Exporting GoPro footage from iMovie

[rcaqua]

Dear all,

Apologies for the newbie question, but I have been facing issues when testing the gopro and post production. Here's the setup:

Gopro 3 black, using Protune, camraw, 1080p, 50fps (PAL).

Using Macbook Air (one of the "quicker" ones with 2 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD drive, processor running at 2.14 gHz, iMovie (2009)). I realize this is perhaps not the best machine for this type of work, but surely it should at least function (albeit very very slowly....)?.

All works OK during editing (color, cropping, stabilization, titles and transitions), but goes South when I try to "share" (i.e. export) the project so that I can actually show it. The Mac works like crazy for hours on end, and just a the very end, shows a dialgue box that it encountered an error and cannot export the project. I have tried all sorts of exporting setups, varying fps, resolution, type of file, quicktime or not, etc etc, up to now to no avail. :depressed:

Does anyone see what I am doing wrong and how I could fix it before I travel to Komodo

next week....? Is it the fps, the resolution or the Protunes setting? What am I missing?

Many thanks for any advice!

Best,

Rene

 

[Interceptor121]

There are a number of problems possible. The simplest is that iMovie needs updating as with some versions it crashes using quicktime export other reason may include the fact that iMovie does not like 50fps files in general but it could also run out of memory
Do you get the error when you do share->export movie (command E)?

 

[doctormike]

Does this help?


Underwater Video Tips: Working with AVCHD 2.0 and 1080p60 or 1080p50 files in iMovie | Interceptor121 Underwater Video

 

[Interceptor121]

Does this help?

That is my blog the procedure is for AVCHD files, the gopro produces normal Mp4 that can nearly be managed as is by iMovie, it is useful to manually create events instead of importing but I think the op has passed that stage and is having an error later on

 

[Dauntless]

Quick test of your system (Computer) Does the video play smoothly and not stutter when you try to play the GoPro File directly in QuickTime (not going through iMovie). If your system can't play the file, highly unlikely it will be able to render.

 

[lostcajun]

Okay... some limitations to your Air is 2 gigs. That's pretty light on RAM and can s l o w down the processing and even halt it. Make sure you have no other programs running, but 2 gigs is still very limited. 128 gig memory is limited as well if it is nearly full. You might try on a friend's iMac or MacBook with minimum 4 gig ram. I also agree you need the most recent iMovie as well. I had a late 2008 MacBook with 4 gigs of ram and noticed a tremendous processing speed boost when I upgrade to 2012 MacBook Air i7 with 8gigs of ram. That is not as powerful as an iMac or MacBook pro, but pretty close. My old MacBook was quite slow in comparison...

 

[rcaqua]

Many thanks for the suggestions.

The Macbook Air is indeed light for video-editing work, it is choppy when it shows the Gopro vid, and very slow in rendering (took 14 hours for a 15 minute imovie...), BUT it should work!

Sent an email to Tekserve in New York (apple experts since the Ice Age), and they very kindly asked me what the error message was, then sent me the advice that that error message was probably due to an incompatibility with the backup software Time Machine. They suggested I turn Time Machine off and try again. Lo and behold, it worked!!!

iMovie is simple and easy, all of this takes time and effort, but in the end it delivers the goods. Hope to post when I am really satisfied with the results of my Komodo trip vid: sharks, turtles and rays should be showcased well, or not at all!!

Best,

Rene