AppleScript: The Missing Manual

Chapter 8. Playing Sound and Video

Turn on your radio. Go ahead, flip to that Top 40 station your kids listen to. Yes, now listen for a few minutes.

Chances are, you’ve just been listening to music that passed through a Mac on its way to your eardrums. And that voice-over you hear in the commercial? Probably done on a Mac, too. Macs are the standard for audio work, doing everything from sound correction to CD mastering. And with the iTunes Music Store, you can even buy music with your Mac, right from the comfort of your living room sofa.

The fun doesn’t stop at music, however. With QuickTime built-in, your Mac supports all sorts of multimedia formats—including sharp, full-screen video.

If you’re a power user, though, you’re craving more. You want to batch-convert music files, unlock secret QuickTime features, and make your Mac talk to you. You want to make a computerized metronome, rotate your movies 90°, and make your computer listen to you. And when the day is over, you want to make yourself some popcorn, lie in bed, and watch a DVD on your laptop.

In other words, you want the precise multimedia features that AppleScript can unlock.

Note

The example scripts from this chapter can be found on the AppleScript Examples CD (see Sidebar 2.1 for instructions).

Scripting iTunes

Unless you’ve been living underwater for the past three years, you’ve probably heard of iTunes. It’s Apple’s free digital jukebox program, which ships with every Mac sold. And just in case you can’t find iTunes on your ...