Manually Geotag Video Files

Table of Contents

Overview #

You can manually geotag videos that do not have any GPS file logs to reference. With Manual GeoTagging, a user can click any number of points on a map to provide location points at any number of intervals that correspond to location content in a video frame.

Feature Availability #

Feature Prerequisites #

This feature is for videos that do not have associated geospatial data.

To Manually Geotag a Video #

1. Launch Video GeoTagger functionality by either 1) selecting the GeoTag menu at the top > Launch Video GeoTagger or by 2) clicking on the GeoTagger Panel tab.

Open the geotagger with the menu item at the top or the GeoTagger tab at the bottom.

 

2. Select the video you want to geotag by clicking on the Browse button for video. Once the video is loaded, click Load for Geotagging.

Browse for the video to geotag.

3. When no GPS content is detected, a message box appears notifying the user they are entering Manual GeoTagging mode and some basic instruction on how to do so.

 

Message box saying that the user is entering manual geotagging mode.

Additional information for how to manually add a start point.

 

4. OPTIONAL STEP – Change the Basemap: The software will allow you to change the basemap to provide more information to assist with geotagging. In this example we will add aerial/satellite imagery.

Change the basemap layer.

5. We zoom into the map and set a GPS start point to correspond to the location of the image for the first frame of video. Once you have identified the your video’s start point in the Map Viewer, right-click on that starting point and Select Manually Add Start Point.

Right click and select Manually Add Start Point

NOTE: You now have the option of either 1) adding points throughout your video until you get to the end, or 2) select your end point and then add points in between the start and end points to fill out your manual GPS track. In the example here, we will be using option 1), adding points throughout the video until we get to the end of our video.

NOTE: If you need to move to the end of your video to identify the last frame end location, simply move the video scrubber to the end of the video.

6.  User will typically then let the video play for an amount of time, pause the video, right-click a point corresponding to the location of the current frame of video in view and then select Manually Add Point Here at 00:00:00.

NOTE: Please be aware that where 00:00:00 shows, the time changes as you move through the video.

Right click and select "add point here" as you move through the video.

7. Repeat the process in step 6 above to add additional GPS points that correspond with the location of the current frame of video in view. Each GPS point you add will be a yellow dot on the map.

8. Once we have added all the points and have reached the end of the video, select Manually Add End Point.

When you have finished geotagging the video and track, right click and select "manually add end point"

9. Now select GeoTag Video and the GPS points on the map turn red.

IMPORTANT! A message indicating the GPS data was saved appears with a path to where your video and new GPX companion file are located. In the folder with your video, you now have a GPX file that contains the GPS data. DO NOT throw this file away or you have to re-tag your video.

 Click "Geotag Video", then the points on the map will turn red and the "Video Successfully Geotagged" message appears.

HOW-TO VIDEO: Manually Geotagging Videos #

Check out how to manually geotag video below. For Adobe PDF users, click here.

Because the video is now geotagged, you can also display a virtual dashboard with gauges representing various GPS and system data. To do this select Dashboard > Show Virtual Dashboard.

Virtual dashboard and how to access it.