Advice on video quality + editing in general

[silky666]

Been using my GoProHD for a year now .. and in the past just been happy to film the odd bit and dump it onto YouTube.
But now I want to start doing a bit more editing and also put up high quality videos.

My Question:
1) Whats the best program to use for hd films and what settings do you use?
I am asking because the raw avi/mp4 format from the GoPro is great on the PC ... but as soon as I edit it, and then save it to an uploadable size (under 250mb?) , then it loses a lot of quality.

See this video as evidence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ8je_abCMU


oh! and anyone else got a goprohd ? and if so, do you find it focus's strangely? or what settings do you use / hints tips ?
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[Hetzer]

I'm failing to see any particular lack of quality in that vid.
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[DynaMight]

I have a GoPro HD. I set the GoPro to record at 720p30.

I edit my videos with Sony Vegas Pro, it has loads and loads of options, most of which I really dont need. It supports MP4 format very well. I encode the videos at 720p30 too.

You'll always lose quality when uploading to Youtube, but 720p MP4 has the best success rate because they dont have to do to much re-encoding.

Heres a video from last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY0sEoLj1-U



Also, Windows Movie Maker (The new one that comes with MSN etc on Windows 7) works fine and has fairly good basic editing tools. It will also output to 1080p and 720p etc in WMV format which Youtube supports just fine.

This was put together using Windows Movie Maker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OahE_GSXYPQ (Not a very exciting video but you get the idea!)
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[silky666]

[serlant]

I'm also using sony vegas for my gopro HD, light seems to effect quality greatly.
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[DynaMight]

Low light is a killer for quality (although the GoPro handles it extremely well imo!) but in your case, I think your bitrate is too low, thats what normally causes blockiness. I have my videos set to 720p @ 6mbps bitrate (The GoPro does 8mbps at 720p30)

Obviously higher the resolution the higher the bitrate needs to be.
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[silky666]

[DynaMight]

Bitrate is kinda like the amount of data in the footage. Like the difference between a DVD and a Bluray on your HD TV (ignoring the resolution differences) or the difference between a 5MP camera phone and a 5MP decent digital camera.

A faster memory card wont make any difference, if the card wasn't fast enough the recording would stop/corrupt etc. The GoPro will be recording to a decent bitrate, the quality is lost when you edit the footage and re-encode it at a much lesser quality.

Download this: https://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/MediaInfo-Lite/1183386892/1

Copy and paste the data of the file you uploaded to youtube.


For instance, a file I encoded:

[silky666]

Mine:

https://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t69/silky666/Random/Untitled-9.jpg
____________________
There's nothing that shouts "Poor Workmanship" more than wrinkles in the Gaffa tape.

Gaffa tape is like "the force" - it has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

[DynaMight]

Thats an uncompressed format. Thats why the quality isn't very good for the size of the file and why the bitrate is so high. It's kinda like the difference between a JPEG and BMP picture, twice the size but quarter the quality.

What program do you use it edit the files? Chances are you may just need to install xvid, then choose it under compression, set the bitrate to about 3000 (assuming you're using the same resolution)

Also, what resolution is the original GoPro recordings? 720p, 960p, 1080p?
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[silky666]

Thanks for your help DynaMight ... but I am just as confused as I ever was
I think I might just get Sony Vegas
____________________
There's nothing that shouts "Poor Workmanship" more than wrinkles in the Gaffa tape.

Gaffa tape is like "the force" - it has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

[Hetzer]

[ms51ves3]

Someone sell me a Go Pro HD.

[L4Isoside]

[ms51ves3]