FrontRow Plugins, Hacks, and Fun
FrontRow is the media center software that comes on every Mac - it’s pretty basic, but this makes for a great platform to build a great, customized media center. Below, are a few essential plugins (or “Appliances”) that you can add to FrontRow to give it some really powerful capabilities.
UNDERSTUDY
http://code.google.com/p/understudy/
Understudy is a quick and dirty way to get Hulu feeds in FrontRow. It’s simple but if you have HuluDesktop installed there’s an ever better solution:
HULU DESKTOP LAUNCHER
http://www.nullweb.com/?p=7
The beauty of FrontRow might be it’s ease of use with the remote control. Hulu does a good job with this in Hulu Desktop. Adding this plugin will allow you to access Hulu Desktop quickly and easily.
BOXEE
http://www.holeintheceiling.com/blog/2008/12/12/front-row-boxee/
In a similar fashion, using Front Row as a starting point makes a lot of sense of a Mac media center. Boxee is a great way to explore your videos, pictures, media… and pretty much everything. Adding this to FrontRow gives you another easy way to pick up the remote and start surfin’
HONORABLE MENTIONS
In addition, EyeTV, NetFlix, YouTube and other popular media center items can be integrated into FrontRow. Depending on your needs there’s FrontRow extensions for almost anything media-center related!
My set up is a Mac Mini. I automatically boot to FrontRow, and use a universal remote to access FrontRow which is the starting point to my video, music, photos, and internet TV.
