Quicktime and Ruby

Ruby
1

Hey all

I read a previous post from early April about working applescript
into Ruby. BUT…

I need to be able to convert mp3s into hinted movie format (which
isn’t covered ANYWHERE). Whats the best way to do this in any
applescript wrapper?

Thanks,
Ari
-------------------------------------------|
Nietzsche is my copilot

2

Ari B. wrote:

Hey all

I read a previous post from early April about working applescript
into Ruby. BUT…

I need to be able to convert mp3s into hinted movie format (which
isn’t covered ANYWHERE). Whats the best way to do this in any
applescript wrapper?

Thanks,
Ari
-------------------------------------------|
I’m not sure I understand the question. But does this help

rb-appscript.rubyforge.org

This isn’t what you’re looking for, but gives an example of working with
a movie. I got the following in response to a question I asked from HAS:

require ‘appscript’
include Appscript
QTP = app(‘QuickTime Player.app’)

To export the middle frame of a movie file to a PICT file:

movie = QTP.open(MacTypes::Alias.path(‘/path/to/your movie.mov’))[0]
movie.current_time.set(movie.duration.get / 2)
movie.export(:to=>MacTypes::FileURL.path(‘/path/to/middle
frame.pict’), :as=>:picture)
movie.close

Hope this helps.

3

12 34 wrote:

This isn’t what you’re looking for, but gives an example of working with
a movie.

[…]
You’re very close. Just needs some minor changes:

#!/usr/local/bin/ruby

require ‘appscript’
include Appscript

QTP = app(‘QuickTime Player.app’)

infile = ‘/path/to/your file.mp3’
outfile = ‘/path/to/your file.mov’

movie = QTP.open(MacTypes::Alias.path(infile))[0]
movie.export(:to=>MacTypes::FileURL.path(outfile), :as=>:hinted_movie)
movie.close

HTH

has

http://appscript.sourceforge.net
http://rb-appscript.rubyforge.org

4

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I’m SO glad that all I needed to do was alter the ‘:as’ statement.
You have made my life so much easier.

You see, there are 9000 songs which I am getting paid to convert.

has rules,
aRi
-------------------------------------------------------|
~ Ari
crap my sig won’t fit

5

On Jul 9, 2007, at 11:33 PM, 12 34 wrote:

require ‘appscript’
include Appscript
QTP = app(‘QuickTime Player.app’)

To export the middle frame of a movie file to a PICT file:

movie = QTP.open(MacTypes::Alias.path(’/path/to/your movie.mov’))[0]
movie.current_time.set(movie.duration.get / 2)
movie.export(:to=>MacTypes::FileURL.path(’/path/to/middle
frame.pict’), :as=>:picture)
movie.close

I saw that, and in fact that’s what I’m using as my library. But I
need to convert the file into Hinted Movie format. In quicktime, it’s
under File -> Export -> Hinted Movie

What would I write in ‘:as’ if I wanted to do that? Or where could I
get a list of possible file conversions for this?

aRi
--------------------------------------------|
If you’re not living on the edge,
then you’re just wasting space.

6

Hey, thanks for your help. I just have a quick question.

On Jul 10, 2007, at 4:42 AM, hengist podd wrote:

#!/usr/local/bin/ruby

require ‘appscript’
include Appscript

QTP = app(‘QuickTime Player.app’)

infile = ‘/path/to/your file.mp3’
outfile = ‘/path/to/your file.mov’

What does the ‘MacTypes::Alias.path(infile))[0]’ do?

movie = QTP.open(MacTypes::Alias.path(infile))[0]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I don’t understand what the Alias and the [0] are doing. I guess it
makes an alias of the file?

movie.export(:to=>MacTypes::FileURL.path(outfile), :as=>:hinted_movie)
movie.close

-------------------------------------------|
Nietzsche is my copilot

7

Ari B. wrote:

Hey, thanks for your help. I just have a quick question.

What does the ‘MacTypes::Alias.path(infile))[0]’ do?

movie = QTP.open(MacTypes::Alias.path(infile))[0]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I don’t understand what the Alias

MacTypes::Alias.path(…) creates a new Alias object. The MacTypes
module is discussed in more detail in the appscript documentation.

and the [0] are doing.

QTP’s ‘open’ command returns an array of references to the newly opened
movies, in this case [app(‘QuickTime Player’).movies[‘some file’]].
However, we just want the first item in that array so we call its #[]
method.

HTH

has

p.s. The equivalent line in AppleScript would read:

set theMovie to item 1 of (open alias "HD:path:to:your file.mp3")

except that AppleScript uses an HFS path string rather than a POSIX one
for legacy reasons.

–
http://appscript.sourceforge.net
http://rb-appscript.rubyforge.org

8

Ari B. [email protected] wrote:

Hey all

I read a previous post from early April about working applescript
into Ruby. BUT…

I need to be able to convert mp3s into hinted movie format (which
isn’t covered ANYWHERE). Whats the best way to do this in any
applescript wrapper?

You can tell QuickTime Player to open each file and export it as a
hinted movie. This is not really a Ruby matter, though certainly you
might use Ruby as a basis for sending the necessary Apple events. m.

9

Ari B. [email protected] wrote:

frame.pict’), :as=>:picture)
movie.close

I saw that, and in fact that’s what I’m using as my library. But I
need to convert the file into Hinted Movie format. In quicktime, it’s
under File → Export → Hinted Movie

What would I write in ‘:as’ if I wanted to do that? Or where could I
get a list of possible file conversions for this?

As I said, this is not a Ruby matter. You have to read the dictionary
(the AppleScript dictionary). m.