I want Front Row Back

Hello (Salut !)

I'm from France and I'm try my best in english T__T'

I want SIMPLY -> Front Row <- in news OSX (I mean also Mavericks).

Because this is simply safe to do use that application FR in the property OSX with all things I knew in OSX SW.

Hey Apple, you may listen all reclamations of yours loyal customers !

Yours.

Yes, count me in. Apple, please bring front row back for 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9. This is a very important app. Plex *****. Itunes managed on a big screen with a remote ***** too. Need a media server interface for my Mac Mini Server. That's one of the reasons why I am still running 10.6.8 server on my Mac Mini. (besides the fact that OS X 10.7 + servers suck - period). Anyway, please bring Front Row back!

If Apple would bring back "Front Row", then it would be based on "AV Foundation" (64 bit) and not QuickTime (32 bit). But "AV Foundation" can only read very few movie fomats (like MPEG4, H264) - so even if Apple would bring it back, we guess the people would not be satisfied.

You can read more about the problem with the movie formats at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5473287?answerId=23584275022#23584275022.

I have "upgraded" to Mavericks on my Macbook Pro. Front Row will still display its home page (after pressing ESC) but is now completely broken - even the arrow keys dont work to step through menu items.

I have kept Snow Leopard on an old iMac for media center purposes. It is useful that it talks to an Apple TV for music output. I now have a choice of Apple TV by itself (for video, music etc) or Front Row and EyeTV video on the iMac. I have played with Airparrot to try and send FR and EyeTV video/audio to the Apple TV but the lip-sync is hopeless.

A Mavericks FR with an Apple TV Airplay output option would have been a dream...

I have thousands of dollars worth of Apple hardware in my house because of iTunes. My $7,000 home theater is based on this platform. I am about to sell every single piece of Apple hardware in my house on eBay and switch to Windows 8 and Android (instead of the iPhone I bought for the remote app) because Apple abandoned the digital hub visioon of Steve Jobs and dumped Front-Row. I'm done!

I've posted this elsewhere on these forums but my posts keep getting deleted because Apple doesn't consider this feedback "constructive." Pay attention Apple, I was about to go out and buy a new Mac Mini for my new home theater because of this one app. You killed the app and you lost me as a customer. I'm dumping your stock, and I will never buy another Apple product again because you cannot be trusted.

Thousands of dollars down the drain - thanks!

The topic of this discussion is "I Want Front Row Back". Here a summary of how to Get Front Row Back as of December 2013:

Front Row works fine on Mavericks but you have to be somewhat technical to set it up. There are previous posts in this topic (and on the net) that describe how to install FR on Lion/ML, by copying over files from a Snow Leopard installation; that same process works fine for Mavericks. The Apple Remote does not control FR natively the way it did in Snow Leopard, but shareware like Mira can be set up to get that working. FR will not play music in the iTunes library as installed, but there are tricks to get that working as well, by creating an iTunes Library.itl file using an older version of iTunes. There are posts that describe this in more detail.

Apple doesn't listen to complaints posted here, and won't bring FR back no matter how heavy-handed you sound. Ditching Apple products for Windows just because Apple discontinued FR is absurd. If you don't want to install FR on Mavericks by following instructions in this thread, there are other home-theater options for the Mac such as Plex or XBMC.

We will never know why Apple chose to discontinue FR but I have my opinions.. probably a business decision.. Apple may have felt it was too easy to access media files that were purchased outside the iTunes Store. Whatever the reason, only the most technical people are unhappy about losing FR. Most people aren't technical and don't know how to form opinions about software. It doesn't make business sense for Apple to care about our small demographic. One day, if Linux catches up and becomes more competetive with Apple, they might start caring more.

I can understand that you are displeased and I do not like some changes Apple made the last time, too. But I do not see any other operation system which is so user friendly and easy to use. Even if Apple is working hard on it to remove user friendly solutions like removing iTunes sync to iOS devices. Times are changing...

Trying to get Front Row back seems to be to technical in my opinion and I guess this will increase with every new Mac OS X and updates of iPhoto and iTunes.

There are alternatives to Front Row - Plex and XBMC were already mentioned. For me these solutions do not fit but many people like it.

There is a third alternative called MediaCentral, but it was not updated for some time.

And there is a fourth alternative called nessMediaCenter which is based on system technology like Front Row and which offers direct access to your media in the picture and movie folders. And it is the only media center I know which allows to start iTunes DRM media as well.

With this four alternatives in mind, it might be an idea to accept that Front Row is or will be dead and that we have to switch to another solution. As dr321 said: Apple will not listen and they will not bring Front Row back.

Honestly I need a platform with staying power. My company (a fortune 10 competitor of Apple's) manufactures a media server that's pretty compelling, but needs third party software to have a snazzy interface. I started building my Apple media network before I joined this company so I never previously thought switching was an option. Apple products command a premium on eBay so I think I'll eb able to recoup a chunk of my investment when I make the switch. Also the new Samsung TVs are pretty smart and I have a neighbor who got his to talk directly to his Windows 8 tablet, so that's promising.

Dumping FR was just plain stupid. One of Apple's most strategic business decisions was building a self-contained ecosystem of devices around iTunes that caused a "halo effect" whereby users bought more and more Apple hardware because it fit nicely with their iTunes systems. I'm a perfect example - one iPod caused me to drop thousands on Apple hardware over the years because I was so hooked on the digital hub vision of Steve Jobs. Killing FR is a much deeper issue than simply discontinuing a single piece of software - it's Apple giving up on the vision of a unified ecosystem of products that work in harmony with one another and unify your media experience on a single brand. They're basically conceeding that Apple isn't and never could be more than a simlpe computer company that dabbles in consumer products.

There are home automation companies headquartered a few miles from my home that excel at creating the unified infrastructure I need. Apple was simply my elegant way to get all the functionality they offer for a fraction of the price and without a bunch of fancy and proprietary hardware. All the hacks you guys mention in this thread sound great for now, but none of them sounds as if it will last more than a few years, and I'm not interested in re-creating my entire media center every 36 months because one of the platform providers I chose got lazy.

Right now Windows with a big-brand media server seems like option #1, a proprietary system developed by a local systems integrator is #2, and hacking a Mac Mini is #4...I'm still looking for my #3 option.

I will say this, and I actually have some evidence via engineers at Apple to back this up - none of this would be happening if Steve Jobs was still alive. Steve was as much a media nut as I am and he used Apple products in the same way (almost the same configuration) that I do to control his home media experience. Before he died he told the Apple TV guys they needed to do better and he was obsessed with a media center experience built natively into an HDTV screen. I guess the folks left over there at 1 Infinite Loop decided it wasn't worth spending the time to fulfill Steve's vision, which leaves me to find another company that will.

Between info on this thread an also simple input from this other one https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4598396?tstart=0 I suggest people don't give up on Front Row. I'm on Mountain Lion and it's working for me just great. I run iTunes server from my MyBook Live NAS, so things run pretty smooth. Maybe not 100%, but for me it's 95%+, and that's better than the alternatives I've used.

Don't give up. My family and I have been using Front Row for half the day today, watching movies, listening to music, and cruzing through this years Christmas photos (it's Christmas time after all). Oh, and I should mention, Theatre Trailers is working perfect too.

Best of luck and Merry Christmas to all!

I posted a 'Request', Plea for Apple to restore Front Row a year or so ago ago, and have been both delighted that so many feel like me, and staggered that Apple have completely ignored this demand. If though Bansche is correct (and I have absolutely no reason to believe that he isn't) that Apple is deleting his comments, then this brings another whole new dimension to the issue, and suggests such arrogance from Apple that is hard to understand from an organistaion like Apple, that purports to reflect in its products the needs of its customers, and centres around Music (re-affirmed by Tim Cook at both recent Presentations). Apple, if you are so intent on not bringing Front Row back as a part of youtr offering, why don't you provide the code to another software house to develop. I personally would be happy to pay even a modest amount for Front Row that will work with Mavericks. I still have not upgraded from Snow Leopard as I do not want to lose this interface.

I've spoken to two senior reps at Apple now and the best solution I've heard (which we're going to settle for until we fiind a new media center solution) is to buy a Mac Mini, partition the drive, and install Snow Leopard on the partition. They shipped me a free retail copy of Snow Leopard (with Front Row) which arrives tomorrow. Both tier-2 support reps I spoke to expressed the same frustration with the removal of Front Row and had no explanation for Apple's new 'non-strategy.' Steve Jobs must be rolling over in his grave right now and if he were alive, he'd be firing people!

As a Senior Manager of Digital Strategy Analytics for one of Apple's largest competitors, I feel quite comfortable criticizing this latest folly on behalf of Apple's product management team. If my company had a media platform to compete with Apple's, trust me I'd already be sending memos to our software people to fill this void and exploit Apple's myopia.

Just out of interest, what would functionality would you lose by buying an Apple TV, hooking that up to your home theatre system and streaming the content from iTunes on your Mac?

The ATV2 lacks an internal hard drive, is limited in it's port options, and the new interface is crap. Here's how that all impacts me:

• The 2nd generation lacks the ability to browse my hosted family photos, which bugs my wife.
• My biggest complaint with the interface of the 2nd generation Apple TV is the fact that MY content is hidden in a back corner. There are dozens of icons with movies I don't want, music album covers I don't want my kids to see, channels I'm not interested in, etc. Meanwhile all the content I own which I spent thousands of dollars on is burried under the "computers" icon.
• The ATV2 lacks component video out, which is an important option if between your DVR, HDDVD, and Blue-Ray, you're out of HDMI ports. The component video on the ATV1 is exceptional.
• I have no control over what is seen on the AppleTV 2 screen. Since the Apple TV 1 has an actual hard drive, if I don't want my kids to see LMFAO with their smiling mugs in front of some chicks CROTCH, I can simply unplug the device from the internet and let them watch the content stored on te local hard drive. With ATV2, my kids are always staring at whatever is a big seller on iTunes, including Lady Gaga and other garbage I don't want them to see.
• A large chunk of the content on my ATV1 is content I legally digitized and did not purchase directly from iTunes, therefore this whole push towards "streaming" is annoying to me. I keep my content on a Terabyte RAID drive for safety. I don't like being at the mercy of Apple and my cable internet service provider. I paid for my content for a reason! If I can't own it, control it, and store it as I please, then what's the point of paying full price for it? If Apple wants me to only be able to access my content over the internet, then they should drop their prices! Nothing is more annoying than getting a "content not available" or "content cannot be viewed at this time" message (which we get often on netflix) while trying to view "streamed" content. If I'm going to pay the same price for a movie as if I bought the DVD, then I require the same level of access and control...period!

Frankly if Apple would get rid of every tab on the ATV2 except the "computers" tab, restore the hard drive, put the component video port back, and and restore the ability for me to browse my photos directly from the device, I think we'd be perfectly happy with the ATV2...that said, they're clearly going in another direction.

It's very simple really - ATV1 (and Front Row) put my content front-and-center. ATV2 puts whoever is paying Apple the most money front-and-center and sends my owned content (which I paid Apple good money for) to the back of the bus or leaves it standing on the curb. Apple also decreased the amount of control I have over my content and dumbed down the device to make it intentionally less usable for people who really get-it.

Hi John,

I posted the full text of the email from Apple deleting my post complaining about them killing Front Row in response to your last post here, but Apple deleted that post too. They said they deleted the first post because it contained feedback and they don't want feedback on these forums. They said they deleted the post where I posted their message deleting the feedback post because they don't allow "rants" on these forums. Funny, all I did was post the exact text of their email to me without any comment.

Oh well - learning the rules.

Bansche

Many thanks for your response, I wasn't expecting one and posted my reply out of anger at the cavalier attitude of Apple, who until now I confess I have always admired. I honestly feel that such arrogance can only tarnish a reputation that they (well at least in SJ's day) worked so hard to earn. I personally would have had no real objection to Apple commenting it was in the wrong Forum/area if they felt this to be the case, but to delete it shows in my view thst it 'hit a nerve'.

Included in this string are many comments that Apple will never bring back Front Row (and to those who comment that it doesn't really add to a simple iTunes interface suggests they haven't used it). I may be either naive and/or missing something very important, BUT why won't they. Is it technically too difficult even for Apple.

Incidentally, for Apple to suggest that they don't allow rants is ludicrous in the extreme. First, the whole point of these Forum is surely to provide feedback, good and bad. If so many have entered into the discussion on this subject, then clearly it is one on which many have taken issue, and perhaps Apple should use their time and effort listening to the users, rather than dismantling individual contributions.