Go-Pro Helmet Cam Footage Editing Tips

[the_wine_snob]

This was graciously provided by Gonza, and I hope that it helps others:

Editing GoPro HD with Premiere Pro CS4

Introduction

GoProHD has many different resolutions, all of them progressive scan (p) with square pixels, titled R1 to R5. It records in MP4 files, using H.264 video (AVC) and AAC audio. 

Here I will address R2 to R5:

R2 = 1280 x 720 30p (widescreen 16:9)

R3 =  1280 x 720 60p (widescreen 16:9)

R4 =  1280 x 960 30p (standard 4:3)

R5 = 1920 x 1080 30p (widescreen 16:9)

Preparation of files

It seems Premiere Pro CS4 does not like the way GoPro builds the MP4 container. So you have to re-write it so that it has a more standard form. You can do that using MPEG Streamclip (or Quictime Pro, but that one is not free)

http://www.squared5.com/

If you open  your GoPro videos in MPEG Streamclip (or Quicktime Pro) , and then you just save them again ("save as... MP4") , then the MP4 container will be re-written but the video will not be re-encoded (hence, there will be no quality loss!)

You can also process many files at once, using the batch feature: Just go to List>Batch List and start adding files. Then as task, choose “save as”.

Sequence Preset

Now that you have all your files converted, we need to pick the right project sequence preset  for the resolution you are working on, all of them based on AVCHD

·         For R2 choose AVCHD 720p30

·         For R3 use AVCHD 720p60

·         For R4 you will need to create a custom profile, because there is no built-in profile for this resolution: Select AVCHD 1080p30 and then go to the General tab. Change Editing Mode to Desktop, so  you will be able to modify the resolution. Change the resolution to 1280 x 960 and then press the Save Preset  button to save your newly created sequence profile for GoPro R4

·         For R5 use AVCHD 1080p30

Export

After all your editing (using the modified MP4 files) you will want to export your final product.

I usually export  in meg2 or MP4 files, for direct use on my PC,  but you can try many others.

·         For MP4 files (H.264 video and AAC audio) choose “H.264” as format.  I started out with the HDTV 1080p 29.97 High Quality profile but the bitrate was too high for me.  So I set out to create a bunch of MP4 export presets for the GoPro, doing some tests and trying to preserve the  aprox. bit-rate that GoPro uses for each resolution.

I did them with the Baseline ecoder profile, but you can change it if you want to to use other.

There’s one normal profile and one “low” profile for each resoultion. The “low” one will have a lower video bit rate and 64kbps AAC audio (instead of 128 kbps)

·         For Mpeg 2 files choose MPEG2 format (nahh!! really?? J )

For R2 and R5 you can use the corresponding HDTV profiles, but for R3 and R4 I had to create them myself.

To install my profiles just extract them from the archive zip file , and copy them to:

C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USERNAME\Application Data\Adobe\Premiere Pro\4.0\Presets

Then they will automatically appear under the MPE2 and H.264 formats.

Enjoy!

Gonza

[Gonzchi]

Thank you Bill

Here is the link to the export profiles mentioned in the article

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=50HIM75U

Gonza

[rico19312]

Does anyone have an updated link to get the profiles?

[the_wine_snob]

Nico,

I would post to the appropriate Adobe product forum, say PrElements, or PrPro (depends on which Premiere you are using), and ask there. Being the Tips & Tricks sub-forum, few users will see your request for updated info here, where they WILL see it in the regular product forums, and can get you any new info.

Good luck,

Hunt

[u2metoo]

...thanks for the workflow.

[the_wine_snob]

The thank yous go to Gonza, who did the "heavy lifting."

There was an article in a recent edition of American Cinematographer, on using the GoPro cameras for some action shots. I'd guess that it was about the August edition, but sent my copy to a friend, so cannot check.

Hunt

[u2metoo]

I've been playing with my Gopro for a while now, and thanks to Hunt's guidance it has been brought to my attention that I have been using the wrong PAR the whole time.  I commented above just so I could come back to this thread and review the workflow.

First issue:

I've been editing the raw footage from my camera without uncompressing even changing the container, and my PC seems to digest it just fine.   As far as I can tell, I'm not losing any quality.   Am I missing out anything, but not doing this step?

Second issue:

I'm using PE 4, and I don't (think??? I) have the ADVHC preset for 720 60p.  The 720 30p works, but am I missing out on having this PAR mismatch?  I suppose my slow mo shoots will certainly suffer, but they look addequate right now on my youtube vids.

I hestitate to upgrade at the moment, because I figure I'd do that when I get a new camera.

[the_wine_snob]

I only hope that Gonza will drop by, or someone, who knows the Go-Pro footage, and comment. I have never experimented with any of the footage, and only did the setup for this article, based on Gonza's experiences and expertise.

I do not think that PrE 4.0 has an AVCHD Preset, but only HDV, which is different. In most cases, HD material is square pixel, but there are a few exceptions. Not sure what the PAR of the Go-Pro footage is, and it might change, model to model.

Good luck,

Hunt

[BBruins12]

I'll definitely mess with this when I get home...

To ecpand on Hunt's statement: Currently GoPro only offers two models of their camera, the HD Hero, and the HD 960

the Hero shoots full HD, and the 960 only up to 960, with the same format video...I don't know about the widescreen though.

Hope that helps some..

[the_wine_snob]

When you have finished your experimentation, please post your findings, as it might well help others.

TIA,

Hunt

[the_wine_snob]

Robert Johnson posted this ARTICLE on Muvipix.com on working with the Go-Pro footage.

Hope that this helps,

Hunt

PS - I have never worked with Go-Pro footage, so cannot comment on how well this works. However, Robert has been right-on with regards to nearly every post.

[goproski]

I just purchased Premiere elements 10 and I'm not able to figure out how to choose the correct presets for my GoPro HD camera footage.  I shot in the default setting which is 960p (1280 x 960) 30 frames per second.  The available presets in the software does not appear to have anything that meshes for this GoPro setting.  Does anyone have any advice on which settings to use.  Since this is a very popular camera I had thought there would be guidance on the web somewhere but after an hour of searching, I haven't been able to find anything.

[goproski]

I'm reposting/ copying Philippe V8 post which solved the GoPro setting R4 using Premiere Elements 10.  Below his post I've copied my own reply to him.  Posting both on this thread so others might find it better. 

Since none reported back about a hack, I will ... Might be handy for future ref.

Here's what I did; as an example.

Go to:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0\settings\SequencePresets\PAL\DV

Copy Standard 48kHz.sqpreset

Name it MyCompany.sqpreset

Open it with notepad.

changed this:

<VideoPixelAspectRatio>768,702</VideoPixelAspectRatio>

to

<VideoPixelAspectRatio>702,702</VideoPixelAspectRatio>

changed this:

<VideoFrameSize>0,0,720,576</VideoFrameSize>

to

<VideoFrameSize>0,0,1280,960</VideoFrameSize>

Saved the file.

Done.

Not sure yet if it's 100% ok now, but it does seem to work for now.

This worked for me!  The only difference is that I copied the "HD 1080i 30 (60i)" preset under C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Elements 10\Settings\SequencePresets\NTSC\Hard Disk, Flash Memory Camcorders

and updated the numbers as mentioned by Philippe V8.  I wasn't sure if changing the 768 to 702 in the pixel aspect ratio was correct but I did it anyway and the video turned out great. 

See here for the quick test run I just created:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k0F0WKKPDU

By the way, this is the preset I needed for the GoPro setting R4 which is 960p.  I can't tell you how long I struggled to try and fix this problem.  I've got a ton of footage taken at 1280 by 960 (setting R4) as this is the setting that provides the most vertical and horizontal viewing area.  Because the only "close" preset that was offered in Pre Elements 10 was 1440 x 1080, I had been using that one and all my videos had a terrible boarder around the edges.  If interested:

See here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVUEk59zfe0&feature=mfu_in_order&list=U L

and here for examples of the bad boarder:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSo3Xztzv8Q&feature=mfu_in_order&list=U L

The fixed video (first one) has the boarder on the side but that's because the youtube export setting only has a 1440 (or 1920) by 1080 option.  When I export the video to my computer and use the export custom presets of 1280 by 960 it looks perfect.  In the future I'll just upload these files to youtube without using the online option in Pre Elements 10; then there should be no boarder at all.

PhilippeV8, thanks so much for the help.  I was so frustrated and gave up several times and wanted to return the software.  Now I'm more motivated to do more editing and actually make something with all this footage I have.  thanks again!

[the_wine_snob]

Thank you for that update. It will likely help others with those files.

Appreciated,

Hunt

[Guest]

goproski,

Above you say:

" I wasn't sure if changing the 768 to 702 in the pixel aspect ratio was correct but I did it anyway and the video turned out great."

I watched that video, and tbh the quality is really not great. Average at best. If you filmed in 920p it should be a lot crisper than that. You're still losing a lot of quality somewhere.

I haven't figured this out myself yet either. I'm using a GoPro Hero 3+ Silver edition, editing in Premiere Elements 9, and uploading vids in a variety of setting from 1080 x 1920 @ 30fps, and some others at 720 x 1280 @ 120fps (which Elements 9 does not seem to cater for 120 fps at all, so my slow mo shots suffer).

I'm considering learning to use GoPro's Cineform Studio instead, even though I've heard really bad things about it, because Premiere elements 9 seems so problematic when it comes to finding the right presets for GoPro footage.

This is an example of a video I uploaded filmed in 720 x 1280 @ 120 fps, and tbh I think the quality of it is better than your linked 920p one above. Wonder what you think.

One of my issues is there are sooo many options in Premiere Elements 9 that despite my efforts I sometimes can't remember how I got previous good results. Reallly frustrating!

Comments and feedback welcome. Good luck with your editing dude.

[ajermann]

Thank you for the Workflow you posted! I've been searching for something ike this for a long time.

But I still have a question. I've been filming 1280 x 720 30p and 1280 x 720 60p and I want to use them both.

What is the best preset to use in that case? The AVCHD 720p30 or AVCHD 720p60?

Thank you in advance!

Alex

[goproski]

Hi Alex, my guess would be to use 1280x720 60p as this should produce the highest quality rendering.

1280 x 720 60p

Sent from my iPhone

[chri13386]

I don't know if i am wrong.. but it doesen't work.. could someone send me the setted project via mail for the 960?

Thanks