After the recent completion of http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=43892, seriously thought about how viable it was to still be keeping all my music, movies and such compatible with Mac OS9 (yep, pretty hopeless, I know) 
But the good folks at TenFourFox ( http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/ ) updated Classilla ( http://www.floodgap.com/software/classilla/ ), their browser for OS9 and after a year of OSX scripting, enjoyed a day of going back to the 16-bit window trim and Ridiculous Zippiness that OS9 still offers - seriously, if an android pad ever came out running real OS9, Iâd be all over that stuff!! That was the system for $40,000+ drum-scanners, film-recorders and essentially: âMac for Productivityâ, rather than the Yuppie-Bling it has become now (in service to the great iTunes Cash-Register-Overlord in the sky)!
So back to the issue of OS9 media compatibility: The biggest thing missing, is the availability of a decent video-playback environment, like VLC/XBMC. QuickTime 6 (lack of H.264 not withstanding) is still pretty spry and even offers really nice playback support for Flash/SWF animation files with sound.
As it turns out, some of the code from the app above was able to compress to Applescript 1.8.3 and here with now have QT TheatreĂÂ http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/qt-theatreÌ-multi-video-quicktime-playback-in-os9
It allows for selecting folders of QT-compatible videos and then plays them either alphabetically or randomly based on a button selection. The multi-segmented video playback module from PPC Media Center above worked with just a few changes. An actual positive change is that since the videos are not streaming, but instead already saved, it can contrast each movies âCurrent Timeâ vs âDurationâ values and uses that info to close each movie once it is done and opens the next. This is nice when one âPausesâ a video, as it will happily resume and then close/open the next just like say VLC does today.
The random function is the real showpiece though. Quality randomness is, of course, not random at all but instead ârandom of the unplayed-choices remainingâ: because with straight random, you sometime get the same video playing twice/three times in a row. So, the list movieList, that comes from the directory chosen, gets copied over to newMovieList in total (minus the video just played) and then movieList gets set to newMovieList each repeat/playback. Works very well.
The only problem is simply stopping the script. The only thing that works is to force-quit, but this actually wasnât too bad in use, as the current video just needs to get paused, then âCommand-Tabâ over and force-quit.
After this little project, it becomes very CLEAR just how much Shell Scripting has added to Applescript. Sometimes We Have to See Where Weâve BEEN, to Appreciate Where We ARE!
----
-- "QT Theatré" for QuickTime Player 6.0.3 (Mac OS 9.2.2). Written by Adam Albrec (game_creator@hotmail.com)
----
-- Prevents timeout during operation.
with timeout of 86400 seconds
-- Prompts user to select directory of QuickTime documents.
set moviePath to (choose folder with prompt " *** Select Folder & Click CHOOSE ***") as alias
tell application "Finder" to set movieList to every file of moviePath as list
set n to the number of items of movieList
-- Prompts user for normal or random playback.
display dialog " Select Playback Mode" buttons {"Normal", "Random", "Cancel"}
if result = {button returned:"Normal"} then
-- Normal playback Mode.
set mvNmbr to "1" as number
repeat n times
tell application "QuickTime Player"
open item mvNmbr of movieList
set ttlChck to the name of item mvNmbr of movieList
try
repeat
tell application "QuickTime Player"
set currentTime to (current time of movie ttlChck)
set durationTime to (duration of movie ttlChck)
end tell
delay 0.5
if currentTime is durationTime then
tell application "QuickTime Player"
close movie ttlChck
end tell
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
end try
set mvNmbr to mvNmbr + 1
end tell
end repeat
else
-- Random playback mode.
repeat n times
tell application "Finder" to set rndmVid to some item of movieList
tell application "QuickTime Player"
open rndmVid
set ttlChck to the name of rndmVid
try
repeat
tell application "QuickTime Player"
set currentTime to (current time of movie ttlChck)
set durationTime to (duration of movie ttlChck)
end tell
if currentTime is durationTime then
tell application "QuickTime Player"
close movie ttlChck
end tell
exit repeat
end if
delay 0.5
end repeat
end try
end tell
set newMovieList to {}
set x to "1"
set y to the number of items of movieList
repeat y times
if item x of movieList is not rndmVid then
set newMovieList's end to item x of movieList
end if
set x to x + "1"
end repeat
set movieList to newMovieList
end repeat
-- End of script.
end if
end timeout
Model: MDD G4 DP 1.42 GHz
AppleScript: 1.8.3
Browser: Classilla 9.3.3
Operating System: Mac OS 9.2.x