Power Kite Forum

GoPro editing suite?

chudalicious - 6-12-2010 at 12:48 PM

Figuring I am getting one for XMAS, just wondering what you all use to edit gopro HD footage on a Mac?

Anything good out there for those .mp4 files?

Appreciate it!

Todd - 6-12-2010 at 01:16 PM

Sony Vegas 9 is great. From what I understand could be installed on a Mac if your Mac has boot camp to install XP or Vista.

chudalicious - 6-12-2010 at 01:51 PM

Thanks Todd. Unfortunately tried bootcamp and was quirky.

Wondering if i can use imovie or get final cut studio. Just dont want to lose quality as we would be showing on a 73in TV:)

John Holgate - 6-12-2010 at 02:20 PM

From what I've seen of iMovie (and to be fair it was only a quick demo) it should handle all your editing and music needs pretty well. The mac should be able to handle the .mp4 files too. My pc & laptop are not fast enough to play the mp4 files from the gopro - so I have to convert them all to mpeg2 before I can do anything with them which is a monumental pain in the rear. Mac & iMovie should be great. If that's not enough try a demo of Premier Elements. I use Corel Video Studio X2 which is slow, clunky and crashes a lot. Maybe that's just PC's.

File size vs quality is always a bit of a trade off. For Vimeo & You tube I use 640x480 (or it's widescreen equivalent) at 2000-3000mb/s which ends up being 140-200mb for a 6 minute clip. Which takes about an hour to upload!! (wireless broadband...zzzzzzzz)

For your 73 inch tv, just maintain your original file size.

An easy way to experiment with file sizes/quality is to make a 15-30 second clip and then encode that at various settings until you find one you're happy with.

you should have a lot of fun with that!

Cheers

Corman - 6-12-2010 at 02:30 PM

Oh yeah, RIP uses a Mac and hopefully he will advise.


Oops! My son was still logged in. ~ Todd

brplatz - 6-12-2010 at 04:26 PM

I use Pinnacle Studio on PC and its nice, but Final Cut on mac i think is the best. My father has it and its awesome.

InvertedForce - 6-12-2010 at 04:33 PM

Ive been using MPEG Streamclip to change the file container from .mp4 (primarily a recording format, not so great for editing) to a .mov (much better for playback/editing). Then I'll drop the files into Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and edit them down, export. Adobe is rather expensive, but I think iMovie would handle the files fine enough so long as they're .mov

MPEG Streamclip:
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

Adobe Premiere Pro:
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=premier...

Adobe Premiere Pro gives you a fully functioning demo for 30 days. Download, try it out.

Jake-SpornPhoto - 6-12-2010 at 04:38 PM

CS5 is very easy to get off the site and easy to use. ahha

Kamikuza - 6-12-2010 at 05:21 PM

You will only lose quality when you start using different codeds to compress the video. Theoretically. It CAN be compressed without noticable loss in quality but that's subjective. I think on a 73 inch TV you're going to notice the bad quality regardless of whether it's raw or compresssed ...

Dunno about the others but Vegas 9 is better than 10 at this point IMHO but make sure you get at least 9.0e as the c version can't open files greater than about 2Gb.

chudalicious - 6-12-2010 at 10:30 PM

Thanks for all the feedback fellas! Looking forward to getting the camera. Figuring strapping it onto my unsuspecting doggie should be amusing while we sit and wait to make fools of ourselves at Tug Hill.

:wee:

Ruudje - 7-12-2010 at 12:20 AM

We use Pinnacle Studio 12 that just work fine for us .
Use one you can work with . What others use is not important .
The best program available is in your head its called
" CREATIVITY 1.0 " :smilegrin:

Have Fun
Ruudje

ripsessionkites - 7-12-2010 at 02:39 AM

if i had the time i would be pumping out big feature kiting flims. how i so need some time to finish the World Cup 2010 movie by this year. coming soon i promise.

i do everything on the MAC. hopefully this will sum things up for everyone.

Picture editing : aperture, i like it more over photoshop. I hate making layers, and if i dont like something the first time you can delete right away. also aperture finds its own borders so you dont have to deal with edges say on the outline of face. if you use a MacBook Pro, you'll find that the rendering is slower if you only have 2gigs of Ram, I strongly suggest if you do A LOT of pics, go to 8gigs.

Video editing : this is tricky since I use a combination of everything to produce a video.

if you want simple no messing around go with iMovie 2011, its got more features over 2010 and its layout can be changed to Final Cut style. iMovie does all formats other than PAL, and MVI extensions.

Converting Files : iSkysoft Video Converter does everything including PAL, and if you need to take a video from 30fps to 60fps it does that too. not everyone sets their GoPros at the same setting so to have the video flow at the same resolution i suggest converting it than having iMovie convert it.

Video editing (pro) : if you have the time to learn and play around i strongly suggest the Final Cut Pro Studio or Express version. Also other programs I use is Adobe After Affects (you know those Twistor or Slow Mo, etc etc), and added affect applications as well. if you want to add animated text, Live Text is good too.

if you have a MAC and need some *full blank* DVDs, i can send you the *blank* if you want. hint hint

John Holgate - 7-12-2010 at 03:28 AM

Quote:

Converting Files : iSkysoft Video Converter does everything including PAL, and if you need to take a video from 30fps to 60fps it does that too. not everyone sets their GoPros at the same setting so to have the video flow at the same resolution i suggest converting it than having iMovie convert it.


Why would you need to convert files? Does iMovie not handle mp4? and I'm a bit baffled why you would convert from 30fps to 60fps - you can't add frames that aren't there in the first place. 60fps down to 30fps makes sense.

I would assume (always dangerous!) that iMovie will allow you to render your movie to most of the major formats - ie: dvd, mpeg, mov, mp4 etc ?

bigben91682 - 7-12-2010 at 07:11 AM

I use iMovie on a Mac and while it's basic, all I really need is basic. It works great with gopro footage and has nice effects. I'm using the 2010 version and it's good, like rip said the 2011 has some nice enhancements. Since you already have iMovie give it a try and if it won't produce what you want go with something more advanced.

bluefunelement - 7-12-2010 at 07:31 AM

I used to work within Apple's Pro Video group and have worked with Final Cut Pro professionally since v2 but I can't recommend iMovie more highly for you. Personally I have edited it Quicktime Player before using iMovie but it's really advanced and it's always getting more features and enhancements as it's Apple's enticement to use a Mac. The history is that the lead engineer created Premiere, then Final Cut (KeyGrip), then iMovie, then Aperture, iMovie for iPhone, and I'm sure he's back working on a new version of iMovie now. There's just no guarantee that FCP will continue to add consumer format support as quickly as iMovie will and you will need to learn the proper three point edit to be proficient at all in FCP.

Do NOT buy Windows and then a PC-based video editor on your Mac- However we do have some customers who need Windows at work and run in on Apple hardware so they no longer have hardware issues.

Anyway post if you have any issues - you should have iMovie free with your Mac ....

bigben91682 - 7-12-2010 at 08:30 AM

This is a simple one, but I used iMovie for this:

bobalooie57 - 7-12-2010 at 08:40 AM

Simple, heck! That was nice!

PHREERIDER - 7-12-2010 at 08:56 AM

i use imovie. seems more than enough for the non-pro arena. choices features seem ample. editing esp. precision can be tedious. with a decent wide angle video camera and good steady framing just about anything can be made to look good. a couple of hours learning the features and you can make custom stuff super cool.

nice vid BIGBEN

ripsessionkites - 7-12-2010 at 02:25 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by John Holgate
Quote:

Converting Files : iSkysoft Video Converter does everything including PAL, and if you need to take a video from 30fps to 60fps it does that too. not everyone sets their GoPros at the same setting so to have the video flow at the same resolution i suggest converting it than having iMovie convert it.


Why would you need to convert files? Does iMovie not handle mp4? and I'm a bit baffled why you would convert from 30fps to 60fps - you can't add frames that aren't there in the first place. 60fps down to 30fps makes sense.

I would assume (always dangerous!) that iMovie will allow you to render your movie to most of the major formats - ie: dvd, mpeg, mov, mp4 etc ?


i was speaking in general as a Mac User for someone wanting to video edit. MVI and PAL formats doesnt seem to work well in iMovie so thats the time i convert. GoPro formats (avi, mp4) stuff works in iMovie no problem.

basically its mirror one shot over and over again to build up the missing 30 frames, and i only do this for slow-mo action. i have no idea about the inner workings i just use it and it seems to work.

John Holgate - 7-12-2010 at 02:54 PM

Quote:

GoPro formats (avi, mp4) stuff works in iMovie no problem.


Cheers Rip. One of these days I'm gonna swap to a Mac. I run VideoStudio X2 which doesn't import mp4 (exports it ok) and is really slow and clunky to use with HD files - prob more the fault of the 2ghz celeron processor.

Must try the 60fps function on my gopro at some stage.....

John Holgate - 7-12-2010 at 02:59 PM

Quote:

This is a simple one, but I used iMovie for this:


Nice one! And a bit better than 'simple' IMHO :thumbup:

Kamikuza - 7-12-2010 at 06:01 PM

60fps eliminates the "jelly fishing" of high speed erratic movement ... if you get the new firmware, you can also do PAL too which is 25 or 50fps ... the 10fps you save over NTSC 60fps should improve both how long you can record and the exposure. I've yet to play with it though. Also, assumes you don't want to play it on a PC or modern HD tv - old TVs would probably crap themselves if you tried to play NTSC files on a PAL tv & vice versa ...

chudalicious - 8-12-2010 at 11:59 AM

So it looks like iMovie will be the default choice for now. I figure I will see how it works and if I need more tools (not becuase of my skills, moreso my lack thereof to make it look amazing) I would look at something else like Final Cut or the like as suggested.

Thinking if I don't look like a pro, at least my videos can look professional!

:dunno: