frontrow - subtitles dilemma!…

[apfelbrot]

(let me make it clear first that i opened this NEW topic instead of answering to an other already existing thread to make it clear that this problem still is a common and widespread AND because i might have found a new approach to it)

so PERIAN is a very fine thing to have; it helped me a lot on tiger; now i have migrated onto leo and i got that known frontrow-subtitle-problem.

as boerkan mentioned in another thread i did the following to get my movies/tv-shows running on itunes/frontrow

1. I use Quicktime to open the xxx.avi file. Then go to File > Save As and I choose Save as reference file (always a .mov).
2. Then I drag the Reference file into iTunes.
3. I keep the original xxx.avi files and the subs on an external drive and connect it to /Users/MyName/Movies/ by use of an alias.

In FrontRow the Movies loaded in iTunes appear nicely listed with the specific movieposter i added in itunes. But when I play the file it doesn't show any subtitles but goes black the moment the first subs-sequence starts.
If I i access the movie however by frontrow > Movies > folder 'movies' > xxx.avi then the videofile plays WITH subtitles.
this proves that perian113 - subs - frontrow actually do work together.
however this is not a very good solution because for one - i don't want to crawl into sub-sub-sub-folders to find my movies in frontrow BUT i want to choose them immeadiately and be able to distinguish them by their poster (now that leo's frontrow uses much smaller fonts - yeah i dont sit right infront of my computer when i use frontrow with the apple-remote; just in case someone wonders)
AND because secondly - this little trick just doesn't work with tv-shows!!!

the one NEW aspect i have noticed and which seems to not have been brought up is the following:

a) subs now work with perian and qt and quicklook and itunes; not frontrow though

b) the bespoke referencemoviefiles that are loaded into itunes are .mov

c) if i open such a file in qt and use /apple/+J i get to see that those movies have 2 video layers. (1st for the actual movie 2nd for the subs)

d) if i deactivate the 2nd videolayer (and save that) the itunesimported movies play instantly in frontrow > movies (only without the subs showing of course)

e) ergo: the problem is either that itunes is not (able) sending all videolayers correctly to frontrow OR
that frontrow is not able to work with multivideolayered movies! (btw what about multilanguage movies? do they work correctly in frontrow or is there silence?)

NOW perian devs might say: thats a frontrow problem - address apple (but we all know that apple like any company gives a s**t if they either don't make a buck or don't fear to loose one)
Therefore i'd like to encourage perian devs to check wether they can find a workaround for this problem (that makes maaaaaaaanyyyyy users very unhappy)

THANKS!

[gbooker]

NOW perian devs might say: thats a frontrow problem - address apple (but we all know that apple like any company gives a s**t if they either don't make a buck or don't fear to loose one)

It is their problem and that's the end of it. Also, it is costing them money. I emphatically tell people do not get a mac for a media center computer because of this and other issues ("other issues" being far more important btw). Apple has refused to listen, and I can personally vouch for thousands already lost. I imagine the lost profit more than outweighs the cost of just fixing it.

Along those lines, I would love to see the AppleTV die a horrible death, because it's such a pathetic media center computer, even when it is hacked.

Therefore i'd like to encourage perian devs to check wether they can find a workaround for this problem (that makes maaaaaaaanyyyyy users very unhappy)

No. I personally have had enough of working around Apple's idiocies and I'm not going to do it anymore. I expect many of the other devs feel the same. We are not a wishing well and there is a limit to how much we are willing to do with our limited free time, especially when there are so much more important and valuable things we can do instead.

[zac]

Honestly, Front Row is pretty terrible; you should download XBMC [or Plex] or Boxee (if you want to watch streamed media like Hulu, Netflix, etc.).