Dashcam Viewer software for Mac: beta testers wanted

[mollydog]

looks too good to be V1.0, of what I've seen on your clip that is one hell of a job you've done, I don't yet have the Mini 0801 but seeing what you've made for it, is only pushing me in to getting one, still waiting on Jokiin to see when his is going to be shipping before I make up my mind

 

[mollydog]

WOW Great @traveler, Sad is I use 10.6.8.
Well then, I need to backup my data from my old macbook white to clean install for Maverick.

+1 same here, is there a possibility that it could work on 10.6.8?

 

[jokiin]

Have already talked with @traveler to make sure our cameras are supported, not sure on costing yet to know if its something we can include or not but either way want to see Mac support for our products

 

[traveler]

+1 same here, is there a possibility that it could work on 10.6.8?

@mollydog, yes I think it's possible. In fact I recently made some changes that should make it compatible with the ancient 10.6.8. Can you help me test?

 

[Gurkha9]

In fact I recently made some changes that should make it compatible with the ancient 10.6.8. Can you help me test?

Ancient is relative. Still have a Mac Mini running 10.6.8 Server. What about Lion (10.7) support? We don't all live on the bleeding edge, software wise

 

[mollydog]

@mollydog, yes I think it's possible. In fact I recently made some changes that should make it compatible with the ancient 10.6.8. Can you help me test?

yes I'd love to, I don't have the Mini 0801, the two DVR's I have now are the Blackvue DR500GW and the F70 dual lens DVR, so if I can be of help (with having these two DVR's) to you, I'm only too pleased to be of help

 

[OJOCam]

Sounds like a interesting project. i am also willing to be a beta tester.

 

[traveler]

yes I'd love to, I don't have the Mini 0801, the two DVR's I have now are the Blackvue DR500GW and the F70 dual lens DVR, so if I can be of help (with having these two DVR's) to you, I'm only too pleased to be of help

Thanks @mollydog I will PM you.

 

[traveler]

Guys, I added some more features to the latest beta. Beta testers: I will email you with details.
Thanks!

v1.0.0b3 - Jan 21, 2014

New Features:

• Drag-and-drop support! Users can now drag their SD card's movie folder from the Finder on to the Viewer window and the movies will start playing immediately.
• Added version history check and ability to download newer versions of the software. See Check For New Version under Help menu.
• Added option to play movies sorted by either file date or file name. The former is better for dashcam use and the latter is better for playback of a series of miscellaneous movies in a folder.
• Selecting a window menu item brings that window to forefront (headslap)

 

[ToyBoy]

Hi John

I had exactly the same problem. I have the Mini801 and am fully Mac'd. If you need testers I would like to evaluate on iMac and Macbook Air in the UK region.

I have been looking at the .log files to see if I could parse them into Google Maps, e.g. using GPSBabel. I am having problems fully decoding the GPS log although I now have it in a spreadsheet.

The coordinates that appear on the dash cam mov files are correct but the log of the same name has different coordinates.

Anyway, keen to assist

All the best

Ted

 

[B20RRL]

I can certainly put it through its paces...

Fire me over a PM with more info and i'll try and break it next week

 

[avidfanofstuff]

Hey Traveler... Whats your plan with this software? Mac App Store? Free for forum members? Try and sell it to cam manufacturers?

Thanks

 

[traveler]

I can certainly put it through its paces...

Fire me over a PM with more info and i'll try and break it next week

Lol, Tim, thanks for the offer to break my software! Currently I've got enough folks testing it out.

So far I am happy to report it is compatible with OS X 10.6.8 through 10.9.1. Just added a few more improvements the other day, including the ability to load your Mini 0801 files by dragging the SD disk image from the Finder desktop to the Dashcam View player window. No need to visit the File menu hunt for your movies folder.

I would like to make it compatible with Blackvue cameras. If you or someone on the forum could send me a few Blackvue GPS log files as well as the the names of the corresponding movie files that would be very useful.

@avidfanofstuff: My plan is to offer a "lite" version to the community for free. The lite version will have all the features of the "full" version, but be limited in the number of sequential movies it can play. For those who want full capability, I will send a registration code which will turn the lite version into the full version. I plan to charge a small fee for the full version.

>Mac App Store?

The Mac App Store was my original goal. But applications submitted to the Mac App Store must be 'sandboxed'. When I sandboxed Dashcam Viewer it broke some of the ease-of-use features of my software, such as the ability to programmatically open a directory without prompting the user with a File Open dialog box. I did not want to subject my users to unnecessary hassles. So for now I will offer Dashcam Viewer off a website. Later I will revisit the Mac App Store situation.

>Try and sell it to cam manufacturers?

I am definitely open to licensing it to interested cam manufactures!

Regards,
John

 

[avidfanofstuff]

Hey John

Thanks for the reply, I think its a great project. It's a real shame about the Mac App Store but hopefully you will get that sorted soon.

Put me down for the full version as although I have a dash cam I only have a mac so I'm left just to playing back individual files without GPS data.

I wish you the best of luck with your project and I look forward to trying it out.

Any idea on timescales?

Cheers

 

[traveler]

>Put me down for the full version..
Thanks, @avidfanofstuff!

>Any idea on timescales?
Yes, release of 1.0 will be out in less than a week. Working on the documentation now.

Special thanks to @mollydog for providing samples of BlackVue DR500 GPS files. I have incorporated preliminary support for the DR500 into version 1.0 (since I have not thoroughly vetted this feature I'm calling it a "preliminary" for now. Full support will come.)

Side note: The BlackVue GPS data files are interesting because they log more nerdular data than the Mini 0801. For instance they include number of GPS satellites in view, DOPs (measures of GPS accuracy at the receiver) and other metrics. I plan to exploit this in future versions.

 

[jokiin]

there's quite a lot of info available in the satellite stream, not everything is needed though so some just use what they need to get by and do the job at hand, I think if you look at the version history of Registrator Viewer quite a lot of the updates over time have been GPS related, adding support for different models etc as not everyone does things the same way

 

[traveler]

Good news! Dashcam Viewer for the Mac is now available on my website. You can download it from here:

http://earthshinesw.com/mac-dashcam-viewer/

Special thanks to beta testers @mollydog, @BrazilianGuy, @DaveP their test reports! I will be sending you registered versions.

Dashcam Viewer will run on Mac OS X 10.6.8 through 10.9.1. Official support for the Mini 0801 dashcam and unofficial support for the BlackVue DR500 and some GuardTrak cameras. (more testing is required for these camera models so let me know your experiences).

Also, here's another video showing some of the more recent features added to the software.

This earlier video demonstrates more of the features:

Dashcam Viewer will continue to evolve with more features, camera support, and bug fixes. Thanks for your support!

John

 

[avidfanofstuff]

Good news! Dashcam Viewer for the Mac is now available on my website. You can download it from here:

http://earthshinesw.com/mac-dashcam-viewer/

Special thanks to beta testers @mollydog, @BrazilianGuy, @DaveP their test reports! I will be sending you registered versions.

Dashcam Viewer will run on Mac OS X 10.6.8 through 10.9.1. Official support for the Mini 0801 dashcam and unofficial support for the BlackVue DR500 and some GuardTrak cameras. (more testing is required for these camera models so let me know your experiences).

Also, here's another video showing some of the more recent features added to the software.

This earlier video demonstrates more of the features:

Dashcam Viewer will continue to evolve with more features, camera support, and bug fixes. Thanks for your support!

John

Thanks John... works great.

I have purchased the full version.

 

[jokiin]

excellent work and much quicker than I thought was possible, will be promoting this with our cameras

 

[traveler]

excellent work and much quicker than I thought was possible, will be promoting this with our cameras

Thanks, jokiin. I think I've become cross-eyed from all the programming I've done recently. ;-) Looking forward to fully supporting your new models. Keep me posted...