thoughts and questions for the developers..

I have had the Elite for a week or so now. Surprisingly, it isn't the camera for the most part I have issue with it is the integration with the software and garmin Edge.

As a person in the IT industry, I am surprised you guys would release this product and software with so many of the obvious items not included in the Edit software that you acknowledge should be there. You are too large a company to not have mapped that out and got it completed prior to release. Somebody is holding back on the resources. Open source would have likely had you further along.

In terms of integration, my primary use is cycling. I had hoped having the Ant plus and being a Garmin device would allow telemetry to smoothly come across instead off all the work arounds and synching that have to be done with other products (open source stuff, dashware.net)

Instead, I get a device that you can't change the data shown or the look of the data. Extremely relevant data such as distance, location and total ascent can't be included which would be the case if the software would synch with the file from the other unit. Essentially, the unit can't produce the cool telemetry videos we like to make.

Without these items, the unit falls well short of expectation and will likely be returned.

Please let me know any plans to allow this other relevant data to come across before I return the unit.

I appreciate your efforts to communicate on the forum.

A few other thoughts for those that may be reading and considering:
The unit without the case weighs more than gopro with the case.
At 1080p with light off, you may get 2:15 out of the battery not 3hrs.
The shape may be "aero" but it makes it much more difficult to position on the bike.
It does not work with the gopro standard bike mount. You must have the Garmin mount.
Overall, the camera performs equal to others on the market at this price.
  • Firmware/Software issues......

    I have had the Elite for a week or so now. Surprisingly, it isn't the camera for the most part I have issue with it is the integration with the software and garmin Edge.

    As a person in the IT industry, I am surprised you guys would release this product and software with so many of the obvious items not included in the Edit software that you acknowledge should be there. You are too large a company to not have mapped that out and got it completed prior to release. Somebody is holding back on the resources. Open source would have likely had you further along.

    In terms of integration, my primary use is cycling. I had hoped having the Ant plus and being a Garmin device would allow telemetry to smoothly come across instead off all the work arounds and synching that have to be done with other products (open source stuff, dashware.net)

    Instead, I get a device that you can't change the data shown or the look of the data. Extremely relevant data such as distance, location and total ascent can't be included which would be the case if the software would synch with the file from the other unit. Essentially, the unit can't produce the cool telemetry videos we like to make.

    Without these items, the unit falls well short of expectation and will likely be returned.

    Please let me know any plans to allow this other relevant data to come across before I return the unit.

    I appreciate your efforts to communicate on the forum.

    A few other thoughts for those that may be reading and considering:
    The unit without the case weighs more than gopro with the case.
    At 1080p with light off, you may get 2:15 out of the battery not 3hrs.
    The shape may be "aero" but it makes it much more difficult to position on the bike.
    It does not work with the gopro standard bike mount. You must have the Garmin mount.
    Overall, the camera performs equal to others on the market at this price.


    What you've experienced unfortunately from my experience runs across the board. Both firmware & software integration amongst the Garmin products has been their "Archilles heel" for many years! ~ All the "little things" that are not quite right. IMO, it's not just an "understaffed/resource issue" but also planning and foresight from product inception to product delivery. I think they are at times "a touch out of sync" with their user base. Sometimes I wonder if people within the company still uses the products they have designed. I have to think NO, since there are so many little (easy to implement in software/firmware) features that would greatly improve user experience. Their hardware is great IMO. (And my only experience with customer service and a failed product was far superior than I had anticipated.)

    I have learned to either "stuggle" with their newly released products, or wait for them to mature them before purchasing. (Waiting for firmware version 5.x solved most issues for my 3 year old Montana 650.)

    One last thing: I'm sure the fact that their desktop applications are designed to work with MANY products makes them extremely difficult to properly support/accommodate products "across the board." Even so, I think if both foresight and the underling foundation of the code base were a bit different, things would go much more smoothly. My Montana 650 w/ v.5.40 firmware is somehow still getting stripped of all the "non-critical" data (dates & altitude data) when tracks are edited in Basecamp (version 4.2.4) and returned to the unit... (The unit's on-screen keypad lacks an insert/overwrite toggle, so I refuse to use it. It's just way too frustrating!)

    I have no idea how their firmware & software compares to their competitors today (it was #1 back in the 90's), but I'm getting curious to find out..... Their hardware is as good as it gets. But that's not enough today. It's only 1/2 of the equation.
  • I have had the Elite for a week or so now. Surprisingly, it isn't the camera for the most part I have issue with it is the integration with the software and garmin Edge.


    Out of curiosity, what do you mean by this? I bought a VIRB Elite, which I've had and tried to use for a few days now, and I got it precisely because it's stand-alone. If it worked (it doesn't, see https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?63326-First-ride-with-my-new-VIRB-Elite), I wouldn't need the track from my Edge 800 for anything. What do you want the Edge to do for you? Today I wasn't going to take my Elite with me, but then I saw in the thread I linked to that NEILHELLER had a successful ride with 720p video. I tried that, and today the VIRB lost all the video and all of the GPS data after various spontaneous restarts and freezes. On the plus side, my ANT+ sensors linked up for the first time, and I had fun along the way looking at the Dashboard with my HR and temperature showing.

    As a person in the IT industry, I am surprised you guys would release this product and software with so many of the obvious items not included in the Edit software that you acknowledge should be there. You are too large a company to not have mapped that out and got it completed prior to release. Somebody is holding back on the resources. Open source would have likely had you further along.

    In terms of integration, my primary use is cycling. I had hoped having the Ant plus and being a Garmin device would allow telemetry to smoothly come across instead off all the work arounds and synching that have to be done with other products (open source stuff, dashware.net)

    Instead, I get a device that you can't change the data shown or the look of the data. Extremely relevant data such as distance, location and total ascent can't be included which would be the case if the software would synch with the file from the other unit. Essentially, the unit can't produce the cool telemetry videos we like to make.



    It is more than a little annoying, as I tried to salvage the video from my previous two rides, that the track from my Edge 800 and the video don't align automatically in VIRB Edit. The hand adjusting is OK as a backup, but it's hard to get it aligned properly. Isn't there timestamp metadata in the frames?


    Without these items, the unit falls well short of expectation and will likely be returned.

    Please let me know any plans to allow this other relevant data to come across before I return the unit.

    I appreciate your efforts to communicate on the forum.

    A few other thoughts for those that may be reading and considering:
    The unit without the case weighs more than gopro with the case.
    At 1080p with light off, you may get 2:15 out of the battery not 3hrs.
    The shape may be "aero" but it makes it much more difficult to position on the bike.
    It does not work with the gopro standard bike mount. You must have the Garmin mount.
    Overall, the camera performs equal to others on the market at this price.


    Incidentally, I know that Garmin developers hang out in this forum. It'd be nice if they read the corresponding Mac forum. My Elite has a file named elog.txt in the Garmin folder which contains program counter/registers for all of my crashes over the last few days, all of them "MIPS32 exception. R0-R31 + badvaddr + status + cause + epc". Is this of any interest, or is this something that VIRB Edit transmits back to Garmin automatically?
  • Follow up

    Out of curiosity, what do you mean by this? I bought a VIRB Elite, which I've had and tried to use for a few days now, and I got it precisely because it's stand-alone. If it worked (it doesn't, see https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?63326-First-ride-with-my-new-VIRB-Elite), I wouldn't need the track from my Edge 800 for anything. What do you want the Edge to do for you?



    I didn't want a stand alone. I want the video to be able use the other data from the Edge that the camera does not have (ascent, distance, etc). I wanted to be able to pull that across and synch up. Up until now, I had to pull that data across and manually synch up with video. The advantage of the Virb Elite should be that you don't have to do this. It is 100% capable but not without the software to back it up.

    You add this to the lack of ability to change the data it does display, adjust the display type, etc and the unit is simply producing as advertised.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago
    I would also like to use my Edge 800 data, especially the temperature data. I won't buy an extra temperature sensor, when i already have all the temp data i need. Both the Edge and the Virb record GPS data, so i dont think it would be that big of a deal to sync the data, especially the temperature.

    And i can't use my GCS 10 with my virb. my edge 800 recognizes the sensor, my virb doesn't. Why? Who knows...
  • I would also like to use my Edge 800 data, especially the temperature data. I won't buy an extra temperature sensor, when i already have all the temp data i need. Both the Edge and the Virb record GPS data, so i dont think it would be that big of a deal to sync the data, especially the temperature.

    And i can't use my GCS 10 with my virb. my edge 800 recognizes the sensor, my virb doesn't. Why? Who knows...


    I had trouble seeing my GSC-10 as well as my HR and my Tempe. The last ride I took with the VIRB Elite, I "Reset Settings" from the Setup menu before setting off, and it did lock up with my Tempe and HR belt before I left. However, it lost all the video and the GPS/ANT+ data in the end due to various crashes and freezes, so while there was progress with ANT+, it was overshadowed by the total loss of data...
  • I'm curious to know if there is a platform that strikes the perfect balance between user-friendly design and robust functionality.

  • I've been using telemetry overlay. It is not too difficult to get the hangover. It is also a very robust piece of software.I've been playing around with it and I'm very happy so far. I can officially say that I don't miss virb edit anymore.