GPS (GPX file) data extraction from video file

MariusMarinus

Is there any development in this issue that its not possible to extract the gps data (position, direction, speed etc) in a gpx, csv or similar file?

I have to say I was one click away from buying the bandit as it seemed to tick all my boxes. I do a lot of videos sailing and using gpx data to show speed and direction gauges in my videos with DASHWARE.
The inability of the Bandit being able to give me that info makes it rather useless for that purpose and I was rather shocked that you havent thought of that? The info seems to be recorded why not making it accessible?
You have thought of so many brilliant unique features that make the Bandit stand out pretty well, I would be delighted if this would be added in a firmware update and would purchase this camera without hesitation and I am sure I am not alone. There is a lot of people very dissapointed because of this issue and returning their cameras.

Thanks for getting back to me
Cheers
Marius

MotoCam

Signed up just to tag along on this topic. I was researching for the potential purchase of a new action camera with GPS, and saw the great reviews of the Bandit.

However, the ability to export for use with DashWare or similar is an essential requirement in the next GPS camera purchase. For a motorcyclist considering this camera, the ability to export the GPS data is a high priority issue. A second, lower priority issue, would be a map overlay directly in the app based on the gps data.

If there is discussion to make the data available, is there a timeframe by which it might be done?

gl00

guys : just download Bandit Studio beta, when you right click on a video clip you get the option to download the GPS data.

Chris

Currently it is possible to export the data from Bandit videos in the TomTom Bandit Studio as a KML file, we hope to expand the types of formats that the data can be exported in, in the near future.

I have no experience with Dashware so can't say whether it's able to work with the KML file or by detecting the data saved in the Bandit video files.

Just in case you missed it when researching the TomTom Bandit, we do provide our own overlay features in the TomTom Bandit Studio and the Apps.

Speedy Devil - Show your speed (mph/kph)
Superhero - Show your G-Force
King of the Hill - Show your altitude
Cardio Crusher - Show your heart rate (requires Heart Rate Monitor)
Trailblazer - Show your GPS trace

You can see some of these in use here:

[video]

MariusMarinus

Thanks guys for your quick replies.

That is great news!

Can you share such a kml file so I could have a look at it and see if it works? Sorry but I hope you understand that the camera is useless for me if it doesnt. I know you have your own editing software but I prefer to use my custom designed gauges in dashware with near unlimited freedom to design.

Thanks
Marius

Chris

Hi Marius, I have no way of sharing a KML file with you via the forum, so I just downloaded DashWare to test out whether KML files are supported. Unfortunately they are not supported by DashWare but all is not lost:

Doing a quick on-line search I found the website http://kml2gpx.com I uploaded the KML file from a Bandit video and in seconds it was converted to a GPX file. I was then able to import the GPX file and use all the Overlay Gauges in DashWare and sync it to my video.

Eventually we will have more formats to export the data in but in the meantime if you don't mind this workaround you can use the TomTom Bandit with DashWare.

MariusMarinus

That is fantastic and I can totally live with that workaround!

Thanks a million for your help!

MotoCam

gl00 wrote:

guys : just download Bandit Studio beta, when you right click on a video clip you get the option to download the GPS data.

Chris wrote:

Just in case you missed it when researching the TomTom Bandit, we do provide our own overlay features in the TomTom Bandit Studio and the Apps.

Trailblazer - Show your GPS trace

Thanks for the information! That is exactly what i was thinking. At least the kml is convertible to a DashWare file format.

Also, thank you regarding Trailblazer, I had indeed missed that overlay. From the many reviews, written prior to or without Bandit Studio, these were noted as missing features. I browsed through the Bandit Studio information, but did not readily see it.

Just from the perspective of a potential buyer who has not interacted with the software, TomTom might hold onto more interested buyers if some of these features are prominently updated onto the Bandit information pages. Looks like I know what my next action camera purchase will be!

MariusMarinus

hi Motocam,

Unfortunately I couldnt get that KML file to work myself on Dashware and in fact any other program using gpx files. They all say the same thing "no timestamps in file" hence you have no speed! So keep put I am in contact with Chris about it.

gl00

nice discovery of Dashware ! will try this out obviously, everything would be much easier if we could get .fit or .gpx natively out of the camera or bandit studio.

MariusMarinus

I wouldnt mind the workaround with converting the file (see link from chris above). BUT it doesnt work for me with the KML file I got from Chris.

MariusMarinus

I tried another converter to convert the KML file to GPX its, free webbased GPS visualizer. However I get the same error in DASHWARE and GPS trackeditor: "NO TIMESTAMPS IN FILE". hence no speed

Is anybody else willing to share a tomtom bandit kml file with me? dropbox link in a Pm or something? or PM me and I give you my email?

So frustrated with this I would love to buy this camera but if this doesnt work its useless to me...and many others I believe

gl00

Will be back home in about 8hrs. I'll send a file to you. Still have to try dashware: had to retrieve my windows laptop first

Chris

Hi Marius, I just tested again see the image below which shows the data being displayed in DashWare:


When I first did this I received the Logger Rate dialogue box which says "There are no timestamps in your data" I just clicked ok without entering any values into the log interval second box and these were the results.

Edit: For Comparison here's the same video clip using our own Speed Overlay


Again I'm no expert with DashWare but this looks ok to me.

MariusMarinus

Hi Chris, You cant press OK without putting a value. I tried it and it comes with an error with no value. It default to 1 which is probably what you did as when i do that it comes out with the same speed as you show. Thats why I asked if you know the logger rate which seems to be 1=1s=1Hz. Good thing it works like that in DASHWARE
However the recorded data is very erratic and not very realistic (I guess this was recorded on a bycicle) Goes from 20 down to 9 then up to 25 in a seconds...
This normal from gps recordings thats why to make it smooth I have to filter it. I cant do that because of the missing timestamps. Will try and find a workaround to add them and save it to the converted GPX file, then it can be used properly.

Thanks again for all your help Chris. This is a thing TomTom should improve with in the next firmware update, seems like a simple bug that the timestamp is not included in the KML file as it clearly is recorded with the camera.

Cheers

MariusMarinus

Hi Chris, just putting timestamps of 1s for every line in the gpx file is definitely not an option. GPS's dont record in the same time interval for every line, depends on speed, if you dont move much for example it does less. see here attached file.
so if i would add new times to that with 1s intervall it would completely change the speed.
I am quite sure if you would run the movie you have in dashware and compare it to bandit software (same footage same kml/gpx file) it would give very different speeds at some times (especially when you are going slow).

basically its not an option for me like that but I cant let it go because i want the camera badly for all its features (especially the highlight button)

Is there any way you could tell me if there is any chance you could make the bandit software add the timestamps to the kml export? or more likely make it export a GPX as it should be anyway in my opinion.

ahhhrrrgg this is so frustrating...sorry ;-)

gl00

Hey Marius,

just tested dashboard with some of the .kml files converted to .gpx in the website linked by Chris, and it works great.
1 s sampling rate is actually correct and the standard for GPS files. I'm not sure where you got the file you attached, but I think it's probably a GPS watch in hiking mode. The lower sampling rate allows for longer batteries, but in case you put your file in Dashware, you probably already noticed that what it produces is actually a path composed of straight line segments and that speed will be constant for several seconds before jumping to a different one all of a sudden...
The erratic variations from 1 second to the next you talk about are actually normal in a GPS file, and are usually taken care of by the smoothing algorithm of whatever software you use the file with. As far as I can tell, I played the files I got from my bandit, in Dashware: I get something that matches the experience I had and didn't notice any weird jump in speed (even though the "analysis by time" chart is obviously not smoothed...)

here's a link to a kml file I used
https://www.dropbox.com/s/exoy1mnux2wbee7/MOV_1625.kml?dl=0

and the corresponding gpx once converted
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q30rqt66ltge542/3iqmyjb8h_MOV_1625.gpx?dl=0

it's a 15mn portion of a boat ride I did a few days ago while in Sri Lanka. I'm a bit surprised by the variations in altitude (it was a boat ride after all) but I guess either the .kml exporter or the .kml to .gpx converter gets rid of the barometric altimeter data to only keep the GPS points for altitude, hence the weird results for a boat ride... obviously it would all be a lot better would Tomtom allow us to get properly exported .gpx files, with a full and correct set of data. Hopefully they'll understand that ease of use is one thing that makes the success of their gear, but that we also need to have the option to use the data collected in our more advanced projects too.

To note: the overlays one can get from Tomtom directly look way better than the ones in Dashware and are way easier to use, but they are now limited to 1 at a time and obviously not customizable... for now I consider alternatives such as Dashware to be necessary in order to fully exploit the potential of the Bandit camera.

MariusMarinus

Thanks for your reply.

Its from a garmin etrex10 handheld gps. you might be right that its just for saving battery life. the problem is to have a nice and smooth "realistic" speed to show in the gauges you need to smoothen the gps data. I can only do that with a GPX file with GPSTrackEditor.
The problem is that it doesnt allow me to open the KMLconvertedGPXfile as it has no time stamp. I have tried to m,anually add them in escel but as soon as you open the gpx in an excel file you cant save it back into one...

Thanks a lot for sharing your files I tried but as expected same old story. I wonder does the speed show that erratic in the bandit software too? or do they have an internal "Smoothener"?
Honestly I think if the speed is showing that erratic I think the whole feature is useless as its totally unrealistic and in fact not true. Very dissapointed that TomTom doesnt include the timestamp and lets us export in a GPX.

I would probably never use the standard gauges from the bandit software as I made my own in Dashware and I like the uniqueness.
check it out (not the best footage but the only one I have with the new gauge in it)

gl00

Hmmm... actually, Marius is correct : whatever the .kml exporter does, it is very difficult to convert to a .gpx in a correct way, and I'm now not even sure the .kml file can be used for any purpose.

I tried to convert the .kml in a few different ways, and get the converted file in rubitrack and this is the best I could get (using http://www.gpsies.com/ ):

see how the track is a series of 90 degrees turns? and the speed graph is just the worst I've ever seen with no smoothing applied... the data just cannot be used...

I tried that with a few different files and it all results in the same type of track and speed graph, even when I'm going in a straight line at a constant speed ?!

gl00

Note : I just tried the speed devil overlay in Bandit Studio beta with another camera (in case one would be faulty) and... the speed actually jumps from one value to another!?
looks like something is wrong with the software, I definitely do not get that from the iphone app...!

A second note : I didn't try bandit studio beta till now not because I don't have much space on my macbook's SSD and Studio can only import to a preset directory in the SSD we cannot change. PLEASE allow us to change the import directory!!!

MariusMarinus

Hi gl00.

Thanks again for helping me figure this out man!
This series of 90degree turns is exactly what I get from my Lowrance gps. Its much better accuracy and sampling rate than the etrex10 but you always get theat 90degree effect and hence jumping speed AND direction as you get from the BANDIT.
that is why IMO you HAVE TO smoothen the track with something like GPSTrackEditor before you can use it any form for showing gauges in a video correctly. I really wonder how they didnt think of that... I also wonder why does it not jump on your iphone app? I guess you are talking about the bandit app?

I wish I could tag this thread as UNSOLVED...

gl00

Yup...Really I don t know what this is. I own a bunch of gps watches and gps capable devices and this is the first time I see such a bad GPS trace. I never used kml files and even less kml to gpx converted files but this looks completely wrong. Normally no extra smoothing or anything is required as this is normally dealt with by the device and editing software.

This looks like damaged files or weirdly engineered files to me. Maybe were they badly converted but the series of 90 degree turns and crazy speed variations are very odd...

Will do some more research but hopefully Chris can explain and find a solution to that.

MariusMarinus

gl00 wrote:

hopefully Chris can explain and find a solution to that.

Yes I totally agree, hopefully Chris has an answer...

Chris

Hi, I have just had it confirmed that in an update to the TomTom Bandit Studio Beta planned for the end of the month (this could change) we are going to add access to the Timestamps and Compass information in the exported KML file. I am yet to see this in action, so I can't test this or provide an updated file at the moment.

MariusMarinus

Sounds like fantastic news Chris, and thanks for your reply! :-)
Although I will only open the bottle when I tested it ;-)
Please let me know through here or PM once this is released.
Cant wait!

gl00

that's one step in the right direction but does that mean that other metrics such as barometric altitude, HRM or speed/cadence sensor won't be included? as far as I can tell, .kml files seem to be a standard developped for google earth, I'm not sure they can include the other metrics recorded by the camera...

I chose the tomtom GPS watches essentially because of the ease of exporting data, I am quite disappointed that the cameras do not share the same export capacity : it has come to a point where I basically record sports related info (GPS, HRM etc...) on a watch just so I can use the video footage in a 3rd party application if needs be. It requires some fiddling around and file synchronization, but I have to admit that at this point, I find little advantage to having a Bandit over another camera, apart from the bigger batteries...