[Okie Dokie]

Hi,

I am using iMovie with my GoProHD and having trouble getting my video in HD. Do I import it as Large or Full (original)? Also should I keep it as 4:3 or widescreen? I am shooting the film in default r4 mode.

I did 2 videos previously and the first came out in HD....the second (and now third) could not be loaded in HD to youtube for some reason. Also the project that is my movie I was making just seems to have so much worse quality then the original video that I imported. I wish I knew what I did right the first time but I cannot figure it out.

any help be appreciated.

thanks

 

[chrisatmtbtips]

Okie Dokie,

I'm using iMovie and GoProHD for the videos on my website www.mtbtips.com. I usually record in r4, then import the video in full 'original' definition as 4:3, then upload to youtube with the share/youtube/large setting. The videos seem to be good, but they're not HD.

Previously I uploaded a couple in HD using the 'share/export movie' or 'share/export using quicktime' (which may be what you did the first time) but they continued to pause during playback because the files are so large. When I 'wound' the quality and file size down a bit with those settings so that they would play in one hit I found the videos didn't look any better than the share/youtube/large movie setting, so for ease of editing I continue to use the YT large setting. (That pausing gets reeeeeally annoying, and a few people commented!!)

Re: Project aspect ratio
If you record in r4 4:3 aspect then your new project should be 4:3, otherwise you'll have black sections each side of the picture and the 16:9 chops the top and bottom of your full 4:3 view area. (as they say in the GoPro instructions, r4 is the tallest video - so 16:9 will chop its head and legs) That's what I found anyway, when I tested a 4:3 recording in a 16:9 project.

To be honest, because my videos turn out fine, I haven't bothered lately to explore HD further. I would be really interested to know what settings to use to get a HD movie on Youtube that doesn't pause during playback.

...check out any of the true HD 720 or more GoPro site videos and you'll find they all stall during playback. It seems that video sites like YT just don't have the capability/technology just yet to support proper HD videos.

I hope this helps. And if you don't mind, let me know if you figure out how to YouTube a true HD non-stalling video.

Cheers

 

[tscheezy]

Youtube only supports HD in a 16:9 aspect ratio. If you shoot r4 (1280 x 960, 4:3) then you will not get an HD version of it on youtube. The highest res youtube will converted 4:3 movies to is 480p which is like half the original size.

Vimeo supports more aspect ratios in HD.

Import them as full (original). If previous projects of yours seemed to upload in HD in the past, it may have been that you accidentally designated them 16:9 in the project properties and so youtube took them in HD but modified the format either by cropping or by adding black bars to the sides.

 

[chrisatmtbtips]

Thanks tscheezy, that's good to know. It's a bit of a bummer though, that yt doesn't take 4:3 HD because 4:3 offers the tallest video. Might start using 16:9 a little more though...as long as it doesn't stall...

 

[Okie Dokie]

Thanks guys...that helps a bit.

But the part that gets me is that when I make the movie and before I upload it to youtube and just watch it on my computer the quality still sucks. But the one movie I made that I did upload in HD looks great.

Anyway I am going to make an appointment with the local Apple store...maybe they can shed some light on this.

I will let you know

 

[chrisatmtbtips]

found this on google which explains it too...

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=132460

 

[tscheezy]

But the part that gets me is that when I make the movie and before I upload it to youtube and just watch it on my computer the quality still sucks. But the one movie I made that I did upload in HD looks great.

Did the movie that sucked look bad IN iMovie, or did it start to suck after exporting it as a .mov or .mp4 file (e.g. you exported it using Quicktime, etc)? If it looks like crap in iMovie, then it is either the camera's fault, or you chose "large" when importing and the raw file got dumbed down. If it looks bad after exporting from iMovie to a .mov or .mp4 file, then you should check your export settings carefully.

I very strongly recommend David Pogue's iMovie and iDVD '09 book. It is truly excellent and explains all the tricks and ins and outs of iMovie including how to maintain quality throughout the process. Something as simple as exporting to mp4 and choosing 4000 kbps versus 8000 kbps can make the difference between unwatchable mud and crisp scenes. If you are doing r4 on the GoPro, then when you export using Quicktime choose "custom" in the image size box and type in 1280 x 960 for full resolution. The settings you choose make all the difference.

If you need any more help on these points, I can post some screen grabs to highlight the important stuff in the export dialogs.

Good luck.

 

[chrisatmtbtips]

Thanks for the tips tscheezy. Appreciated. I'll check that book out.

 

[Okie Dokie]

Okay I have another question now. When I make the video and play it...the video seems to have been cropped. What I mean is that in the original video I can see the visor of my helmet but in my project that visor is not seen at all. Almost as if it is zoomed in a bit. It even did this on my previous project. Any idea why it does this? I have not yet loaded it to internet...just looking at project on computer. Aspect ratio is 4:3 too...though cannot remember what I imported it at originally.

Thanks for all help...much appreciated everything.

 

[tscheezy]

Did you run any image stabilization on the clip? That will result in cropping. But you are saying that the raw .mov clip (like if you double clicked on the file straight from the memory card in the camera) showed the visor, but once it was imported into iMovie you lost the top and bottom of the scene? The only time I have seen that happen is if you mix 16:9 and 4:3 clips together in one project. If you stick with 1280 x 960 the whole way for all the scenes, and select 4:3 in the project properties, and don't intentionally crop or run image stabilization, I don't think the scene would shrink in any real way.

iMovie does not make any destructive changes to any of the underlying clips in any way. No matter how much you edit and mess with things, you are basically just creating a "recipe" that you want the program to follow when you finally export the project. None of the original video files are ever actually changed. If you click on a video in the Event Library, and then right click on a clip in the window showing the contents of that event, you can choose "Reveal in Finder" from the menu and it will show you the original raw file. You can double check there if it looks the way you remember from the camera. If not then the import was funky and you may have chosen "Large" instead of "Full". If it looks fine in the Finder but things look weird in iMovie then I am guessing you have some r3 (16:9) footage mixed in or something else that causing the program to have to make choices.