Front Row on an external monitor

[PatMack]

Hi,

I was wondering if there is a way to have front row on my external monitor. (Attached to an iMac G5 Intel). Right now, When i enter front row, the external screen goes blank and front row is displayed on the iMac's screen. The best case would be, If i could use the iMac normally while using front row on the external screen, But i would be happy with just using front row on the external screen instead of the iMac's screen. Thanks!

Patrick

 

[Zmmyt]

I know that I had the same problem when switching in Quicktime to full screen. Finally I found an option in the settings, where I could choose, which monitor I want to show the picture. Maybe Front Row has the same option. Check your settings, if possible.

 

[AvSRoCkCO1067]

Hi,

I was wondering if there is a way to have front row on my external monitor. (Attached to an iMac G5 Intel). Right now, When i enter front row, the external screen goes blank and front row is displayed on the iMac's screen. The best case would be, If i could use the iMac normally while using front row on the external screen, But i would be happy with just using front row on the external screen instead of the iMac's screen. Thanks!

Patrick

You'll need to go into System Preferences, Displays, Arrangement Tab, and drag the menu bar to your external monitor.

 

[Graeme]

With my MacBook Pro, I just change it to mirror the screens so that Front Row appears on the TV or external monitor as well, then I just dim the MBP display to nil. I haven't figured out anyway of having Front Row run full screen on one and using the computer with the other (I doubt you can do that without a hack).

-Graeme

 

[regre7]

Yeah, that sounds like it would be a bit processor intensive, but hey, maybe the new Intels can handle it.

 

[rozzy]

You'll need to go into System Preferences, Displays, Arrangement Tab, and drag the menu bar to your external monitor.

My problem has been that every once in a while Frontrow will display on the external monitor, and other times it will display on the Macbook's screen (without having changed any settings). Just now I did the exact opposite of what you suggested and moved the menu bar back to the Macbook display which has (at least for now) solved the problem and moved Frontrow to the external display.

... Maybe a glitch with my setup? or a bug with the latest update for Frontrow?

 

[johanparis]

My problem has been that every once in a while Frontrow will display on the external monitor, and other times it will display on the Macbook's screen (without having changed any settings). Just now I did the exact opposite of what you suggested and moved the menu bar back to the Macbook display which has (at least for now) solved the problem and moved Frontrow to the external display.

... Maybe a glitch with my setup? or a bug with the latest update for Frontrow?

I'm experiencing the same problems - Front Row works only very occasionally unless I use vidéo copy in System Prefs (Macbook).

 

[MasterMacBook]

well
like
mentioned above
system preferences --> monitirs(scrreens) --> then go 2 display arrangement--> then drag the gray bar to the other monitor.
front row will come up on the screen with the gray bar on it
if it doesnt do this. or switches byy itslef.
you have a glitch or stuufed software.

 

[johanparis]

well
like
mentioned above
system preferences --> monitirs(scrreens) --> then go 2 display arrangement--> then drag the gray bar to the other monitor.
front row will come up on the screen with the gray bar on it
if it doesnt do this. or switches byy itslef.
you have a glitch or stuufed software.

quite right - I guess the leopard front row needs another upgrade to fix this
thanks for the help

Johan

 

[yoomy]

well
like
mentioned above
system preferences --> monitirs(scrreens) --> then go 2 display arrangement--> then drag the gray bar to the other monitor.
front row will come up on the screen with the gray bar on it
if it doesnt do this. or switches byy itslef.
you have a glitch or stuufed software.

of course that is not exactly a smooth solution, would be nice if they impliment a feature to choose the screen front row runs on.

 

[rozzy]

THE Solution

I've actually discovered the true solution (works 100% of the time) to this problem. (Assuming that you have followed the steps to make your external monitor the "Primary" display when you plug it in -- Front Row will ONLY ever display on the "Primary" display, unless you have display mirroring enabled)

Basically what the problem is that if you run front row, and then close it down, the process actually keeps running for some (indeterminate) amount of time. So lets say you were running front row on just your MacBook screen, and then decided to plug in your external monitor..... Front Row (since it never actually shut down) thinks that your MacBook display is still the primary display, and so continues to display on the internal monitor, while blacking out the external display.

The surefire way to get rid of this problem (perhaps google will come in handy here).... I actually ended up creating an Automator Workflow that runs an Apple Script performing a "killall" operation on frontrow. Running this ensures that Front Row is definitely NOT running, and when you plug in your external display, viola! it works like magic every time....

For the workflow:
1) Create new workflow
2) "Get Specified Finder Items" --> Select the Front Row application from applications folder
3) Run Shell Script (I used "/bin/bash")
4) Create script (only use the text inside of the brackets here) [killall 'Front Row']

Running this workflow before you plug in your external display will clear up this little annoying problem..... Hope it works for everyone

 

[dc4460]

Simple things changes life in a big way

You'll need to go into System Preferences, Displays, Arrangement Tab, and drag the menu bar to your external monitor.

Thanks AvSRoCkCO1067 that has just made my life easier knowing how to do that, thanks works a treat....

 

[NoRights]

With all this discussion about swapping displays I think somebody should link TV Row