I recorded some videos in Economy mode (720p/30fps) using the Record switch to turn the VIRB Elite camera on and then off between videos. Apparently the lag time for the GPS to find satellites following power up caused the GPS data not to be synchronized with the video. I verified this hypothesis by making some videos while leaving the camera on in between recordings and the resulting GPS data was properly synchronized. Using the "GPS Sync..." feature of VIRB Edit on my unsynchronized files results in either the GPS data preceding or following the point in the video that it corresponds to. I know from looking at the acceleration data in the GPX file that the point in time for the desired data is 39 seconds from the start time of the GPX file. The corresponding point in the video file is 44 seconds from the start of the video file, which is 4:27 in length. When I select these times in each of the windows within the GPS Sync... function I don't get the desired result, the GPS data is ahead of the video action. If I select times from the GPX files on either side of the 39 seconds I either end up with the GPS data being early or late but never correct. Also when I'm in the GPS Sync... feature the displayed total time for the GPX data is 4:23 however the start time in the file is 16:55:25 and the end time is 16:59:42 which is only a duration of 4:17. This makes me wonder whether selecting 39 seconds from the start of the file actually retrieves the desired point. Shouldn't I be able to specify and retrieve each and every time point from the GPX file as a sync point? I found a solution to my problem by trimming away the first ten seconds of the video file, which is about the difference in durations of the video and gps data (due to the lag time for the gps to find satellites). I was then able to get the gps data synced using the GPS Sync... feature.
I have the same problem (even I try to correlate via own software). One of both, the video exif creation timestamp or the timestamps in the GPX file seem to be wrong when switching on via the record button. That makes the whole device useless for us.
While there's probably not much the developers can do to make satellite acquisition instantaneous, a simple workaround WRT having the data sync with the video would be to have the data file generation ALWAYS start at the same time as the video file generation - even if the beginning of the data file is filled with zeros, until the device starts to get meaningful data from the GPS, etc.
I recorded some videos in Economy mode (720p/30fps) using the Record switch to turn the VIRB Elite camera on ...
Which firmware version did you use? Using the latest Firmware I found out that in the GPX File an parameter called <gpxtrkoffx:StartOffsetSecs> which seems to hold exactly that time of finding the satellites. I guess VirbEdit is using this value to sync?
I cannot support that statement. I just received my VIRB Elite and tried it in my car, seeing major offsets starting from the very beginning of the video. The GPS data is off up to a minute making the GPS data rather useless.
Until now, I used a Contour+2 which simply saves that GPS data as subtitle of the video stream ensuring it is (also in case of a missing or lost sat fix) absolutely synchronized with the video stream.
The offset value within the GPX data set is always approx 3-4 secs, even in a video where there is a lag of 12 seconds between data and video.
So far and compared with my Contour+2, the VIRB is buggy and useless. If there is not a fix within a few days (as I intended to use the VIRB in my snow holidays in three weeks), I will return the whole set (with the extensive additional tools) to Amazon.
Although VIRB has an Instant record button, I usually WAIT for satellite signal to be acquired before starting recording. It's a habit I follow religiously - unless there is a moment where footage must be taken at all cost at that very second - an event which hardly ever occurs to me. I have had no issues with GPS sync in all my recorded footages thus far (1 year + of usage) be it in car use, running marathons or hiking. I like the Virb so much now that I fly the DJI Phantom with the Virb Elite instead of the GoPro. It is slightly heavier than my old GoPro I but the GPS data makes up for the miniscule loss in flight time.
