Front Row is a discontinued media center software application for Apple's Macintosh computers and

Apple TV An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

for navigating and viewing video, photos, podcasts, and music from a computer, optical disc, or the Internet through a

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(similar to

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and Windows Media Center). The software relies on iTunes and iPhoto and is controlled by an

Apple Remote The Apple Remote is a remote control introduced in October 2005 by Apple Inc. for use with a number of its products with infrared capability. It was originally designed to control the Front Row media center program on the iMac G5 and is compati ...

or the keyboard function keys. The first version was released October 2005, with two major revisions since. Front Row was removed and discontinued in Mac OS X 10.7.

Versions

Introduction

Front Row was first unveiled on October 12, 2005 with the new iMac G5 (along with the built-in iSight camera, the

, and

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). The software was billed as an alternative interface for playing and running iPhoto, DVD Player, and

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

( Internet radio stations could play by adding the station into a playlist in iTunes).

Apple TV

The next incarnation, released in the original

software in March 2007, was a complete, stand alone application that played content directly from libraries. Among the features added were more prominent podcasts and TV show menus, trailer streaming, a settings menu, streaming content from computers on the local network, and album and video art for local media. In the summer of 2007, Apple released an update adding streaming of YouTube videos.

Version two

Released in November 2007 with Mac OS X v10.5 (Leopard), version two of Front Row included the new features introduced with the Apple TV (except for the YouTube viewer), a different opening transition, ending AirTunes functionality, and a launcher application in addition to the Command+Escape keyboard shortcut. Front Row 2 has an undocumented plug-in architecture, for which various third-party plugins are now available, based on reverse-engineering the Front Row environment. Because it uses

QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...

to render video, Front Row can utilize any codec installed in QuickTime, including DivX, Xvid, and WMV, and play DVD images copied to the hard disk. However, because Front Row does not use

QuickTime X QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...

, it lacks support for certain codec features like Sample Aspect Ratio.

"Take 2"

In January 2008, Apple announced an update branded "Apple TV Take Two" for

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. In addition to the prominent addition of direct downloads for movies, TV episodes, and podcasts via the iTunes Store, movie rentals, the ability to view online photos from Flickr or iCloud (branded

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at the time), and the ability to stream audio to AirTunes were added. This update did away with Front Row and introduced a new interface for the original Apple TV in which content was organized into six categories, all of which appeared in a large square box on the screen upon startup (movies, TV shows, music, YouTube, podcasts, and photos) and presented in the initial menu, along with a "Settings" option for configuration, including software updates.

Discontinuation

Front Row was discontinued with the July 2011 release of Mac OS X Lion (v 10.7). The software appeared in neither the early Developer Previews nor the final version. While it was initially possible to reinstall Front Row by copying the frameworks and application into OS X Lion,

v 10.4 on 22 July 2011 broke compatibility, causing those who updated iTunes to lose access to their music through Front Row.

References

{{Home theater PC (application software) Apple Inc. software ITunes MacOS media players MacOS-only software made by Apple Inc.