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GoPro HERO camera will deliver stunning video footages if we set the recording resolution to 4K. But what follows is the unreasonably huge file size. For example, recording a 60-second 4K@30fps video with GoPro HERO4 will occupy approximately 493MB of memory. Although GoPro HERO6 Black uses more advanced HEVC format to encode 4K, the file still remains big. When we shoot a 1-minute 4K@60fps video, it eats about 529MB memory when ProTune is off, and 643MB with ProTune turned on. In addition to taking up too much space, big file will result in choppy playback and edit, uploading time to increase, and failure to send video to WhatsApp, Snapchat, Email and other programs which have strict limitations on file size and length.
To help you solve uploading, playback, editing, and storage problems caused by bulky 4K video files, next we will explain how to resize GoPro 4K video without quality loss. This is an exclusive solution guide on compressing GoPro 4K videos on Windows and Mac computer.
In this article, we will focus on the following things. You may jump straight to your most interested part:
VideoProc offers various ways to process and reduce file size of a video on PC & Mac.
Additional features to process your videos: crop, deshake, denoise, adjust fisheye, add effect, merge splitted files, rotate, flip, slow down (10x) and speed up (16x) footages, fix choppy videos and out-of-sync video audio and more.
VideoProc 3.2 license key giveaway: click "Download" to get your key.
Key for Windows: DASFX-NDUXK-ZJBZ3-QO3G3 (How to activate?)
Key for Mac: DB7FP-2CCLK-EXWHM-DUHSL (How to activate?)
Scenario 1: Upload GoPro 4K videos to video sharing sites that support long videos, such as YouTube and Facebook
Although YouTube and Facebook allow users to upload long and large files, there're still limits on file size and length. You can check details in the table below. If your GoPro 4K video goes over the limit of YouTube, Facebook or other site, you can use VideoProc to resize and compress it. Before the resizing, to upload a perfect copy for sharing, you can tone down background noise from your GoPro recorded videos.
Site | Maximum file size / length |
---|---|
YouTube | 2GB / 15minutes
(by default) |
128GB / 12 hours
(after verifying Google Account and updating browser to the latest version) |
|
4GB / 120 minutes |
VideoProc is a piece of one-stop video processing software that can easily resize 4K UHD videos shoot by GoPro HERO4/5/6/7/8, DJI drone, iPhone, or other devices. It helps users reduce both length and file size of a video with ease. Armed with Intel, AMD and NVIDIA powered level-3 hardware acceleration, it can finish resizing or other video processing tasks at super fast speed.
How to: resize GoPro video for uploading >
Scenario 2: Share GoPro 4K video to sites or programs that accept short video clips, such as Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Snapchat.
Some sites or applications don't accept long videos.
Instagram: only allows users to upload videos 3 to 60 seconds. | Twitter: restricts the video length to 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
Snapchat: only accepts a video that is less than 10 seconds. | WhatsApp: doesn't set limits for file length, but doesn't permit a video larger than 16MB.
If the video length of your GoPro 4K video goes beyond the limit, you can cut off unwanted segment or split it into multiple smaller pieces with VideoProc. We've illustrated how to cut a video and split a long video into several short video clips in next part.
How to: trim long video to short clips for social sharing >
Scenario 3: Send GoPro 4K video via email, or backup them to DropBox, Google Drive, One Drive, or other cloud storage services.
Email is a convenient way that can help us send files to anyone, only if we know his or her email address. But what we should note here is that every email provider has set maximum attachment size limit, 25MB for Gmail, 25MB for Yahoo Mail, and 20MB for Outlook. To bypass email client's meager attachment size limit, we can make use of a file sharing service such as Google Drive to generate a link to access your GoPro 4K video or resize it using VideoProc before uploading to email.
How to: compress GoPro footages for email or local backup >
Scenario 4: Store GoPro 4K video footage to hard drive or storage server for further editing
When you capture a lot of fantastic 4K video footages with your GoPro camera, you may want to store them in an external hard drive, cloud storage server, NAS, or somewhere else, for further editing. However, what may trouble you are that 4K footages require for too much storage space and your video editor becomes choppy after you import a large 4K footage.
Although many GoPro video editors have announced the support for 4K video, users sometimes still run into errors while importing. Check out those Top ten 4K video editors. Professional video editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro itself is big in size and has high requirements for computer hardware. Importing a massive 4K video undoubtedly adds insult to jury.
To solve these issues, you're suggested to refer to the methods below to compress your GoPro 4K videos without compromising quality before saving and editing.
As said above, VideoProc comes with many great features to resize GoPro 4K videos. It allows users to cut off unwanted parts to shorten video length, split a video into parts to fit for short file-sharing platforms, convert GoPro H.264 to HEVC/H.265 to shrink file without compromise of quality, and tweak video audio parameters (resolution, bit rate, frame rate) to compress GoPro video, etc. It is the strongest and fastest video processing software owing to the flawless support for any UHD 4K and even 8K videos, the highest level hardware acceleration technology, and High Quality Engine.
Now we'll show you six methods to resize GoPro 4K videos with VideoProc while preserving original quality maximally. You can choose any method below to process GoPro video compression. Click the proper download button below if you have not downloaded the setup file. Our operation below is based on Windows version. The procedure on Mac follows the similar rule.
To reduce power consumption, GoPro applies a fast yet inefficient algorithm for video compression and encoding. For this reason, the size of GoPro video is extremely large. Luckily, we will see a significant reduction in file size and no quality loss if we re-encode GoPro video using VideoProc which is built with an advanced compression algorithm. Below are our test results. Re-encoding is processed without changing all the original parameter settings.
Original | Re-encode 1 | Re-encode 1 (GPU accelerated) | Re-encode 2 | Re-encode 2 (GPU accelerated) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Video length | 5s | 5s | 5s | 5s | 5s |
Codec | H.264 | H.264 | H.264 | HEVC | HEVC |
File Size | 15.5MB | 6.17MB | 3.76MB | 1.82MB | 2.76MB |
Quality | - | Same as original | Same as original | Same as original | Same as original |
Well, how to re-encode GoPro video without quality loss?
If you use an old GoPro model, HERO 5 for example, your 4K video is encoded with H.264. By converting H.264 to H.265 (aka. HEVC), the file size will be reduced by 50% or more while the quality won't be impacted at all. If you don't know which format your GoPro 4K footage is, you can check it through VideoProc. Load your footage into VideoProc and you'll see the video codec and audio codec under the title. If it is H.264, now follow the guide below to convert it to more advanced HEVC.
Theoretically, the quality will be degraded after downscaling from 4K to 1080p. However, you won't notice any quality loss when you play the compressed file on 1080p TV or mobile devices.
When we just cut off extra clips while keeping original parameters, the original quality will be 100% preserved.
This is also a useful way to resize GoPro 4K video. After loading target footage, simply click "Option" button and then you'll get access to the panel where you can adjust bit rate, frame rate, GOP and other parameters.
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1. Lower bit rate
Bit rate is an important factor that affects video quality and file size. In theory, the higher the bit rate, the better the video quality and the larger the file size. However, when the bit rate reaches a critical point, our eyes will no longer notice enhancement of quality, but only increase of file size. Therefore, we can choose a relatively low bit rate to reduce the file size of GoPro 4K video.
To decrease bit rate:
- Locate "Bit Rate" and choose "Manual" from its dropdown menu.
- Choose "ABR" and then you can change the "Target Bit Rate". For example, assume that you want to upload a GoPro 4K 30fps video to YouTube, you can set the bit rate to 35000 kbps.
2. Reduce frame rate
Frame rate can also impact file size and fluidity of a video. You're suggested to choose a high frame rate when you need to record sports videos. However, it is not necessary to set too high to record a video that isn't full of action scenes. So, change your GoPro 4K 60/50fps to 30fps when necessary. To lower frame rate, tap "Option", locate "Frame Rate (FPS)", and then choose "30".
3. Increase the value of GOP
GOP, short for group of pictures, is comprised of I-, B-, and P-frames. Assume that the GOP is 250, there will be 1 I-frame and 249 B- and P-frames. When we increase GOP to 500, I-frame is still 1 and B- and P-frames increase to 499. The size of 1 I-frame is far larger than that of 249 B- and P-frames. So, when we increase the value of GOP, the number of I-frames in a video will be decreased, thus reducing the file size. Click "Option", find "GOP", and now enter a desired GOP value.
4. Uncheck Force Copy
After clicking "Option" and then you'll find "Force Copy" under Audio Codec Options. When you transcode your GoPro 4K video with "Auto Copy" selected and "Force Copy" disabled, it will transcode the audio only and deliver a smaller file.
5. Remove audio track
If audio track doesn't mean much to you, you can remove the audio track off your GoPro 4K video to reduce the file size. Now, let me show you how to delete the audio track. Click audio track info in the pending file and uncheck it. Hit "RUN" and you will get a new file without audio. Additional tip: how to fix GoPro video audio out-of-sync issue
Splitting is another workaround if you don't want to compress GoPro video by converting format, downscaling resolution, tweaking parameters or other methods we introduced above. After splitting, you will get some smaller video clips. Then you can send those files at different times to your friend or YouTube and the like.
Now, specify how many segments you want to split your video into, and how long each segment is. Click "Done" after you finish settings.
As you can see, VideoProc does provide so many great ways to resize videos without damaging the image and audio quality severely. Now download it and try it yourself!
Apart from enhancing GoPro video quality by post processing, you can also get GoPro videos with good balance between quality and file size by changing the settings in camera. Here're some best GoPro video settings for a variety of activities.
Activity | GoPro HERO5 Black video setting | GoPro HERO6 Black video setting | GoPro HERO7 Black video setting |
---|---|---|---|
Automobile | 1080p60, Wide FOV; 2.7K60, Wide FOV | 1080p60, Wide FOV; 2.7K120, Wide FOV; 4K60, Wide FOV | 1440p60, Wide FOV; 4K60, Wide FOV; 5x TimeWarp Video |
Cycling, Mountain Biking | 1080p60, SuperView FOV; 1440p60, Wide FOV | 1080p60, SuperView FOV; 1440p60, Wide FOV; 2.7K60 4:3, Wide FOV | 1440p60, Wide FOV; 2.7K60 4:3, Wide FOV; 15x TimeWarp Video |
Family/Travel | 1080p60, Wide or Linear FOV; 2.7K60, Wide FOV | 1080p60, Wide or Linear FOV; 4K60, Wide FOV | 1440p60, Wide FOV; 4K60, Wide FOV; 10x TimeWarp Video |
Flying the Karma Drone | 1080p60, Linear FOV; 2.7K60, Linear FOV; 4K30, Wide FOV | 1080p60, Linear FOV; 4K60, Wide FOV | / |
Hiking | 1440p30, Wide FOV; 2.7K30 4:3, Wide FOV | 1440p30, Wide FOV; 4K30 4:3, Wide FOV | 1440p60, Wide FOV; 4K30 4:3, Wide FOV; 15x TimeWarp Video |
Motorcycle, Motocross | 1080p60, SuperView FOV | 1080p60, SuperView FOV; 2.7K60 4:3, Wide FOV | 1440p60, Wide FOV; 2.7K60 4:3, Wide FOV; 15x TimeWarp Video |
Skiing, Snowboarding (non-POV) | 1080p120, Wide FOV | 1080p120, Wide FOV; 1080p240, Wide FOV; 2.7K120, Wide FOV; 4K60, Wide FOV | 1080p120, Wide FOV; 4K60, Wide FOV; 15x TimeWarp Video |
Skiing, Snowboarding (POV) | 1440p60, Wide FOV | 1440p60, Wide FOV; 2.7K60 4:3, Wide FOV | 1440p60, Wide FOV; 1440p120, Wide FOV; 15x TimeWarp Video |
Surfing | 1080p120, Wide FOV | 1080p240, Wide FOV; 1440p120, Wide FOV | 1080p240, Wide FOV |
Underwater Activities | 1080p60, Wide FOV | 1080p60, Wide FOV; 4K60, Wide FOV | 1440p60, Wide FOV; 4K60, Wide FOV |
Water Activities | 1080p120, Wide FOV | 1080p120, Wide FOV | 1440p60, Wide FOV; 1080p240, Wide FOV |
Other tips:
GoPro cameras feature ProTune with which you can control white balance, ISO, color capture, exposure value compensation (EV) and sharpness. When Protune is on, your files will be easier to edit with professional editing software, but will be much larger than if ProTune is off. Therefore, if you don't want to spend much time in editing, leave it off to save space.
Farrah Penn has been a copywriter at Digiarty since 2014. Because of the occupational requirement and personal interest, Farrah has carried on broad and profound study and researches to multimedia related stuff, popular electronic devices and multimedia programs in the market. She has been writing extensively on video processing, software reviews, and various solutions to make digital life easier.
Aiming to be the leading digital media company, Digiarty Software, Inc. is dedicated to providing professional and innovative multimedia software for all Windows and Mac users.
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