Even though I created the feature mainly for you and couple other users posting to this tread, it seems a pretty cool feature. Too bad the video names can not be defined freely in the format, so some minor work is needed from the user. I cannot use it myself too much as Circuit Tools runs too slowly under VirtualBox, but it gives me few feature ideas anyways
Much appreciated, Antti. Automating the data/video sync should be a major help to anyone using Circuit Tools.
CT is pretty resource-intensive while dealing with video, so I'm not surprised to hear it's slow under VirtualBox. So you only run Windows in VMs, not on actual hardware? If so, it's good that you can at least get some inspiration there.
Ultimately, changing a filename shouldn't be too hard for the user. Were you able to experiment at all with symbolic links? I'd have to look back at the details we discussed, but I thought that might be a solution to the file naming issue.
I moved to Mac 3-4 years ago on my work stuff. I do have a Windows gaming computer (iRacing and Assetto Corsa), but it's not very ergonomic to do RaceChrono stuff sitting in a racing seat... So that's why I'm running VirtualBox.
I didn't experiment on symbolic links, as I didn't want to do a .ZIP compression and all that. Just wanted to continue with the one file solution.
Coding from a racing seat would be a hardcore level of cool - though nobody would know it but you.
On the symbolic links, I hadn't thought of zipping the contents into one export file. Had you meant that as a way to share the entire package at once directly out of the export queue UI? I suppose that would be nice, but instead I was thinking to have individual files in the "com.racechrono.pro/files/exports" folder. I generally copy them directly from there. It's a minor hassle to navigate the folder structure, but works OK for me. And since the user currently has to copy the video files to the computer separately anyway, I think it would help to have the symlink. Just a thought.
I took a look at the v4.7.0 output, sending it to the latest Circuit Tools v2.5.7.743. My sample files with video have extremely bad GPS tracks since I had left my Garmin GLO at home that weekend, but from what I can tell the update looks good for avifileindex and avisynctime. I'll test with other sessions soon by moving video back onto the phone.
Initial notes: - I like how you added items like selected channel to the comments section. - I'd suggest a closer match between the video filename and the session filename. Always using RC_VBO_ means each session must be in its own folder. Instead prepending the filename with some part of the session info would be helpful. - One of my exports lists two videos, but in the RC session only one of those video files is currently linked. I might have linked to the other video some time in the past, but not now. All the [data] section rows reference avifileindex 0002, so I don't think 0001 should be listed in the comments. The same situation would happen when exporting selected laps or times. Only relevant videos should be listed, or am I missing something? In case it makes a difference, these videos were not recorded directly by RC. These were videos of two practice runs. For each, I took three simultaneous GoPro videos (front, driver, and rear views), brought them to the computer to superimpose the views and add a title using the kdenlive video editor, put the resulting MP4 file back onto the phone, and then would generate the RC data overlay and a VBO file.
1) I'll try think of good naming for the videos. Session name will be too long, but maybe use session's timestamp there or something.
2) Currently all of the video files in the session fragment are listed. I'll see if this is easy fix.
3) Symbolic links cannot just be written to exports folder as the main use case is just share the file. If you want to make it easier, I suggest writing a small script that creates the symbolic links on your PC according the comments section.
can someone give a real world non tech review of this process???...does it work getting the internal phone's video in to CT? and if so degree if difficulty??? from 1-10. Before is was an 11 to me?????? with editing the .csv values.
"does it work getting the internal phone's video in to CT?": YES. Difficulty when 11 before, 4 now. You need to know how to copy video files to PC and need to know how to rename them.
Agreed. Now RaceChrono has covered the most difficult part - syncing up all the data lines. It should be much, much easier for a layman to do. Now my document is (happily) out of date.
That said, I'm having a bit of trouble when the video starts after the RC data. If the video covers the entire amount of exported time, the new export works great. But if the data starts before the video (so that data rows are marked with avisynctime of -00000001, meaning "invalid"), Circuit Tools video display is way out of sync. If I remove all the lines where avisynctime is -00000001, things look good.
I did recently update CT, so I'm not sure if that's a factor. I'll need to try with other test VBO files from a real VBOX to understand the issue better. I've collected a few sample files but not their matching video, so I'll have to set things up.
I also noticed that RC exports those "invalid" lines with an avifileindex of 0000 rather than 0001. Bulk replacing to 0001 doesn't fix the problem, but you might want to change it anyway - all the files I've ever seen use a value corresponding to an actual linked video.
There will be following fixes on upcoming v4.9.0: - The target filename will be RCXXXX_YYYY.MP4 where XXXX is a hash of session. Not always unique, but should be reliable. - The target filenames will remaing same for all exports for same session. Only if you link new videos, the names will change. - Only relevant filenames will be added to metadata
For those who do not always use the internal device camera(I use a Contour action camera) I am creating a small tool that will make the the vbo/video integration easier.
I know and already do it , I was just feeling creative
Actually started this little project it in order to synch non-racechrono vbo (and dbn) files that I have, but then found it easier to use it for all vbo files since I always have the vbo and video files in my pc for other tasks(telemetry analysis, video rendering). It also eliminates the manual rename step.
@tentenths What would? There's already video sync markers exported with the .VBO files, following Karter88's instructions. Not sure how it could be improved really?
Hi Karter88, I have used your excellent "VBO File Reverse Engineering for External Video" tutorial and successfully imported my VBO file and Video into Circuit tools. All seems to work correctly except the video clip does not seem to be synced with everything else, by which I mean when I play the video in the position index vertical line and the dot on the circuit diagram don't follow the video.
The video clip was recorded on a separate device, not the Android phone on which Racecrono was running. I coped the video to the Android device where I manually linked it to the session data.
Im guessing the problem is that linking is not being reflected when I export the session to a VBO file?
Comments
CT is pretty resource-intensive while dealing with video, so I'm not surprised to hear it's slow under VirtualBox. So you only run Windows in VMs, not on actual hardware? If so, it's good that you can at least get some inspiration there.
Ultimately, changing a filename shouldn't be too hard for the user. Were you able to experiment at all with symbolic links? I'd have to look back at the details we discussed, but I thought that might be a solution to the file naming issue.
I didn't experiment on symbolic links, as I didn't want to do a .ZIP compression and all that. Just wanted to continue with the one file solution.
On the symbolic links, I hadn't thought of zipping the contents into one export file. Had you meant that as a way to share the entire package at once directly out of the export queue UI? I suppose that would be nice, but instead I was thinking to have individual files in the "com.racechrono.pro/files/exports" folder. I generally copy them directly from there. It's a minor hassle to navigate the folder structure, but works OK for me. And since the user currently has to copy the video files to the computer separately anyway, I think it would help to have the symlink. Just a thought.
I took a look at the v4.7.0 output, sending it to the latest Circuit Tools v2.5.7.743. My sample files with video have extremely bad GPS tracks since I had left my Garmin GLO at home that weekend, but from what I can tell the update looks good for avifileindex and avisynctime. I'll test with other sessions soon by moving video back onto the phone.
Initial notes:
- I like how you added items like selected channel to the comments section.
- I'd suggest a closer match between the video filename and the session filename. Always using RC_VBO_ means each session must be in its own folder. Instead prepending the filename with some part of the session info would be helpful.
- One of my exports lists two videos, but in the RC session only one of those video files is currently linked. I might have linked to the other video some time in the past, but not now. All the [data] section rows reference avifileindex 0002, so I don't think 0001 should be listed in the comments. The same situation would happen when exporting selected laps or times. Only relevant videos should be listed, or am I missing something? In case it makes a difference, these videos were not recorded directly by RC. These were videos of two practice runs. For each, I took three simultaneous GoPro videos (front, driver, and rear views), brought them to the computer to superimpose the views and add a title using the kdenlive video editor, put the resulting MP4 file back onto the phone, and then would generate the RC data overlay and a VBO file.
Thank you for trying out the feature!
1) I'll try think of good naming for the videos. Session name will be too long, but maybe use session's timestamp there or something.
2) Currently all of the video files in the session fragment are listed. I'll see if this is easy fix.
3) Symbolic links cannot just be written to exports folder as the main use case is just share the file. If you want to make it easier, I suggest writing a small script that creates the symbolic links on your PC according the comments section.
That said, I'm having a bit of trouble when the video starts after the RC data. If the video covers the entire amount of exported time, the new export works great. But if the data starts before the video (so that data rows are marked with avisynctime of -00000001, meaning "invalid"), Circuit Tools video display is way out of sync. If I remove all the lines where avisynctime is -00000001, things look good.
I did recently update CT, so I'm not sure if that's a factor. I'll need to try with other test VBO files from a real VBOX to understand the issue better. I've collected a few sample files but not their matching video, so I'll have to set things up.
I also noticed that RC exports those "invalid" lines with an avifileindex of 0000 rather than 0001. Bulk replacing to 0001 doesn't fix the problem, but you might want to change it anyway - all the files I've ever seen use a value corresponding to an actual linked video.
- The target filename will be RCXXXX_YYYY.MP4 where XXXX is a hash of session. Not always unique, but should be reliable.
- The target filenames will remaing same for all exports for same session. Only if you link new videos, the names will change.
- Only relevant filenames will be added to metadata
Also thanks aol for making the integration even easier!
You may download it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3xad44b4uqa7wfo/vbo-video-integrator-v0.1.jar?dl=0
In order to run it you need to have Java 7 or later installed.
Double click the vbo-video-integrator-v0.1.jar to start the tool.
If this does not work you need to run it from the console:
- navigate to the folder that you saved the .jar file
- type: java -jar vbo-video-integrator-v0.1.jar
You may try it and let me know your experience/thoughts!
Credits to Karter88 for sharing the method for vbo/video integration!
Actually started this little project it in order to synch non-racechrono vbo (and dbn) files that I have, but then found it easier to use it for all vbo files since I always have the vbo and video files in my pc for other tasks(telemetry analysis, video rendering). It also eliminates the manual rename step.
Edit: updated download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kjpzn2j34v6nsov/vbo-video-integrator-v0.1.jar?dl=0
I have used your excellent "VBO File Reverse Engineering for External Video" tutorial and successfully imported my VBO file and Video into Circuit tools.
All seems to work correctly except the video clip does not seem to be synced with everything else, by which I mean when I play the video in the position index vertical line and the dot on the circuit diagram don't follow the video.
The video clip was recorded on a separate device, not the Android phone on which Racecrono was running. I coped the video to the Android device where I manually linked it to the session data.
Im guessing the problem is that linking is not being reflected when I export the session to a VBO file?