Front Row running Super SLOW!

I'm not certain I'm seeing the same thing, but it sounds similar. It seems like something in front row is going to sleep. If I am playing a movie or video that doesn't require any user input for a long time (30+ minutes or so) I sometimes see the behavior described here.

Pressing Menu or the keyboard equivalent (open-apple ESC) after such an idle time causes front row to react very slowly (I'd guess 15-20 seconds). It seem significant to me that both the remote and the keyboard shortcut have this problem (the problem isn't in getting the command, but rather in processing it). This behavior is annoying because of two competing problems:

1) The remote isn't perfectly received, meaning you sometimes have to press it several times to register a single button hit, and

2) Front Row buffers any button presses that you do during the delay.

Because of these two issues it is impossible to tell if Front Row is just reacting really slowly, or if it didn't receive. Quite frequently I end up all the way back at my desktop when all I wanted was to go to the DVD menu to change a setting or go to a different episode.

Core Duo iMac 20" Mac OS X (10.4.6)

This isn't an answer (and I'm using a hack so I don't deserve to complain) but the Quartz debug frame/CPU meter may give a clue. Found in the developer tools on the Tiger install DVD it shows the screen refresh rates and CPU usage overlaid on Front Row & when the system stalls the CPU goes off the charts - though I am using an old machine!

Sometimes on quitting FR the activity monitor shows it still hogging CPU so I don't know if it's a runaway or just badly prioritised thread. The previews are nice but surely shouldn't be at the expense of navigation/usability

I think only a software update will fix it. Hopefully by then Apple will have released a Mac mini BD and my FR will be legitimate

McD

I'm not using a hack, I have the exact same problem, I open front row, go to video, and it freezes, just sits there for like 2 minutes and I can't do anyting. This really needs to get fixed if they expect people to use front row to watch video content.

I have been experiencing the same thing lately... When I go to the Movies section (in or out of) it hung there for a good 5 minutes before it moves. I can click up or down.. Then wait, and well eventually it will move.

It was always about 10 - 20 seconds lag there, but now its CRAZY.

Just started yesterday being super slow.

I have a similar problem, I bought a mac mini (intel) and tried front row at home. Worked great! Brought it to work to show it off, was slow bringing up the movies folder and it took about 20minutes to bring up theatrical trailers (and all the icons were quicktime question marks). Only difference between home and work is a proxy server. I wonder if front row is trying to do it's own thing with the network and gets it wrong. Itunes and safari work as expected with the proxy set. Will check a few other things (such as the dreaded sleeping disorder) and report back.

I bought my Mac mini yesterday and have exactly the same issue of very slow react of Front Row. I cannot imagine Apple have no solution for their customers...

Mac mini Mac OS X (10.4.8)

i have the same problem.

it gets me when I go into "videos"

it stalls there for about 1.5 minutes, and then finally lets me through.

it happens when coming out too.

THEY NEED A FIX! STAT!

I have the same problem with my MacBook. The problem first presented itself around the time I started using a wireless network, right around the latest firmware update, and I'm guessing it's the network that's slowing things down.

The funny thing is, that it only affects the "videos" - section and nothing else, and there seems to be no correlation between the freeze-time and the amount of video files.

The other thing I noticed, is that if you press the remote commands in advance, ie. twice down and play after hitting "movies", there's no freezing at all. Still, trying to get out of the Front Row after watching a video can be tricky if not altogether impossible.

Front Row used to be the first thing I'd show to PC users, but not anymore.

I'm seeing the same thing with my Mac Mini in Front Row. I'm trying to play some DVDs and TV shows stored on a NAS device, for which I have an alias in the Movies folder. Front Row takes forever to give me the list of items in "Movies," then again takes forever once I click on a particular alias. At first I was connected wirelessly, so I figured switching to ethernet would help. I have a Netgear gigabit switch, so bandwidth shouldn't be an issue at all, but it's still annoyingly slow to navigate through Front Row. Any tips or tricks for better performance with content accessed remotely?

i am also experiencing the same problem, front row is always delaying when i'm browsing. i donn understand it. it especially happens with movies.

at first i thought it waz only because i was trying to run WMV files on front row but it turns out that it happens with every video file and folders that do and/or donot contain WMV videos....

I think it may be a problem with it searching for shared videos or with the trailers. Because if I go to the videos menu without my network cable plugged in, its nice and snappy.

hmmm... then would there be some way to tell frontrow not to look for movies outside of the logg'd in user's movies folder?

everything in my house is wireless so i'd have to turn off my airport express stuff.

but i would think that frontrow wouldnt do that because you have to take alot of steps just to share your itunes playlist with other computers, why would movies be any different?

Same thing for me :
a freeze during 20-30sec in the video section.

My iMac (intel core duo 2) is three days old.

Conclusion : Front Row needs an update from Apple to fix that bug, i think...

ps : if you use VLC 8.6a (Intel) to play videos, don't use Ctrl+F or The dedicated button for fullscreen mode, there is a bug (vlc quits or the iMac stops and restart). Double click on the video for fulscreen.

Same problem, but is about 2 or 3 weeks that i have it, before (from july 2006) Front Row goes fast !

I think this is a connection problem, in fact I have it since I have changed my ADSL connection or better, before i was connected with a PCI modem installed on a PC and my mac was connected using windows shared connection; after i have bought a ADSL Router, i think that there are some problems in router settings, maybe NAT problems ... i don't know, i must replace internet connection like before and try, but I'm quite sure that this is the problem.