (http://blog.boastr.net/), by creating a shortcut (long press on menu button) to open the apple script given here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/20573887#20573887

Enjoy!
 
PeterHolbrook said:
Well, obviously you are wrong. I don't want Plex, Retroplex, XBMC or any other would-be contenders to Front Row's throne.
Click to expand...

Throne? What throne? :rolleyes: It's extremely limited in features, functionality and file support. It really doesn't do anything better than the others.

Only thing I can think of is for the blind zealots, its made by Apple, the others are not.
 
SlCKB0Y said:
Throne? What throne? :rolleyes: It's extremely limited in features, functionality and file support. It really doesn't do anything better than the others.

Only thing I can think of is for the blind zealots, its made by Apple, the others are not.
Click to expand...

Zealots? Who defines what a zealot or a blind person is? Are people who dislike Front Row the ones capable of instructing those who dislike the clumsy, unwanted support offered by so-called more "advanced" applications? So you are not blind, but far-sighted, aren't you?

Hey, but don't worry, I understand that certain people have difficulty in grasping that a given set for features may be exactly what certain users feel they need. In such a case, "more" does not necessarily translate as "better". And yet, I understand that you want us to consider you as the norm by which to regulate what the ideal set of applications is. So, thank you for the advice, but, no; thank you for nothing.
 
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If you're happy with Snow Leopard and Front Row, don't upgrade. Snow Leopard is a great OS and it's very fast on older hardware. My Mac Mini HTPC is on 10.6.8 and it's staying there.

Only upgrade if you absolutely must. If you're curious about Mavericks, get a second computer that can run it, either a new one or an old beater from 2008 and later.

Morod said:
I'm running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and use Front Row a lot. I know FR was removed in Lion and ML. Has it been put back in Mavericks by chance? I'm still not sure if I'm going to upgrade to Mavericks, but if it had Front Row, the decision might be a bit easier for me.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
uglybluemonster said:
The previous method of enabling Front Row in Lion & Mountain Lion, namely, copying system files from a working Snow Leopard installation (see http://www.mac-hatter.com/blog/frontrowenablerforlion) also works in Mavericks.

Mostly. The following caveats apply:

1. Using the screensaver function in FR will cause it to quit after ~30 s, regardless of whether you are staring at the main menu, playing a video or starting a slide show. To prevent this quitting, disable the screensaver in FR: FR->Settings->Screen Saver->Off.

If FR is quitting before you have time to change this setting, you can temporarily disable your screensaver in System Preferences->Desktop & Screensaver; this will give you as much time as you need to change the setting in FR.

2. Just like on Lion & ML, iTunes playback (music, TV shows etc.) doesn't work in FR on Mavericks, unless you downgrade iTunes to v. 10.3 or below - see http://www.emacconsulting.com/apple/itunes/downgrade-itunes-11-to-itunes-10-7/ for details. (I have no idea if this will work on Mavericks.)

3. Starting FR can be a bit of a pain, as the native 'esc' shortcut and long press of the menu button on the IR remote no longer work. I fixed this with BetterTouchTool (http://blog.boastr.net/), by creating a shortcut (long press on menu button) to open the apple script given here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/20573887#20573887

Enjoy!
Click to expand...

Thanks. Managed to get front row to finally work properly under Mavericks GM2 (13A603). A simple fix that i'd have never thought about before viewing your post. As for the iTunes issue, there is a workaround involving file sharing that will allow you to use the iTunes library folder from a newer version of iTunes. It tricks the mac into thinking it's accessing the iTunes library of another mac when it's not. Got it working here under iTunes 11.1.2 I'll see if I can track down that webpage again and will post a link here.

EDIT
Found the link. This mentions the process for iTunes 10.4 in lion but the process still works with 11.1.2 under mavericks. Skip the first part about installing front row enabler and follow the rest. Theres an apostrophe that should be taken out of the first line of the plist file. See the comments in the link below if you get stuck.

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110915094018524
 
Last edited:
uglybluemonster said:
The previous method of enabling Front Row in Lion & Mountain Lion, namely, copying system files from a working Snow Leopard installation (see http://www.mac-hatter.com/blog/frontrowenablerforlion) also works in Mavericks.

Mostly. The following caveats apply:

1. Using the screensaver function in FR will cause it to quit after ~30 s, regardless of whether you are staring at the main menu, playing a video or starting a slide show. To prevent this quitting, disable the screensaver in FR: FR->Settings->Screen Saver->Off.

If FR is quitting before you have time to change this setting, you can temporarily disable your screensaver in System Preferences->Desktop & Screensaver; this will give you as much time as you need to change the setting in FR.

2. Just like on Lion & ML, iTunes playback (music, TV shows etc.) doesn't work in FR on Mavericks, unless you downgrade iTunes to v. 10.3 or below - see http://www.emacconsulting.com/apple/itunes/downgrade-itunes-11-to-itunes-10-7/ for details. (I have no idea if this will work on Mavericks.)

3. Starting FR can be a bit of a pain, as the native 'esc' shortcut and long press of the menu button on the IR remote no longer work. I fixed this with BetterTouchTool (http://blog.boastr.net/), by creating a shortcut (long press on menu button) to open the apple script given here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/20573887#20573887

Enjoy!
Click to expand...
And you guys think using Plex is complex.
 
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