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iTunes 7.6.2, Time Machine, Airport, QT, FrontRow Updates available
- Thread starter Darth.Titan
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I simply removed FR2 and replaced it with FR1 which i downloaded directly from the Apple website. Works like a charm. It works with Itunes and it enables me to use my Airport Express to stream my tunes. Simple fix.
A persistent bug
Here's a FR bug they still haven't fixed: whenever I select a movie in Front Row and start playing it, then go back to the movies list to select another, as soon as I stop on another movie, the selection immediately jumps back to the movie I previously selected. In other words, you have to quit front row then restart it if you want to play another movie. Anyone else annoyed with this?
Here's a FR bug they still haven't fixed: whenever I select a movie in Front Row and start playing it, then go back to the movies list to select another, as soon as I stop on another movie, the selection immediately jumps back to the movie I previously selected. In other words, you have to quit front row then restart it if you want to play another movie. Anyone else annoyed with this?
I notice one change in iTunes. When I updated a Genre on one of my movies, iTunes now says "Writing Tags" with a scrolling bar. Didn't think this was there before. Atleast I know that iTunes is actually doing something now instead of just the Spinning Beach Ball.
I suspect the reason for removing the dependance of Front Row on those other apps was to create the Apple TV. Version 1 of ATV was basically the Front Row interface. And since ATV doesn't have iTunes, Front Row needed to be able to play the music itself.
Apples QC is going down the toilet
iTunes has crashed twice since I upgraded 10 minutes ago, the interface is laggy and the issues in Front Row still exist! This isn't the only place I have noticed Apple's QC being poor to non-existent.
It's not like I'm running some exotic configuration, SR macbook with 10.5.2
Apple, please, please, PLEASE don't turn into Microsoft!
iTunes has crashed twice since I upgraded 10 minutes ago, the interface is laggy and the issues in Front Row still exist! This isn't the only place I have noticed Apple's QC being poor to non-existent.
It's not like I'm running some exotic configuration, SR macbook with 10.5.2
Apple, please, please, PLEASE don't turn into Microsoft!
Yeah, it does suck. What they need to do is build AirTunes into OSX instead of relying on iTunes. Sure you could use AirFoil but I refuse to pay for something when the old version used to work well.Still no fix for the Front Row's inability to stream to Airport Express. Thanks for nothin', guys.
The design is better and it is a heck of a lot faster. That's thanks to FR2 using Leopards new media browser.
While AAC is newer the algorithm is already much better than MP3's. If encoded correctly AAC's will generally sound better than an mp3 AND use less memory to boot.
I beg to differ. Low bitrate mp3's sound a lot worse at the same bitrate as AAC. Cymbals show the low quantization and don't even sound like cymbals. I'd rather hear washed out cymbals than something that doesn't even resemble them.
Anyway, that's my two cents on the whole MP3 v AAC debate. I know what to listen for and I still have yet to hear an MP3 that sounded better than an AAC at the same bitrate. People think the LAME encoder is some sort of holy thing. To me any good AAC encoder kills it even at lower bitrates. Maybe I'm just listening to the wrong types of music.
i was waiting for someone to mention this. frankly, i'm surprised it doesn't annoy more people. i commented on it the last time they updated FR.
why doesn't Apple get it? separating FR from iTunes is so frustrating. does anyone know of some must-have functionality that this redesign brings? how long before they change it back???
i dont want to speak for everyone. does anyone on here like the new setup? do you see the benefit of it?
It bothers the hell out of me, so much so that I can't use Front Row when we have parties. Because everyone oogles at the Mac, and want to play with it while music plays. But as soon as they press a key that isn't Esc on the keyboard, all the music stops and Front Row 2 exits.
Front Row 2 kills the party. I simply can't use it or it's pretty interface when people are over. I have to use iTunes (which everyone is familiar with). Pity, too... Front Row for Tiger was one of the ways I got my friend to buy his Mac. He, and lots of people, are so impress with the way I flipped around and control the music from across the room. Big bummer. :*( Now it just causes problems in public. Fix this... for no one dares use your fancy looking Front Row program when non-Mac people are around, Apple!!
Here is a song I wrote. I want to add artwork to this song so that the artwork shows up in my iPod, etc. The artwork, lyrics and video tabs are all grayed out. They were not before. I was able to drag artwork into the artwork window and it would attach itself to whatever songs I wanted it to. See below.
Attachments
Well, appears you are correct. Yes, I just went and looked at all of my songs that have been ripped in WAV and the artwork is grayed out. ARGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Converting the WAV tracks to another format is apparently the only option, correct me if I am wrong.
I can't update now, but does this iTunes update fix the quitting issue?
The iTunes Music Store.
The iTunes Music Store.
Don't count on AirFoil solving all your problems regardless. I tried it out and when I played back Apple Lossless content to an AirTunes receiver (regardless if it was an Airport Express or an AppleTV), I got 'clicks' here and there and even dropped signal every so often. I get a perfect signal from iTunes. Airfoils is a HACK (i.e. reverse engineered) and does NOT work perfectly in my experience. I'd call it beta ware at best. No one seems interested in improving the ALAC public codec to do a better job either (running a test with Squeeze Center playing Apple Lossless files also showed occasional clicks). So you either use iTunes or you use Flac. I chose iTunes because using something like Remote Buddy or Signal on an iPod Touch to control iTunes on a WiFi network like a remote is way cooler than even the newest SqueezeBox. "Signal" can even download artwork on the fly for Internet Radio stations controlled through iTunes and display them on the iPod Touch as the each song comes up.
I'm concerned about stability reports here as I definitely do NOT want to screw up my whole house audio system as I just put the finishing touches on the artwork and what not and have my 2nd AAC library set up for syncing to the iPod Touch and I don't need them to act up (they work pretty well at this point).
BTW, a word of wisdom if you maintain two sets of libraries like I do (one lossless and one compressed for iPod use). If you want them to work separately and not have any bizarre overlap type issues, you need to create an extra "buffer" library to select in-between switching to the other library. This is just an empty library. From there, you must change your working directory to the library you actually wish to change to. Then, exit and restart iTunes, this time selecting the library you want to change to. It will work like it's a completely separate computer, really. If you don't change your working directory,
If you don't change the working directory for iTunes to the AAC library before syncing to an iPod, it will sync the Apple Lossless files instead. I know this from experience. Even though, it appears the other library knows where to find its AAC files, it will start redirecting the database as it goes and you will end up with Lossless files on your iPod instead and your AAC library all screwed up (won't actually move any files, though so you can always delete the library file and re-add the directories to restore the library).
But if you change it without using an empty buffer library, it will take FOREVER to actually change over (especially with large libraries) and it might still screw something up in the process (it's 'updating' the library to point to the new directory from the active library and you don't WANT the lossless library file to EVER point to the AAC one and vice versa or things can get intermixed in the database file). The empty buffer library ensures things will work OK since you don't care if an empty library points to either other library temporarily.
If Apple would just have it set up so a different library points to its own directory setting and changes automatically the preference setting in iTunes this wouldn't happen, but it doesn't. That setting is independent of the working libraries and it's downright STUPID to have it that way as it really defeats the whole point of having different libraries, IMO. Although, I suppose some people would utilize it to have different sets of songs for the same shared libraries (say to have a library full of songs only to put on the iPod when the entire library is all AAC regardless, but then that really isn't needed at all since you could just make up a playlist of the songs you want on your given iPod and tell that iPod to only sync that playlist.... That's what I do regardless since my iPod Touch can only hold 16GB total and even my 256kbit AAC library is 36GB; my lossless one is around 116GB)
I am curious if anything in the new iTunes update would help get my AppleTV units to work properly (see the threads on "Not Authorized to Play On This AppleTV"). The AppleTV update did not help.
Sorry to hear that.
I haven't had a problem yet and the boot time on my 12" PB was only 5 minutes.
No problem at all here. I always get a bit nervous about Front Row updates since I use the Sapphire 3rd-party plug-in for it. But Sapphire's still working fine.
I would go with Apple Lossless. Gives you all the advantages of tags and artwork while preserving some disc space. And you can convert the files back to WAV without loss of quality (as I proved here).
As a new Mac user I'm expecting a few rolled eyes but here goes . . .
I use Azureus/Vuze to watch and download music video's but they come in the MKV container format. FR plays them but it won't show any sort of thumbnail when browsing them. Any chance that this will be fixed in an update or is there a way of getting FR to do this now with a plugin/codec of some sort?
Cheers.
I use Azureus/Vuze to watch and download music video's but they come in the MKV container format. FR plays them but it won't show any sort of thumbnail when browsing them. Any chance that this will be fixed in an update or is there a way of getting FR to do this now with a plugin/codec of some sort?
Cheers.
Firstly, download (if you haven't already) the Perian suite of QuickTime codecs which includes support for Matroska (MKV) files. I'm assuming you've got that already since the MKV's play in Front Row.
Just a hunch here, but Leopard's QuickLook architecture handles the thumbnail generation for files it understands. So, possibly, if the QuickLook engine can be convinced to generate a thumbnail for an MKV, it might just show up in Front Row.
Problem is, although Perian provides MKV support to QuickTime, the video thumbnail generator for QuickLook still doesn't think it knows how to thumbnail an MKV file.
This tutorial:
http://www.quicklookplugins.com/2007/12/16/mkv-matroska-video-files/
...should get QuickLook to support MKV files. Hopefully that'll also provide thumbnail generation for MKV files and, even more hopefully, Front Row will pick those up and use them.
Thanks, that's an excellent link, hope it works. I'll try it when I get home tonight.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I had installed perian. It's so unobtrusive that I just don't think about it anymore.