The Base Video is at the heart of all timekeeping in both Photo and Video finish and contains everything that is needed to recreate a finish with full accuracy. It can therefore be convenient to move it to another iPad or Macbook for marking to offload the finish line device. This post goes through different ways to transfer the base video, especially a very convenient direct transfer to a Mac.
iCloud
There are three ways to post a Base Video to iCloud. Choose “Save base video: iCloud” when saving in the finish view. Or, if you already have saved the base video, go to Results: Share base videos, and pick a base video. In the dialog choose “Save to files” and choose iCloud. A third option is to choose “Auto-finish: iCloud” in the Recording setup. The base video will then be automatically posted to iCloud after each race.
To import the posted base video on another device go to Results: Base videos” and tap “Import”. The Base video will be downloaded and opened. iCloud posting is convenient since it can be run autonomously from the finish device. The disadvantage is that you need internet access on both devices and that it can be a bit slow sometimes.
Other Cloud solutions
You can also use DropBox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive to transfer a base video. Download the respective app and log in to your account. In SprintTimer go to “Results” and choose “Share base videos”, choose a video and pick the application. Alternatively, you can upload the base video to any type of cloud solution from the Files app.
AirDrop
Airdropping is easy and quick and usually imports the Base video automatically on the receiving device (if not it can be imported from the files app). It also works without an Internet connection. To Airdrop choose “Save base video: AirDrop” when saving in the finish view. Or, if you already have saved the base video, go to Results: Share base videos, and pick your base video. In the dialog choose “Save to files” and choose AirDrop. The disadvantage is that there is no automatic way to initiate an Airdrop, so it is not so useful for an unmanned finish device.
Start Sender Drop
If you are connected with Start Sender in direct mode, the Base video can be sent back to the Start sender device by choosing SSDrop under Auto-finish in the Recording setup. The video will then automatically appear in the Base video list in Results on the start sender device. If you don’t have an external network turning off Bluetooth might speed up the transfer.
Mac Direct Access
You can connect an iPhone or iPad to a Mac with a USB cable or over Wifi and access the files in the Mac finder. This means that you can drag locally saved Base videos directly from the iPhone to the Mac and open them in SprintTimer. Connect the iPhone/iPad with an USB-cable. Click on the device in the sidebar. Choose the “Files” tab at the top and click on SprintTimer. You will find a file called PF_lastBV.bvid (or VF_lastBV.bvid if you use Video finish). This is the most recently saved Base video. Drag that file to anywhere on the (e.g. the desktop). Double click on the file and it will be imported to SprintTimer.
You can use this for an automatic finish. Set the Recording to Auto-finish and pull the Base video from the iPhone directly after each race. Note that file data (size and date) update a bit slowly, but you will still get the latest file when dropping.
This setup becomes even more useful if you allow the iPhone/iPad to be connected over WiFi. Go to the “General” tab and select “Show when on wifi” and click on Apply. You can now disconnect the USB cable.
The anatomy of the Base video
Name
The name of the saved base video starts with PF (Photo Finish) or VF (Video Finish). Then comes a number that represents the creation date: yymmddhhmmss. So a video created on May 11 2021 at 14:23:12 will be called PF210511142312.mov. You can change the name if you want, but keep the initial PF/VF since it tells SprintTimer what to do with it.
Extension
The usual file extension is .mov, meaning that the Base video is a standard QuickTime movie that can be opened by any video player. But sometimes, for example, when airdropping, it is saved with a .bvid extension. This is a unique exertion, which means that it will be automatically opened by SprintTimer. The files, however, are identical in both cases, so you can manually change between .mov and .bvid without any problems.
Metadata
To be able to recreate the finish SprintTimer needs to know a couple of things about the video. Most importantly the reference time, i.e. how long after the start of the race that the recording was started. This information is saved as metadata inside the file. The metadata can be viewed on a Mac, either by selecting the file and choose “show info”. The data is in the description under “more info”. Alternatively, you can open the file with the QuickTime player and choose info under the “window” menu.