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Show current movie trailers prior to DVD movies Apps
If you're like me, then you're using a Mac to power your home theater system. As it is, I've got it connected via DVI to a projector in my living room. I am using a ATI Remote Wonder to control it all and I invite friends over to see movies. The problem is that when I watch movies, I rarely want to see the trailers that come with the movie - those are trailers about what is to be released on DVD, I want my home cinema to be a real cinema, so I want the same trailers they show at the cinemas!

Well, that's easy, since Apple offers high-quality trailers on their site (http://www.apple.com/trailers) which you can download (alt-click on the movie links for example). So, I download a couple of trailers from Apple and place them in my special ~/Movies/Trailers/ folder. Then I launch DVD Player.app and set up my DVD as I want it. I have it set to always resume playing from last position. So I set it up, select subtitles and audi option and then I quit the app just as the movie is about to start (chapter one).

Now we're all set. When my friends come over and the screen is down and the room is dimmed, I press a button on my ATI Remote which executes the AppleScript below:
tell application "QuickTime Player"
  launch
  activate
  stop every movie
  close every movie
end tell

tell application "Finder"
  set trailers to every file in folder "Users:sandman:Movies:Trailers"
end tell

repeat with a in trailers
  tell application "QuickTime Player"
    open a
    enter full screen display 4
    present movie 1 scale screen mode normal display 4
    try
      repeat
        if done of movie 1 is true then
          exit repeat
        else
          delay 3
        end if
      end repeat
      close movie 1 saving no
    end try
    exit full screen display 4
  end tell
end repeat

tell application "DVD Player"
  activate
  set viewer position to {3584, 256, 486, 4976}
  set viewer full screen to true
end tell
Some comments:

First I launch QuickTime player. By using "launch" first, it doesn't display the greeting video and stuff like that. Second, I set "trailers" to every trailer in my directory (you have to change this to fit your setup). After that, I repeat through every item of the list, telling QuickTime to play it in fullscreen on display 4 (my fourth display is the projector). You have to change this to the display you want to use. The script will loop through every movie and play them to the end.

When every movie has played, the script will continue to launch the DVD player. I don't have to tell it to start playing, since it's set up to do that automatically. It's a little tricker to get the DVD player to play full screen on a given display, though. You can't tell it explicitly, as it will always extend to the current screen. So first I have to move the DVD player window to my fourth screen, and then tell it to go into full-screen mode. You have to play around a little to find the parameters needed to put it on your screen (unless you want it on screen 1, then just skip this line).

Now, if I could only tell the Mac to output the sound through my Revolution 7.1 soundcard as well, then I'd be a happy camper. So far, I have to use SoundSource to easily select audio output. Enjoy!
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VLC playlist
Authored by: tetsuotheironman on Oct 25, '04 11:26:26AM
IMHO, i'd just setup a playlist in VLC to watch the movie.. It'd solve your problems about selecting the sound source and video source as it supports SPDIF output to your reciever. And would let you queue things up in any order you'd like. If you are wactching a CSS encrypted DVD, you'd have to decrypt the disc to your hard drive with something like MactheRipper, but this would seem like the more ideal solution. (please note that decrypting DVDs you own for playback on your computer is fully within fair use rights)

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picking audio output
Authored by: EricMc on Oct 25, '04 04:27:12PM

I use Rogue Ameoba's Detour to set the output for DVD Player. It will let you pick outputs for each app.



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picking audio output
Authored by: johram on Oct 26, '04 01:50:41AM

... and I use both Detour and VLC! ;)

have you tried this? http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/

it will save you some time. reassign VLC (over quicktime) to be the default application for .avi extensions (or .mov etc...) and you don't have to right click/ control click as much anymore.


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Show current movie trailers prior to DVD movies
Authored by: st87 on Dec 07, '04 04:21:11AM

If you've got your home theatre system connected to your revolution 7.1 (via the s/pdif or coax), can't you just go to the DVD player's disc setup and specify your digital output?

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