Which program is best for editing GoPro 4k footage?

[_Paz_]

Saturday we checked out a creek in central Alabama that is part of a rental canoe trails business. I had the GoPro 4 black on the FunnyGo gimbal and had somehow found the setting I've been looking for and had not found in previous testing. In fact, I was beginning to suspect the FunnyGo didn't have it. The one that allows the camera to look where you point it.

Just as soon as I had gone down a small slope to the edge of the creek, been able to see by the smart phone contraption strapped to my wrist that the view was washed out by the sun and I turned to my left, in came a great blue heron from the sunny side. I wasn't sure if the bird was in the footage at all.

Back home. Premiere Elements 11 only recognized audio in this particular segment of 4k footage.

After several tries with different software I finally got the footage open with the Red settings in Premiere Pro CS6. I thought Red was designed for a certain type of camera, so I didn't know if it would work at all.

I managed to zoom into, or crop the footage to about 1/4 of the original scene. I thought this would still be high def, since 4k is supposed to be about 4 times higher resolution than 1020p.

I'm disappointed with the lack of high def in this footage in the area where the bird is.

ALSO, I remember a video here that showed how extremely high 4k resolution is. I'd like to watch it again but I can't remember the title and haven't found it by looking through various forum areas where I thought it might be. It seems like it was something like "Do you really need 4k?" Does anyone remember?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd00O4tWUbE[/youtube]

[momoffduty]

I haven't tried to edit any 4k yet. Seems like CS6 should be able to handle. Your video is marked private.

[Steve Grisetti]

Premiere Elements 12 and 13 are supposed to be able to edit 4K. And so is CyberLink Powerdirector.

[sidd finch]

You should be able to create a workflow in PPro CS6. This applies to 2.7K video but the process is the same for 4K

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgPjMII2OBw[/youtube]

Sidd

[Bob]

I would think the quality should have been better than that. Could you describe in detail how you scaled/cropped and output the clip? Was everything done on the same 4K sequence that you used for the GoPro footage?

[Bob]

CS6 is easier than CS5. In CS6, the sequence properties are separate from the project properties. Add the 4K clip to your project. If this is a new project and you created a starting sequence, drag the clip to the sequence timeline. If the first clip added to the sequence doesn't match the sequence properties, CS6 will ask if it can change the sequence to match. If you skipped the starting sequence, drag the 4K clip to the "New Item" icon and it will create a new sequence matching the clip and add the clip to it. If you are old school, you always have the option of creating a new sequence using the standard presets or create a custom sequence as before.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Anything here help?

viewtopic.php?f=104&t=13193#p111745

[sidd finch]

In addition to the above you can also use the FREE GoPro Studio editing program.

Sidd

[_Paz_]

If you are old school,

More like old fool! Um, that is, an old dog trying to learn new tricks!

I've read the internet these last few days and it is all swirling through my mind... Seems that LOTS of people have the problem that with 4k footage, only the audio shows up. No video. Apparently some folks using Premiere Elements 12 and 13 are having this problem too. (I realize my 11 is prior to 4k support.)

At one point I tried going back into my pre pro CS6 project and even though I'd been able to edit there earlier, now the video portion does not show.



The "Red" camera apparently is a high def camera that shoots in a form of RAW video format.

So... after a great deal of reading about codecs and wrappers and how you can download them for FREE and how it is not a good idea to download them because they have _____________ware that will infect your computer, I finally (think) I found the solution!!!

Open the footage in GoPro's Studio software, then save as an .avi file. Then it is possible to open the file, even in Premiere Elements 11 and the video DOES show and can be edited. I believe it is still 4k, although I don't see any way in PreEL 11 to select settings for footage. It just opens.

It cannot, however, at least I haven't figured out a way - be saved to YouTube as a 4k file.

This is a portion of the heron footage. In GoPro Studio I first saved without fish eye correction and that is shown in the first second or two. I also saved with fish eye correction in the remainder.


If you look closely, before the heron comes into view, you can see his shadow on the tree leaves on the left. These birds have a wing span of about 6 feet and he was flying within 20 feet of me. I heard the swoosh of his wings before I knew what it was. Pity I didn't come down the hill about 3 seconds later!

Thank you all for your suggestions. I'm going to read them all carefully. The video that shows how to create a custom preset in PrePro looks like a great solution!

Bob, I think my video got downsized to 1080p before I did my zooming in. That would perhaps explain the low quality. I'm going to try taking the .avi file into PrePro CS6 and see what I can do there.

Oh, and I don't usually swear!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9o77rUjeIY[/youtube]

[sidd finch]

Paz I love your commentary on the video... I laugh because it is very similar to myself when I am shooting. When I go back and listen the footage does not reflect the words I am saying during the recording....

To check if it is 4k video right click on the file and look at properties it should be 3840 × 2160 pixels

Sidd

[_Paz_]

Paz I love your commentary on the video... I laugh because it is very similar to myself when I am shooting.

Yeah, I'm the crazy lady walking around with the camera, talking to herself!

Sure helps to tell yourself a few things as you go along for playback reminders! "This segment is in ________mode at _______fps and __________etc. (That creek bank is steeper than it looks!)

[momoffduty]

Thanks Patrice for sharing the specs. Very smooth motion walking and panning! And don't feel too bad.....I talk to myself too!

[_Paz_]

The smooth motion is all due to the PilotFly. (I've decided to call the thing the PilotFly because there are so many other FunnyGo knockoffs).

We went out yesterday afternoon in hopes of repeating white duck footage down to position of the sun, etc. No joy. The park was full of children feeding ducks who had had enough!

The Great Blue Heron was wading in the middle of the pond, which apparently isn't very deep. I was in 4k, which can ONLY be shot in a wide format. The heron caught a fish. He walked around with it a bit, dunked it in the water every so often to see if it would wiggle or not and generally waited patiently for the fish to either die or be weak enough so he could flip it around to eat it head first. So... I stood there filming about 8 minutes or so and got a warning on the smart phone that the camera battery was low. I clicked OK and I guess that turned the recording OFF. I kept on standing there until the bird swallowed the fish, then flapped his wings and flew, pretty much over my head and off into the distance. No footage of that. But I didn't find out until I got home.

I've been having some trouble with the GoPro Studio app. In the beginning it let me open footage, clip off beginning and ending, convert it to .avi, then export. Now it doesn't want to let me do that without editing and I don't want to use any of their templates. I suspect it is also putting copies of all the files in another folder somewhere. I'm getting confused by finding more than one copy of the same name combined with the fact that I can't see a preview in Bridge CS6.

I'm about to try out "Borosoft" video converter.

In addition to being tiny because of the wide field of view, the heron footage is waaay too soft. I see multiple sharpening tools in Premiere Pro CS6. I don't know which to use. I went back in and set the GoPro Sharpness setting to the default "sharpest." We'll see how that does.

I'm not sure 4k is going to be worth the trouble if I can't use it to zoom in with better results than I've had so far.

[_Paz_]

I found the link to the video here that I wanted to see again... the one that compares the amount of zoom in possible in 4k:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzhIRR7pH0I[/youtube]

[_Paz_]

I've used a trial of "Borosoft" converter program to convert my original GoPro 4k Heron Flying Over the Creek footage to high quality mpg 2 and taken it into PrePro CS6 where I've been able to both see and edit it, and come back later and still see it!!!

Thanks SO MUCH to Sidd for posting the "How to Edit and Export 2.7k footage video, above.

Following those directions I was able to create a custom 4k import for CS6, as the author demonstrated, and I've been able to create and SAVE the preset for export too.

Here are pics, with indications on parameters that may help anyone in future who is trying to create the custom export. Keep in mind that the "levels" selection MUST be increased before the program will accept parameters higher than 1080p.