Front row in Lion 10.7 issue (-70012) and video_ts not playing issue -solved

Hi all,

thought I just post my solution to the front row issues in 10.7. I looked for a solution for days, and when I found it, I thought it would make other peoples live easier if I combine everything in one post.

I actually had a couple of issues:

PROBLEM:

first front row stopped playing VIDEO_TS files in 10.6.

the second issue occurred when I thought upgrading to 10.7 would solve the issue; Front row still couldn't play the VIDEO_TS, because FRONT ROW was gone...

SYMPTOMS:

both issues always showed the same symptoms:

when a dvd-back folder was selected, front row would show a black screen, and then, caused by my frantic pushing the ESC button, front row would give me the dvd player not valid -70012 error.

CAUSE:

so what happened? I chose to buy my MBP 17" with the smallest HDD (yep sorry, was cheap-s-ing). Then later that year, I decided to buy the HDD caddy and switch my internal superdrive for a SSD. I ended up placing the original HDD in the hdd caddy, which I then put in the Superdrive's slot, and I placed the SSD in the slot where the original HDD was residing first. I now had a MBP 17" late 2011, with vertex3 SSD. I forgot, I also put in 16 GB, replacing the 8 GB.

So, when I back-upped all my favorite DVDs as VIDEO_TS files, (no I did not download dvds through usenet), grabbed the popcorn, and started Front Row, the disappointment began. No VIDEO_TS file would play, always the same -70012 error message. So after a lot of internet research I stumbled upon a guy who said: yeah, you have to upgrade to 10.7. After the upgrade my FRONT ROW was gone.

SOLUTIONS:

In 10.6:

As Apple's DVD player is always looking for the internal dvd player as a prerequisite to start, Front Row, which uses Apple's DVD player as video player, will throw up the -70012 error. 'Cause it finds the HDD in the HDD Caddy instead of the SuperDrive. So in 10.6 (and in 10.7 also) you can use the following solution:

(I got this solution partial from http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20070591-263.html)

1: modify the DVDPlayback framework that the DVD Player uses so that it will recognize external drive as a valid DVD playback device. (The HDD Caddy came with an external casing for the SuperDrive)

2: download a hex editor (I used Hexedit 220 from http://hexedit.sourceforge.net/ )

3: Go to the folder /System/Library/Frameworks/ and back up the file "DVDPlayback.framework."

4: Open Hexedit_220 and use it to open the following file:/System/Library/Frameworks/DVDPlayback.framework/Versions/A/DVDPlayback.

5: Using the editor's find&replace through COMMAND-F, replace "Internal" with the text "External" and save the file. Note that Hexedit also saves a backup automatically.

6: Close the file once saved, and then run a permissions fix on the boot drive using Disk Utility. Then restart the system and you should now be able to play DVDs off the external drive using DVD Player. That is, If you use an external dvd player (which I don't use).

7: I inserted a very small USB stick in the MBP with no data on it, and Front Row and Apple DVD Player accepted this. I could now play my backupped DVDs.

ofcourse, I still wanted to upgrade to 10.7, so here's the solution to 10.7

10.7:

upgrading was a simple click with the mouse, worked like a charm, Office still worked, and some minor updates installed through software.

Front Row however, gone...

I used the steps outlined in http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/21/front-row-for-mac-os-x-lion/ to get Front Row back:

- first get the package from Madhatter: Download the free package installer by MacHatter

- install, or customize the install

- all done.

Then I used the steps from step 3 through 7 outlined above in solution 10.6.

Catch:

So I did not find a solution to fooling the DVD Player / Front Row with the USB stick. So everytime I watch VIDEO_TS in Front Row the USB stick must be inserted. But, the good news, I can still use my remote control for something.

Hope I helped some guys out there with this solution.

Regards,

Johnno