Bigpower

So, now I have a GoPro of my own courtesy of the Haywards, and the Evo is getting a MoTeC camera update too, I wondered if there's any tips or tricks you guys have found which would cut down on the hassle of trial and error?

Also, any recommendations on editing software? I've always used the built-in Windows Movie Maker for the easy/simple stuff, but I can see it's limitations and not sure how it'll cope with HD quality?

Cheers

Danny, Danny, Danny

Firstly, record in R3 (720p 60Fps) .. don't bother with 1080p as it's a nightmare to edit.

Secondly, when using in the car, to get interior light use it on standard setting, but for outside light set focus from CNT to SPT so it focuses outside. (actually can't remember which way round it is, so check the instructions)

Thirdly, you need a mega processing lappy if you intend to do lots of editing, at least a 64bit processor with 8gig memory, I use Cyberlink Powerdirector 9.0 - just about to upgrade to 10.0. Great product but it does have a few issues so you need to save regularly, i.e. after every change. 9.0 and 10.0 are for 64bit machines only.

Cheers Ben, I'll have a play with the camera over the weekend and see what it's like. On a similar vein- do you record in PAL or NTSC?

Doesn't sound too promising on the PC-specs front... I'll have to stick with more basic editing and try a trial version of Cyberlink once I've got some footage to test it on and see if my laptop can cope.

NTSC is your friend Dan

Daniel wrote:NTSC is your friend Dan

Thought so, I knew NTSC was a problem on older TV's many years ago, but I think everything can handle the higher refresh of NTSC these days.

That they can mate

Ben and Dan (and anyone else with GoPro's)- how do you find the playback of footage, as I get different results with different software? Windows Media player has a choppy framerate, whereas another 3rd party media player I have plays the video smoothly, but the sound is a little choppy (though it was filmed in the dyno cell with no casing on). I don't think I've got a H.264 codec on my laptop though- all the ones I see aren't free.

With the above happening, I thought I'd download the trial version of Cyberlink Powerdirector 10 to have a play and see if my laptop could handle editing, only to then find the trial doesn't support H.264 footage and the few effects/transitions it gives you are a bit lame. Granted I can reformat the footage into something more Windows friendly, but I'll loose some quality?

there are a number of reasons for choppy - one Gareth has discovered is caused by having too slow an SDHC card, i.e. class2 - I use 16Gb Class 4 and Class 10. Remember you need SDHC, not SD. Also the footage is choppy probably due to your machine struggling to run.

The full version of Cyberlink Powerdirector does nicely and can deal with all formats.

You could download from the Gopro site a program to convert your footage - Apple don't support the format that is output from the gopro so the download converts it.

The reality is you need the full version of Cyberlink BUT you do need a 64bit machine with lots of memory, and even that struggles. I use the footage raw from the camera and import it into Cyberlink, make the movies and then produce it as MP4.

Oh and I never film in 1080 - only 720 .. so setting R3 on the camera. 1080 is a nightmare to edit.

choopy could also be due to your computers video card not being up to scratch