GoPro recording in AVI format

[PGD5]

I have a GoPro Hero camera in front of me which only seems to record in AVI format

Why's it recording in AVI? All the instructions I've read suggest they record in Mp4 And as yet I haven't come across a way of changing the recorded format, only the dimensions/frame rate

The trouble is when I come to edit the footage, or even play it back its a little troublesome. Crashing the Windows editing software and means I have to convert the file to mp4 before I could even get that far..

Its not the end of the world by any stretch, but it would be nice to sort it

Any advice anyone?

[baz7175]

I just checked the vids from mine that I have on the work laptop, all are .mp4 using h.264 compression. No idea how you've managed to get it recording in .avi

[PGD5]

Me neither, thats my point really

Any means of a 'reset to factory defaults' can't see how to do that either

Edited by PGD5 on Tuesday 24th April 11:59

[Dave 500]

Try changing the extension from .avi to .mpg or .mov

[GreigM]

Thats very weird, as far as I know its only ever been .mp4....I have a HD Hero and HD Hero 2 and they are both mp4 with no option to change.

This leaves me with a couple of thoughts - is something on your PCconverting them as they are copied to your machine?
Alternatively, is it a earlier Go Pro (not the HD version) - i think the very early ones recorded in avi.

[PGD5]

It could well be an early model yeah. It doesn't say HD on it anyway and that all I have to go off.

The video footage certainly isn't in HD either, but I wasn't sure if that was due to 'buttons being pressed' at some point too

Will try changing the extension, can't recall if I tried that before now..

[baz7175]

Ah, it could be the "GoPro Wide" that came before the hero, if memory serves me correctly that recorded in .avi

[Du1point8]

my go pro hero 2 is in mp4 only for my diving I just did recently...

does anyone have a blur fix lens to correct the fuzziness that occurs when its underwater?

[GetCarter]

PGD5 said:

Me neither, thats my point really

Any means of a 'reset to factory defaults' can't see how to do that either

Edited by PGD5 on Tuesday 24th April 11:59

God I wish mine would record in AVI - would make life so much easier.

[Omaruk]

original gopro wide non HD recorded in avi

[PGD5]

GetCarter said:

God I wish mine would record in AVI - would make life so much easier.

Whys that Steve?

In my experience AVI format has always been harder to work with, lower quality and a larger file size. Your comment makes me think I'm just doing it wrong! Any word on how I should be editing AVI files would be great

[RizzoTheRat]

I found windows movie maker tended to crash a lot regardless of the file format. After experimenting with a few free trial versions I'm using Cyberlink Power director to edit my vids, you can get some pretty cheap delas on it if you hunt around the net, and it's really easy to use.

[Du1point8]

I have a Mac and no specialist software at the moment, I have several large mp4s (1GB and above) of me diving in red sea.

I want to know if Mac has a good movie editor, or is there a free one I can use to simply chop up the mp4s with useable and unusable footage and make a couple of shorter videos that I can send out to family.

[GetCarter]

PGD5 said:

GetCarter said:

God I wish mine would record in AVI - would make life so much easier.

Whys that Steve?

In my experience AVI format has always been harder to work with, lower quality and a larger file size. Your comment makes me think I'm just doing it wrong! Any word on how I should be editing AVI files would be great

It's only because I can edit AVI on my PC using Premier, but have to edit MOV on my Mac using iMovie (or faff about trying to convert).

[onesickpuppy]

Du1point8 said:

I have a Mac and no specialist software at the moment, I have several large mp4s (1GB and above) of me diving in red sea.

I want to know if Mac has a good movie editor, or is there a free one I can use to simply chop up the mp4s with useable and unusable footage and make a couple of shorter videos that I can send out to family.

iMovie is pretty good and fairly easy to use. It should be on there somewhere!

[GetCarter]

onesickpuppy said:

Du1point8 said:

I have a Mac and no specialist software at the moment, I have several large mp4s (1GB and above) of me diving in red sea.

I want to know if Mac has a good movie editor, or is there a free one I can use to simply chop up the mp4s with useable and unusable footage and make a couple of shorter videos that I can send out to family.

iMovie is pretty good and fairly easy to use. It should be on there somewhere!

I've got a feeling iMovie is an added extra on the latest Macs. It is good, but slightly strange in the way it works. Not as intuitive as other Mac software. IMHO

[Du1point8]

GetCarter said:

onesickpuppy said:

Du1point8 said:

I have a Mac and no specialist software at the moment, I have several large mp4s (1GB and above) of me diving in red sea.

I want to know if Mac has a good movie editor, or is there a free one I can use to simply chop up the mp4s with useable and unusable footage and make a couple of shorter videos that I can send out to family.

iMovie is pretty good and fairly easy to use. It should be on there somewhere!

I've got a feeling iMovie is an added extra on the latest Macs. It is good, but slightly strange in the way it works. Not as intuitive as other Mac software. IMHO

Just been trying it out as I didn't realise there was such a program on the mac... you are right its not intuitive at all... time for me to RTFM before I progress with this any more, otherwise Im bound to miss some aspect that I want to use.

[onesickpuppy]

GetCarter said:

onesickpuppy said:

Du1point8 said:

I have a Mac and no specialist software at the moment, I have several large mp4s (1GB and above) of me diving in red sea.

I want to know if Mac has a good movie editor, or is there a free one I can use to simply chop up the mp4s with useable and unusable footage and make a couple of shorter videos that I can send out to family.

iMovie is pretty good and fairly easy to use. It should be on there somewhere!

I've got a feeling iMovie is an added extra on the latest Macs. It is good, but slightly strange in the way it works. Not as intuitive as other Mac software. IMHO

Nope, it's included in iLife which comes with all modern era Macs. You are right in that needs a little time to get the best out of it, but for a simple trim/split job should be easy. And even if it's not on his Mac, if he's running Snow Leopard or Lion he can download it from the App Store for £9.99 (IIRC).

ETA: He's found it!

[GetCarter]

onesickpuppy said:

Nope, it's included in iLife which comes with all modern era Macs. You are right in that needs a little time to get the best out of it, but for a simple trim/split job should be easy. And even if it's not on his Mac, if he's running Snow Leopard or Lion he can download it from the App Store for £9.99 (IIRC).

Hmmm I wonder why iLife/iMovie isn't on my iMac bought 4 months ago then! (It's on my G5)

[onesickpuppy]

Du1point8 said:

Just been trying it out as I didn't realise there was such a program on the mac... you are right its not intuitive at all... time for me to RTFM before I progress with this any more, otherwise Im bound to miss some aspect that I want to use.

Which version are you using?