Archive for the ‘Video’ Category

March 10 '08 - 8:26 am
UPDATED: Make Video Tags v1.1

I was pleasantly enough surprised at the reaction to the initial version of Make Video Tags that I’ve updated it to include a couple of new features.

Click for larger image in new window

This is a no-big-frills video tagging app that I was using in my rip-dvds-for-iPod-with-Handbrake workflow. Added to the new version is the ability to open files in the Finder whereby they will be added to iTunes and then be available for editing in Make Video Tags. Also, if one or more iPods are detected to you can choose to send the tracks to a selected iPod.

This app handles editing of only the few video tags editable in iTunes itself. I highly recommend using the application Lostify, written by Lowell Stewart, for editing a lot more meta-data, including MPAA ratings, network, air dates, cast information, and so on.

posted in Managing Track Info, Updates, Video, iTunes

February 27 '08 - 8:47 am
NEW: Make Video Tags

I just needed a quick and easy way to add global tags to some of my Handbrake’d DVD rips, so a few months ago I slapped together a simple GUI for some AppleScript routines to do the job. Notably, I used the routines from my Set Video Kind of Selected script. There are some great video tag editors available already (I frequently use and highly recommend Lostify), but I wanted something no-frills so I could just get a batch of stuff onto my iPod without a lot of keyboard pecking.

Well, I’ve cleaned it up and added some features and I’m making Make Video Tags available.

Click for larger image in new window

It grabs the track info from the selected video tracks in iTunes so you can edit it, then dumps it back to the appropriate tracks; global info on the left, individual track info on the right. Besides the tags pictured, you can also provide Comments, Description, Long Description, and Lyrics for each individual track. It’s an AppleScript Studio application and requires OS 10.4 or better. Let me know how it runs at your house.

posted in Managing Track Info, New Releases, Video, iTunes

January 8 '08 - 1:56 pm
Interesting and Interestinger

This article at TUAW indicates an update for iTunes and possible details of iTunes-compatible files appearing on FOX DVDs. FOX has a site which seems to confirm it.

posted in Rumors, Video, iTunes

August 14 '07 - 3:09 pm
DVD Housekeeping

Visitors who have been paying close attention to the latest AppleScripts posted here may have noticed a lot of DVD stuff going up. Well, I recently acquired a new DVD burner, a Sony DRX830UL/T. My Lacie d2 refused to burn any more DVDs. So far far, so good with the Sony. Anyway, I’ve been backing up all my TV Shows to data DVDs and naturally want to make the process as easy as possible:

  1. Go to the TV Shows playlist library and go into Browse mode. Select a Show and a Season.
  2. Make sure the tracks are sorted by Episode Number then Select All.
  3. Run the script Divvy Up For DVDs to create DVD-sized playlists using the selected tracks.
  4. Choose one of the new DVD-sized playlists and run the script Make Video PDF Booklet. This will create a PDF booklet with various info about each track and then add the PDF to the playlist.
  5. Burn the playlist (tracks and PDF) as a data DVD in iTunes. (Optionally, print the PDF to insert in the DVD case later. Paper…bah!)
  6. Have some sesame rice crackers and hummus. They’re a great snack.
  7. When the DVD is cooked and mounted in iTunes, select it and run either CD Label of Selected Playlist (which uses AppleWorks) or Pages CD Label of Selected Playlist (which uses Pages) to create a sticky label for the DVD disc. (Sharpie…bah!)
  8. Optionally, return to the original playlist and use Print to make a DVD cover.
  9. Repeat for each DVD-sized playlist.

Then I smash the shows to make room for the upcoming new season’s shows. We’re big Season Pass users at my house.

posted in AppleScript, Managing Track Info, Tips and Info, Video, iTunes

August 14 '07 - 3:07 pm
NEW: Make Video PDF Booklet v1.0

Make Video PDF Booklet will create a PDF booklet containing video-oriented tag info from the selected tracks (or every track from the selected playlist) and then add the PDF to iTunes and copy it to the playlist where the selected tracks reside. Here is an example PDF Booklet made with the script. (Also see Make PDF Booklet).

posted in AppleScript, Exporting Info, New Releases, Video, iTunes

August 14 '07 - 3:04 pm
NEW: Divvy Up For DVDs v1.0

Divvy Up For DVDs will create DVD-sized (no greater than aproximately 4.37GB) playlists using the selected tracks or playlist of tracks. Each created playlist is numbered sequentially, for example, “My Name Is Earl, Season 2 – Disc 1″, “My Name Is Earl, Season 2 – Disc 2″, and so on.

posted in AppleScript, Managing Playlists, Managing Tracks, New Releases, Video, iTunes

August 10 '07 - 11:23 am
NEW: Track Names With Incremented Number v1.0

Probably misnamed, but coming up with a more descriptive title for Track Names With Incremented Number would have been a job. This script sets the Name of the selected tracks (or every track of a selected playlist) to a user-configured string using tag variables for the current name [name], track number [tn], episode number [en], episode ID [ep] and position in the selection order [#]. For example, a string such as “Desperate Housewives – Season 3/[en] – Episode [ep] – [name]” would render “Desperate Housewives – Season 3/5 – Episode 305 – Nice She Ain’t”, and so on. While it’s great for TV Shows it could also prove handy for audiobook chapters and the like.

posted in AppleScript, Managing Track Info, New Releases, Video, iTunes

May 3 '07 - 4:06 pm
NEW: Get Airdate and Network

A Correspondent inquired whether the original airdate info for a TV Show track could somehow be obtained from the internet. While the IMDB offers this info, you can’t really get at it so good with AppleScript, so I went with the–presumably–next best thing, which is IGN.com. Get Airdate and Network will use the show and episode names of a single selected TV Show track in iTunes to search the IGN.com website for that episode’s page and then parse that page for the original airdate and network. You can then either open IGN.com’s page for the episode or add the info to the selected TV Show’s comment field. Note that results using this version are not one-hundred percent fruitful.

posted in AppleScript, Managing Track Info, New Releases, Video, iTunes

February 15 '07 - 1:58 pm
Earl Is Available!

Yikes, have I been wanting this to happen. “My Name Is Earl” is finally available on iTunes. This is the best American TV ever.

posted in Opinion, Video

January 27 '07 - 10:15 am
NEW: Google Video Search

Now that Google has finally incorporated YouTube videos in their Google Video search index, Google Video Search may come in handy. It uses your choice of the Song Name, Artist, Album, or Composer of the playing or selected track as the basis for a search of Google Video using your default web browser.

posted in AppleScript, Internet, New Releases, Video, iTunes

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