Applescript to record webcam video

Question

Level 1

8 points

Applescript to record webcam video

Hi,

I am new to applescripts and I am trying to write a script to record from webcam for say X seconds. I am using the script below but I am getting an error that I do not have permission to save this file to Desktop. How can I avoid this error? Secondly how can I save the file with Date and Time stamp appended in the name of the file.

Thanks a lot in advance, this is my first post in the community 🙂

tellapplication "QuickTime Player"
  set newMovieRecording to new movie recording

  tell newMovieRecording
  start
  delay 5
  pause
  save newMovieRecording in "/users/rohitbhutani/desktop/movie.mov"
  stop
  close newMovieRecording
  end tell

MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Jul 15, 2016 7:22 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jul 15, 2016 8:41 AM in response to rbhutani

Hi rbhutani,

First of all, you should have written

savenewMovieRecordinginPOSIX file "/Users/rohitbhutani/Desktop/movie.mov"

instead of

savenewMovieRecordingin "/Users/rohitbhutani/Desktop/movie.mov"

Next, in order to save the file with Date and Time stamp appended in the name of the file, you could proceed as follows:

set theCurrentDate to current date

set dateTime to short date string of theCurrentDate & space & time string of theCurrentDate

set theFilePath to "/Users/rohitbhutani/Desktop/movie " & dateTime & ".mov"

tell application "QuickTime Player"

set newMovieRecording to new movie recording

tell newMovieRecording

start

delay 5

pause

savenewMovieRecordinginPOSIX filetheFilePath

stop

closenewMovieRecording

end tell

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Answer 2

rbhutani Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 15, 2016 8:42 AM in response to Perfectionniste

Hi Perfectionniste,

Thanks for the quick reply. I tried your script and got an error

"The document “Movie Recording” could not be saved as “16 9/11/07 pm.mov”. The file doesn’t exist.

Any idea why this could be happening?

Thanks,
Rohit

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Answer 3

Pierre L.

Level 5

4,641 points

Jul 15, 2016 8:55 AM in response to rbhutani

First, it was by mistake that I posted my previous message under a very old username of mine.

I have tested the script with the French Canadian version of OS X where the datetime variable was in the form "16-07-15 11:49:49", without any slash.

Does the script work if you temporarily set dateTime to any short text string? For example: set dateTime to "today"

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Answer 4

Pierre L.

Level 5

4,641 points

Jul 15, 2016 9:08 AM in response to rbhutani

The following should do the trick:

set theCurrentDate to current date

set dateTime to short date string of theCurrentDate & space & time string of theCurrentDate

set P to offsetof "/" indateTime

set dateTime to text 1 through (P - 1) of dateTime & "-" & text (P + 1) through -1 of dateTime

set P to offsetof "/" indateTime

set dateTime to text 1 through (P - 1) of dateTime & "-" & text (P + 1) through -1 of dateTime

set theFilePath to "/Users/rohitbhutani/Desktop/movie " & dateTime & ".mov"

tell application "QuickTime Player"

set newMovieRecording to new movie recording

tell newMovieRecording

start

delay 5

pause

savenewMovieRecordinginPOSIX filetheFilePath

stop

closenewMovieRecording

end tell

Reply

Answer 5

rbhutani Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 15, 2016 9:13 AM in response to Pierre L.

Yes it runs perfectly when I changed it to "today". And then I just used theCurrentDate in the name and it worked fine as well. Thanks a lot Pierre ! It solves my issue.

If you don't mind I just had one more question. How would I change the video source to an external cam if needed to in future?

Regards,

Rohit

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Answer 6

Pierre L.

Level 5

4,641 points

Jul 15, 2016 9:16 AM in response to rbhutani

rbhutani wrote:

How would I change the video source to an external cam if needed to in future?

That, I don't know. I've never used any other camera with my MacBook Pro. Sorry.

Reply

Answer 7

rbhutani Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 15, 2016 9:17 AM in response to Pierre L.

No issues. Thanks a lot Pierre for resolving the issue so quickly. Bon Weekend !

Reply

Answer 8

Pierre L.

Level 5

4,641 points

Jul 15, 2016 10:49 AM in response to rbhutani

It was my pleasure. Many thanks for your feedback.

Reply

Answer 9

Pierre L.

Level 5

4,641 points

Jul 16, 2016 11:18 AM in response to rbhutani

rbhutani wrote:

How would I change the video source to an external cam if needed to in future?

I had completely forgotten this thread: Click a menu option - can't figure out hierarchy

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