Really (really) basic questions

[Malpaso]

Used my GoPro for the first time on a dive today, and have some very basic questions. It appears that I'm even more limited in my videography knowledge than I am in my photography knowledge. I downloaded CineForm Studio, but I can't make heads or tails of what I need to do. I found some tutorials, but they seem to be beyond the simple things I want to do.

1. Why did it split my video into three ~17 minute files? I never stopped recording. Is there a file size limit?
2. I want to cut the video down to about 5 minutes total, with a little from one file and more from another file. I figured out how to start and stop, but I'm guessing I need to save each clip and merge them somehow. How is that done?

Dive was great. 45*F water, 35*F air, dove wet!

 

[yarik83]

You need a video editing software.

As for file split .mp4 files have a 4gb file limit so it takes you file and does a really funky number on it. Take a look at paragraph from FAQ article and it will explain why its doing what its doing:

The GoPro video file naming concept begins with the letters GOPR at the start, followed by a sequential 4 digit number normally starting at 1 and progressing from there. For example: GOPR0001. When you record a lengthy video you will then end up with additional files, GOP10001, GOP20001 etc. If you have a good look at these video files on the SD card, you will notice that all but the last file is four gigabytes in size.The reason behind the splitting of the files once they reach that 4Gb limit, is due to the file system and the formatting of the SD card. There is no other way to format the SD card to prevent this from happening, as the SD card needs to be formatted using the FAT32 file system to enable the GoPro camera and PC’s, Mac’s and alike to universally read and write to the card. It sounds quite technical, but there is no really simple explanation.Although this can be quite annoying, having videos consisting of multiple video files, there are some very simple ways of turning the multiple video files into one continuous video. Generally most PC’s and Mac’s can handle files greater than 4Gb nowadays. Therefore, once the files are transferred to your computer, you can then join the multiple files into one single file, exceeding that 4Gb limit imposed by the SD card. If you want to edit your videos using Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas, iMovie etc, it is possible to add the sequence of video into your timeline, but this can be quite tedious when it comes to editing the final video. The easiest method is to join the files into one long video first.

 

[SurfnPics]

Check out this site. Power Director is super simple to learn with a heap of features for any complete novice. You can download a free trial copy of most software packages. All the clips once placed on the timeline in order will play back seamlessly so don't worry that they have been broken up by the file size limitations. Pretty normal stuff. Just leave Cineform for now. Just get used to playing around do some basic edits from your project. Just keep a copy of all the original MP4 files so you you have the peace of mind of backup. Video Editing Software Review 2013 | Best Video Editor Software | Video Editing - TopTenREVIEWS. Look forward to your first production