Problem reading movie file properties using System Events

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

Hi,

I’m trying to write a script that determines the natural dimensions of a movie file without opening Quicktime. From what I can tell, this should be possible to do via the “System Events” movie file suite. However, I think I must be getting the syntax wrong, being new to applescript, as I keep getting a -10000 error. Could anyone please advise?

-Karl

Events and Replies:

tell application “Finder”
get selection
→ {document file “test.m4v” of folder “test” of startup disk}
get name extension of document file “test.m4v” of folder “test” of startup disk
→ “m4v”
get document file “test.m4v” of folder “test” of startup disk
→ “Macintosh HD:test:test.m4v”
end tell
tell application “System Events”
get properties of contents of movie file “Macintosh HD:test:test.m4v”
→ error number -10000

Result:
error “System Events got an error: AppleEvent handler failed.” number -10000

The relevant part of my code is:

– f is a selected item in Finder or an added folder item
on importMovie(f)
tell application “System Events”
set theMovie to f as string
properties of contents of movie file theMovie
– from here on I would like to determine the natural dimensions of the movie file without opening QT
end tell
end importMovie

#2

Hi,

properties of contents does not exist.
You can retrieve the natural dimensions with


on importMovie(f)
	set theMovie to f as string
	tell application "System Events"
		return natural dimensions of contents of movie file theMovie
	end tell
end importMovie
#3

Many thanks!