# GoPro Resolution Preference



## alleyehave

I know this has been talked about here and there, but haven't found a dedicated thread to it. I just got a new GoPro Hero 2 and took it out for the first time a few days ago. I kept it as a helmet mount on 1080p-30 all day. A couple things I noticed: POV footage is boring, unless you're doing tree runs/theres good powder or you're doing gnarly shit. 1080p 30 seemed choppy to me, I just found out there was a firmware update and hopefully that will help, but I'm wondering if the frame rate is just too slow for fast-action shit? So I started playing around, and both 720-60 and 960-48 seemed a lot smoother to me, and for some reason the image seemed higher quality???

So i'm wondering what you guys use when you shoot. Also, a bigger vertical capture would be nice, 948 provides the best for this?

Take care,
Nate


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## hikeswithdogs

If I'm shooting general footage like touristing, laid back snowboarding with girlfriend, backpacking, vacation\blog crap like that 1080p is allot sharper and should be smoother than normal standard def TV(which is 24fps)

If I'm shooting other people snowboarding, who I know will be doing shit worth putting in slow motion then I'll shoot 720p\60 , 720p\30 is a good compromise if you have a weaker computer or have limited memory card space probably easier on the battery as well.

Good luck and don't forget to post your footage in the media section!


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## alleyehave

Thats what I figured, when would you prefer 960-48 over 720-60? Or would you ever?


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## hikeswithdogs

alleyehave said:


> Thats what I figured, when would you prefer 960-48 over 720-60? Or would you ever?


Probably never, all my TV's and monitors are wide screen(16x9) and 960\48 is a non-widescreen or square\4:3 aspect ratio


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## Cr0_Reps_Smit

i always use 720-60 and when you say the footage is choppy do you mean it kinda skips some frames? if so then thats your computer and not the setting. possibly need more ram or a better processor. either way you should still be able to edit the footage and once you upload it it should look fine even if choppy when watching the raw footage on your computer.


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## alleyehave

Cr0_Reps_Smit said:


> i always use 720-60 and when you say the footage is choppy do you mean it kinda skips some frames? if so then thats your computer and not the setting. possibly need more ram or a better processor. either way you should still be able to edit the footage and once you upload it it should look fine even if choppy when watching the raw footage on your computer.


Nah, its not that...ive got 8gbs and I'm running on a 3.06ghz processor....I wouldn't actually call it choppy, but maybe just kind of grainy, not smooth...Im hoping the firmware update fixed that, the 720p just looked cleaner...im gonna do some test vids today, so we will see...


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## hikeswithdogs

alleyehave said:


> Nah, its not that...ive got 8gbs and I'm running on a 3.06ghz processor....I wouldn't actually call it choppy, but maybe just kind of grainy, not smooth...Im hoping the firmware update fixed that, the 720p just looked cleaner...im gonna do some test vids today, so we will see...


What are you viewing the video on where it looks choppy?


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## alleyehave

hikeswithdogs said:


> What are you viewing the video on where it looks choppy?


Quicktime, mplayerx...I think it was the firmware, i'll update here a bit later...


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## hikeswithdogs

alleyehave said:


> Quicktime, mplayerx...I think it was the firmware, i'll update here a bit later...


Sorry I meant the display, like are you trying to view the 1080 video on a 720 monitor or something like that where there's upconversion\scaling going on?


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## alleyehave

hikeswithdogs said:


> Sorry I meant the display, like are you trying to view the 1080 video on a 720 monitor or something like that where there's upconversion\scaling going on?


Nah, its a newer mac display...there was nothing wrong with hardware...after the firmware update it seemed to have improved it quite a bit...I think i'll use 720-60 for action shots, it only makes sense...


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## hikeswithdogs

alleyehave said:


> Nah, its a newer mac display...there was nothing wrong with hardware...after the firmware update it seemed to have improved it quite a bit...I think i'll use 720-60 for action shots, it only makes sense...


Cool good luck and have fun with it, getting the video is only 1\2 the battle editing it on the other hand is the hard and time consuming part!


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## Cr0_Reps_Smit

alleyehave said:


> Nah, its not that...ive got 8gbs and I'm running on a 3.06ghz processor....I wouldn't actually call it choppy, but maybe just kind of grainy, not smooth...Im hoping the firmware update fixed that, the 720p just looked cleaner...im gonna do some test vids today, so we will see...


ive got 12gbs of ram with the new intel quad core i7 and it still gets a little choppy for me at times but whenever i finishing editing it comes out smooth. i also updated my firmware right off the bat with the new HD2 so maybe there was something wrong with the video before that.


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## alleyehave

Cr0_Reps_Smit said:


> ive got 12gbs of ram with the new intel quad core i7 and it still gets a little choppy for me at times but whenever i finishing editing it comes out smooth. i also updated my firmware right off the bat with the new HD2 so maybe there was something wrong with the video before that.


Possibly because the software hasn't finished rendering the preview yet? That'd be my best guess, which will happen even with 16gbs of ram and a lightning fast processor...


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## Cr0_Reps_Smit

no im talking bout when im just watching the raw clips with vlc player, whenever i put it in adobe its never choppy.


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## Tarzanman

alleyehave said:


> Nah, its not that...ive got 8gbs and I'm running on a 3.06ghz processor....I wouldn't actually call it choppy, but maybe just kind of grainy, not smooth...Im hoping the firmware update fixed that, the 720p just looked cleaner...im gonna do some test vids today, so we will see...



.....which is helpful but less important than the video hardware on your rig and whether your video player is doing hardware or software decoding.

I have a 5.5 year old laptop which can still play 1080p clips that skip like hell on some newer machines... and itdefinitely doesn't have 8GB or 3.0 GHz


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## Tarzanman

Cr0_Reps_Smit said:


> no im talking bout when im just watching the raw clips with vlc player, whenever i put it in adobe its never choppy.


VLC does software decoding only, to my knowledge? That will tax your system harder.


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