Apple Dropping Front Row HTPC Experience?

9to5 Mac reports that Apple’s Lion operating system preview seems to be missing Front Row, the fullscreen multimedia software experience. Now there could be a very simple explanation. Perhaps Front Row is being reworked (sporting the new Apple TV look?) and isn’t quite ready for inclusion. Or, like the new for-fee Facetime software, Apple may intend to charge for this functionality through the recently launched Mac App Store.

Yet, there’s a very small subset of folks like us who will actually use a computer as a television media center. So it’s also quite possible Apple has decided to move on. And they wouldn’t be alone, as Microsoft no longer emphasizes their fine PC-based Media Center DVR (with Netflix) experience. Regardless, Apple dropping the previously bundled IR remote surely hasn’t helped uptake.

Postscript: Regarding my Apple TV, it’s been handed off to a pal who has jailbroken the streamer and is running XBMC with mixed results, which we hope to write up in the near future.

18 thoughts on “Apple Dropping Front Row HTPC Experience?”

  1. Yeah, if the UI had been more (easily) extensible it would have been better. Trying to get Eye TV in there wasn’t clean. And how about a Netflix plugin, like WMC? But it’d still have been a niche product.

  2. “Perhaps Front Row is being reworked (sporting the new Apple TV look?) and isn’t quite ready for inclusion. Or, like the new for-fee Facetime software, Apple may intend to charge for this functionality through the recently launched Mac App Store.”

    I’d be surprised if it resurfaces.

    Cupertino seems to have other plans for TV connectivity.

    —–

    I don’t use Front Row, but I do use a Mac Mini as my HTPC, and this development worries me because without Front Row to support, why won’t Apple axe the remote control input on the Mini next? And that would be a problem.

    (Sure, you could hook up a 3rd party USB remote receiver, but there is plenty of 3rd party OS X software that takes advantage of the built-in IR receiver, and without the hardware built-in, that software will wither and disappear.)

  3. “Yet, there’s a very small subset of folks like us who will actually use a computer as a television media center.”

    But that’s the whole thing that’s nice about general purpose computers.

    If there are only two platforms out there to support, very small subsets of folks can find nicely crafted solutions to their particular needs.

    I’m sure there is a very small subset of folks who use GarageBand. The reason Apple is axing Front Row and not GarageBand is because they have a different product they want to drive their Front Row users to.

    “And they wouldn’t be alone, as Microsoft no longer emphasizes their fine PC-based Media Center DVR (with Netflix) experience.”

    Well, there is a big difference between axing and maintaining.

    Microsoft seems to have indicated that WMC will be in Windows 8, just without major new features being introduced.

    Front Row will simply be gone in 10.7.

    I’m a bit nervous about being on Cupertino’s platform these days because they seem to have really prioritized axing of late. And a respectable interval of maintaining is useful for a platform’s users.

  4. Chucky, do you have a smartphone? There are some very fine virtual remotes you could utilize (whether or not Apple kills Front Row – which I also suspect will happen). Heck, you might prefer it over the built-in IR. There’s something to be said for tactile control, but there’s a ton more power available to apps.

  5. Front row was pretty terrible and buggy. Playing dvds was very glitchy, and playing local files had minimal codec support and poor performance.

    I replaced front row with Plex and couldnt be happier.

    Its a shame Apple chose not to build a compelling media center. IMO attempting to tie everything to itunes is a bad idea, itunes is terrible software.

  6. “Chucky, do you have a smartphone? There are some very fine virtual remotes you could utilize … Heck, you might prefer it over the built-in IR. There’s something to be said for tactile control, but there’s a ton more power available to apps.”

    Lean-back requires a tactile dedicated remote to meet my specs.

    Obviously, media management requires something more than a tactile dedicated remote, but I’m well covered on that front.

    But I’ve got zero interest in maintaining a lean-back setup without a tactile dedicated remote for main playback duty.

    (And I say this all as someone who doesn’t really like the design of the Apple remote as a tactile dedicated remote. But at least it’s standardized, which is what I’m about to get into.)

    —–

    If Apple drops the IR port, here’s my worry:

    My current system is based around either Plex, or my homebrew AppleScript setup based around iTunes Cover Flow for choosing, iTunes for audio playback, and handoff to the video player of my choice for video playback.

    If the IR port goes away, I’m sure 3rd party IR receivers will spring up. But how will 3rd party OS X software makers then settle around a remote solution?

    I couldn’t run my ultra-groovy Mac Mini HTPC without Gravity’s Sofa Control software. If you’ve got a basic level of AppleScript proficiency, it’ll let you stitch together any kind of custom HTPC you want.

    My worry is that if the IR port goes away, then folks like Gravity won’t write stuff like Sofa Control.

    My worry is that if the IR port goes away, the Plex folks won’t pay much as much attention to the OS X playback client, since less folks will use it.

  7. I don’t think you have to worry much. Most IR remotes use the standard HID. As long as meaningful keyboard shortcuts remain in play, you will be OK with a USB receiver. I’ve previously run various HTPC solutions with pretty ‘dumb’ RF and IR remotes in this way.

  8. This is just my 2 cents – i believe front row will remain in Lion. This is a developer preview and a lot of the “major” features, which I’m sure are outside of what we’ve already been previewed, will make it back in in newer versions of the dev preview or by the gold master.

  9. “This is just my 2 cents – i believe front row will remain in Lion. This is a developer preview and a lot of the “major” features, which I’m sure are outside of what we’ve already been previewed, will make it back in in newer versions of the dev preview or by the gold master.”

    That has not been Apple’s standard operating procedure during the OS X era.

    I’d be willing to bet more than 2 cents that Front Row won’t be in the GM.

  10. “I don’t think you have to worry much. Most IR remotes use the standard HID. As long as meaningful keyboard shortcuts remain in play, you will be OK with a USB receiver. I’ve previously run various HTPC solutions with pretty ‘dumb’ RF and IR remotes in this way.”

    I hope you are correct, although I still don’t understand how it would work. How would I map the remote’s button’s to the keyshortcuts I want? Wouldn’t that require OS X specific software, which would be unlikely to ever be written?

    But even if I’m misunderstanding how HID compliant remotes work, and my current homebrew setup is safe, it still means that stuff like the Plex OS X client would find fewer users, and thus receive less development.

    And since I rely on EyeTV to playback my TiVo MPEG2 files in my homebrew setup, I worry that elgato might scale back their OS X development as well.

    Loss of the IR port would put a real crimp in the whole OS X HTPC ecosystem, which would start to impact me over time. When you are on a non-common-carrier platform like Apple, few or no options tend to be available to you once the Mothership exits a specific playing field.

    Hell, it’s become hard to find a modem that works with OS X these days, if you like managing your landline phone from your computer as I do. Such is life outside the Windows.

  11. While I don’t use it all that often (typically when I travel), I’ve started to use XBMC on my MacBook as a much better replacement for Front Row. It works well and you can even set it up so that the remote works for it instead of Front Row.

  12. Michael, Plex is based on XBMC but tailored to OS X. Have you tried it out?

    Chucky, there’s some pretty universal keyboard shortcuts. For example, spacebar is almost always pause/play so that button should almost always work as expected. But there might need to be third party interfaces and you could lose some things you might use now like a long press or double tap that’s built-in to Apple’s spec.

  13. “Michael, Plex is based on XBMC but tailored to OS X. Have you tried it out?”

    I will second that notion, at least if your concern is viewing local media. Plex’s OS X Media Manager is a thing of beauty. Their OS X playback client badly needs an update, but is still better than XBMC’s. If your concern is viewing internet streaming sources, that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax…

  14. “Chucky, there’s some pretty universal keyboard shortcuts. For example, spacebar is almost always pause/play so that button should almost always work as expected. But there might need to be third party interfaces and you could lose some things you might use now like a long press or double tap that’s built-in to Apple’s spec.”

    I’m assuming that if I have to go with a 3rd party IR receiver, then using Apple’s remote will be out of the question, since without double-clicks and hold-clicks, the fuctional design of the remote is useless.

    Fine. I’ve never been that crazy about Apple’s remote, though it does get the job done, as long as you integrate double-clicks and hold-clicks into your UI.

    So, we say I get a HID compliant 3rd party remote and receiver I like.

    It has 20 buttons. Do all those buttons simulate specific keystrokes predefined at the factory? If so, I can work with that. I just buy a copy of QuicKeys for the Mini, and use QuicKeys as my bridge between the remote’s keystrokes and my UI’s logic, in the exact same way I’m using Sofa Control now. If the remote is set at the factory to keystroke space for the “play button”, then I just set QuicKeys to intercept that keystroke and trigger my “play button” Applescript.

    I could migrate to that quite easily, if I’ve got the concepts correct about how HID remotes work…

  15. As a big time XBMC user, I don’t at all agree with either Dave or Chucky. While the Plex Media Server is all well and good, Plex Media Player has received next to no attention for a long, long time and the work done by the XBMC for Mac folk surpassed it long ago. I mean, there’s a reason why XBMC for iOS exists and a full port of Plex for iOS doesn’t.

  16. I have a very hard time believing it will be completely removed. I doubt that it’ll get the Apple TV software, but there probably is another reason. This would basically force me NOT to upgrade my Mac mini that I use as my HTPC.

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