GoPro - 1080p Hi Def

[BennyT]

Got the thing today, been running around town pointing it at girls and lookin like a pervert works great. the software that comes with it is utter garbage. recorded 1080p looks so jerky its like stop motion.
Was thinking I'd bought a pile of crap, but then downloaded this Bink Downloads
Which converts quicktime to avi n stuff. Can now edit in windows movie maker, and its smooth as. So you might wanna try that g0zer?
A wishlist item would be to have 2 exposure settings. Will be strapping it to my head on LNR tonight to get some test footage, and it'll be bright when starting, dark soon after.
Pretty happy with it though.

I just noticed on motomummy that they are US$299. Love MM, always get a discount just by asking, so should have checked there before ebaying.. ah well, only $50 diff

oh, and make sure you get a "Class 2" or higher microSD. I got a cheap DSE one, which was class 1, didn't work out that well

so theres nothing actually wrong with the video, provided you convert it to divx or such then?

[Brendon]

nah its quite good. 135 degree's constant focus tho, which looks a bit wierd. Being 1080p though, I'm sure adobe premiere could zoom and rescale a section and still be good quality.

I'd give it 7.5/10, 2 marks off purely because its quicktime format and the software is garbage. .5 off because I woulda liked a hard glass lens. For better clarity, and I can see the plastic getting damaged at high speed on bike.. but could probably find something to replace with.

[BennyT]

hmm righto.
maybe the ContourHD is the way to go

[Brendon]

hmmm... maybe r0gue is onto something with HD mode. Tried it out at LNR tonight

It seems to 'crash' after about 5 minutes recording 1080p mode... looking at their support forums, it appears that others experience it. Some people seem to be getting sent new batteries because the packaged one is loose, but I don't buy it.. .recorded 2x 32 minute clip in 720 mode

Will pursue with their support people. Even if 1080 doesn't work as described, I don't feel overly disappointed, its suprisingly stable video. I need to increase exposure for night shooting, and it won't be any good shooting backwards as bike headlights will wash out shot, but shooting ahead would be cool I think

[Nickerz]

The boys at work use them on mountain bikes, record in 720 @ 60fps which looks amazing. Don't bother with the 1080p mode - Sam's a video expert and has got astonishing performance out of these on standard res. Most of the time you're editing down for web delivery, even if Youtube now does HD. We're all Macs so QT native

Will be buying the full auto kit in the new year direct from GoPro, and they do a 10% discount if you ask sweetly or buy extra gear. Jan will see a clip on LCD so you can set your shots up.

[Brendon]

yeah it actually looks better with bikes moving at 60fps

currently havin a laff at a few ppls behind me showing off for camera

[g0zer]

Thx for tips brendon I downloaded latest quicktime and still seemed choppy will try ur bink link

I had a cutout too on 1080p mode didn't think much of it at the time since the footage was unwatchably choppy, likewise no cutout on 720 mode. Perhaps the cutout is caused by buffer overrun due to slow sd card?
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[Kryzaach]

Given peeps are having issues with the Contour and I've heard nothing but good things about the GoPro, I ordered one this morning. Won't get here until around christmas, but I'm in no great hurry.

Doesn't look as pretty, but seems to handle low light a bit better, which is when I do any sort of riding I'd want to record..

[Kryzaach]

Well, I'm surprised.

It shipped today, apparently it'll get here next thursday or friday.

Not bad for a product on perpetual backorder...

[Brendon]

OK, had it about a week, and in a nutshell, it has a couple issues which I'm waiting on support to get back on (locking up in 1080 mode, and some pixelation, green blobs effects on random videos), but still pretty cool cam.

I got the camera setup decently now, so wanted to edit a vid. This proved painful, but worked it out now and it should be quite a simple procedure.

Thought I'd post a little guide in case someone else benefits (I've very computer skilled, so would imagine the hassle if I wasn't would be very annoying). This will also apply to a bunch of other cameras that record quicktime videos

You'll probably want to use Windows Movie Maker or that Windows Live movie maker thing, because its easy to make vids with little knowledge of the plumbing. Importing quicktime videos is not supported though.

The only thing the provided Easy Edit Software is good for is to change the settings (exposure, metering, record mode). Don't even bother with it apart from this feature.

1. You may have DivX or XVid or something already on your PC which plays MPEG4 avi's. But still, I'd recomment downloading/installing the latest version of FFDShow, Free-Codecs.com : Download FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 2009-12-09, FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 2009-12-03 and FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 2009-11-03 SSE : FFDSHOW is a DirectShow decoding filter. This is an equivilent component to xvid/divx, but is basically faster and less crashy on my system. You can uninstall divx/xvid beforehand if you wish I guess, I think ffdshow overwrites the settings anyhow

2. Download and install this:Bink Downloads

3. Go record some video (a short 1 minute clip will do, conversion takes time)

4. Plug in the camera, open "Computer" (or "My Computer" on XP). You'll see a removable disk drive icon. Open it, browse to the DCIM\100MEDIA folder, and move the video files to somewhere on your hard drive

5. If you can open the file, and it plays, you already have Quicktime. If not, or you think its an old version: Apple - QuickTime - Download

6. Run "Programs\Bink and Smacker\RAD Video Tools", and browse to the folder where you've put your videos. Select a file (attachment 1).
Alrighty then, so the file I've selected is actually a 720p 60fps clip of about 15mins, attachment 2 shows what the system thinks it is.. ie. completely wrong

7. Click convert a file. You'll may be prompted whether to treat the 0001, 0002, 0003, etc as part of a sequence. Click no.

8. Fill in the "Force" value to the correct FPS of your clip. Shit goes pearshaped otherwise. (attachment 3). Click Convert

9. You'll be presented with a window called "Video Compression". This window has a dropdown option, defaulting to "Full Frames (uncompressed)". Change this to "ffdshow Video Codec" and click "Configure"

10. Now, here you can fuck around with encoder settings. (attachment 4) You want to select Mode: "one pass - quality". I've found that a quality of 95 will produce a file double the size of the original, and have no noticable loss of quality due to recompression. If you really want to get serious, you can google about using 2 pass compression and stuff, but I'd rather be riding bike. Click OK on the screen. You won't need to redo this step unless you want to change anything

11. Click OK on the "Video Compression" window. This will disappear, and you'll see something like attachment 5. If you're clip is long like mine, go for another ride, get drunk, watch a movie, walk the dog, or whatever the fuck it is you people do to burn time



... i should probably have chosen a shorter clip for demonstration will post up the importing into movie maker in several hours - limit of 5 attachments anyhow.. but that shit is pretty straight forward. The time taken is a pain, but you can actually convert in a batch, or multiple at once with a bit of playing around with the utility. ie. setup the conversion before bed, and it will be done in the morning/afternoon when you wake up.

[malenko]

dude, when its done post your videos of the lnr, that would be awesome stuff to see on video... and sid from the night he got his spotties

[ddmoore]

sorry, without going back and re-reading the thread, what is the conversion for? is it so you have better control over editing?

and to clarify, you're converting .MOV to .AVI?

+1 on the posting of a video though, im highly interested in getting one of these myself.

[Brendon]

the LNR footage was shit... mounted in wrong spot... will post some sample footage of this arvo's ride though

and good point ddmoore, will update post.. the objective is to be able to edit the video's using movie maker (by importing AVI)... nothing decent non-mac stuff about to work on MOV's (apart from adobe premiere which costs a bundle)

[ddmoore]

swwwweeeeeeeettt.. good thing I work purely with macs then hehe

makes sense, the conversion - look forward to the vid.

[Brendon]

Quick update on the camera issues. Got an email back from VHoldR, apparently the first batch of cameras had a fault. Unfortunately I need to post back to US and they'll send me a replacement, but they're gonna throw a few spare sticky mount things in as consolation.

Shit happens when you buy shit so close to release I spose. You might wanna try the same g0zer, just describe that the cam stops recording randomly after a few mins and they'll RMA it straight away

Re: the little guide, Windows 7 doesn't have movie maker. The version I downloaded crashes! so trying out a few good free video editors and will update on result

[g0zer]

Cool I will complain too


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[g0zer]

I had decided to shit can their mount and stick heavy duty velcro direct to the side of the cam

The mounts are just velcro inside anyway may as well piss off the middle man
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