GoPro HD "special" format 960p issues

M

mitteg

Active member
Hello,

I have a GoPro HD camera and I really like to record at 960/25p, that is 1280x960 pix 4:3 aspect ratio. The problem comes when I mix these footage with my 16:9 HD footage from a real camcorder shotting at 720/50p (1280x720).

The point is, what would you do:

1. Convert the 4:3 footage from the GoPro to 16:9 asp. ratio by horitzontally expanding the frame. Of course, this would cause a distortion making the people look fat but with no picture quality loss. This keeps also the wideangular frame of view because no pixels are left out. All the 1280x960pix are used, although horitzontally stretched.

2. Crop a 1280x720 image from the 1280x960 frame size. This wouldn't cause any distortion, but I'll loose the wideangular feature: only 720 of the 960 horitzonal pixels will be used. I can get the upper side or the lower side of the frame. I have the reframing capability though.

So, what would you do? Something tells me that 1 is better because no pixels are lost and the distortion is not really a problem in my case because the gopro is used in extreme sports environments where it is preferable to have a wideangular view.

Thanks for your opinions.
 
Ah, I see.....

hmm...
you have quite a dilemma then, haha

I wonder why the manufacturer made it record in that resolution, that is very strange...
 
JPM Photography said:
Ah, I see.....

hmm...
you have quite a dilemma then, haha

I wonder why the manufacturer made it record in that resolution, that is very strange...
Click to expand...

Not strange, just because a 4:3 frame has more wideangle effect. A picture to illustrate that:

960p.jpg
 
Yeah, I get the 4:3, I just don't get the resolution. Most 4:3 stuff is SD, I haven't ever seen anything record in 4:3 HD. That is what is strange to me
 
I guess what this 960p mode is really meant for is the following: You choose it for an eventually cropped 720p format. The reason you shoot with 960p is that it is relatively easy to aim the GoPro horizontally, but rather difficult to determine the tilt-angle. So, you therefore shoot at 960p and on your computer, when transcoding the video for your editing software, you also crop each clip individually into a frame that suits what you actually wanted to get.
If there is too much heaven, crop it out, if you got your feet and don't want them, cut them [off the footage of course].

This has worked very well for me, especially when biking and skiing. The end result should always be a clean (only cropped, not otherwise altered) 1080x720 px (HD) footage. What I find additionally nice is that it is 48 fps (= 2 x 24fps), which makes it even more versatile, because you get clean 24p slow motion from it. 24p should still be the first choice for the final film btw, because it looks much more like a motion 'picture', not a nerdy video.
 
I'm not a fan of the 960p output. It looks terribly skiwampus when stretched and way soft when cropped relative to just shooting wide in 2.7k or 1080-60p. It is a wider angle vertically, but just not something I'd ever be able to stand watching. It has terrible barrel distortion when stretched to 1920 wide. I'm also not a fan of 24p output for any sort of action sports piece. If you are going to show nothing but slow motion, then a 24p project can be quite nice, but any full speed action at 24p is very difficult to watch, IMHO. The combination of shaky helmet cam footage and 24p is a recipe for getting sick to your stomach when watching :)

Seriously though, these cams have some great options and you can be as creative as you want with your final output. My suggestion is to create 1920x1080 at 30p if you want people to really enjoy watching.

Cheers,
Pete
 
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