I got a GoPro, Now what?

[Fred1956]

I bought a GoPro Hero, (actually I ordered some for the shop but, hey, we have to demo for product knowledge-Right?) I have figured out how to film and I made an under visor mount. I shot some footage on Thursday evening-

http://www.youtube.com/user/FMPowersports

& now I have questions....

1) It seems horribly slow to upload, do I need to change it to a different kind of file type? if so what is the best/better program for that? ref- I run internet connection from a router that connects to a T1 connection that is about 200 feet away
2) files won't e-mail so I assume upload to You Tube/Vimeo then share link is best option ?
3) How do you add music etc ? I see some cool stuff on You Tube and I want to understand how they do it...
4) The video above was shot at r1 which is lowest resolution that the Hero will do (I think) and quality doesn't appear to be the best...I shot lo res hoping upload would be better


I am semi computer literate but this is my first venture into movies. I'm using a Dell laptop and running Windows XP Pro with service pack 3. I tried 'Movie Maker' but it doesn't recognize an MP4 file so I know something has to change ?? I have read online but it seems confusing. Help or direction to get help will be much appreciated

Thanks

 

[Fred1956]

Visor mount-

 

[lankydoug]

Hope you get it going I'd like to see more of those awesome Arkansas trails.

 

[Stoby]

i used a trial of corels studio to transfer & edit but i really dont know enough to give any advice
Stoby

 

[GMP]

I make a living as a software engineer, but trying to get something to work with H.264 HD video on a less than new machine running XP is next to impossible. My Xenon powered desktop development machine in work will run it with the right codecs, but I don't want to use that for personal applications. I tried it on a friends Macbook Pro, and it worked great, so I bought one this week. First Mac, and I really like it for this stuff, plus the web and mail. As soon as I get in tune with OS and iMovie, I'll start posting some stuff.

 

[swazi_matt]

Visor mount-

i like this setup, is it easy to convert the image so that it is right side up?

 

[GMP]

Yes, very easy, just a setup option in the GoPro itself not an additional operation. The visor mount provides great video perspective. So far I've used it with the stock mount system and its slightly low. Biggest problem though is noise in the video from either slop in the snap mount of the visor itself. I'm going to figure this out this week and fix it either with something like this or a chin bar mount. Hope to shoot some race footage at a south Jersey enduro next Sunday.

 

[Fred1956]

i like this setup, is it easy to convert the image so that it is right side up?

I fabbed a small aluminum plate that uses the basic clip in mount without the GoPro base. Very simple but keeps the camera up out of the field of vision and I (don't think) I had any of the 'noise' that Glenn mentioned. I have the drawing in a CNC mill program and am getting some more made for friends helmets. Mounted with 2 10-32 screws.
And as Glenn said the upside down shot is a setting in the GoPro itself, the camera shoots upside down but auto converts playback to right side up. Sweet option.

 

[Fred1956]

Hope you get it going I'd like to see more of those awesome Arkansas trails.

We're fixing to start laying out for the Almosta Race and I'd like to film the work and then do a time lapse of it for the Almosta page on FB. Planning on cutting in a bunch of virgin trail for this one. That's why I'm trying to learn this. The onboard camera is a sweet deal, a friend of mine just bought a Contour HD, the GPS is cool but the price and IMO quality of the cases, choices of mounts, etc is why I went with GoPro

 

[Fred1956]

I make a living as a software engineer, but trying to get something to work with H.264 HD video on a less than new machine running XP is next to impossible. My Xenon powered desktop development machine in work will run it with the right codecs, but I don't want to use that for personal applications. I tried it on a friends Macbook Pro, and it worked great, so I bought one this week. First Mac, and I really like it for this stuff, plus the web and mail. As soon as I get in tune with OS and iMovie, I'll start posting some stuff.

So I basically need to look at upgrade to Mac? They say Mac is THE choice for graphic stuff. Dang I'm getting to old to learn this hi-tech stuff! Oh well I hear an active mind fights off Alzheimers....

 

[Jakobi]

Huh?? A 5 year old pc probably won't cut the mustard but just about anything with a semi decent dedicated graphics card and at minimum 2GB of system ram should have no issues converting video.
My E8500 with a HD4850 works without any issues at all.

 

[GMP]

Fred said he had an XP machine. Most XP vintage PCs are lacking in the hardware you describe, unless you build your own. I have a super fast XP machine in work because I must develop on the XP platform for a lot of XP systems of various configurations. PCs will work, no argument there, just takes some screwing around getting a good set of codecs (Corecodec is a good one) in addition to hardware. The Mac I'm on now is absolutely fantastic, I'm sold. I can import a 1G GoPro file shot in 960 to iMovie in a few minutes. Plus I can do it while playing here and looking at my GPS tracks I imported in Google earth and Basecamp.

I solved my mount issues. I just did not have the rubber damper pushed into the mount far enough. Now its fine. Tilted the visor up more and it sits like yours using the GoPro mount.

 

[Fred1956]

Fred said he had an XP machine. Most XP vintage PCs are lacking in the hardware you describe, unless you build your own. I have a super fast XP machine in work because I must develop on the XP platform for a lot of XP systems of various configurations. PCs will work, no argument there, just takes some screwing around getting a good set of codecs (Corecodec is a good one) in addition to hardware. The Mac I'm on now is absolutely fantastic, I'm sold. I can import a 1G GoPro file shot in 960 to iMovie in a few minutes. Plus I can do it while playing here and looking at my GPS tracks I imported in Google earth and Basecamp.

My PC is struggling as it is so I figure overload will happen if I start to do video stuff. It has a Pentium 4 CPU @ 2.80 GHz with 1 GB of Ram but it's on an older Dell Inspiron 9100 laptop. If I could make it work it would save learning a new system
I'm looking at this-
3.06Ghz intel core 2 duo, 4GB DDR3 ram, 500GB HD, nvidia GeForce 9400 256MB video card, DVD burner, card reader, 21.5" display w/ matching mouse and keyboard. Running Leopard but not the newest version. A friend of mine bought it for gaming and doesn't like it wants $800. Opinions, thoughts?? Thanks

 

[rgranger]

Glenn, I will be waiting for those Mac Tips! I did one with imovie and it took a long time to upload to google. I have not yet tried this new finagled youtube thing...

 

[GMP]

Your old laptop is the same as my work laptop(due for upgrade too), it is not going to cut it.

That Mac will work fine. Chip is in the ballpark for what you want to do. You can even upgrade the memory to 8G for cheap now. I paid $53 for an 8G Crucial kit rather than $250 from apple. Disk is fine too. I'm going to an SSD when the prices drop a bit for a major speed increase. For basic video editing that you see here and Youtube a high end graphics card is not needed but it doesn't hurt either. Sounds good, I'd do it and do the RAM upgrade. It should have iMovie (the basic video editing package) on it already. The best thing about it for a guy like you is that it just works without major drama. The only thing I heard about pre '11 iMovie is that it does not support 720 60 fps, so if you want to shoot in that upgrade. I'm new to this too(Macs and video) but its fun learning new stuff. My only gripe is mine is the 13" laptop. The 15" and 17" were just way too much $$. Later this winter I'll get a bigger monitir to plug in for extended video work, but its fine for everything else.

 

[Jakobi]

3.06Ghz intel core 2 duo, 4GB DDR3 ram, 500GB HD, nvidia GeForce 9400 256MB video card, DVD burner, card reader, 21.5" display w/ matching mouse and keyboard. Running Leopard but not the newest version. A friend of mine bought it for gaming and doesn't like it wants $800. Opinions, thoughts??

This is very much on par with my current system. What operating system is it running? Still takes a little bit to grasp the changes between XP and Win7 but nothing too extreme. I paid around $1200 to build mine but that would have been over a year ago now at a guess, so around $800 sounds in the park. See if you can squeeze another couple hungey off as that graphics card really isnt anything too flash at all.. No wonder your mate wasn't happy with the gaming performance

 

[Fred1956]

Your old laptop is the same as my work laptop(due for upgrade too), it is not going to cut it. My only gripe is mine is the 13" laptop. The 15" and 17" were just way too much $$. Later this winter I'll get a bigger monitir to plug in for extended video work, but its fine for everything else.

I think my eyes will definitely enjoy the 21" monitor. Thanks Glenn

 

[Fred1956]

This is very much on par with my current system. What operating system is it running? Still takes a little bit to grasp the changes between XP and Win7 but nothing too extreme. I paid around $1200 to build mine but that would have been over a year ago now at a guess, so around $800 sounds in the park. See if you can squeeze another couple hungey off as that graphics card really isnt anything too flash at all.. No wonder your mate wasn't happy with the gaming performance

It is running Leopard (it's a Mac) I hear upgrade to Snow Leopard is @ $30 and I'll look into a video card upgrade Thanks Jakobi

 

[lankydoug]

Fred, I'm in the opposite predicament, I have a big bad ass Mac computer but no GoPro. Besides, I would have to figure a way to speed up the video to compensate for how slow I was going.

 

[GMP]

I used to build my own PC systems too, nothing but the best and fastest stuff. After a day at work fixing code, drivers, etc to get the PCs do do what I need the last thing I wanted to do is come home and do it. Between the virus problems and performance degredation caused by the scanners if its an older machine, I'm done with PCs for home use. I'm not crazy about Apple's tight control, and their prices, but after owning this for a week I can say its the best machine I've had for what I and most people do at home, and the hardware is top quality. Plus, if you need to run Windows for some reason, you can install it in another partition or run it in a virtual machine mode using the Parellels software. I ported all my Garmin GPS maps, tracks, etc. over to the Mac and it works great. All I need a Windows PC for is my OBDII software for car stuff, but I can use my Dell laptop for that, too infrequent to justify setting up Windows on the Mac.