VLC - playing short clips

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

Hello,

The purpose of this script is to play short video clips.Those video clips are dependant on the duration of the video time. Clips could be 1 minutes, 2 minutes, 5 minutes… Once knowing the duration, the clip is to start at position representing 65% of the clip.

Let’s say the clip is 2 min 25 sec which totals up at 145 seconds. The clip is then to start playing at 94 seconds and will terminated 15 seconds later.

At the moment, I’ve been able to do it manually doing the following under Terminal

I’ve written the following script and having difficulties with :

  • getting the duration time;
  • getting VLC to use start-time and end-time in the “do shell script command”
set VideoTime to 145
set theFile to POSIX path of "Users:username:Desktop:M2U01507.mp4"

tell application "System Events"
	try
		display dialog (theFile)
		set q to QuickTime file (theFile as text)
		display dialog (oneitem)
		tell (contents of q) to set {timeScale, theDuration} to {time scale, duration}
		tell (theDuration / timeScale) to set {hr, mn, sc} to {it div hours, it mod hours div minutes, it mod hours mod minutes div 1}
                     set VideoTime to (mn*60)+ sc
		display dialog "VideoTime"
	end try
end tell

set vStartTime to round of ((65 * VideoTime) / 100) rounding down
set vEndTime to vStartTime + 15

do shell script "open -na /Applications/VLC.app " & quote & (POSIX path of theFile) & quote & " --start-time = " & vStartTime & "--stop-time = " & vEndTime

The following shell script works fine, I just do not know how to get it to work with start-time and end-time.

With regards!

#2

This should get you started:

use AppleScript version "2.5" -- macOS 10.11 or later
use framework "Foundation"
use framework "AVFoundation"
use scripting additions

set aFile to POSIX path of (choose file)
set theURL to current application's |NSURL|'s fileURLWithPath:aFile
set theAsset to current application's AVURLAsset's assetWithURL:theURL
set durationInfo to theAsset's duration() 
if durationInfo is missing value then
	set theTime to "unknown"
else
	-- calculate duration in seconds and format as string
	set theDuration to (value of durationInfo) / (timescale of durationInfo)
end if
set theStart to (0.65 * theDuration) div 1
set theEnd to theStart + 15
if theEnd > theDuration then error "Clip is less than 15 seconds"

set vlcPath to POSIX path of (path to application "VLC") & "Contents/MacOS/VLC"
do shell script quoted form of vlcPath & " --start-time=" & theStart & " --stop-time=" & theEnd & space & quoted form of aFile

The last line doesn’t return until the viewer is quit, and I’m not really sure how you’d work around that.

#3

Wow, thanks very much. This is great!

I see what you mean, this behaviour is unfortunate.

QUESTIONS :

  • Do you think this is happening because VLC is being used, would it be the same if using QuickTIme?
  • Would it make a difference if I was using a Tell, End Tell instead of a “do shell script”?
  • Would there be a way to have the last line being executed in the background, i.e force the VLC playing window to show on top ?

This script is to be used within FileMaker Pro.

The idea is to be able for people for view a quick snap shot of some videos.

I have to say I am very impress.

#4

As I said, it was something to get you started.

#5

Control never returns to Applescript because it’s waiting for a shell response, but the VLC CLI is an interactive shell program like lftp, Vi, etc. It doesn’t return to the shell until the program is quit, and it never gets quit because the shell command never quits it. Manually quitting VLC quits it.

There are various workarounds, but the easiest is to pass the “–play-and-exit” argument with the VLC call.

set moviePath to "[POSIX path to your movie here]"
set shellLine to "'/Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC' --play-and-exit --start-time=200 --stop-time=205 " & quoted form of moviePath
do shell script shellLine
#6

Thanks everybody,

I’ve looked at getting VLC to run using tell, end tell

set aFile to POSIX path of (choose file)
tell application "VLC"
	OpenURL "file://" & aFile & ""
	play
end tell

I’ve looked at the applescript dictionary for VLC. I do not see part of the dictionary start-time and end-time. Does that mean in using a tell, end tell starting and ending at a specific time is not possible when playing the video.

Does that make sense?

Your advise is GREATLY appreciated.

#7 
set aFile to POSIX path of (choose file)
tell application "VLC"
	OpenURL "file://" & aFile & ""
	set current time to 200
	play
	set endtime to 220
	repeat
		delay 1
		if current time > endtime then
			stop
			exit repeat
		end if
	end repeat
end tell