Maccast 2007.11.21 – FrontRow Special

Written by: Adam Christianson

Categories: Mac Media Center, Podcast

[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/maccast/MC20071121.mp3]
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MC20071121.mp3 [28.7MB 01:02:35 64kbps]

A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. A special Thanksgiving edition of the Maccast. In this episode we take a look at the new version of FrontRow in Leopard with Ara Derderian from the HDTV Podcast. We talk about all the new features, our likes and dislikes, offer some helpful tips and software recommendations to turn your Mac into a full blown home media center. Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy.

New music, The Ceiling by Chase the Light

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There are 10 comments on Maccast 2007.11.21 – FrontRow Special:

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  1. John Beek | Nov 22 2007 - 09:16

    Hi, I heard you say that accents on windows computers is so complex. I switched from Windows to OS X five years ago and the only thing I did not like was accents on OS X. Apart from country specific keyboards – that do sort out accents completely on Windows – the US keyboard has an International setting in the ‘pref pane’ of Windows. When you set that – and anybody in The Netherlands do so – ou get an é by pressing the ‘, followed by an e. The International setting changes the ‘, the ” and some other keys to so called dead keys. This stems from the old typewriter where the accents were ‘dead keys’ ie keys that did not move the wagon to the next caracter position facilitating two strokes on one spot. Love your show, kep up the good work.

  2. Adam Christianon | Nov 22 2007 - 09:15

    Cool thanks for the Thanks for the tip.

  3. Randy | Nov 22 2007 - 10:09

    Hi Adam,
    Just wanted to say that there was a high pitched noise at the beginning of the show (the part that wasn’t pre-recorded).

    I just wanted to let you know, so that it doesn’t occur in the next show, because it was VERY bothersome to me haha.

    It was probably just a setting that was off or some background noise or something.

    Anyway,
    Good episode though!

  4. Sven | Nov 23 2007 - 05:29

    Just heard your new podcast. I do mac home automation for a living now and wanted to share some of my stuff. I use my iPhone to control the lighting and home theater in my house. You can check it out at my website, http://888MacDoctor.com or on youtube.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q-iighX42U

  5. Anthony | Nov 25 2007 - 10:16

    Just wanted to add that if you want to have itunes manage all you tv shows and movies that were encoded in divx and ultimately play them through Frontrow then you can:

    (1) Download Fileinfo from http://www.panix.com/~shopsinm/
    (2) Open File.
    (3) Change Type to Moov
    (4) Change Creator to TVOD.

    Now divx files will open in itunes and be accessable in Frontrow.

    Great Show by the way, Recent Mac convert (January 2007).

    Anthony

    Adelaide

    South Australia

  6. Paul Burns | Nov 26 2007 - 07:02

    Loved the show. What was the name of the program that put the Cover art in the folder that front row can read? Can someone please post a link for me. thanks

  7. Paul Gerhardt | Nov 26 2007 - 05:12

    Adam,

    I just listened to this week’s maccast and heard your frustration with the new dock’s limitations. I felt the same way until I decided to “think different” and take advantage of the new dock’s features to get organized. With just a little bit of setup I can now quickly launch any app of over 100 apps with one click including Adobe apps and utilities that live in other folders. I’ve shown the whole process here:

    http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=4527290#post4527290

    in the macrumors forum. I hope this helps. Thanks for all the good info.

    -Paul Gerhardt

    BTW do check out my website to see what amazing things 11-13 year old students (click on “Student Work And Activities”) can accomplish when given access to professional level Mac tools!

  8. taz | Nov 26 2007 - 10:54

    Adam,

    You mentioned that you can connect to all your media via the “sources” pane in Front Row. I am unable to access any music / video files on other computers that are on my wireless home network. The only computer that shows up in the “sources” pane for Front Row is the machine running the application. Is there a way to access the music / videos on other computers on the wireless network?

  9. Paul Gerhardt | Nov 27 2007 - 07:02

    taz,

    Since it is iTunes that does the sharing of its library, make sure that iTunes is running on the Mac(s) that you want to access on your network and make sure you have turned on sharing in the iTunes preferences.

    -Paul

    >You mentioned that you can connect to all your media via the “sources” pane in Front Row. I >am unable to access any music / video files on other computers that are on my wireless >home network. The only computer that shows up in the “sources” pane for Front Row is the >machine running the application. Is there a way to access the music / videos on other >computers on the wireless network?

  10. ahweil | Jan 27 2008 - 04:19

    In response to Paul’s question about cover art.

    I followed the advice on http://www.htguys.com (Ara Derderian’s site.

    Place a jpeg that you want to use for the preview art in the folder containing the VIDEO_TS folder. Name the file “preview.jpg” and Front Row will show that image for the cover art.

    Regards,

    Alfred Weil