WiseWeasel - Help with iMovie & Cronnix

[G13]

WiseWeasel (or anyone else with The Knowledge) - I want to use iMovie to capture TV shows at scheduled times just like most people do with a VCR. I saw on VersionTracker that you are using CronniX and iMovie to do just that. Currently, I use BTVPro and TVReminder to schedule the capturing of TV shows, but unfortunately this is not very reliable in OS X. Half the time I come home to find that my show didn't record. Plus, iMovie has many more editing options than BTVPro. So WiseWeasel, how do you use CronniX to schedule video capture with iMovie? I have never used Cronnix, and I also don't have any experience with Applescript, Unix or the Terminal, but I am good at following directions. I (and I'm sure many others) would really appreciate some instruction on how to use CronniX to schedule video capture with iMovie. Thanks in advance.

[WiseWeasel]

I've put instructions on how to do this here. You need to have the AppleScript UI Scripting beta installed (located here), as well as the freeware Cronnix. Once you have all the software you need installed, follow my directions from the macscripter.net BBS posting, and if you get stuck, just let me know, and I'll walk you through it. My script only starts and stops recording at this point, so you'll have to have iMovie set up and ready to go, with the preferences set the way you want, and enough space in the project's HD to store all the shows you want to record (figure 7 GB / half hour show). Good luck with that!
P.S. To make the scripts, copy and paste the code from my macscripter.net posting into Script Editor, check syntax, and save it as a compiled script (not run-only). For Cronnix, you make a new task, edit it, set the day of the week and time of day to start recording (24 hour notation), and have the task set to launch the 'start importing' script by having a path to that compiled script you've saved somewhere. Do the same thing for 'stop importing', hit the 'save' button, and you should be all set. I'm at work right now on a PC, so I can't do it now, but if you'd like, I can compile those scripts and post links to my idisk, if you're having problems with Script Editor.

[G13]

WiseWeasel - thanks for your reply. I will check out your instructions and start putting this thing together. It amazes me that 7 years ago Apple had built most of the same recording capabilities into the Powermac 8500 but then gave up on it. Apple really dropped the ball on that one.

[WiseWeasel]

Seriously, I had an 8600, and that thing was sweet Sold it for 2/3 of what I bought it for after 3 years, long after the blue G3 towers were out, just to give an idea of the demand they still had. But if you have PCI slots, a Televio card (or a FW analogue to DV bridge works too), does pretty much the same thing, and captures in much better resolution, so you can make DVDs. I'm over it. Now I only wish Apple would stop making their own sound cards, so that they would create a demand for some decent ones.