Firewire control of camcorder

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
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#1

Hi,
Looking for any advice / experience that can be given that will allow control of a firewire-linked camcorder.
I don’t want to import, but just to make the camcorder play / pause / rewind, etc. - the output goes to a separate TV screen
At the moment I am using iMovie to perform some of the following:

on PlayMovies()
		tell application "System Events"
			tell process "iMovie"
				tell window 1
					tell group 1
						click button 4
					end tell
				end tell
			end tell
		end tell
end PlayMovies()


on PauseMovies()
		tell application "System Events"
			tell process "iMovie"
				tell window 1
					tell group 1
						click button 1
					end tell
				end tell
			end tell
		end tell
end PauseMovies()

However, I would like to avoid using iMovie, and would like to (in order of increasing ambition):

  1. Send commands directly from my script
  2. Obtain time data from the camcorder
  3. Instruct camcorder to fwd/rwd to a specific time point
  4. Send instruction to play at half- or double-speed

Has anyone used the Firewire SDK? Are there other ways to do what I propose, or should I stick with iMovie?

Thanks in advance for any advice,
Peter.

#2

Peter:

I don’t know if this is what you are looking for, but check out the btv packages available here:

http://www.bensoftware.com/index.html

They say they run in OS X, are scriptable, and are pretty darn inexpensive.

Good luck.

#3

Craig,
Thanks for that pointer - BTV Pro Carbon was just what I was looking for.
As an aside to anyone using it, I have found that it tends to overshoot dramatically on forward wind or rewind, so I don’t use the “wind tape” command.
I found it much quicker to use System events to perform keystrokes to wind the tape, keep reading the timecode using BTV, then keystroke to press pause when the tape is approaching the desired timepoint. A rough and ready solution, but the best I could do at present.

With reference to my previous ‘ambitions’, I am able to

  1. Command play / pause etc from the script
  2. Obtain tape timecodes
  3. Fwd/ rwd to a specific point (although use the workaround described above)

I have not yet been able to send commands to play at half / double speed. That would be the icing on the cake, although I am managing OK without it.
Peter.

#4

This is a slightly different tack, but makes sense to add it on to this previous thread (keeps them all tied together, so to speak!).
BTV did just what it said on the tin, and is most useful in allowing an Applescript to control an external DV tape drive.
However, I now wish to be able to import from one device, and then - when that is finished - to switch to another device and import a separate movie.

As a side note, iMovie detects the DV stream from both the DV tape player and the DVD player (with Firewire in/out), but iMovie HD fails to detect a movie stream from my DVD player. The DVD player is listed in the ‘camera selection’ menu, but no stream is visible. Any ideas why that should be? As for BTV, when 2 devices are connected, it just gets confused.

I have managed to GUI script most of the events in iMovie (start & stop recording / save movie / create and name new movie).
However, the one thing I simply cannot script is selection of the 2nd device.
In iMovie, the ‘Camera Select’ button is button 1 of group 3 of window 1
When I click this with the mouse, I get a drop-down menu to select the device.
When I click it with GUI scripting, it just changes to ‘import mode’, with no possibility of selecting a new device.

How do I make iMovie switch from one device to the other?

All suggestions most appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Peter.