Corey

iTrader: (1)

If you run Windows XP and Movie Maker that comes with it, you will find out you can no longer use Movie Maker when using a GoPro HD movie which is an MP4 file.
Movie Maker refuses to open the file.

Now if you have Windows 7, the Movie Maker that comes with it I have read will work.

I like the simplicity of Movie Maker that comes with XP, and in the past I have used my Sony digital cameras to import the AVI or MPG files from it to Movie Maker, then upload to Vimeo or YouTube.

When I first got my GoPro HD camera I had to just use the raw file and upload it to either Vimeo or YouTube and the movie did not have any custom stuff added such as text or transitional effects.

While using Google earlier today to see if there were anymore results out there to solve this problem I ran across a thread on a forum to try Sony's Movie Studio HD Platinum.
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiopp

Free trial here.
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/.../moviestudiopp

I installed the program and opened up a test file from my GoPro HD camera.
The program is not simple to use like Windows Movie Maker, and I had to consult the tutorial to find out how to add text and transitions.
I do not like the results as well as Windows Movie Makers although the Sony program is much more powerful.

I made a small movie with some text and some transitions and saved it to my PC as a WMV (Windows Movie Video) and it opened up in Windows Movie Maker just fine.

But wait, no need to use the difficult interface in Sony's program by adding the custom stuff.
Just open up the GoPro HD video in the Sony program, then save the raw movie as a 1080 30 FPS (if you shot the video at maximum setting like I do) WMV file.
Once saved as a WMV file, open it up in Windows Movie Maker and add all of your custom stuff such as intro titles, transitions, end credits, whatever you have used before in the past.

Once the movie is done, use Windows Movie Maker to save the file to your PC in the playback setting (I always choose best quality) of your choice, then upload it to whatever video service online you have in the past.

I only use Vimeo or YouTube, and I prefer Vimeo, but YouTube is just as good now that they allow HD movies.

Now I will be able to add several raw GoPro HD videos at once to Windows Movie Maker and stitch them together to make one movie too instead of having several short ones.

When I ordered my GoPro direct from them (I was one of the first hundred or so to get one) I asked if I could edit the videos in Windows Movie Maker running Windows XP Pro and I was assured I could.
Much to my surprise I could not, and I was quite frankly pissed off.

But now my problem is solved, and I hope this information is useful to someone else who has ran into this problem.

Those running Macs have a great program already or easily obtained, so this info is for Windows XP users who run Windows Movie Maker only.
I had read that Vista and Movie Maker will open the GoPro video format, but my laptop which runs Vista does the same thing my XP computer did, it would not open the raw file in Movie Maker.

jesson815

Being a "basic" (& free) movie editing app, Windows Movie Maker (WMM) traditionally wants to work with the two native Windows video formats: WMV and AVI. GoPro cameras shoot in highly compressed H.264 MP4 format. The newest WMM 2012 edition, which you probably have since you are using Win7, can handle H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video but the "horsepower" of your PC might not handle the needed decompression very well, especially if you are trying to edit on a laptop.

GoPro uses the Cineform codecs to handle their video (and now owns the Cineform company) and lets you download their Cineform Studio editing tools to make handling your GoPro footage easier.

One thing you might try is to use brorsoft video converter to transcode your MP4 footage into Cineform AVI, which is easier to edit with. See:
http://www.brorsoft.com/how-to/use-g...vie-maker.html