# Working with GoPro POV footage?



## ColinHoernig

Which OS are you working with? iMovie on OS X (Mac) can handle GoPro footage natively. For Windows, you'll probably need something like Vegas Pro to edit the HD footage, since I don't think Windows Movie Maker can handle HD natively. If you want free but limited ability (pretty much just cutting out clips, etc), VirtualDub or MPEG Streamclip will work.


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## oneshot

Windows movie maker can handle it.. its just the crappiest app ever!
free though if you don;t already have it.


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## herzogone

On Windows, the newer Windows Live Movie Maker works pretty well compared to the old Windows Movie Maker (and can handle HD), but it is still pretty limited compared to the non-free options.

A good value option for more capability is Adobe Premiere Elements, which you can get for about $80. I think Sony Vegas Movie Studio is another lower-cost alternative with a lot of capability, but I haven't used it. Of course, if you have the money and high demands, go for Sony Vegas Pro, or Adobe Premiere Pro.

For a Mac, if iMovie doesn't suit your needs, the Adobe Premiere options are available there, or you could get Final Cut Pro.


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## hikeswithdogs

herzogone said:


> On Windows, the newer Windows Live Movie Maker works pretty well compared to the old Windows Movie Maker (and can handle HD), but it is still pretty limited compared to the non-free options.
> 
> A good value option for more capability is Adobe Premiere Elements, which you can get for about $80. I think Sony Vegas Movie Studio is another lower-cost alternative with a lot of capability, but I haven't used it. Of course, if you have the money and high demands, go for Sony Vegas Pro, or Adobe Premiere Pro.
> 
> For a Mac, if iMovie doesn't suit your needs, the Adobe Premiere options are available there, or you could get Final Cut Pro.



Can any of those apps work directly(and well) with MP4 and h.264 files or do I have dick around with all kinds of conversions? Thanks


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## oneshot

no converting these days. you just need to make sure you have the right drivers installed.


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## hikeswithdogs

oneshot said:


> no converting these days. you just need to make sure you have the right drivers installed.



kick ass thanks allot, everyone's been super helpful, hopefully 720p\60 and 1080p\30 don't crush my laptop


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## oneshot

your Video card is your best friend when it comes to handling and editing HD video these days..
you want a HD compatible vid card with lots of vid card memory. most newer laptops work pretty well these days too. i do all my editing on a PC but my laptop works ok, just not as fast and can be chuggy in preview.


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## hikeswithdogs

oneshot said:


> your Video card is your best friend when it comes to handling and editing HD video these days..
> you want a HD compatible vid card with lots of vid card memory. most newer laptops work pretty well these days too. i do all my editing on a PC but my laptop works ok, just not as fast and can be chuggy in preview.


Gonna be 900 miles from home for the next 5 monthes so I can't drag the PC with me in the station wagon


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## herzogone

hikeswithdogs said:


> Can any of those apps work directly(and well) with MP4 and h.264 files or do I have dick around with all kinds of conversions? Thanks





oneshot said:


> no converting these days. you just need to make sure you have the right drivers installed.


^ What he said 

All of those will directly import h.264 MP4 files, but Windows Live Movie Maker ad will only publish to WMV format. Adobe Premiere and all the others (I believe) also support publishing to h.264 MP4 as an option.


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## hikeswithdogs

Not that anyone cares but here's my first attempt at editing gopro footage with live movie maker. From this morning at Brighton in Utah with Snowvole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDRoIkwetZ8&feature=youtu.be


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## snowvols

Fun day today. We need another storm or two to finish burying all of the rocks. Still lots of rocks and sharks out there. Good to ride with you today and plenty more of that this season.


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## hikeswithdogs

snowvols said:


> Fun day today. We need another storm or two to finish burying all of the rocks. Still lots of rocks and sharks out there. Good to ride with you today and plenty more of that this season.


Hell yea brother thanks a ton for showing me the early season goods I owe ya a beer, tried to forum message you but I think your mailbox is full


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## snowvols

Yea I saw that on my phone. I took care of that once I got home.


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## herzogone

hikeswithdogs said:


> Not that anyone cares but here's my first attempt at editing gopro footage with live movie maker. From this morning at Brighton in Utah with Snowvole
> 
> brighton.wmv - YouTube


Nicely done! Except for how jealous this makes me of those conditions.  :laugh:


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## turbospartan

hikeswithdogs said:


> Not that anyone cares but here's my first attempt at editing gopro footage with live movie maker. From this morning at Brighton in Utah with Snowvole
> 
> brighton.wmv - YouTube



Is it pretty easy to use Live Movie Maker?

What setting did you have your GoPro on?

Anything else you can comment on, regarding the creation of the video (was it simple, time consuming, have any hiccups, did you have to convert any files, etc.)?


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## hikeswithdogs

turbospartan said:


> Is it pretty easy to use Live Movie Maker?
> 
> What setting did you have your GoPro on?
> 
> Anything else you can comment on, regarding the creation of the video (was it simple, time consuming, have any hiccups, did you have to convert any files, etc.)?


GoPro was on 1080p\30 I think next time I will try 720p\60 since it should make slow motion much smoother and possibly speed up the video creation process but that might not be the case since 720\60 actually creates larger files that 1080p but each frame has less data so who knows.

Took me about 5 hours to figure out how live movie maker works and import and clip\trim\paste all the gopro clips together to make a single video out of 10 video clips, add music ect but it's very simple once you get the hang of it. App seems stable even with a 2 gigs of video loaded in, haven't experienced any crashing. Just wish I had my quad core desktop to do the number crunching.

My dual core Windows Laptop took about an hour to compile the 1080p version of the video(5 minute video) and it pegs both CPU's to 100% while it's trans-coding(converting) from MP4 format to WMV format.

For some reason the music keeps getting screwed up on the 1080p version of the video, gonna try to delete all teh music tonight and re-add to see if that resolves.

All in all for a free program it works great and is very intuitive even for someone like me who has never used a video editor before.


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## hikeswithdogs

More tips, 

1.If you plan on using music from iTunes you HAVE to convert it to WMA or MP3(to strip the DRM\Copy protection) in order keep all kinds of crazy unpredictable shit\crashing from happening with the final video output of Live Movie maker.

2. If you want to post in 720p\1080p on youtube you have to convert the WMA files to an MP4(H.264). Live Movie maker only outputs in WMV video format

3. I use Audials Tunebite to convert(and strip DRM from iTunes music) itunes music files to WMA(Windows media audio) and convert the final rendered video to MP4(H.264) so it's HD youtube friendly. 

4. DO NOT use your computer AT ALL while the movie rendering\converting is in process for either Live Movie Maker or Tunebite, this will cause weird shit with you final video, like speeding up slowing down video sound\music sync issues.

Tubebite is well worth paying the 30$ for such a useful tool to EASILY deal with audio\video transcodeing and conversions and it can be easily installed on 2+ computers like my laptop and desktop(I don't condone pirating cheap software)

Their is multiple free solutions out there to convert the audio and video but many are unreliable and a PITA to install\use. 

If you saw the version I posted on facebook today you can easily see these problems a I was trying to work and render\convert\compress video at the same time....bad idea.

I'm uploading the final stable, synced, non jankey version to youtube right now, will post when when it's done uploading here in about an hour.


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## Sick-Pow

waiting.....


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## hikeswithdogs

Finally was 820 MB and Youtube processing took FOREVER

BrightonFinal.mp4 - YouTube

In my hurry I have the music off time by a few seconds and the stupid credits flyby at least now the video is stable and running at the right speed


Feedback on video improvements are appreciated


OK I take that back still a little wierd but whatever, I think I messed with the source video speed to much before conversion. To fix I'd probably have to start the project over in Live Movie maker, I did so much experimentation with settings who knows what I screwed up. Will try again next powder day but at least now I have a process down that I think\hope works.


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## Sick-Pow

Sweet video. Goofy Foot party (whichI am one)...love it.

Slash master, I like your style dude.

Holy pow...damn.


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## hikeswithdogs

Sick-Pow said:


> Sweet video. Goofy Foot party (whichI am one)...love it.
> 
> Slash master, I like your style dude.
> 
> Holy pow...damn.


Thanks for the kind words bro, hopefully my next effort I have more ride and editing time and can get more footage of others like Snowvols now that I kind of have a clue what I'm doing hope to keep getting better!


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## turbospartan

Video looks good, and thanks for the tips on how to get the best results with the editing. 

Couple of comments/questions: 

- I've used my GoPro for other things (my gf made this video this past summer: Blue Pit Bull Diving for Gopro - YouTube), but not snowboarding yet. How do you know what the best angle is to have when "aiming" the GoPro off of your helmet? It would suck to get a whole day of awesome riding in, only to find that it was pointed too far down/up and ruined the video. I know you can buy the attached LCD screen, but that doesn't seem worth it. 

- I have a 16GB Class 4 SD card, how big is your SD card and how close were you to filling it up after a day of riding?

- Suggestion: If interested, getting a pole mount to record video would mix things up a big and give some different perspectives (mix final video with helmet cam, pole mount, etc.). 


Other than that, cool video and some pretty nice powder this early in the season. I'm going to ride Friday and/or Saturday/Sunday, but only groomers open so far in CO without much new snow lately (4" a couple nights ago, few inches predicted for Friday) so I doubt I'll record. 

Definitely keep tabs on this thread to remember all the "tips" for making the final video.


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## howeh

Damn, blocked in the UK due to music.

Have a look at uploading to Vimeo, too... the quality seems to be better there and I've yet to run into any issues with the video being blocked in countries etc.


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## hikeswithdogs

turbospartan said:


> Video looks good, and thanks for the tips on how to get the best results with the editing.
> 
> Couple of comments/questions:
> 
> - I've used my GoPro for other things (my gf made this video this past summer: Blue Pit Bull Diving for Gopro - YouTube), but not snowboarding yet. How do you know what the best angle is to have when "aiming" the GoPro off of your helmet? It would suck to get a whole day of awesome riding in, only to find that it was pointed too far down/up and ruined the video. I know you can buy the attached LCD screen, but that doesn't seem worth it.
> 
> - I have a 16GB Class 4 SD card, how big is your SD card and how close were you to filling it up after a day of riding?
> 
> - Suggestion: If interested, getting a pole mount to record video would mix things up a big and give some different perspectives (mix final video with helmet cam, pole mount, etc.).
> 
> 
> Other than that, cool video and some pretty nice powder this early in the season. I'm going to ride Friday and/or Saturday/Sunday, but only groomers open so far in CO without much new snow lately (4" a couple nights ago, few inches predicted for Friday) so I doubt I'll record.
> 
> Definitely keep tabs on this thread to remember all the "tips" for making the final video.


--Honestly this was my first time ever using any video camera(outside of my phone) and I had no idea what angle to choose so thats why it was all over the place, also I forgot to bring any tools with me so whe ever I hit branches, took a fall or hit it with my glove it got off kilter because the main screw was loose. I like the down angle so you can see the rim of my helmet and board but I think that can get anoying to the viewer since they want to see whats up ahead, more of an artistic view but generally I'd think you want it pointing just slightly down.

The WiFi backpack comes out in a month or 2 this way you'll be able to see what the gopro is seeing on your Android or iPhone in realtime, change settings, take photo's stuff like that and it works with both Hero1 and Hero2 models more info on that here GoPro Wi-Fi BacPac & Remote

--I have a 32GB card and about 30 minutes of filming at 1080p\30fps resulted in 3.6 gigs of data

--I for sure want a hand held pole mount for added flexibility and alternate views\scenes like you menntioned but I also want a built a telecoping mount for my avy shovel handle that can extend up out my pack with a stiff "bendy" end on it so it can be tweaked for like an over the shoulder view somewhat like this video Gopro backpack mount #1

--Yep we lucked out with an desent early season storm last saturday , was a ton of fun but we need mroe LaNina 2.0 where the hell are you!?!?!?!?


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## xDOTY

I am getting a GoPro Hero 2!! It will be shipping out Monday!!! Woot!! I have an 8GB card already, so I will just get a 16GB later on and that should do me. Then, I will buy another 16GB if needed. Memory cards are so small and light, you wont even notice having them in your pocket so why not save a few $$s and just buy more smaller ones, instead of one big one? Me=Teen=Thrifty 

Nice edit, the effect in the beginning I felt was a little too much, though.


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## CalvaryCougar

any good free video editing softwares out there with the ability to correct color/contrast?


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## hikeswithdogs

xDOTY said:


> I am getting a GoPro Hero 2!! It will be shipping out Monday!!! Woot!! I have an 8GB card already, so I will just get a 16GB later on and that should do me. Then, I will buy another 16GB if needed. Memory cards are so small and light, you wont even notice having them in your pocket so why not save a few $$s and just buy more smaller ones, instead of one big one? Me=Teen=Thrifty
> 
> Nice edit, the effect in the beginning I felt was a little too much, though.


Thanks for the feedback, oh yea for sure I was just screwing around experimenting with the special effects.

The reason I went for the 32Gig is I want to do high detail time lapse photography(sun moving across the sky star\moon movement ect) with the Hero2 and the larger memory card you have the smaller time intervals you can use to create a video out of the 1000's of photo you'd have to take to put together the time lapse video but if your not planning to do any of that then you'd probably bet better off with 2 or 3 smaller cards.


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## hikeswithdogs

CalvaryCougar said:


> any good free video editing softwares out there with the ability to correct color/contrast?


Good question Live movie maker only lets you adjust brightness and apply generic effects


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## l burke l

less is always more when doing effects


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## FacePlant4Free

hey Hikes,

what speed and resolution did you shoot that video in? i got mine and made a quick video but my computer really cant handle the 1080p setting. even after converting the video is ubber choppy and i cant really edit it.

also, does the quality get a lot better when u convert it back to mp4 to upload it?

cant wait for the snow!


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## hikeswithdogs

FacePlant4Free said:


> hey Hikes,
> 
> what speed and resolution did you shoot that video in? i got mine and made a quick video but my computer really cant handle the 1080p setting. even after converting the video is ubber choppy and i cant really edit it.
> 
> also, does the quality get a lot better when u convert it back to mp4 to upload it?
> 
> cant wait for the snow!


That was at 1080p\30fps , quality always drops when you convert but I find that the WMV output from Live Movie maker is very comparable to the raw MP4(h.264) output from the GoPro itself but then I loose a little quality when converting back to MP4 via Tunebite, it's not much but the compression artifacts are a little noticeable on a larger screen at 1080p.

If your PC is struggling and it's maybe worth an upgrade to add memory or get a cheap newer video card(say 50$-80$ Nvidia)that has MP4 hardware acceleration this will take some\most of the load off of your CPU depending on whether your conversion software takes advantage of hardware acceleration or not.

Also I as I mentioned above make sure your not touching your PC while the rendering\ trans-coding is ongoing as this causes all kinds of weird stuff and choppiness.

My 2 year old dual core laptop with 4 gigs of ram(Windows 7 64-Bit) seems to work fine if I'm patient, so an desktop should be fine.

MP4 files are VERY CPU intensive to actually play so your recording might be ok but your computer might not be powerful enough to actually PLAY the video. Bring your recording over to someone else's house with a known good PC to see if the recording are screwed up or if it's just a playback performance issue isolated to your PC\laptop.


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## l burke l

hikeswithdogs said:


> MP4 files are VERY CPU intensive to actually play so your recording might be ok but your computer might not be powerful enough to actually PLAY the video. Bring your recording over to someone else's house with a known good PC to see if the recording are screwed up or if it's just a playback performance issue isolated to your PC\laptop.



he can just plug the camera into the tv to and watch playback to check, i doubt the files have any issues with them though.


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## hikeswithdogs

l burke l said:


> he can just plug the camera into the tv to and watch playback to check, i doubt the files have any issues with them though.


Agreed I'm 100% sure the MP4 files coming directly out of the camera are fine, I guess i was assuming he was talking about the files after the Live Movie Maker(or whatever he's using) conversion process.


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## l burke l

hikeswithdogs said:


> Agreed I'm 100% sure the MP4 files coming directly out of the camera are fine, I guess i was assuming he was talking about the files after the Live Movie Maker(or whatever he's using) conversion process.



Ughh why people use anything other than mpeg stremclip boggles my mind.


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## hikeswithdogs

l burke l said:


> Ughh why people use anything other than mpeg stremclip boggles my mind.


Can it output in Mp4\H.264 if so I'll give it a try, old school MPEG2 is just by far to inefficient in comparison to the latest H.264 and AC3\WMV formats.

Looks like it does, I'll be downloading this tonight to test it out, thanks for the heads up!


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## FacePlant4Free

i have the LCD screen for the gopro so i know the video is fine. it just doesnt stream well on my computer.

i use sony vegas pro 9 to edit and preview.

i honestly am not very good with hardware stuff so im not sure exactly what im working with. all i know is that this laptop is pretty basic and isnt very good graphics wise. 

im just trying to figure our which setting would be best to record in before i hit the mountain. i may drop it down to 720p @ 60fps just to have the higher frame rate. im juse wondering whether or not im wasting the technology by not recording in 1080.

i guess ill have to see once i get out and get some longer video.


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## l burke l

FacePlant4Free said:


> . i may drop it down to 720p @ 60fps just to have the higher frame rate. im juse wondering whether or not im wasting the technology by not recording in 1080.



Going to 720 60 will not help at all. It uses the same amount of mb/s as 1080p would. You'll have to use 720 30 to see any difference in playback.


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## BigSky Shredder

if you have the cash, sony vegas works wonders.


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## xDOTY

BigSky Shredder said:


> if you have the cash, sony vegas works wonders.


Or if you know how to google...


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## BigSky Shredder

xDOTY said:


> Or if you know how to google...


Haha I meant if you go the legal way..


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## hikeswithdogs

WalkingCorpse said:


> Exactly its about Video/Graphic card. If you are doin anything with 1080p its a must to beef up those components.
> 
> Also Windows Movie Maker should work but like others says its crap and limited.
> 
> iMovie is far superior for a free editing software but then again MAC is IMO... far as OS...But lets not start that pissing contest between fan boys


Thast what I assumed until I saw someone trying to edit GoPro footage with iMovie last weekend and it looked like a giant pain in the ass, he couldn't even get it to the point where he could edit\view frame by frame, just looked really wonky not to mention most of us don't have Macs so iMovie is a moot point.(It's bad enough I own an iPhone and am saving for an iPad3)

Right now I'm taking a serious look at Nero Video 11 as it looks like it does everything I need(and WAY WAY WAY more) and I know from past experience Nero makes quality products that they support.

Honestly Live Movie maker does everything I need it to(except strip DRM from music which I use Audials for) if it could just work with native MP4 video I wouldn't even need anything else.


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## xDOTY

I really love sony vegas pro. To preview clips you right click and view in the trimmer, then you just drag, split with 's' and boom badda boom. If I need hardcore effects, then I will pull it out into AAE and then substitute it back in.


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## hikeswithdogs

WalkingCorpse said:


> imovie is simple as could be..... Not sure why he had a problem with it. Most people dont have MACs? Not sure about that. I have both Mac and PC. More people have MAC than you might think.
> 
> NERO is solid though.
> 
> Strip DRM??? Not familiar with that


Love apple products(Apple TV, iPhone, iPad ect) just not their PC and Laptops(I work on computers for a living so am set in my day to day ways), just more used to working with Adobe lineup of products geared towards professionals but am not willing to pirate or purchase Adobe Premier(like 2500$)

Lots of video editing software freaks out when you try add music with DRM(protected copyrighted content like from itunes or amazon)

So I have a product that quickly and cleanly strips this "copy protection" so I can easily work with the video or audio, I don't have it for pirating purposes.


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## xDOTY

Apple makes the best portable handheld devices. Computers, meh. I am not going to start that, it is just I have a custom built pc and will blow anything in it's price out of the water. In Sony Vegas, you can change the pitch by .0001 or something, you can't even tell the difference, but it is enough to trick YouTube.


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## hikeswithdogs

xDOTY said:


> Apple makes the best portable handheld devices. Computers, meh. I am not going to start that, it is just I have a custom built pc and will blow anything in it's price out of the water. In Sony Vegas, you can change the pitch by .0001 or something, you can't even tell the difference, but it is enough to trick YouTube.


I'm right there with ya on apple products since their move to Intel\x86 CPU's


Have you actually tried it recently(the youtube copy protection deal), I don't think this workx anymore with their new content detection systems and honestly that's not even the problem, Tunebite strips the DRM in like 30 seconds(per song) but when you try to marry the "protected" audio to the POV video it causes all kinds of timing issues with the audio\video sync that I don't feel like trying to deal with so I just tunebite everything since it's loss-less.

I know allot of people like Vegas but generally I'm not a fan of Sony products and Nero Video 11 is only 30$ and should do everything I need it too plus has all the Nvidia\Cuda GPU acceleration stuff that makes my work laptop able to easily handle 1080p video compiles(albeit with someone less accuracy)


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## turbospartan

Bump. 


For you GoPro Hero2 owners... is 720 / 60fps still the best option for capturing footage?

Any thoughts on videos getting washed out on sunny days? Can this be fixed during the edit? Anyone ever buy one of the UV filters found on eBay?

Thanks


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## blunted_nose

I cant believe people are actually saying "movie maker".... WORST.

Intermediate editing: Sony vegas 9 pro
Expert editing/ what i use: Adobe After Effects 6
3D tracking: Bounjour


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## M.C._Dub

turbospartan said:


> Bump.
> 
> 
> For you GoPro Hero2 owners... is 720 / 60fps still the best option for capturing footage?
> 
> Any thoughts on videos getting washed out on sunny days? Can this be fixed during the edit? Anyone ever buy one of the UV filters found on eBay?
> 
> Thanks


bump, now that it's snow time again! :yahoo:


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## PiKiT

anyone got any advice for best recording options for a gopro 3 black?:yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:


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## NZRide

Recommend the Magix Movie edit editing software.
I auditioned every possible program I could find (most offer 30 day free demos so try them) two years ago and again last year, and in terms of being able to import and keep the MP4 format and not convert (and avoid losses right off the bat), edit with some pretty cool tools, do all the basic stuff, splice, transitions, speed up, slow mo, add music and then the biggy where many surprisingly failed, was maintaining the original resolution AND frame rate.
A lot of my testing produced visibly degraded end product in the movie compared to my raw data, whereas Magix kept it very close.
It does (but so do the others) take a bit of getting used to.
To answer the question above, also Magix 2014 supports 4K data so all good to chuck everything off the Hero 3 at it.
Wait for one of their sale offers and it can be snapped up very cheap and its great software. Note I don't think it worked with some plugins like Twixtor (at least on the 2012-13 version at least), so check first if you have some fancy plugins your planning on using some other products may offer better support.
Just my opinion, as mentioned download the free samples and see how they work for you. Just recommend casting a close eye on quality of finished product, at quick glance they can look good, but on some of the big name software I was unhappy with the finished movie quality.


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