VideoProc Tutorial: Convert and Compress GoPro 4K Videos to Greatly Optimize Size

Smartphone users who have a 4K-enabled GoPro camera often want to copy their video files using Quick Key, or the native GoPro App only to find out that some formats are not always supported and that files occupy a huge amount of storage space.

At publishing time, the official GoPro site lists iOS 11+ as a minimum to supports HEVC, and even then, compatibility is not guaranteed by GoPro on all devices.

Sometimes, the video size is problematic: the VideoProc team noticed that a 1-minute 4K@60fps video requires 529MB of phone storage and this jumps to 643MB with ProTune turned on.

With VideoProc, there are several strategies to increase the compatibility and/or reduce the file size of the 4K videos for use on mobile devices which include converting the GoPro 4K HEVC to H264 (supported by most devices) using the newer HEVC video converter to compress video by ~50% without noticeable loss, or tuning the resolution, bit-rate, frame-rate settings to reach the desired size with minimal loss.

Additionally, keep in mind that YouTube and Facebook have size limitations that sometimes require compressing video from a 4K GoPro to a size that fit their maximum upload limits. Here are some key advantages of VideoProc:

Convert and Resize 4K videos a GoPro Video with VideoProc

You can follow the steps while watching the VideoProc Video Guides, or follow this tutorial below, we’ll assume that you have a 4K video file on your computer waiting to be converted.

  1. Firstly, download VideoProc officially (both Windows and Mac version available) and install it.
  2. Open VideoProc, and click on the “Video” button
  3. Drag and Drop the source 4K video file (any 4K video from GoPro, Drone or iPhone), or click on the “+ Video” button to select the 4K video file to be converted on your computer and select it.
    1. If your GoPro 4K videos is coded with H.264, then you can choose converting H.264 to H.265 (HEVC), your GoPro 4K videos will be compressed by 50% and the video quality won’t loss.
    2. In Target Format, choose “MP4 HEVC”, note that the default video format option is HEVC at 1080p. If you want to keep the original 4K resolution, click on the Options button shaped like a gear, then make your changes.
    3. To change the video format, there are two options.
      1. Select a preset from the “Target Format” list at the bottom
      2. Fine-tune the Output Settings by going into the Codec Options
  4. Optional: to have the smallest possible output video, uncheck the NVIDIA/Intel/AMD checkbox. Software processing can squeeze the last Bytes, while GPU-conversion is focused on the speed of conversion.
  5. Click on the “Run” button to start the conversion process using the selected settings.

Read more methods to reduce GoPro 4K video size with VideoProc >

In all cases, we saw significantly smaller disk sizes, with a perceptively equivalent visual quality. Whether you choose to resize 4K videos to 1080p is your choice, but even if you keep the original 4K video resolution, it is still possible to obtain a very significant file size reduction as the 4K video transcoder uses the latest HEVC codec.

In a test with GoPro files available freely on the Internet, a 130MB 4K-H264 video was reduced to much lower sizes using VideoProc with different resolution and encoding:

Resolution Video Codec Bitrate File Size
Original 4K H264 60505 kbps 130 MB
4K HEVC 1537 kbps 3.6 MB
1080p H264 2928 kbps 6.3 MB
1080p HEVC 441 kbps 1.0 MB

As you can see, the difference is dramatic with the default settings, but you can tweak every aspects of the video compression in the settings, although most people will probably use the presets.

Process and Edit Videos with VideoProc and GPU Acceleration

VideoProc can also enhance the video with noise removal or GoPro 4K video stabilization in addition to offering desired editing tools to cut, splice, rotate, flip, speed-up, slow-down and more.

It is possible to do a number of video processing, including editing (cut, crop, rotate), adding effects, adding a watermark, or even adding subtitles. At the bottom of the user interface, you will see a “Toolbox” tab with many more filters and effects that can be applied to a video clip. In many ways, VideoProc can be an alternative to the GoPro Editor.

Adding effects will require final processing, which is greatly accelerated if you have a compatible graphics processor (GPU) available because GPUs can be used to not only compress video but also apply effects to each frame prior to compression.

The VideoProc team says that in the best case scenario, the GPU acceleration can be 47X faster, although this will depend on a number of factors, including the GPU model, and the editing effects that are applied to the video.

Still, GPU acceleration should be considered as a must-have to expedite video editing in general, and support for it must be high on your list.

Make sure that the “Hardware Acceleration Engine” checkbox is checked. If you want to see what level of acceleration you have, click on the Options button and see what exactly is being accelerated. This can vary depending on your computer’s hardware.

VideoProc can be downloaded for free to see if it fits your needs. Try it now, and you could be on your way to editing videos faster and converting them to an optimum size before sharing your content to the world.

You May Also Like

Related Articles on Ubergizmo

Popular Right Now

Exit mobile version
Exit mobile version