Overlaying Google Maps to Drive Videos

A video editing program like Corel's video studio allows a screen shot of Google maps to add to your video clips along with still photos!l
 
TwoBlues said:
A video editing program like Corel's video studio allows a screen shot of Google maps to add to your video clips along with still photos!l
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Can it loads multiple screen shots\images (possibly thousands) automatically or do you have to manually add the photos?
 
impulsivetravelerguy said:
Can it loads multiple screen shots\images (possibly thousands) automatically or do you have to manually add the photos?
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Manually, one at a time into the timeline!
Corel , and I think, Power Director allow a month's free trial of their softwares.
 
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Yeah that's impractical
TwoBlues said:
Manually, one at a time into the timeline!
Corel , and I think, Power Director allow a month's free trial of their softwares.
Click to expand...

That's not practical at all. My ultimate goal is eventually to redesign my travel blog and travel all over (or should I say randomly bounce all over hence the blog impuslivetravelerguy) full time when I start getting the income to do so. It would be nothing for me to drive a couple thousand miles in a matter of a week and I want to dash cam it all. For example this is a 7 hour drive from Central Wisconsin to Canada:


I also plan to have multiple videos at different speeds for people to watch so if they want to watch the real time full 7 hours, I'll have that video and I'll also have many other of the same video at different speeds. Obviously, I'd start with the original regular speed video and then speed it up, but you're talking about overlaying this on multiple hours of video. I bet this kind of editing would take a couple hours per hour of video shot. Unless you hire a team of people (which is economically unfeasible), doing it manually is not feasible time wise.

In the video I shared just before that I used with my Java program, if I used every GPS coordinate, there was over 2200 pictures generated! If you wanted to be super accurate, imagine inserting 2200 pictures into an hour long video manually!
 
I think I have about a factor of 10 in process time vs movie length with my scripts.
Slow, but then again I don't do 7 hour drives! :confused:
 
Feitelijk said:
I think I have about a factor of 10 in process time vs movie length with my scripts.
Slow, but then again I don't do 7 hour drives! :confused:
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Which, in reality, isn't too big of a deal, as long as it is automated in the background. Basically you start the process and then walk away for a while. Maybe go to sleep and when you wake up in the morning, it's done. The biggest thing I'm looking to do is to minimize manual intervention. Unless you have some really beefy (and expensive) hardware, you're not going to get around this. With the traveling I do, probably would only carry my Macbook Air since it's ultra portable so if I had to let it run on the passenger seat next to me as I drive, as long as it does everything automatically in the background, that's all I care about (we'll see if I really do hit the road as much as I want to. I might need to buy some beefier hardware).
 
I was able to do picture in picture for iMovie and get the video overlay to work:


Obviously, it's very crude and there's a ton more work to do to make this look good but it's great actually getting exactly what I wanted in terms of a proof of concept.
 
I came across this topic about 3 months ago because I was looking a standard way of presenting my videos and I thought that turning the concept around to put the video over the map might be more flexible. Well after 3 months or so of programming I think I have a proof of concept running and everyone is free to try it out and tell me whether it is useful or not. Here is the link: http://www.dashcamroads.com/index.php

My biggest problem in all this was to determine what were the standard formats for the GPS files, I soon learned that every camera manufacturer appears to use the standard gprmc message but just renames the file extensions. If that is the case the site should just about support most cameras but I don't know for sure and any feedback in this regard would be most welcome.
 
Adel314 said:
I came across this topic about 3 months ago because I was looking a standard way of presenting my videos and I thought that turning the concept around to put the video over the map might be more flexible. Well after 3 months or so of programming I think I have a proof of concept running and everyone is free to try it out and tell me whether it is useful or not. Here is the link: http://www.dashcamroads.com/index.php

My biggest problem in all this was to determine what were the standard formats for the GPS files, I soon learned that every camera manufacturer appears to use the standard gprmc message but just renames the file extensions. If that is the case the site should just about support most cameras but I don't know for sure and any feedback in this regard would be most welcome.
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interesting idea, not sure about having to upload videos though compared to using a player to playback locally, I suspect that is going to be a bit limiting due to file sizes involved
 
jokiin said:
interesting idea, not sure about having to upload videos though compared to using a player to playback locally, I suspect that is going to be a bit limiting due to file sizes involved
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Indeed you are absolutely correct and considered it for some time, but I figured that just like youtube if you allow a file to be uploaded in the background then it might not be a problem. It seems to be working - but it was an issue that plagued me for some time.
 
I don't see it as a technical limitation, more of a practical one as the file sizes involved are too big for a lot of situations

that said though I do still see it as something that could be very useful as a service say for example someone needed to share a file with an insurance company or similar along with the map info
 
Do you have an example of a finished product of your program like my YouTube video? Looks interesting but I'd like to see a finished product so I know what to expect if I start messing with it. I'm definitely happy other people are pursing this idea. Eventually, I will work on my program again and hopefully get it user friendly.
 
jokiin said:
I don't see it as a technical limitation, more of a practical one as the file sizes involved are too big for a lot of situations

that said though I do still see it as something that could be very useful as a service say for example someone needed to share a file with an insurance company or similar along with the map info
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Yes, and the other motivation was that a few months ago we were wanting to take an outback road and Google Maps (Satellite) was not helpful in telling us the state of the road - if someone has uploaded a video it at least gives you an idea what the roads are like.
 
impulsivetravelerguy said:
Do you have an example of a finished product of your program like my YouTube video? Looks interesting but I'd like to see a finished product so I know what to expect if I start messing with it. I'm definitely happy other people are pursing this idea. Eventually, I will work on my program again and hopefully get it user friendly.
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I think it is finished in terms of its core functionality - there are many features that could be added, but in terms of uploading videos and tracks it has been pretty heavily tested. Some features that I would like to add involve sharing trips, popularising certain videos etc, and providing more options for uploading etc - and just making it more user friendly (as you said)
 
Adel314 said:
I think it is finished in terms of its core functionality - there are many features that could be added, but in terms of uploading videos and tracks it has been pretty heavily tested. Some features that I would like to add involve sharing trips, popularising certain videos etc, and providing more options for uploading etc - and just making it more user friendly (as you said)
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Ok. I'll play around with it hopefully in the near future.
 
If your Dashcam separates the GPS data file it's much easier, no script or uploads, all can be done locally with two 3rd party tools. The trick is to get the .gps/.gpx data file out or find a GPS map viewer that can read the dashcam's GPS data directly and create the map / route / position all at once, then all you do is capture it and import as overlay/pan into video.

see my example here:
 
I am thinking i can do the same, use the screen capture tool of pinnacle studio 20 ultra to capture the map as i play back the drive in registrator viewer, and then i can overlay that on the actual footage as pip.

Should be strait forward but i have not tried it yet.

PS. you can off course use any screen capture tool to record registrator viewer or what ever other playback software with map in it, and then use what ever video editing software to do the PIP.

The screen capture of PS20U is just so cool as i can make do with just capturing the map of the player or even just part of the map and not the whole screen, so i would have no mastering / editing after that screen capture other than sync the 2 videos up and PS20U have a nifty tool for that too, or you can do it manual using time stamps or audio in the 2 videos.
You can even make the map a little transparent if you want to.
 
kamkar1 said:
I am thinking i can do the same, use the screen capture tool of pinnacle studio 20 ultra to capture the map as i play back the drive in registrator viewer, and then i can overlay that on the actual footage as pip.

Should be strait forward but i have not tried it yet.

PS. you can off course use any screen capture tool to record registrator viewer or what ever other playback software with map in it, and then use what ever video editing software to do the PIP.

The screen capture of PS20U is just so cool as i can make do with just capturing the map of the player or even just part of the map and not the whole screen, so i would have no mastering / editing after that screen capture other than sync the 2 videos up and PS20U have a nifty tool for that too, or you can do it manual using time stamps or audio in the 2 videos.
You can even make the map a little transparent if you want to.
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It's much easier to overlay a GPS Map than most dashcam owners think. Many threads on attempting this, here and elsewhere, falsely paint it as extremely difficult. My above video sample took only 10 mins to capture in Registrator Viewer using SnagIt then past into free Sony Vegas and pan and reduce the map as a side overlay with 60 opacity. I'll post a "How to" video on the procedure later. Pinnacle's external capture tool does reduce the work and is very handy for this type of application, I just dislike their odd licensing process and need to buy each optional effect individually leaving all kinds of oddly named effects installed in your Programs folder (last time I used Pinnacle had 5 support programs installed).
 
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