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The Ultimate Guide for switching from a PC to a Mac
(Part 2 - coming soon)

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Getting any videos in Front Row!

A great tip submitted by Laurent Lenert: Getting any videos in Front Row! Apple did a very good job with Front Row especially with its simplicity. The only thing with something that simple is that it is there, but there isn't much information about how to use it at its best. I have a lot of videos on my hard drive in a wide variety of formats. I don't want to have to import them all into iTunes just to get them in Front Row. On top of that, there are some great video formats that iTunes doesn't work too well with (such as DivX). Well it seems there is an easy way of getting that content into Front Row without changing much. In the Front Row "Videos" section, there is a sub-menu called "Movies". This brings you every video stored in the "Movies" folder, located in you Home folder, into Front Row. The only thing with that is that I like to keep that folder organized by iMovie by keeping other videos stored elsewhere. You can easily solve that problem with an Alias. Just create an Alias of the folder containing all the videos you want in Front Row and paste it in the "Movies" folder. What is great is that it works with every video format I tried (including DivX). Thanks for the great tip Laurent!

17 Comments:

Blogger Simone said...

That's a wonderful tip and it work for the movies on your network too!
If you want to see a movieclip that is on your network (also in a Windows pc) without having to copy it in your computer you can do it by opening NETWORK. Choose the computer you want to find the movie and connect to it. On your desktop you'll see the icon that let you connect in that computer. Now use the OPTION-COMMAND button and drag the icon in the MOVIE folder. When you'll use front row you'll see the name of the computer in the movieclips list and you can now connect to it to see videos in streaming!

May 29, 2007 at 9:29 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Nice Tip I wasn't aware of that one. So now how do I add my pictures from my external HD. I tried making alias folders but it didn't work. Any Ideas?

May 29, 2007 at 10:58 PM  
Blogger MichaK said...

Pictures just work if they are imported to iPhoto... (like Music)

The Alias-Tip only works for the Movies-folder (and there even with external drives)...

May 30, 2007 at 2:35 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I wonder if the same tip also works with iTunes. If you paste an alias to a music folder on an external drive, will iTunes include those songs as well?

May 30, 2007 at 4:27 AM  
Blogger admin said...

Of course, alias would work fine with iTunes, even if the files are stored on an external drive!

May 30, 2007 at 7:22 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

That front row tip doesn't seem to work if i have movies stored as VIDEO_TS. I can open them if i just open that folder in DVD player but not in the front row. Any ideas??

May 30, 2007 at 9:30 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

It doesn't play Real Video either.
Could someone point me towards a possibly free converter?

Alex said...
"That front row tip doesn't seem to work if i have movies stored as VIDEO_TS. I can open them if i just open that folder in DVD player but not in the front row. Any ideas??"

I would suggest that you burn it to a DVD and then use "Handbrake" to import it. the only problem being that when you convert things with "Handbrake" the video size is made smaller.

May 30, 2007 at 10:44 AM  
Blogger admin said...

Check out "MediaFork"... just select the VIDEO_TS folder and covert-it into mpg (don't burn this precious DVD)... and ready for Front Row

May 30, 2007 at 11:18 AM  
Blogger David Amies said...

What is Front Row?

when I look it up via Google I am sent to the Mac pages where I can only find a Front Row upgrade!

Where do I find the original application?

David Amies

May 30, 2007 at 11:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Check out the Front Row Enabler. It should do the trick for you David.

http://andrewescobar.com/frontrow

May 30, 2007 at 1:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Alex,
I had the same problem with VIDEO_TS movies. I just use something called DVD ASSIST.
If you download this, it'll come with a special file that you just place in the VIDEO_TS folder of the movie, and then FRONT ROW can recognize and play it.
Hope this helps.

May 30, 2007 at 3:39 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Awesome idea, but what about .avi files?

A lot of my files are in .avi format, and I've wanted to use them with Front Row for ages...

June 6, 2007 at 11:20 PM  
Blogger Blake Shady said...

Any particular way to view swf files in front row?

June 7, 2007 at 3:10 AM  
Blogger ghostaliaz said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

August 16, 2008 at 7:34 PM  
Blogger ghostaliaz said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

August 16, 2008 at 7:35 PM  
Blogger ghostaliaz said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

August 16, 2008 at 7:35 PM  
Blogger ghostaliaz said...

I am not a newb in the pc world because I am what they call a pc troubleshooter, but I am new to the mac world & I cannot lie Front row has one my heart & osx leapord is just sick,god I love it & I what I did was just use 1 of my external drives as a front row & itunes data mine & I relocated the location of the itunes folders & then I placed aliaz folder for my video folder in my video folder in home, just like (Laurent Lenert) said & it atleast works fine for me & I even installed flipmac so I can play wmv movs & divx packege & I added the xvid Delegate & vlc player. So everything plays in my Front Row & Thanks (Laurent Lenert) for such a wonderful & important tip, now my little mac media center is complete.Oh & sorry for being so long winded, but I am just frantic & excited(hehe) ah oh I am becoming a mac user piece by piece(wink).

August 16, 2008 at 7:45 PM  

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