If you’re reading this then chances are you’ve come to the stark realisation that Apple have callously removed our lovably simple media interface from its latest OS. Some say this was a move to sell more Apple TVs, some say it was just no longer needed. Either way, I used this feature almost every night to watch Movies and TV Shows in bed, hear me Apple?! Many out there believe it will turn up again in the near future via the Mac App Store. But, what about now? What about today? Sorry, bad song. There are other solutions out there that offer even more features, like apps to check Twitter, the Weather, and even play YouTube content. The trouble is, simplicity was key for me. I’ve tried alternatives, Plex, Boxio, XBMC, but none offer the speed and versatility of Frontrow. Too many menus to get to your content, too many bugs to rely on it to work every time. So what can we do about it? Well, we can restore Frontrow to usable state.
First of all you need to get hold of few files taken from Snow Leopard. Incase you’ve already upgraded to Lion, you can use this simple package installer to install all the necessary files – Download [Thanks to mac-hatter for creating the file]
Once that’s all done, restart your Mac and your Apple Remote should then be capable of launching Frontrow once again. Go ahead and run it, you’ll notice a problem, your iTunes Library is not visible under any of the menus. This is because Apple has stopped iTunes 10.4 and onwards talking to Frontrow. So what can you do now? Well the best workaround I found was to create an alias within your Movies folder.
1. Navigate to your Home folder > Music > iTunes, and create an alias to the ‘iTunes Media’ folder.
2. Drag and drop this newly created shortcut into your Home > Movies folder.
3. Launch Frontrow and go Movies > Movies Folder. You’ll notice your iTunes Media alias in the list. You should now have a list of all your iTunes content.
While not 100% effective, this is the best solution offered at the moment and I am sure to be using this until I can find a reliable and simple alternative.
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