Messages

1

Tech / Software suggestions for simple 'movies'

« on: August 13, 2014, 04:29:25 AM »

Many thanks, Krissel - exactly what I wanted to hear.

I'm now in full-on, fast-track 'get to know iMovie inside out' mode!

Thanks again, Paul.

2

Tech / Software suggestions for simple 'movies'

« on: August 06, 2014, 10:44:26 AM »

Hi all

I don't post very often, but when I do, it's because I need some help!

I want to produce a fairly simple 'movie', that can be used on a website but also on a laptop as a presentation.

I don't want to use actual movie footage, but still images (photographs) that I can move, pan and zoom in to and out of. I want to be able to add text and various other graphics. I would also want the facility to be able to add music and to have precise control over the way the movie interacts with the music (which I guess means a timeline of some sort).

A couple of years ago, I would have used Flash for something like this, but in my mind Flash is pretty much dead - especially given that I want to use it online.

I'm not familiar with iMovie, but would anyone know if it could accomplish all of the above?

If anyone else has any suggestions, particularly if you've completed similar projects yourself, I'd be very grateful for any help.

Many thanks

Paul

3

Tech / All media refusing to eject from iMac

« on: July 27, 2013, 09:36:22 AM »

Sorry I didn't get back on the users' manual. Here it is;

'SD and MMC memory cards using FAT 12, FAT 16, FAT 32 or VFAT file system up to max. 2GB, SDHC memory cards up to max. 32GB and SDXC memory cards up to max. 2TB.

I have a 32GB SDHC card and yes, the car is the Mk 7 VW Golf.

I had looked at Blue Harvest and noticed that they do a free trial, so that may be the way to go. If it works, then I'll happily pay for it.

I feel like I'm devoting too much of my life to this right now, but really appreciate your contributions - it feels much easier when there are others willing to offer advice and help.

Thanks again - I'll be back!

Paul

[This script]

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Tech / All media refusing to eject from iMac

« on: July 26, 2013, 07:18:00 AM »

QUOTE(rgray @ Jul 24 2013, 12:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Take a look at a resource called Doug's Scripts for iTunes.  There are a number of options for file management that may be suitable as is or modifyable for you purposes.  It may be worth communicating with Doug as he seems to know a hell of a lot about iTunes.


This script might suit your needs!

I downloaded 'Export to Album Folders' last night and having set up a playlist in iTunes, ran the entire playlist through it. It actually does what it does very well, but when I put the card back into the car, there are some albums missing the cover art, some not displaying the track title properly and many that have hidden duplicate (resource forks) files. Some of this I can probably get around manually - I'll just have to work through my iTunes library and check all of the tags, but I'm looking at trying something called 'DriveCleaner' (not the Symantec product of the same name!) to see if I can eliminate the duplicates.

I might also try 'ConvExp to Album Folders' from the DougScripts link you provided, just to see if it handles things any differently.

I'll report back.

5

Tech / All media refusing to eject from iMac

« on: July 25, 2013, 03:56:11 AM »

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Jul 24 2013, 08:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How is that SDHC card formatted? And how did you do it?

Actually, I didn't format it at all - it went straight from its Amazon packaging into my computer and showed up on the desktop immediately.

[This script]

6

Tech / All media refusing to eject from iMac

« on: July 24, 2013, 07:37:15 AM »

QUOTE(rgray @ Jul 24 2013, 12:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Take a look at a resource called Doug's Scripts for iTunes.  There are a number of options for file management that may be suitable asis or modifyable for you purposes.  It may be worth communicating with Doug as he seems to know a hell of a lot about iTunes.


This script might suit your needs!

Thanks very much for that - looks interesting and 'ConvExp to Album Folders' could be just what I'm looking for. I'll have a play around and let you know how I get on.

Sometimes I just wish everything worked as it should with no issues or problems, but then I guess we'd all lead very boring lives with nothing much to talk about?

Thanks again.

7

Tech / All media refusing to eject from iMac

« on: July 24, 2013, 04:35:03 AM »

Hi all

As promised, an update. I had hoped it would have a happy ending, but I'm not quite there yet!

First the good news. Reinstalled the system software following Paddy's link above, and all worked perfectly. Went through some huge updates and now all media is ejecting as it should.

Now to try and get the music onto the SDHC card. I can create playlists in iTunes, the problem is I can't get those onto a card. Playlists won't 'drag' and if I go to 'Burn' the system wants a blank disc inserted. Unless I'm missing something, there doesn't appear to be any way to get a playlist onto a card.

In album view in iTunes, I can drag any album to the card and it will then copy over. The only issue there is that all of the tracks copy but they are not contained within a folder. So I then have to manually create two folders - one with the artists's name and one with the album name in order to maintain a structure. Unfortunately, this didn't work particularly well. There are duplicate files (e.g. where I've got 'audio_track_1.mp3', I also get '._audio_track_1.mp3') which is hidden, yet doesn't show using the terminal command shown above. These are obviously resource forks, but I fear I may be stuck with them.

Dragging the music folders directly from my hard drive (i.e. outside of iTunes) gives a mixed bag. Some work perfectly - artist name, album, track name and album cover artwork, while others have duplicate files as described above and/or no album cover artwork.

The Terminal command I listed above works well for deleting hidden files - the only one that I can't get rid of is .Trashes, which I guess I'm stuck with.

It's been suggested that TinkerTool may help so I'm going to have a look at that when I get time.

I'm not giving up on this as I don't like being beaten, but I suspect there are going to have to be some compromises.

Thanks again for all of your help and suggestions. I'll report back when I have something solid!

Paul

8

Tech / All media refusing to eject from iMac

« on: July 10, 2013, 08:37:36 AM »

Thanks, Jim - all useful stuff.

I haven't tried the Terminal command with the card inserted yet, but will do so tonight. And yes, I'm getting all of the hidden files that you mention when I use the card in the car.

I guess if I make a single playlist in iTunes (which is what I think Paddy is suggesting), I will then have an extra folder layer on the card. If I call the playlist 'Music' then that will be the first folder, followed by artists' folders, then albums and then album tracks. At the moment, the screen in the car goes straight to artists. Not really a problem either way. I'm much more interested in keeping all of the tags intact (including the album cover artwork, which displays on the car's screen), then in how it all breaks down. I also have to remove some duplicate hidden tracks, but I'm hoping that the Terminal command will do this as well as removing ._Trashes, .fseventsd, etc. etc.

Thanks again - I'll let you know how I get on, though I'm out of the country for the next 10 days so won't be back for a while.

Paul

9

Tech / All media refusing to eject from iMac

« on: July 10, 2013, 06:11:24 AM »

Once I reinstall the OS, I've found a simple, safe (relatively) method of viewing all hidden files.

In Terminal, type:

defaults write.com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder

I should then be able to drag any unwanted files to the trash. I haven't tried this on the SDHC card yet, but it seems to work on the system.

Once finished, I enter;

defaults write.com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE; killall Finder

To get back to having hidden files hidden again.

10

Tech / All media refusing to eject from iMac

« on: July 10, 2013, 05:28:29 AM »

Many thanks for all of your replies.

Paddy - I spent some time initially sorting out my iTunes library - many of the CDs I'd ripped were in Mp4 format, so I converted everything to Mp3. Most of the music is fine, but some folders seem to contain duplicates of songs that are clearly hidden files. They don't show on the Mac but once the SDHC card is plugged into the car, they show up on the screen. They have the same name as the correct song file, but are proceeded with a ._. There is also a .Trashes file on the card that I'd like to get rid of.

I dragged the music folders onto the card (outside of iTunes) to load, but if you think I'm better off creating a playlist and then dragging that to the card, I'll try that. I can easily wipe the card and reload all of the music (although I'll get the problem with the card not ejecting and warnings about data loss when I pull it out). I'll try that.

Yes, I have the original discs so can reinstall the OS and I've got the message on the back-ups. It's my home computer, so it's not full of work or anything (my work machines are backed up daily), but there are photographs and music that I'd hate to lose.

Thanks again for all of your help. If I've learnt one thing from this, it's 'Don't mess around with Terminal unless you're absolutely sure what you're doing'! It's now one of my mantras for life.

11

Tech / All media refusing to eject from iMac

« on: July 09, 2013, 03:30:42 PM »

Hi Paddy

Many thanks for your reply. I followed your links and tried the Terminal commands given, but to no avail. There are programs shown as being 'open', but far too many to go through and nothing very obvious. I also downloaded the 'What's Keeping Me?' app from your link, but that's showing the same - hundreds of open files, but no major software applications.

This is where I first found the information on removing the .files from the SDHC card;

http://www.haydnwilliams.com/blog/vw-golf-...s-and-album-art

I'm not aware that I've removed any files from the Mac, but I've clearly done something. I'm starting to think that a system reinstall may be the only way forward. No cloned back up or Time Machine here, I'm afraid.

Thanks again,

Paul

12

Tech / All media refusing to eject from iMac

« on: July 09, 2013, 07:40:42 AM »

Hi all

I posted this yesterday, but it doesn't seem to have appeared - as I'm a very infrequent visitor, I thought the post might be being checked by a moderator, but now I'm wondering if it just went into a black hole.

Anyway, as an infrequent visitor, I hope you don't mind me posting an issue I'm currently having.

I've been loading my iTunes music library onto an SDHC card to put into my car's system so that my music is always available when I'm on the road.

The music loaded fine, but there were some hidden files on the card that showed up on the car's audio screen ('.DS_Store' - things like that). I found an online tutorial to get rid of these and so played around in Terminal.

The next time I put a CD into the drive, it refused to eject. I tried all the usual things - tried to eject from iTunes, Disk Utility, restarted with the option key down and then tried the keyboard eject button, restarted with the mouse button down and even tried Terminal ('drutil tray eject'). No luck. Two hours later, it ejected by holding down the mouse button on start up. Thinking there was a problem with the CD, I put another one in - exactly the same problem. It seems to think that the CD is in use by an application even though there's nothing else open.

When I put the SDHC card back in, I get the same problem with that. The system thinks the card is being used by another application. When I put a memory stick into the USB port last night - exactly the same, I can't eject it. I'm offered a 'Force eject' for both the card and the stick, but when I try that, the device still doesn't unmount. I get loss of data warnings whenever I pull the card or stick out of the machine.

I'm at a bit of a loss to know what to do next. I've run Disk Utility and repaired permissions (more than once).

I'd be really grateful for any suggestions. Is there a Terminal command that resets things back to the default?

No lectures on not messing with Terminal unless you really know what you're doing though - I don't think I could stand that.  

13

Tech / Any Acrobat users/experts?

« on: April 27, 2012, 11:28:46 AM »

Paddy - sorry, I should have mentioned that the pages were landscape and not portrait. I wasn't trying to copy and paste as such - I was bringing the new pages into Acrobat via the 'Replace pages' command, which replaces the page but keeps all the form fields intact. Intact, but rotated 270º!

Xad - Believe it or not, it doesn't appear to be possible to rotate the form fields and trust me, I've tried everything.

The problem is now sorted, in that I remade all the form fields on any pages that needed changing. It was definitely the long route (incredibly frustrating to have to recreate work that you've already done once), but I had already spent too much time trying to fix the problem and thought it was time to bite the bullet.

The disappointing thing is that having posted on the Adobe forum, I didn't get a single response - and Adobe staff man that site. I'm viewing this as a bug in Acrobat and maybe that's why they opted to ignore it.

And Paddy - you don't know how accurate your 'Pain in the neck' comment is. And not just the neck.

Thanks for the responses.

14

Tech / Any Acrobat users/experts?

« on: April 25, 2012, 11:44:56 AM »

Hi all - I have an Acrobat document that I created a year or so back and which I now have to make amendments to.

The basic artwork is created in Quark 9 and then saved as pdfs.

Form fields are overlaid in Acrobat (10.1.3), including some hidden fields, so that when users roll over certain panels, they get further information.

OK, so I now need to update some of the pages. I've made the amendments in the Quark file and saved the pages as pdfs.

When I go to the Acrobat file to change a page (Tools > Pages > Replace), the new page comes in but then all of the form fields on that page rotate by 270º. I can select the fields, but can't find any way of rotating them back to their original position. The new page is in the correct orientation, but the fields have rotated.

I'm at my wit's end with this and cannot find a way around it. Searches on the web show other people with the same, or very similar, problems, but I can't find a solution anywhere.

Anyone have any ideas?

15

Tech / CompactFlash card corrupted

« on: March 17, 2012, 05:11:15 AM »

This thread is officially closed! The dead card has gone back to Amazon and I was not able to retrieve my photographs.

At least I can't say I didn't try. Had a professional photographer look at it, tried at least five different computers and three different card readers, had another photographer look at it, went into Jessops and discussed it with them, cleaned the card, tried Disk Utility etc. etc. There was no way on earth this card was ever going to mount, so no software was ever going to be able to retrieve the images. Sometimes 'bad luck' is the winner and I will just have to put it down to experience. Tallinn is only just over two hours on a flight from London, so it would be easy enough to visit again one day I guess.

Now I have a new card from Amazon, which I am going to test and test again before I leave for New York in under two weeks time. I will be taking four memory cards with me and swapping them over at regular intervals!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions - I hope no one has to post the same thing again.