MBP: Frontrow without boot-up??

Just got my MBP the other day. I thought I had read some time ago that you can access Front Row and play files without booting up the whole computer. Even though at this time it only take a few seconds, it would be nice to know if it's possible.

On that note, I have had problems with my display dimming while watching movies and I have to run the mouse to bring the brightness back up. Anyhelp on this?

I don't think that's possible. I've never heard anywhere about being able to run it without booting up.

FrontRow is a program and so it would need the OS to be booted in order to function.

You can set your energy saver settings to not dim the display while you're watching a movie. Not a perfect work-around, as you'll have to change the settings back and forth each time, but it'll prevent the interruption to your movie.

Thanks for the help. I thought I had read you could, but I suppose I just assumed it since so many PC's offer that ability and Mac is supposed to be on the cutting-edge. I also thought there was a place to keep the remote control on the computer like some PC models have. The fact that saver kicks in when a movie is played with the system's native player is annoying and goes against everything I've heard about Macs being superior in intuitiveness and user-friendliness. I'm facing quite a few disappointments since purchasing mine. I haven't seen anything yet that makes my MBP superior to other lappies.

To be honest, you must have some weird setting turned on. I've never had a problem with the screen dimming while playing a DVD.

As for PCs being able to do things without booting up, I'd like to know which one does that. I've never even heard of that.

All of the HP's have quick play as well as the dell E-series lappies.

fleurya said:

...I haven't seen anything yet that makes my MBP superior to other lappies.

Click to expand...

So you haven't got as far as logging into OS X then?

I can see why you wouldn't be able to fire up FrontRow before logging in, as it uses your Documents folder as its path to your media. If you don't log in, who's documents folder should it use?

However... I'd like to see this one as well. How's about this for a work around:

Create another account and putting all your movies there. Then enable auto-logon to this other account. That way, once the machine boots up, FrontRow will work from the remote as you will be logged in.

Swap over to your main account using the Fast User Switching menu. Note, I haven't tried this, but it seems like it just might work!