Mac OS X: Automator and Error code -1728

So some of you may know of Automator, Apple’s little automation program introduced in Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger”. Well it’s a great application and I use it all the time. The current version in Mac OS X “10.6” is better than ever. I’m currently scanning in old family photos. So I end up with dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of huge .TIFF image files. Thanks to Automator I can resize the images, compress them to JPEGs, and save them for the Web, all without harming the original high-resolution scanned in files.

But I came across an odd error. Error code #-1728. This was odd. I put my images in the workflow. I instructed automator to resize the images by 50% and to save them as JPG images. Automator seemed to work, but then stopped. I was puzzled. I keep getting error #1728. The only hint was the obscure dialog for this error “Change type of images failed – 1 error” and “Can’t get <class posx> of missing value”. I was so confused… I didn’t understand why some images would work and others wouldn’t.

Then it dawned on me. It was because of the file name! Some of the images I scanned in I added slashes (/) in the filename. Mac OS X will let you type it in the file – but I guess it’s not a smart thing to do when trying to edit or open files, especially in Automator. So all I did was rename my files. For example “Scanned Photo 35 (4/29/1994)” wouldn’t pass through Automator… but when it was renamed to “Scanned Photo 35 (4-29-1994)” the image passed through fine. After the fix everything went smoothly! 🙂

So remember if you have an odd issue in Automator make sure any forward slashes or other odd characters in the file names are removed. Good luck!

-Steve

Apple’s MacBook Pro DVI to Video adapter is Mac Only

So my younger brother has a Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, one of the earlier models. Anyway for a while he wanted Apple’s DVI to Composite/S-Video adapter. This year he put it on his Christmas list but, he still ended up without it. But a few weeks ago I was at MicroCenter and saw one as an open-box return. So I picked it up for him at about $5 off and he was very happy about it. It worked great with his Mac, allowing him to hook up his Mac to be displayed on the old TV in his dorm.

Now this made me wonder, can I use this on my PC? I have an Intel Quad Core PC with dual ATI 4670 graphics cards. The only thing I dislike about them is that the only port on them is DVI. There is no option for S-Video or Composite output, although I can hook the PC up to my TV via an HDMI to DVI cable I have. But I would like the option for S-Video out. Why? Besides the fact that I have a little obsession with S-Video, the main reason is that my DVD Recorder has S-Video input, therefore if I want to record what is on the screen on my PC I can do so. I do this with my Mac – it’s great for recording live streaming video events, or difficult to capture videos that are online in a pinch.

So I plugged in the adapter to the PC and ran a composite video cable to the TV set… what I got wasn’t pretty. Just a few black and gray bars. It seems that this adapter may as well be Mac-only. This was disappointing. I tried many different resolutions and video modes, but the adapter failed to display anything but some black and gray bars. So I suppose this adapter is only made for MacBook Pro machines. It may have to do with the type of DVI connector, if Apple’s MacBook Pro has a certain pins dedicated to TV-compatible video out – that would explain the issue. But, for now I’m stuck with using an old VGA to Composite/S-Video adapter I picked up at last year’s Trenton Computer Festival last year. The only bad thing is it needs a big power brick and it can be kind of bulky. No where as nice as a simple adapter. Oh well. Who knows, maybe the adapter just didn’t like my PC’s graphics card. Maybe it’s compatible with other graphics cards or adapters? I might try to see if I get any signal from my iMac. If I try a Mini-DVI to DVI adapter and then attache the Composite/S-Video adapter to that… although I doubt that’ll work. (Update: No, that does not work, it formats the screen for a TV but the output doesn’t seem to send a proper signal) Plus it’s useless considering I have a Mini-DVI to Composite/S-Video adapter. Oh well! It was worth a try. 😛

Tech Blog now on WordPress too!

I’ve been quite fond of WordPress for a while and since I’ve been using it for work a lot I figured I’d start using it more for myself. Usually I post once and a while to my blog on my .Mac / MobileMe blog. That requires me being at my MacBook and using iWeb, which is great – however I’m not always by my Mac when I want to make a post or update something.

So what will probably happen is that I’ll copy the relevant content of that blog over here and probably have the content mirrored across both. 🙂

Update: I have added three posts from the previous blog, these are labeled as “Archive”.

-Steven