July 25, 2025
In a previous entry I mention that I had a new dash cam for my motorcycle so I thought I'd make a separate posting about it and how I use it and the workflow I'm developing to put videos online. I've written about ir previously here so I won't go into the ordering and installation here.
After initial installation and testing it was really time for a test ride. I decided to do an overnight in the Big Horn mountains which I wrote about here and here. I just let the camera run for the two days and figured I'd sort it all out when I got back.
The first challenge is how to get the video segments from the SD card to wherever I want them. There are three options:
1 - remove the SD card and read it on a computer
2 - attach a USB cable to the head unit and transfer it that way
3 - use an app to do the transfer
Options 1 and 2 both required removal of a small cover in the bottom of the head unit. The two screws are REALLY TINY and difficult to handle. That's what I did after this short trip, but not again. The app is the way to go but it requires the motorcycle ignition to be on and therefore, could be running down the battery.
To solve that issue, I made up an extra patch cord, spliced it to the unit's power cable near where they plug into the power block. On the end of that cable I have a 2-pole SAE connector that I can plug into the battery tender port on the bike. This way I can power up the unit without turning one the bike.
The next issue are the videos themselves. Like most or all dashcams, instead of continuous recording, it records shows segments of a minute of two each, saving each one with a time and date stamp in its file name. With two cameras it record two files, one with the suffix F and the other with R. The only issue is that they are in the TS format, one that is not readily compatible with editing software or online posting apps.
The easiest solution is to copy all the files to folder on my desktop iMac and convert the ones I want into mp4 files using the application called Handbrake. It can do single files or selections of file. It works great.
However, iHandbrake is not available for the iPad which is what I use when on the road. Instead I can use VLC (VideoLAN) but can only do one file at a time.
After returning home, this is the workflow I have figured out.
1 - transfer all the files to my iMac
2 - Select the files I want to convert and load them into a cue in Handbrak. These resulting mp4 files will be saved to their own folder.
3 - drag the converted files into iMovie and go through the regular editing process which can include the insertion of title, music, or whatever.
4 - load the file into my YouTube channel
5- post them on this blog
This bluffing software only allows small video, less that a minute, so I have to cut them down to insert directly. However, if I load a bigger video into YouTune, I can use a link to it to include it in this blog.
That's it. A fair amount of work using multiple apps to get the job do but it does work and everything, other than the hardware is free so what the heck, why not.
No comments:
Post a Comment