Larry Cable

totally agree - but I wonder if they would take notice - probably better to reach out to AP on his social media! talk to the organ grinder and not his "monkey" ... better still they should open source the app ... let the enthusiasts at it

Fast-Eddie

PTPA Video Export - The "best" I've been able to produce (so far):

Not my first time on track but these are my first laps in my GT4, actually laps 4-7, as I was only able to export the last 4 laps. Skip 30 seconds forward to bypass my "cheesy" intro titles... Video was captured by 2 GoPro camera's externally, and not connected to PTPA in any way (more on that below). Even so, the exported video occasionally freezes while the secondary video continues to run. Also, the speeds are metric in KPH rather than MPH.

My setup and procedure:

Phone: LG G6 running Android 9 with PTPA v3.2.1
Main camera: GoPro Hero 4 Silver mounted on luggage bar between seats. Audio from external mic mounted on rear bumper to this cam.
2nd camera: GoPro Hero+LCD mounted on windshield above driver (visible in main camera view)

1. Reboot phone, put in Airplane mode, then turn on Wi-Fi and connect to vehicle hotspot. I think I left BT off as i didn't need it
2. Launch PTPA, insure it shows vehicle connected. Then select 'homemade" track and proceed to point where it says "Start Driving"
3. Turn-on both GoPro's and start recording manually.
4. Click Start Driving and PTPA shows how many meters away the S/F line is...
5. Drive
6. Exit track and end PTPA
7. Stop recording on GoPro cameras manually.

Post-processing steps:

Now, this is where its absolutely insane the lengths I go to to produce a "quality" video - this takes real dedication (or perhaps an obsession):

1. Determine video sync points. Since I start both camera's manually they are not synchronized. While on the grid, there is usually a car in front of me that is visible in both videos. At some point the brakes go on or off, and this allows me to determine the "difference" given that GoPros record at 60 frames per second. I eventually determine that one camera is X.XX seconds behind the other.
2. It may be necessary to use a tool like Handbrake to reduce the size of the video files. A 25 minute GoPro video can approach 5-7GB... After using Handbrake (freeware), it can compress down to 1-2 GB.
3. Load video's on phone - I put them in my "Camera" folder, since PTPA seems to look there on Android (/SD card/Camera/DCIM in my case)
4. Go to PTPA recording, scroll down and click the large PLUS (+) sign to add video material.
5. I start with the internal view showing the steering wheel (camera mounted on luggage bar) and take a estimate of where the video appears to cross S/F.
6. Your initial guess will be off - so export one lap and watch the "real" steering wheel vs the "graphical" steering wheel - and adjust so they match. Another way to adjust is to listen to the audio for throttle blips on downshifts and match to the tach. This step is the biggest pain in the butt and most time consuming, but also most critical for getting a video that doesn't look "off"
7. If you want to add a secondary video, as I did, you can follow the same steps above. First note the actual sync point for your first video, then adjust that timestamp from the "difference" you determine in step 1.

So, when myself and others have said it's a real pain in the @$$ to import external video.... that's the extent of it above. Granted I made it twice as complex using 2 cameras.


Footnotes:

• Given the extremes I went to above, I should change my ID to "Crazy-Eddie" LOL (Yes, I AM an engineer)
• Yes, it really was that foggy... first session of the weekend at 8am
• The audio is an external GoPro mic mounted in the license plate area of the rear bumper - so, that is what a GT4 stock exhaust sounds like on track.
• I "reversed" the main and secondary camera views and appended that footage - that portion starts around 10:40 in the video and the audio is natural from inside the car.
• I've made over posts "complaining" about PDK Sport upshifting early at partial throttle prior to redline when in Auto mode. An example is at 4:20 in a short connecting straight where PDK "farts" and goes into 3rd. And it wasn't consistent in that area, which drove me nuts.

Westcoast

Very well done, just from your posted steps I can see that is a lot of effort for this!

So, curious, you talk about the 2 main camera's, does this mean that you are still recording video with the camera's phone, or is what we see above the video from the Hero4 Silver and the overlay is on it? If yes, how did you sync the overlay to it if you didn't have video on the app to see or is this all done after you add the external video?

Another place I think Porsche missed the boat on this was the PTPA should be an app on the PCM (which is essentially a computer any way), that way the screen is there and mounted, no external WIFI to worry about between the app and PCM, heck the PCM can display the back-up camera, it would be simple to allow a connection for a front mounted camera to the PCM... I did this on my 981 for both front and rear cameras and I put a front can in on the Spyder via the Android Box too.

Fast-Eddie

I go to somewhat similar lengths running multiple camera's with Harry's Laptimer, but PTPA is even more cumbersome try to align video with the data.

So, I didn't use the internal phone camera at all - I turned off video in the PTPA app. Like you, I did a lot of testing on the street in my neighborhood, and I found the my phone wouldn't record a smooth video through PTPA. I tested my phone's video using the native camera app in Android and the video was fine. I then purchased a SanDisk Extreme SD card, thinking the card wasn't keeping up, but that didn't help. In the end, I could only conclude that my phone was not able to keep up recording both video and data thru PTPA. So, for the video I posted above, I used two external and manually operated GoPro cams, which adds to all the effort of synchronizing for video export (self-inflicted you could say).

If you are able to use the phone's internal camera, I think the synchronization there might be easier, but I couldn't obtain a good quality video. My phone is about 3 years old and perhaps not powerful enough to handle both video and PTPA (???).

What you said above, or at least the ability to use Android Auto to mirror the PTPA on the PCM display. And since the backup camera is there, it would be great if PTPA could record footage from that camera as well. I used a rear facing camera in addition to a forward facing camera with Harry's Laptimer, and it adds a nice element to the track videos... seeing cars come up or fade behind.

joerg65

Is it possible to connect the Track Precision app (on iPhone) linked via CarPlay on the PCM to a GoPro?

I have no problems connecting the app to CarPlay and using the camera on the iPhone but cannot connect to the GoPro.

Had anyone got this to work?

ipse dixit

don't think that's possible

donR

You can do this and the PTP App/Carplay will start the GoPro recording when you cross the line but it is a little unreliable and you still have to import the video later. Which in any case you may as well manually start the gopro before you go out. Then under recordings, scroll down the bottom and you can click "+" to add video, then select "External camera", then your GoPro, then you can select the relevant video to import from the gallery, if you can recognise it! It is a easy way to getting the video(s) on your eye phone.

What I do is copy the video I want over to my Iphone later then add it from the device and synch it manually which is a right pain in the ***, but rewarding once you get it.

If you do want to try controlling your GoPro with the PTPA then click "start", then the cog wheel on top left, where you will then be able to click "External camera" and then select your GoPro. But as mentioned there is not really any benefit to doing this as you still have to import the video manally later, the PTPA is not clever enough to do it for you.

Westcoast

So are you saying the only benefit of the "compatible" external camera is the ability to 'possibly' have it trigger the camera. nothing else? the reason I ask was I was going to upgrade my GoPro for the PTPA but if the footage still has to be manually imported and synced then there is not much benefit to buying a new camera?

Fast-Eddie

Agree with above, which is why I just start my external GoPro manually. I wasn't able to get PTPA to connect to my GoPro Hero4 anyway, so it wasn't an option. Even if you get it to work, it may not be reliable, and there might be a "start lag" as you approach S/F line. By starting manually, you are assured of getting video footage, as well as your out lap. So even if PTPA messes up, at least you have a video of your laps.

I outlined my steps above in the post. Synching an external video is painful, but you can estimate the sync point by looking at when you first cross start/finish, then do an export and watch the tach versus the audio for downshifts blips. If the video (sound) is lagging, you need to ADD to your sync point to bring the video forward. Conversely, if the data is lagging, that means the video (sound is coming in early), you SUBTRACT from the sync point to have the video arrive later. It seems backward, but that's how I do it. You can apply the same "logic" using the steering wheel versus the graphical steering, if your video was from inside the car. For a windshield mounted cam, I use the engine audio and match to the tach.

Westcoast

@Fast-Eddie So are you confirming that I can continue to leverage my investment in the Hero3? No real need to upgrade at this time (with respect to use with the PTPA)?

***Question*** I was hoping that the "External Camera" option in the PTPA would bring in the GoPro video and sync it to the app data and video all at the same time...?

Fast-Eddie

Yes... just start manually and import video to phone and then jump through all the hoops to sync and export... some more observations below, as I'm thinking through what worked for me.

Additional Notes:

• For some reason, I could never get an export to work when I had the "Include Driver Name" option enabled in the export dialog. When I un-checked that option, the export completed. I have no idea why, as it seems such a simple thing. Try this if your exports are not completing.
• In some of my records, I was unable to export the complete session, but I was able the select every lap and export them individually. This is another pain-in-the-@$$, since if your have 10 laps you get 10 exported videos, which you can then stitch together with a video editor if desired to get a full session video. UGH.
• I have my GoPro camera set at 1920x1080 and 60fps. Even after re-rendering these to reduce size, the video maybe be too much for PTPA, or perhaps it was my phone. The way I got my export to work a "little" more reliably was to render down the GoPro footage to 1280x720 at 30fps. There is freeware called HandBrake which I use for this.

It almost like you have to be an expert in video processing, which I'm not. All above, was all trial-and-error. I hope this helps others, but I don't really have an "definitive" answers. Good luck with it !!!

Westcoast

Well it is good to know that I don't have to buy a new GoPro just yet, the new ones look nice but truly there is nothing wrong with my Hero3, In fact I was able to get some decent footage on the last track outing with the camera mounted up front... negligible wind noise and it picked up the exhaust sound very well considering! Still I might buy an external stereo microphone so I can mount the mic out back to capture a cleaner sound track.

TDT

Total Ball-Ache... I'm just so pi$$ed the Porsche just don't appear to have put the effort in here to deliver something complete....

Ref the above issues....

With Racechrono & HLT it picks up the GPS data from your Go Pro - and directly auto-matches it to your app recorded data within a few milliseconds and fine tuning in the apps is a cinch.
You can even just not record session data in RaceChrono or HLT, and can just import the video and it will create a data overlay based up the GPS data from the video.
You can add multiple videos into a session as Go-Pro break up recording into 11:48min/4GB max so if your out for a long run you need to stitch multiple files together... RaceChrono and HLT just handles this.
Rendering out is also so easy and quick.

Porsche should literally just white-label or partner with one of these products and add their extra data channels (via gateway sensor integration) and Porsche graphics... that'd be perfect..
It'd be a win for Porsche, customers and the partner... even charge $20-50.... game over.

Fast-Eddie

I've worked before with Harry Schlangmann of Harry's Laptimer... he is quite responsive. I've thought about "what if Laptimer could connect to car's Wifi and collect all the data directly from the car the way PTPA does. To HLT, it might appear as a custom OBD sensor over WiFi, although the protocols are completely different... I don't think it would be PIDs over an ELM protocol like OBD sensors use. Still if we could decipher the interface that PTPA uses over Wifi and the data format, we'd be in business.

[RANT] I think the main reason that PTPA is such crap, is that Porsche does not provide a forum and beta group to work out the bugs and improve the app. Hence, most of us get pissed off, abandon PTPA and go back to using AIM, or TrackAddict, or Garmin, or Laptimer, or RaceChrono, etc. The result is PTPA never truly improves, and it has such potential.

Fast-Eddie

I can't recall the actual mic I have, but this is how I mounted it. I use TrakkTape on the bodywork of the car FIRST to protect the paint and clearcoat, then duct tape to secure the cable to the TrakkTape. Do not put duct tape directly on the bodywork!

I do same in the license plate area to tape the mic right next to the backup camera, and run the cable along the bumper, then up alongside the spoiler and into the trunk, where I connect it to my GoPro that is mounted on the luggage bar between the seats. Putting the mic in this area has very little wind noise and its protected somewhat from rain.