Does iTunes 11 have any nice full screen view?

Question

Level 1

82 points

Does iTunes 11 have any nice full screen view?

Hi,

I was wondering if iTunes 11 has any nice full screen mode for music playback? For example, a full screen view showing cover art or artist photos?

We used to use Cover Flow or Front Row... both of which are gone now.

We are mainly (80% of the time) using our iMac for playing music in our lounge. At the moment, I have only the choice between have then screen displaying the iTunes 11 standard interface (ugly/boring/too small to read from afar/gives my iMac screenburn because the layout stays static for hours), last.fm standard interface (ugly/boring/too small to read from afar/not full screen/screenburn) or screensaver (we have a half decent one, solves screenburn, but what is shown on the screen has nothing to do with the music being played at all...) currently, I just turning the Mac screen to black for the lack of a good alternative.

There must be something better? What do you use for the purpose?

Cheers

Posted on Sep 22, 2013 6:51 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

_daniel_ Author

Level 1

82 points

Aug 4, 2018 6:33 PM in response to _daniel_

For those coming accross my post:

I found a solution with a iTunes visualizer called Cover Version. It can at least display the cover of the current track and/or the artist/title.

Cmd + T starts/stops the Visualizer.

Cntrl + Cmd + F starts/stops Fullscreen mode.

Below are some screenshots (full screen). Works for me / just wanted to share.

Reply

Answer 2

Nov 10, 2017 2:34 PM in response to Nick Syrett

Nick Syrett wrote:

But how do you make this full screen? I just get the same window that I when command clicking on the album artwork in the player (at the top center of iTunes)...

You're responding to a post that's more than two years old and I don't know how many versions of iTunes ago. It is quite likely that things have changed a lot since then.

Reply

Answer 3

_daniel_ Author

Level 1

82 points

Oct 28, 2013 10:18 PM in response to _daniel_

Well, apparently iTunes does not have a nice full screen view with cover flow (which was really the greatest iTunes feature! such a shame) and visualizer seem not to exist anymore as a meaningful software category.

I use this "full screen mode" now: Shift + Control + Eject (= blacking screen).

Any other ideas, especially involving seeing the cover of the album playing would be greatly appreaciated...

Daniel

Reply

Answer 4

Jun 30, 2014 8:23 PM in response to _daniel_

Are you still able to do this with the current (11.2.2) version of iTunes? If so, could you explain how you found this option?

Thanks!

Reply

Answer 5

Jun 30, 2014 8:30 PM in response to abigail_23

The commands to run the the visualizer were explained in the OP's post.

Also, all of the selections for the visualizer are under the "View" option in the top menu. If you are not in full screen mode, you can click on the Album at the top of the screen and it will display it to the left of the visualizer.

Cheers,

GB

Reply

Answer 6

Jun 30, 2014 8:35 PM in response to gail from maine

Sorry, wasn't specific enough. I meant to display the cover art or title/artist as referenced in the OP's post on 11/5/2013. I don't want to black out the screen and there is not an option to display Cover View under View>Visualiser.

Reply

Answer 7

Jun 30, 2014 8:37 PM in response to abigail_23

HAve found the answer, thank you!

Reply

Answer 8

Jun 30, 2014 9:01 PM in response to abigail_23

Well, you can display the cover art by opening the mini player. You can do that temporarily by clicking on the album cover in the top of the screen when playing a song, or you can go to Preferences>Advanced, and click on Keep Mini Player on top of all windows" to have it display at all times when you are playing music:

It is not the whole screen, but it does display the cover art for the song being played. If you click the lines next to the search magnifier, it will list all of the songs coming up:

Cheers,

GB

Reply

Answer 9

iMacaque

Level 1

0 points

Oct 9, 2014 8:59 AM in response to gail from maine

Here is the answer to get the full screen artwork in newer versions of iTunes...

The full screen cover art is now only accessible through the video player. Open up a video, and then while it is playing select your music. Now you are back to the old Album Art and music player. Its an indirect way to solve the problem, but it works. I have found no direct way to open music through this player. If anyone knows, please lets us know.

Enjoy.

MDG

Reply

Answer 10

CPL5938

Level 1

11 points

Oct 14, 2014 4:14 AM in response to _daniel_

In iTunes 11.4.0.18 in Windows, you can show an album art window that can be resized to whatever size you want if you hold down the Ctrl key and click on the small album art thumbnail in the display panel at the top of the iTunes window. (I've read that the Command key is used on the Mac instead of the Ctrl key)

Once that window is displayed, you can right click on it and select "Fit to Screen" from the context menu.

Reply

Answer 11

Mar 7, 2015 6:52 PM in response to iMacaque

iMacaque's suggestion of playing a video first and then selecting music worked for me. I should note that if your video plays in the main iTunes window, you need to right-click on it and choose Play Video in Separate Window. Only then can you select and play music and have it show up large in the video window. Why doesn't Apple fix this and just make the cover mini player able to be sized larger?? 😕

Reply

Answer 12

Feb 13, 2016 7:52 PM in response to CPL5938

Just tried this approach with iTunes 12.3.2.35 and it works fine with Windows 8.1 Pro.

Reply

Answer 13

Mar 6, 2016 9:56 AM in response to CPL5938

The control button method worked well. It creates a nice big box in the middle of the screen with artwork plus leaves the smaller strip across the top for adding to iPod, rating or Playlists.

Reply

Answer 14

Nov 10, 2017 2:27 PM in response to agoraphonics

But how do you make this full screen? I just get the same window that I when command clicking on the album artwork in the player (at the top center of iTunes)...

Reply