Front Row is a discontinued
media center software application for
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
's
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
computers and
Apple TV for navigating and viewing video, photos, podcasts, and music from a computer, optical disc, or the Internet through a
10-foot user interface
In computing, 10-foot user interface ("10-foot UI"), also known as a 3-meter user interface (especially for international marketing), is a graphical user interface designed for televisions. Compared to desktop computer and smartphone user int ...
(similar to
Kodi and
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center (WMC) is a defunct digital video recorder and media player created by Microsoft. Media Center was first introduced to Windows in 2002 on Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). It was included in Home Premium and Ultimate ...
). 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
OS X Lion, also known as Mac OS X Lion, (version 10.7) is the eighth major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Mac computers.
A preview of OS X 10.7 Lion was publicly shown at the "Back to the Mac" Apple Speci ...
.
Versions
Introduction
Front Row was first unveiled on October 12, 2005 with the new
iMac G5
The iMac G5 is an all-in-one personal computer that was designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from August 2004 to March 2006. It is the final iMac to use a PowerPC processor, making it the last model that could natively run Mac OS 9 ...
(along with the built-in iSight camera, the
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 ...
, and
Photo Booth). The software was billed as an alternative interface for playing and running
iPhoto
iPhoto is a discontinued digital photograph manipulation software application developed by Apple Inc. It was included with every Macintosh personal computer from 2002 to 2015, when it was replaced with Apple's Photos application. Originally so ...
,
DVD Player
A DVD player is a device that plays DVDs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. Some DVD players will also play audio CDs. DVD players are connected to a television to ...
, and
iTunes (
Internet radio
Online radio (also web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, IP radio, Internet radio) is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted ...
stations could play by adding the station into a playlist in iTunes).
Apple TV
The next incarnation, released in the original
Apple TV 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
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
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
Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...
functionality, and a launcher application in addition to the Command+Escape
keyboard shortcut
computing, a keyboard shortcut also known as hotkey is a series of one or several keys to quickly invoke a software program or perform a preprogrammed action. This action may be part of the standard functionality of the operating system or ...
.
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 to render video, Front Row can utilize any codec installed in QuickTime, including
DivX,
Xvid
Xvid (formerly "XviD") is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 video coding standard, specifically MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile (ASP). It uses ASP features such as b-frames, global and quarter pixel motion compensation, lumi mas ...
, and
WMV
Windows Media Video (WMV) is a series of video codecs and their corresponding video coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework. WMV consists of three distinct codecs: The original video compression technology ...
, and play DVD images copied to the hard disk. However, because Front Row does not use
QuickTime X, 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
Apple TV Software. In addition to the prominent addition of direct downloads for movies, TV episodes, and podcasts via the
iTunes Store
The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...
, movie rentals, the ability to view online photos from
Flickr
Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and profession ...
or
iCloud
iCloud is a cloud service from Apple Inc. launched on October 12, 2011 as a successor to MobileMe. , the service had an estimated 850 million users, up from 782 million users in 2016.
iCloud enables users to sync their data to the cloud, inclu ...
(branded
.Mac
MobileMe (branded iTools between 2000 and 2002; .Mac until 2008) is a discontinued subscription-based collection of online services and software offered by Apple Inc. All services were gradually transitioned to and eventually replaced by the ...
at the time), and the ability to stream audio to
AirTunes
Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...
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
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
, 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
OS X Lion, also known as Mac OS X Lion, (version 10.7) is the eighth major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Mac computers.
A preview of OS X 10.7 Lion was publicly shown at the "Back to the Mac" Apple Speci ...
(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,
iTunes 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.