Front Row Boxee
UPDATE: For a version that works in Snow Leopard see this post
I have thrown together a plugin for Front Row that will allow you to launch Boxee. If you want to try it out you can get it from http://holeintheceiling.com/files/FrontRowBoxee.dmg.
If you install it and you don’t see Boxee as an option then you should run
killall Front\ Row
It’s a bit of a work in progress. When you exit Boxee it should put you back into Front Row but that doesn’t always seem to work. Also, you sometimes see the desktop for a few seconds as it switches between the interfaces. Currently it is just some hacking done to the code from the frontpython project. I would like to move it from python to obj-c as time allows.
Comments
Hello, I tried your plugin for front row and am impressed! It has great potential and I really hope you run with it. Two problems I had were that the transitions need work and that once I quit front row, my mouse pointer went invisible and I couldn’t get it back for a while.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m glad you like it.
I have not experienced the problem with the cursor disappearing. I’ll keep an eye out for it. If you happen to notice a set of step that cause to to consistently occur please let me know.
Works great. Thanks. However my PyeTV plugin disappeared when I installed your plugin.
Hmm. I haven’t used the PyeTV plugin. I’m guessing that it is based on the frontpython project too and that there is some conflict. I’ll take a look.
Plugin works great. I am getting the same PyeTV conflict as Martin. Check out this thread on the Boxee forums: http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=1582&highlight=front+row
There is a plugin in the thread that does not conflict with PyeTV. However, your plugin has better functionality in that it brings up Boxee in front of all finder windows. Yours also has the shiny icon in Front Row, which the other does not.
Hopefully that will help you in the next version.
i downloaded the plug in and it works fine in my macbook but after downloading it on my mac mini the file does not look like the “cube shape” and when I copied it in the plugins folder its not working..! why is that ?
It shouldn’t be any different on the mac mini. I run it on a mac mini myself. Did you run the command in the post to make sure that Front Row reloads the plugins? Also, do you have any other plugins on the mac mini that you don’t have on your other machine? There could be a conflict.
I saw a poster mention that Boxee comes in front of all other windows, but it doesn’t work that way for me. If I have Finder window’s open, or another app, then sometimes Boxee gets stuck under them.
Mac OS X 10.5.6. and latest Boxee alpha available.
Hey there, is there any chance you could make a plugin like this for plex?
I’ll give it a shot. It may not be possible to have it and the Boxee plugin installed at the same time although that would obviously be preferable.
If you could pull it off that would be great, I’m about to cut the cable off. It should be an interesting experiment.
If you could pull it off that would be great, I’m about to cut the cable off. It should be an interesting experiment.
I have a Plex version working. I’ll put it up in a separate post later today.
Thanks so much have been checking the site everyday waiting for an update, can’t wait!!!
Couple of quick questions, does it work with the boxee plugin? would you mind if i posted this in the plex forums or would you want to do that?
Feel free to post about it once it’s up. It works with the Boxee plugin.
I have a solution to the PyeTV/frboxee conflict, and have sent the fix to the frboxee developer. It should be ready soon.
-Jon
jchrist,
This is a different plugin than frboxee. If the fix is the one mentioned here http://code.google.com/p/frboxee/issues/detail?id=4#c2 then that isn’t it since I’m already using a different class name. If there is a different fix I would love to hear it.
Friggin’ brilliant. Thanks large for making this available. I think you just accomplished for me Operation: Get Rid of Comcast.
One minor thing I noticed: If you have any finder windows open when switching from FrontRow to Boxee, they will appear in front of the Boxee UI. The only way I was able to work around this was to add Front Row to the springboard.
Snow Leopard seems to have broken these, any other reports of it?
Snow Leopard seems to have broken these, any other reports of it?
Jose,
There are new versions for Snow Leopard. I put the update at the top of the article. Perhaps it’s not visible enough.
Hi, I love the plugin and it works great. But I’m trying to make it non-tech friendly and so am trying to have the Front Row menu be something explanatory rather than “Plex” or “Boxee”…(such as “Media Center”) etc.
Is there a string in the info.plist or something that won’t break it, that lets Front Row know the name to display on the menu that I can tweak?
Thanks!
There is a plist entry that will let you change the name. For Boxee the file to change is at
/System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/Boxee.frappliance/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/InfoPlist.stringsJust change the CFBundleName to whatever you want displayed. This will only change what it shown in Front Row menu; when selected it will still say ‘Loading Boxee’.
This will work on the other plugins too just change the path accordingly.
I love these plugins. Thank you so much for making them available.
Like Jake & Matt though, I am also getting finder windows in front of Boxee when launched from front row. But not with Hulu. Would it be possible to send it an “activate” apple system event like you can in applescripts to put it in front? or is this not allowed when launching from within front row?
I have code that tries to ensure that the launched program is the frontmost window. However, it doesn’t always seem to work. This seems to mostly be a problem with Boxee (but I’ve seen it with Hulu too). I’m not sure what the issue is but I’ll keep looking into it. If I find a solution I’ll release new versions.