Macro to link DVDBackup & DVD2One?

[Jaunty]

First a quick thank you to all on this forum. I don't think I can offer too much help to people but appreciate all the help I've had. I've been lurking for over a year; this site, and the development I read about back then of DVD2One by Rene, helped me on the right decision in making sure my first home computer was a Mac, despite being surrounded by Windows (& windows - I'm a lighthouse keeper ) at work. Anyway...

This is my first post ever, anywhere, notwithstanding those things with stamps, so be gentle with me. On my AV remote I can program macros (I haven't, but I know I can. The manual says so). How hard would it be for someone smarter than me (& I mean a lot smarter) to come up with something so when I back up a disc with MTR or DVDBackup etc, the destination folder automatically loads in to DVD2One and fires that up. Or DVD2One destination folder to fire up Toast and merrily burn my preloaded DVD-R all on it's own whilst I'm squeezing myself into the tube (subway) to get to work? My life's so busy after all. I've tried searching the forums and apologise in advance if I am now immediately pointed to countless threads on this topic!

And finally - if you're sposed to be brief on these forum thingumybobs, sorry if this is a bit longwinded. It must be the beans.

Thanks & byee!

[WiseWeasel]

Since none of those apps (except maybe Toast) offer AppleScript support, it would be quite difficult. The best bet is UI scripting, but it's probably not going to be a very elegant solution, since the amount of time DVDBackup and DVD2One take varies from disc to disc, and they don't have triggers for when processing is complete. You might end up needing to set up timers to perform the successive actions, like start ripping with DVDBackup, wait 30 min or 1 hr, launch DVD2OneX, set the VIDEO_TS folder (if possible) and the options you want (variable), and start processing, wait another 30min-1hr, launch Toast, etc. I think this is not going to be possible, as you need to select the sound tracks you want in DVD2OneX, the name of the dvd folder containing the VIDEO_TS folder is going to change, and if any of the steps fail, you have a bunch of useless files on your HD and a wasted day. We might look into providing AppleScript hooks in MacTheRipper, but this process will still be hindered by DVD2OneX's lack of AppleScript support, along with the complexity and variability of the process. I'll play around a bit with DVD2OneX and AppleScript UI scripting, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to happen, or it'll be useless for most extractions. Just out of curiosity, what settings do you use in DVD2OneX? Do they change?

[deadsierra]

First a quick thank you to all on this forum. I don't think I can offer too much help to people but appreciate all the help I've had. I've been lurking for over a year; this site, and the development I read about back then of DVD2One by Rene, helped me on the right decision in making sure my first home computer was a Mac, despite being surrounded by Windows (& windows - I'm a lighthouse keeper ) at work. Anyway...

This is my first post ever, anywhere, notwithstanding those things with stamps, so be gentle with me. On my AV remote I can program macros (I haven't, but I know I can. The manual says so). How hard would it be for someone smarter than me (& I mean a lot smarter) to come up with something so when I back up a disc with MTR or DVDBackup etc, the destination folder automatically loads in to DVD2One and fires that up. Or DVD2One destination folder to fire up Toast and merrily burn my preloaded DVD-R all on it's own whilst I'm squeezing myself into the tube (subway) to get to work? My life's so busy after all. I've tried searching the forums and apologise in advance if I am now immediately pointed to countless threads on this topic!

And finally - if you're sposed to be brief on these forum thingumybobs, sorry if this is a bit longwinded. It must be the beans.

Thanks & byee!

It's definatly possible. I've been meaning to look into applescript GUI scripting for a while now, so maybe I'll give it a shot.

[WiseWeasel]

Rereading your post, I have a few more comments. First, did you say that you rip and burn DVDs in the subway, I'm assuming on a laptop? Being on the move might adversely affect the rip and burn times and success rates, as bumps might cause reading and/or writing errors. There is a good chance I might be able to automate the burning in Toast of the output from DVD2OneX (using timers as well, so you would have to give me the maximum amount of time DVD2OneX could possibly take, and set the timer to wait at least that long before launching Toast and burning to DVD-R). You would have to set up DVD2OneX manually, and then start the script when you start processing with DVD2One, but that is fairly likely to be doable. I'm at work right now, so I can't try, but I'll mess around tonight and see what can be done. let me know the maximum time DVD2OneX has taken to process on your Mac.

[AntnyMD]

How do you AppleScript the human putting a blank DVD into the SuperDrive?

Without that step, all those other automations are a waste.

[bilestyle]

well scripting the dvdbackup part of the equation (if you wanna use the terminal app) is fairly easy... if UI scripting works in DVD2oneX then making something that at very least automates ripping a dvd and then selecting that video_ts folder in dvd2one wouldnt be difficult.. the timeout aspect wouldnt be as much of an issue if there was osa implemented...

with regards to the human putting in a blank DVD.. well some of us have a dvd-rom and dvd-r (although i doubt many).. at least i do anyways .. anyways... maybe ill play with UI scripting a bit later and see what i can come up w/ in my free time.

[Jaunty]

Thanks for your thoughts

Rereading your post, I have a few more comments. First, did you say that you rip and burn DVDs in the subway, I'm assuming on a laptop? Being on the move might adversely affect the rip and burn times and success rates, as bumps might cause reading and/or writing errors..... let me know the maximum time DVD2OneX has taken to process on your Mac.

How do you AppleScript the human putting a blank DVD into the SuperDrive?

Without that step, all those other automations are a waste.

If I was carrying a lap top I guess i wouldn't be curious about whether you could automate some steps. Let me try and clariify. As I see it backing up a disc is, in somewhat simlified terms, a 3 step process. I was wondering if it was possible to link 2 steps at a time- eg the rip, and then DVD2One, and then quite separately, DVD2One and the burn. I note the valid comments on needing to select certain parameters in DVD2One, but say for a moment I was happy to limit the DVD2One process to movie only with AC3, which is used on the majority of backups. That would be one process. Alternatively I'm at home, and have already ripped my backup but not put it through DVD2One, so the second option is I start DVD2One with a blank DVD-R in the Superdrive and a key for toast to burn at best available speed and verify whilst I am out down the pub.

If this is more trouble than it's worth then it's no big deal, I was just curious if it had been looked in to, and if people thought it was possible, and I thought it might be of interest to more people than me. For those people that have dual burners (not me) it might be theoretically possible to link all 3 processes. It does look like a few people have been thinking about something similar though. Wise Weasel - DVD2One takes no more than an hour on my iMac if that helps, normally about 40 mins.

Thanks again.

[bilestyle]

well (short of the problem about dvds being inserted and scripting backup/dtox/toast together) which isnt really a problem, UI scripting is still apparently very buggy... scripting dvd2oneX works perfectly till the LAST step... selecting the checkboxes for audio, if the author can be coaxed into doing one of two things the whole process is very easy

1) select at least one or all audio by default (that WOULD make more sense logically anyways)

2) add a select all/none button similiar to the one in the Cell/Chapter/Layer tab. for the Audio/Subs tab

if people can find a way to convince the author to do one of those two things a macro is just a few steps away from possible completition

(note: i realize it would be best to implore apple to fix this bug, and im going to work on isolating it so i can find the cause, or to the best of my ability anyways, ill be submitting a bug report to apple, but who knows if/when they will get around to fixing it, of course that is the better long term target)

[thoughton]

Would folder actions be useful here? There was a hint on macosxhints a while back about adding a folder action to your desktop folder which triggered Virex into scanning the new file that got downloaded into that folder. Perhaps some sort of action on the ripping output folder ... I didn't try the hint myself so not too sure how it works.

[WiseWeasel]

No, the only problem is Applescript interaction with DVD2OneX, not being able to select audio tracks (and they're all off by default). That's the only part that needs user intervention at this point, due to bugs w/ Apple's implementation of UI scripting not being able to select certain checkboxes. Folder actions wouldn't help this problem, and there are more elegant solutions than that. The only thing that can be done is to complain to Apple to fix the UI scripting bug with some checkboxes; and to ask the DVD2OneX devs to either enable one or all audio tracks by default in the various modes (probably all), try to change the interface until checkboxes work with UI scripting, and/or provide AppleEvents that AppleScript can hook into to select the tracks enabled, along with other options if possible (best, but hardest solution).
Any of those solutions would make an end-to-end tool (or end to right before burning for those with only 1 DVD drive, along with right after ripping to end) a strong possibility.

[bilestyle]

yep.... i've been messing around with all the tools involved and there really is definitely only one issue (not timeout issues, nothing else) every step from ripping in dvdbackup (not the GUI) to selecting just about any option desirable in dvd2oneX (minus those damn checkboxes!) and all the options in toast are simple as well... i basically have the whole project compiled and ready to go (dont hold your breathe on any type of distro soon, even if apple fixes the bug.. there are alot of sensitive issues involved that would need to be attended to first) but either way... yes just one bug in UI scripting is all that stands in the way.. so maybe if enough devs submit similiar bug reports.. or enough people whine to apple a solution can be made very easily possible. OR enough registered users of dvd2oneX can whine on the forums or make direct requests to the author for some minor changes in the layout..... either way as one person i can only do so much to try and convince dvd2oneX author, or get a rapid response from apple.. need power in numbers here

[Jaunty]

Thanks for your input bilestyle. I have no programming skills whatsoever, the washing machine's about my limit, so can't help at all other than perhaps posting a link to this thread on DVD2OneX and asking if the developer's will bear your comments in mind for the future. So I'll do that when I get a moment.