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Compressing GoPro videos
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2021 8:00 am
by Bayleaf
I was a VERY lucky girl and received a GoPro for my Birthday last month. It's for attaching to my riding hat when out on horseback, but can be attached to any other helmet - so we'll also use it for cycling, and just for easy videoing by hand.
I'd like to share some of the more "exciting moments" elsewhere, and thought I'd compressed the files enough for this. But despite just having a 20second clip, there is still too much to send because of the very high quality.
Does anyone have a recommendation of a free (and reliable) app I could download that would help.
Thank you very much - if I suss it out, I might even be able to post something on here!

Compressing GoPro videos
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2021 9:27 am
by exile
I am not a video person Bayleaf and so may be writing the proverbial sphericals but I thought with videos the best way was to post them into UTube - or Dropbox for more confidential stuff - and link / send a message about where to find them.
The thing with a video is that it essentially a series of still pictures so if you need 30 shots per second to avoid that jerky early 20th century look, even 10 seconds of video is like sending 300 or more pictures.
Compressing GoPro videos
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2021 9:29 am
by ExMontpelliérain
Ninja’d by exile but I’ll post this anyway: Rather than compressing your data it might be easier to open a YouTube account - straightforward, especially if you already have a Google account - then upload high quality videos to your profile. You can then post on here via links to the relevant YouTube videos. It’s free and almost unlimited in capacity. Some details
here (other advisory links are available).
Compressing GoPro videos
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2021 11:18 am
by curtis
Interesting thread. I have a GoPro too and did some in car filming during some hillclimbs.
However, they would not play correctly on my PC. The sound was OK but the picture moved about every 15/20 secs.
Compressing GoPro videos
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2021 11:38 am
by Bayleaf
Aha! Brilliant ideas from above. Is it possible to keep YouTube videos only available for a private audience? I'm amazed at the quality watching the clips on the laptop - hence, as exile says - that's a lot of photos all together!
Compressing GoPro videos
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2021 12:30 pm
by ExMontpelliérain
Bayleaf wrote: ↑Fri Dec 24, 2021 11:38 am
Aha! Brilliant ideas from above. Is it possible to keep YouTube videos only available for a private audience? I'm amazed at the quality watching the clips on the laptop - hence, as exile says - that's a lot of photos all together!
Yes, you can have various privacy settings. Details
here.
Compressing GoPro videos
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2021 12:36 pm
by ExMontpelliérain
curtis wrote: ↑Fri Dec 24, 2021 11:18 am
Interesting thread. I have a GoPro too and did some in car filming during some hillclimbs.
However, they would not play correctly on my PC. The sound was OK but the picture moved about every 15/20 secs.
Are you playing directly from the SD card Curtis (if so that is probably your problem)? Files are best played from your hard drive. If you still have a problem this may be down to inadequate processing power in your CPU or video card. I tend to use VLC for home video playback - it’s free & pretty forgiving.
Compressing GoPro videos
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2021 12:44 pm
by elsie
I have my own domain and I use jAlbum to post my photos and videos to my own web site. However, making those private is more complicated as it is done at the domain level. There is now a completely free version of jAlbum but it has some limitations. jAlbum also do their own hosting for an annual fee (jAlbum.net) and anything there can be password protected easily.
I also use WordPress on my own domain for a travel blog. It is possible to use that for displaying videos intermixed with test and photos and has various levels of security which are easy to control.
I assume there are now recommendations/disclaimers by GoPro for attaching cameras to helmets following the Michael Schumacher GoPro incident?
Compressing GoPro videos
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2021 12:46 pm
by niemeyjt
The size of the videos depends on a number of factors - the resolution (e.g. 4K vs 1080p vs 720p), the frame rate (e.g 60fps vs 30fps) and the compression algorithm used.
If setting the GoPro to, say 1080p @ 30fps still produces too big a file, then reduce to 720p and maybe change the compression / file format.
Just looked on my laptop for the free tool I have used in the past - sorry, should have remembered it the other day - Freemake Video Converter -
https://www.freemake.com/.
You can convert to a range of different resolutions as well as use different compression techniques.
2021-12-24 12_43_32-.png
Compressing GoPro videos
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2021 2:46 pm
by elsie
I can't remember why I abandoned it, but doesn't the free version of Freemake Video Converter now watermark videos in some way and encourage you to buy a full copy to get rid of that?
I've just received a SharewareOnSale daily newsletter and they have AceThinker Video Editor Pro with a full one year one user licence, so presumably no watemark? I don't know whether it is any good as I've not installed it? Just beware the SharewareOnSale registration processes can sometimes be quite convoluted and challenging!
https://sharewareonsale.com/s/free-acet ... 0-discount