Help with digital content,resolutions and general Macbookery

[Lil' Joe]

I have a load of films and music on a 1TB hard drive that I usually watch on my TV via a Macbook and a DVI-HDMI cable. However, I would like to be able to access them via Front Row (or maybe another program?) but they are not coming up. Any ideas? Do they all need to be MP4's, and if so, will Handbrake get me the best quality conversion?

Also, my last Macbook would output at 1080p but I cannot seem to figure out how to do it again. Lastly, can I run my Macbbok with the lid closed somehow?

Thanks guys.

[cw2k]

Install the Perian plugin http://perian.org/

This will allow quicktime to playback most other formats and so should allow FrontRow to playback the files

If you need to playback WMV files install this: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/play...


The Macbook should run with the lid closed you need to have an external display, keyboard and mouse connected for it to work.


Have you tried the Plex Media Center (it's a Mac fork of XBMC) http://www.plexapp.com/

[marctwo]

Frontrow only supports playing movies from your iTunes library or in your movies folder (yourusername\movies). If you want it to see the folder on your external drive you will need to create an alias for this folder (right click -> create alias) and copy it into your movies folder (yourusername\movies).

Once you do this, you can open Frontrow, goto the Movies folder and then open the folder on your external drive using the alias. I do this will a load of mp4 and mpeg files I have on a NAS and it works just fine.