4) A license for TraqStudio
5) A camcorder or Chasecam with video . If you’re using a camcorder, having video software like iMovie is helpful.
Step 4 (Obtaining a license for TraqStudio)
If you don’t already own a copy of TraqStudio, one can be purchased here. TraqStudio provides the ability to import and sync video with your traqmate data and create dash overlays. Once you have purchased your copy of TraqStudio, you can download the software here. It’s basically the Traqview software you’ve previously installed with the TraqStudio functionality included. Just like we installed Traqview in Step 3, you’ll want to repeat the same process for the TraqStudio download.
Step 5 (Offloading video from your video capture device)
If you have a Chasecam this process is much easier, however, we will cover both digital video recorders as well as Chasecam.
Chasecam:
Connect your compact flash card reader to your Mac. You will see a dialog asking if you want your Virtual Machine or your Mac to take control of your compact flash card reader. We generally let our Mac control the compact flash card reader. We save our .tqm files in Windows to “Parallels Shared Folder” which translates to our “Home” directory on our Mac. We then create a directory structure that conforms to the following method to keep a good sense of organization. For example in your Home directory on your Mac, create a folder called “Traqmate Data”. In that folder we create another folder for the day that we recorded the data, for example “01-01-2009″. Within that folder we create two folders, one named “Data” and the other named “Video”. By doing this we can keep our directories, dates, drivers in a organized manner. If you would like to view the videos directly from Quicktime you will need to install the MPEG2 for Quicktime because the Chasecam videos are in MPEG2 format which Quicktime doesn’t natively play or you can download and use the VLC application for free.
NOTE:
If you view the original video that was directly dowloaded from the Chasecam you might notice that it looks very “jaggy” when viewed on a computer. This is because Chasecam records the video in the MPEG2 interlaced video format for the best TV viewing. When you play your video you will notice two icons in the system tray named “FF Video” . You can deinterlace the video when played back real-time if you right-click on the “FF Video” icon and select deinterlace and the playback should look smooth.
If you still have “jaggies” after your video is exported, you can download the Traqmate utility TQ Convert to convert the video to a different format that will deinterlace it for computer viewing, or you can use a 3rd party application such as VLC as well which is covered later in this article.
Navigate to your compact flash card and drag all the video files from the compact flash card to the “Video” folder for the date that the video was taken that you created. Note, that if you have videos in that folder already, be careful because Chasecam uses filenames that could be the same so make sure you don’t overwrite files you’ve already saved. This is where our tip of noting the session you’re on in the video so that you can name the video file anything you want and not loose the order.
If you have used our previous tip of marking your sessions then associating the video files and .tqm files are a snap. If not, one way you can associate them up is to use the file names of the Chasecam and the file names of the .tqm files.
Camcorder:
Downloading video off your camcorder requires an extra step of importing it, however, using the Mac can make that experience easier. Since there is so much video capture software out there we can’t possibly cover every piece, however, most commonly people use iMovie which is included in iLife or usually pre-installed on a new Mac.
1. Connect your camera and import your video in iMovie.
2. Drag your video to the project area.
3. Navigate to “Share | Export Using Quick Time” in the menu bar export your video off as a AVI file. Make sure you save it in your “video” folder we set up earlier.
Step 6 (Importing and syncing your video in TraqStudio)
Start TraqStudio and and open a .tqm file that you had video with. Click the “Setup” button in the Dashboard and scroll down to the Video line item. If you do not have a video line, then you have either launched TraqView or have not installed the TraqStudio license. Select the check box and click “Apply” which will then open a file dialog window prompting you to navigate to your video file. Select the video file you wish to use and click “Okay”.
Import
You will now notice a video window in the lower left hand side of TraqStudio. If you use the TraqSync, TraqDataI or TraqDataII adapters to control your Chasecam, your video will be synchronized automatically. If you’re manually starting the ChaseCam or using a Camcorder you’re going to need to manually advance the video by using the VCR like controls that TraqStudio provides to adjust the video and/or data independently.
TIP:
To manually advance the video, first click the “Setup” button in the upper right hand corner of your video window. Next, select the radio button “Video” and click the play button. You will see the video advance but the data will not advance. This take a bit to get the hang of, but if you select a point that is obvious, say entering a turn or blip the throttle it makes it easy to sync.
Sync
Now that your video is synchronized with your data our last step is to add the “dash” and export the video. Click the “Show Dash” button in the upper right hand corner of your video window and you will notice that the dash will appear. The “dash” will look oversized, however, don’t worry about that because in the next step we’re going to position it in the video.TIP:
When viewing the “dash” in your video it is advised to have the RPM tapped in your car so that you get the full experience of TraqStudio and get the most from your videos. If you have a TraqDataI or TraqDataII adapter, it’s possible in most cars to connect the RPM input of these adapters to your RPM signal of your car by way of our Tap Kit.
Write
Now click the “Write Video” button in the upper right hand corner of the video window and you will see a new window pop-up. From this window we can select where to place the “dash”, how much transparency to use and finally what kind of output format to use. If you click the info tab you can also set the how much transparency your user info has as well.
First we want to check our source and destination paths. Take care to note the source and destination of the video. Click the “Change Output” button if you want to save the video to a different location.
Next, we need to choose a format to export the video, in this example we’re going to choose PC.
If you’re using the ChaseCam, it’s important to leave the video at 640×480 as the bullet camera doesn’t support a higher resolution. If you’re using a different video camera, select the appropriate resolution for your camera keeping in mind that most TV’s display 640×480 as default and generally is recommended.
Next select the “High” resolution option and adjust the transparency and location of the dash to your liking. Once you have completed that click the “Start” button in the upper right hand of the video window and your video will start encoding. This process can take some time depending on the length of the video and the speed of your computer. When the process has finished, TraqStudio will notify you that it’s completed.
When exporting the video, it’s important to choose the correct application you’re going to view the video. For example you export to a PC with the DVD option, the pixels will come out rectangle and would result in any circles looking like ovals and additionally will keep the file size manageable for the correct application. In this case we’re going to choose PC.
Finally, navigate to your completed video and watch! We’ve included the final output of our example via the Vimeo video sharing service.
Dan Gorman, SpecE30 #342 at ThunderHill 04/26/09 from Dan Gorman on Vimeo.
In both series of articles we have covered getting using Traqmate with your Mac from installation of the TraqStudio application, getting data and video from your Traqmate System, and exporting to a format to share with your friends and family. We have also included some advanced ways to transcode many videos at once which can be a big time savings.
Transcoding video using VLC from the application
For users who need to transcode (encode in a different format, de-interlace, or compress their videos on their Macs from the application, we’ve also developed a few easy ways to make the process easier.
1) Launch the VLC application from your Applications folder.
2) Click “File” in the top menu bar and “File Open”.
3) Browse to your video that you want to deinterlace.
4) Click “File”, “Streaming/Export Wizard”.
5) Select the “Transcode/Save to File” radio button.
6) Click “Next”.
7) Select the “Existing playlist item” radio button.
8 ) Click “Next”.
9) Check the “Transcode Video” checkbox and select MPEG-4 from the drop down.
10) Chceck the “Transcode Audio” checkbox and select MPEG-4 from the drop down.
11) Click “Next”.
12) Make sure the MPEG-4 radio button is selected.
13) Click “Next”
14) Type in a file name to save your transcoded video.
15) Click “Next”
16) Click “Finish”
Now your MPEG2 dash overlay video will start transcoding to a deinterlaced MPEG4 format in a few short steps.
Transcoding video using VLC on the command line
For users who need to transcode (encode in a different format, de-interlace, or compress their videos on their Macs from the command line, we’ve also developed a few easy ways to make the process easier.
1) Download the Mac VLC version and drag the application to your Applications folder. Download our included script and save it to the folder where your videos with the dash overlay reside.
2) Next open your Terminal.app in your Applications/Utilities folder and execute the following command with the following syntax where “/Users/dgorman/Traqmate\ Data/01-01-2009/Video” is the directory where your dash overlay videos reside and “destination directory” is the directory you want to save the new video. Remember to remove the brackets.
# cd /Users/dgorman/Traqmate\ Data/01-01-2009/Video
# chmod 775 bulk_transcode.sh
# ./bulk_transcode.sh [destination directory]
In just a few easy steps you can also mass transcode your videos!
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