Harry's GPS Suite Forum

First of all, since this is my first post on this forum, I have to say that even before I have used this software at the track (bought it the day *after* my first trip to Lime Rock Park), I am really impressed with what it can do. I was looking into the various professional data acquisition systems, and was about to shell out $3000+ for Traqmate. However, as a relative novice, Harrys LapTimer, with a couple of relatively inexpensive add ons (GPS and ODB II devices) gives me pretty much everything I need/want.

OK, kudos out of the way, here's my question....

While I'm on the track, I want to have my iPhone mounted to the windshield so I can check my lap and sector times while I'm on the track. However, I have 2 GoPros, one mounted on my harness bar, so I can see where I'm going AND how I'm handling the car, and the other mounted to record my footwork. I'm not really interested in the camera angle that the iPhone will provide when mounted on the windshield.

What I would really like to be able to do is two things: first, I would like to be able to import the video from the primary GoPro (the one on the harness bar) and then overlay the LapTimer data on top of that. Is that possible?

If I can do this, to produce a video with HLT data overlaid, then I can import that and the secondary camera video into something like iMovie to create the picture in picture that will show how my footwork as well. Note that once I get this working, I'll be more than happy to share how I did it with others.

Even if HLT doesn't support this directly, I wonder if you can fool it by playing games with how the video's are stored, under the covers? Any advice or pointers on this would be very appreciated.

lunat1ck wrote:What I would really like to be able to do is two things: first, I would like to be able to import the video from the primary GoPro (the one on the harness bar) and then overlay the LapTimer data on top of that. Is that possible?

Yes, that's possible. I have outlined the process here: http://www.gps-laptimer.de/Video.html
Search for "USING EXTERNAL VIDEO SOURCES" to get the steps. The description is not down to every button click but should give you an idea. In case you need more assistance, I'm happy to help. And I certainly appreciate the video created and your feedback on how you did it and how it works.

- Harry

How did I miss that!? I *thought* I had done my homework.... :-/

My next track day is May 31st at Lime Rock Park, where I'm going to be giving the entire setup a test run, so I'll followup with the results in early June.

Thanks, Harry. For the answer, and again, for your awesome software.

I hope you can help me to understand the process better.

From reading the instructions on the provided link, it sounds like I have to import the video from the GoPro onto my iPhone first... then sync the video with the data by using the end of lap as the sync point.
Is that correct?

The GoPro files are more than 3gb... how do you get the video onto the phone?
How long does the overlay process take?

Is there a way to do this job on a computer, PC or Mac?

One of the biggest reasons I prefer the GoPro is that it will continuously record the full session of multiple laps. Will this process allow continuous data overlay for the full session? Or is there a way to get HLT to record every lap?

Thank You!!

I was just about to post an identical post. My GoPros holds 32 GB each. I have only 5GB free on my iPhone. 3GB is about 25-30 minuet session on track.

I have a Windows 7 computer. I use Corel Video Studio ProX 5. I am hoping I can do the video editing and overlay on my computer and not on my iPhone.

I have read the threads on this and I am still unclear if this is something that can be done.

Help!

icohen424 wrote:From reading the instructions on the provided link, it sounds like I have to import the video from the GoPro onto my iPhone first... then sync the video with the data by using the end of lap as the sync point.
Is that correct?

The GoPro files are more than 3gb... how do you get the video onto the phone?
How long does the overlay process take?

Is there a way to do this job on a computer, PC or Mac?

One of the biggest reasons I prefer the GoPro is that it will continuously record the full session of multiple laps. Will this process allow continuous data overlay for the full session? Or is there a way to get HLT to record every lap?

Yes, that's how the process works... To copy the video to your iPhone, store the video on your desktop computer and configure iTunes to synchronize it to your iPhone. These sync settings can be found in iTunes -> select your device -> Photo tab -> configure to include videos. Overlaying takes approximately double the time of the video - but this depends on resolution of the video and the iPhone generation used (see viewtopic.php?f=6&t=459&p=2091).

LapTimer overlaying is available on iOS only. There are third party overlaying products on the Windows platform available. Finally, although LapTimer records continuous video and laps, it overlays single laps only.

Hope that helps.

- Harry

gtncpa wrote:My GoPros holds 32 GB each. I have only 5GB free on my iPhone. 3GB is about 25-30 minuet session on track.

I have a Windows 7 computer. I use Corel Video Studio ProX 5. I am hoping I can do the video editing and overlay on my computer and not on my iPhone.

I'd suggest to cut the video to lap length on your desktop and transfer the (small) clip to the iPhone afterwards.

- Harry

Darn, I was hoping to use it for all my laps and due to size limits on my iPhone I may only get one session at the most. I am more confuses then ever.

I have a similar question. I want to export the data from LapTimer, export the video from GoPro, and use an external program to sync the two. I would like to do this for an entire session at once if possible. I have DashWare and TrackVision and cannot seem to get multiple laps in DashWare, and am having no luck in TrackVision. Any ideas?

Reason for this is limited space on the iPhone, the time is takes to overlay each individual lap on the iPhone and the tediouness of having to stitch together multiple laps for a session in a movie editor. Hope that makes sense.

I'm open to using software other then what is mentioned above, please let me know.

TraderGuy wrote:I'm open to using software other then what is mentioned above, please let me know.

I haven't tried overlaying whole sessions myself, but just wanted to mention RaceRender as a possible alternative:

http://www.racerender.com/RR2/Features.html