v15 Video

[mini_racer]

Ok, there has been some video changes.

I recorded some video in 'Racer's' I think, and picking any one lap, the video duration shows the entire duration of ~16min, and shows the entire session. This is before any Overlay.
- is this expected?
- I did not see this video in the library on my iphone 4S. I could only see it in HLT. As I wanted to also see the entire session in the library I tried to 'Move to Library'. Now I can't find it anywhere.
- Is this expected?
- Where is the video?
- How can I now overlay?
Are there any further tutorials on video use in v15?

Help please

[Harry]

Yes, I spend extra time to describe the new video features in detail
Please check this link: http://www.gps-laptimer.de/Video.html

I believe most of the points above should be addressed. If not, please send a reply.

- Harry

P.S. Moved to 'Using LapTimer'

[mini_racer]

Ok, I am sorry, I finally had a chance to review and I cannot find answers to my queries above. Can you help more directly please?

[Harry]

HI again,

On your questions:

I recorded some video in 'Racer's' I think, and picking any one lap, the video duration shows the entire duration of ~16min, and shows the entire session. This is before any Overlay.
- is this expected?

Yes, LapTimer records one large continuous video. For each lap, a link to that video and a sync point is stored. Once you create an overlay, the respective portion of the large video is extracted, overlaid, and moved to the Photo library

- I did not see this video in the library on my iphone 4S. I could only see it in HLT. As I wanted to also see the entire session in the library I tried to 'Move to Library'. Now I can't find it anywhere.

Did you get an error message here? Move to Library copies the raw video to the Photo library and deletes the one in LapTimer afterwards. LT deletes the video only after having received confirmation from the Photo library the vid has been successfully transferred. Please check your Photo library again (Camera Roll). In case it is not available here, it has probably been synchronized to your desktop? Depending on the system, iTunes moves the video to the desktop during synchronization.

- Harry

[Harry]

- I did not see this video in the library on my iphone 4S. I could only see it in HLT. As I wanted to also see the entire session in the library I tried to 'Move to Library'. Now I can't find it anywhere.
- Is this expected?
- Where is the video?

Update on my last answer. I checked the code and found the following: when a (raw) video is moved from LapTimer's own area to the photo library, this is a copy + delete process as written above. In case the copy is successful, the original video is deleted from LapTimer's own area. So far so good.

In addition to the copy + delete, the links between the laps and the video are moved. So if any lap links to the raw video in LapTimer own area, this link is redirected to the photo library once it is copied. That's fine too.

In case the copy is not successful, the link redirection is done nevertheless - which is wrong... So in case your move has not been successful (there should have been a message on this!), the lap will show up with a 'No Video' image afterwards. But - the video should still be available in LapTimer's own area. Please try pressing the 'Select' button just below the 'No Video' picture and check if you can find and realign the video.

- Harry

[mini_racer]

- I did not see this video in the library on my iphone 4S. I could only see it in HLT. As I wanted to also see the entire session in the library I tried to 'Move to Library'. Now I can't find it anywhere.
- Is this expected?
- Where is the video?

Update on my last answer. I checked the code and found the following: when a (raw) video is moved from LapTimer's own area to the photo library, this is a copy + delete process as written above. In case the copy is successful, the original video is deleted from LapTimer's own area. So far so good.

In addition to the copy + delete, the links between the laps and the video are moved. So if any lap links to the raw video in LapTimer own area, this link is redirected to the photo library once it is copied. That's fine too.

In case the copy is not successful, the link redirection is done nevertheless - which is wrong... So in case your move has not been successful (there should have been a message on this!), the lap will show up with a 'No Video' image afterwards. But - the video should still be available in LapTimer's own area. Please try pressing the 'Select' button just below the 'No Video' picture and check if you can find and realign the video.

- Harry

OK it was obviously an unsuccessful copy + delete as the video never appeared in the iPhone Library, and there was no message of the error.

My laps did show as 'No Video' with 'Video' depicted as an icon of a video camera. I went to a lap with 'no Video' and pressed select. Sure enough it takes you to a 'Videos' screen and I found some lost 'LapTimer Recordings', a few of them in fact. One from just the day before. Anyway, I selected the proper video, and this is the entire 16min video, and now I am at a Video Sync Setting screen where I am instructed to 'Select the frame matching the end of the timed lap, and press 'Set'
So what do I do now??? I do not have a clue what frame perfectly matches the end of the random lap I picked to try and find the video. Should I just select the last frame in the video?

Do I do this for all of the laps? or does doing this once restore for all?

Also, in a previous session, I recorded video and every lap had the same continuous video associated with it. I picked one lap and tapped 'Overlay' , ok after a lengthy 'skipping frames' period, the video was finally complete looked nice, and copied the video to the iPhone library. However, all other laps in that session, and associated with that video now show 'No Video' for the video, is that normal? Do I have to use the 'Select' button to re-attach the whole video to the individual laps? If so, we are back to the question above, how do I perfectly/manually Sync for each lap?

[Harry]

So at least the videos are still available... I checked the code again and indeed, when the move fails, no message is shown. The reason for the failure of the move is almost always missing space. I have added message & link fixes for a future release, just thought it makes sense to point this out.

As documented here, a continuous video recording generates one large video and a link including both the raw video and a sync point within this video. The sync point is the time the respective lap ended. So for multi lap recordings, both the video needs to be selected and a sync point defined.

During overlay, the section the time from sync point-lap time to sync point are extracted from the large video, overlaid, and the result is moved to the Photo library. All other links remain unchanged. So I assume the lost links are either from another move action, or due to a loss of links during update to 15.0.2. The later problem will be fixed in 15.0.3 automatically.

What it cannot fix automatically, is the relinking of the laps that point to the Photo library but should still go to the not copied raw video. What I can offer is having a look into some of the key files in LapTimer to maybe give you some data that makes relinking easier. I'll send you a note in parallel.

- Harry

[mini_racer]

So at least the videos are still available... I checked the code again and indeed, when the move fails, no message is shown. The reason for the failure of the move is almost always missing space. I have added message & link fixes for a future release, just thought it makes sense to point this out.
Yes the raw videos are still available. The first raw video I found in the videos section of HLT was from 4/28, it was the large continuous video file. After I overlaid one lap, that one lap had the video copied to the photo library and associated with the lap in HLT, the rest of the laps now show 'no video' and the large raw file was found here in the 'videos' screen. The 2nd large file here could have been due to space issues. thanks for having the Expert Settings, I just went down to 720p and that is plenty good enough.

As documented here, a continuous video recording generates one large video and a link including both the raw video and a sync point within this video. The sync point is the time the respective lap ended. So for multi lap recordings, both the video needs to be selected and a sync point defined.
So the sync point would be the Start/Finish line right? Ok, I am trying to determine a means to select/identify the Start/Finish line for the lap i am working with. I guess maybe try to go to the first lap with a recording and then slowly go through the large file until I get the the Start Finish POI?? However, I am not sure how to determine the Start/Finish POI by just looking at frames in the video?? Of course I know when I am close, but I the exact frame will be difficult/impossible to identify.

During overlay, the section the time from sync point-lap time to sync point are extracted from the large video, overlaid, and the result is moved to the Photo library. All other links remain unchanged. So I assume the lost links are either from another move action, or due to a loss of links during update to 15.0.2. The later problem will be fixed in 15.0.3 automatically.
As described above there was one move actionfor each of the large continuous videos found in 'Videos'. One due to a single lap overlay, the 2nd due to a 'move' or rather an attempt to 'move' the large continuous video to the Photo library (this fail possibly due to space).
This was all after the update to 15.0.3

What it cannot fix automatically, is the relinking of the laps that point to the Photo library but should still go to the not copied raw video. What I can offer is having a look into some of the key files in LapTimer to maybe give you some data that makes relinking easier. I'll send you a note in parallel.
I am sure I am not 100% understanding the 'relinking' details, but I really appreciate your offer. I will look for an email from you.

BTW, I love HLT and not trying to be negative in any way. I appreciate your efforts and your awesome app.


- Harry

In the end I would like to be able to view the entire session with all laps together in one continuous video with full overlay. So the beginning and the end of the video would not have overlay, leaving and entering pits, etc. I would also like to select an individual lap and view it alone, of course with overlay.

Thanks, Terry

[hms]

Terry,
What I am looking at doing is overlaying the individual laps, the first lap having an intro and the last lap having the outro, other laps being start/finish to start/finish.
I then want to export these overlayed laps to a 3rd party programme to make a continous video from the individual laps. That way I have the individual laps for comparison and the full session as one.
trouble I'm having at the moment is getting the video off the iphone and onto windows.
iirc Harry has said that overlaying a video requires twice as much memory as the video, so you could/would run into memory issues whilst doing the overlay.
h

[Harry]

So the sync point would be the Start/Finish line right? Ok, I am trying to determine a means to select/identify the Start/Finish line for the lap i am working with. I guess maybe try to go to the first lap with a recording and then slowly go through the large file until I get the the Start Finish POI?? However, I am not sure how to determine the Start/Finish POI by just looking at frames in the video?? Of course I know when I am close, but I the exact frame will be difficult/impossible to identify.

No need to find the exact frame. When overlaying, you will see pretty soon if the sync point is good enough. As videos have 30 frames per second, and need to have the sync point maybe +- 0.2 seconds correct to get an acceptable alignment for data shown and the movie, we are in a valid range of +- 6 frames.

- Harry