Video manual operation

devenh · Post by **devenh** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 5:58 am

Harry,

Reading the Video Chapter pdf about manual operation. It describes starting manual operation with a small red button in the upper left. Has this now changed to the large Record Now button (next to the Record Auto)?

Pressing Record Now does indeed start video recording, but it also starts the lap timing. What I am trying to do is start the video before I reach the standing go, stage, then start (lap timing begins here). Can HLT do this?

Thanks,

Deven

Post by **Harry** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 7:06 am

You are right, when having Manual Timing enabled, the small button is replaced by the big Record Now one. It always triggered both video and data recording - it is actually a manual recording operation. The tweak it has is, if you are in a "manual" lap and hit a go trigger, this manual lap is finished and an automatic lap is started. Furthermore, video is not finished automatically at a stop trigger, but needs to be stopped manually again.

This type of operation cannot be combined with a standing go currently.

Harry

gplracerx · Post by **gplracerx** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 9:59 pm

I have an autocross tomorrow so I was testing things. I set to manual timing and Stop Go. I started video recording manually and then drove around the block where I'd set up separate start and finish lines. After I crossed the finish line, the time was reported. But the green stop button had disappeared. To stop video recording, I had to cancel video mode, go back into video mode where the start recording button had appeared again and touch the start button. At that point, the green stop button reappeared and I could stop video recording.

By the way, apparently the firmware in the Hero3 can be corrupted or something. I couldn't turn Wi-Fi off. I could press the button, the blue led would flash multiple times and it would seem to turn off. Three seconds later, however, it started flashing blue again. Things went down hill from there. Reloading the firmware seemed to fix the problem. I do have a SanDisk SD card that's supposed to be high speed.

Post by **Harry** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 10:09 pm

That's probably how it is designed... When initially started manually, I should probably keep the stop button - even if the last "lap" has been automatic...

- Harry

GoFast Don · Post by **GoFast Don** » Tue Apr 07, 2015 7:13 pm

Hi Harry,

I am new to Laptimer. I observed this video recording problem on my iPhone, so I purchased the Android version, hoping to find the manual video recording would operate without starting the lap timer. Of course it worked the same. I searched awhile to find this topic.

I am amazed at the the driving data Laptimer captures, but I hope this video recording operation can be fixed soon. I think most user would prefer to video leaving the pits and staging along with the timed lap, just as you did in your demo video. You even have a great built-in feature, Intro/Extro, to trim the video as needed in conjunction with manual video start.

Many autocrosses I attend stage the cars within 10 feet of the start of the course (and timing equipment). I understand that Laptimer can't resolve the 10 feet, and also that the normal start trigger won't function at this close proximity. I don't think this needs to be solved with the Standing Go, but instead with the Manual Video Start. Manual Video Start should be just that, manual "Video" start and have nothing to do with "Timing" start, or at least be the default operation. I am guessing you were going for the hands free mode with the current configuration.

The video stop mode after a manual video start is already functioning as I would expect (separate), assuming the retention of the Stop button.

Ok, my current solution is to manually read the time I Start off the video and subtract this time from the Stop time that I also manually read. I can then compare this to the non-videoed lap times.

Is there any other current solution that I am missing?

Thanks for all your work on this App.
Don

Post by **Harry** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 7:21 am

It would not be too difficult to have a "start video only" mode, but it would add another complexity for users. The current mode is designed for "ad hoc" recordings allowing later overlays (i.e. including data). So it is about a different group of users, not those running AXes. I have this requirement on my list for a future video configuration redesign. This redesign will be required anyway to allow recording with external cams only.

- Harry

sbeaudry · Post by **sbeaudry** » Sat Aug 01, 2015 8:49 pm

I echo that it would be great to start manually the video without the lap timer starting and have it start only when we pass the start POI.

Currently with version 19 I have to start manually, run my autoX run, at the end press the iphone round button to stop the recording, I didn't find any other way to stop video. Go back into Laptimer and do the full set of click to start another run.

At the end I have 2 laps recorded for each run. the few second one between the start video and start line and the real run. If I delete the "short" lap the video is deleted even if I asked to not delete it.

We want this feature to record some extra video before and after the run. if we just go by the automatic mode we loose the start line and it stop just next to the finish

Post by **Harry** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 4:29 pm

sbeaudry wrote:At the end I have 2 laps recorded for each run. the few second one between the start video and start line and the real run. If I delete the "short" lap the video is deleted even if I asked to not delete it.

For every lap one of the following cases is true:

1) It has no video associated
2) It has one or more (MultiCam) videos linked
3) It has one overlaid video and one or more (MultiCam) videos linked

#1 or #2 is the situation a lap has been recorded without or with overlay and not yet been overlaid. #2 means the original video linked is "referenced".
#3 is the situation a lap has been recorded with a video and an overlay took place already. This means the overlaid video linked is "referenced" and the link to the original video is kept to allow a "Revert" for another overlay.

Whenever a video is not "referenced" by *any* lap, you will be prompted whether the video should be deleted. This is done to help you housekeeping storage. The exact wording is "Formerly linked video not referenced by a lap any more. Do you want to delete and free up space?". Situations a reference is removed (and triggering the deletion question) are deleting a lap and overlaying(!) a lap. The later generates the #3 case for the original video - the reference is moved from the original to the overlaid video. It makes sense when you look into the standard case: one lap with one video, lap is overlaid generating a new video including overlaid data ‣ the original video can actually be removed - it is not needed any more.

Back to your case: using the mixed recording mode (manual start, manual stop, automated lap superseding the manual start), the following should happen: by starting the video manually, both a video recording and a lap recording is started. Once the automatic triggering takes place, the "manual lap" is finished and an automatic lap is started. Video recording continues. Once you hit the finish, the automatic lap is stopped. Now, you will select "Stop / Cancel" to stop the video too. The result is you have 2 laps referencing the video.

At this point, the following can happen:
1) You delete the manual lap. You should *not* get prompted to delete the video because the automatic lap still has a reference to the video.
2) or you overlay the automatic lap (which removes the reference to the original video) and delete the manual lap. This will bring up the named deletion question.

Needless to say, when answering the deletion question with "No", the video should not be deleted even if it is not referenced any more. In case it really is, please try to reproduce the situation (with the latest LapTimer version) and let me know how you did it. This would be a critical bug. I have tested it a minute ago and the system behaved like expected. But the problem may be you handle the system in a way I didn't, so thanks for another try from your side.

Sorry for the long answer, but I thought it makes sense to give some background. The system should actually behave "smart" - without the need for the user to fully walk through the reference logic.

- Harry