August 2010 – Page 2 – High on Mountain Biking

Edit GoPro HD videos Free Fast and Easy

Unlike the standard GoPro that recorded in .wma, the GoPro HD are encoded in mpeg4 h.264 format. Now although this format has been around for quite some time, a lot of video editors will not import the MP4 format.
Like many others I was unpleasantly surprised by this, and I did not have a clue where to start, so in all cases like this, I got my help from Google.
What I did know, is what I did NOT want.

To spend a lot of money on a professional video editor
A massive resource hog running on my computer
To have to spend 6 years of intensive training to be able to use the editor.

My first break came when I stumbled on the excellent and very helpful Highball Blog and especially the posts about the GoPro HD.

Kudos to Constantin for the excellent very well detailed posts on his site… have a look for yourself www.highballblog.com you’ll be sure to learn something.

After a lot of further research and a lot of trials and errors I have come up with the following method to edit my GoPro HD videos, and the best of all, it is 100% FREE and very Easy.

Now I am not saying that the way I do it is ideal, or better than any other way, all I’m saying is that it gets the job done and it’s free and it’s easy.

Here are the steps and programs I use :

GoPro MP4 convert chart

Step 1 : Converting to Avi

Convert the GoPro HD MP4 to .AVI files using the excellent Free MPEG Streamclip, download at www.squared5.com [ remember Quicktime is needed to run MPEG Streamclip]

mpeg streamclip

Convert to .AVI

Experiment with these settings

Streamclip is now Converting the file to .avi

Step 2 : Editing the .Avi Video with Windows Movie Maker

Now your video has been converted to .avi, you can add it to Windows Movie Maker to add some titles, comments and credits.

Create a movie with your now .avi videos

Publish movie to your computer

Publish your movie

Step 3 : Convert back to MP4

Now that your video has been published, you will notice how sharp it looks, however you will also notice the huge size it has become. To be able to publish this video online, we will have to reduce the size, we can do this without losing noticeable quality by converting the video back to MP4 format.

There are probably tons of programs that do this, but I found that the Leawo MP4 Converter did an excellent job, and is lightweight, very easy to use, fast and stable, in fact I was so impressed by the Free version I actually upgraded it, costing me a whopping $19,- giving me a few handy extras.. But the Free version does the job nicely

Open up Leawo to convert the avi to MP4

Add video and Edit your prefered settings

I do not add audio to my videos (yet), I use the Audio Swap option at YouTube, so I set my “Video Quality” to High, and my Audio quality to Low.

extra editing options available with the Leawo MP4 Converter Pro $19.95

That’s it, very easy and very cheap, and the end result looks like this

FREE Software downloads:

August 5, 2010/4 Comments/by Rip3d

Giant Trance X4 2009 Specs

Yesterday I went to Owenhouse Bike Shop in Bozeman for a $12 spare derailleur hanger and left the shop with a brand new bike.. a bit impulsive? maybe!… a necessity?… No!.. But it sure feels good.
So now my big problem is I have to decide which bike to take on which trail!!… man, life is a b1tch!!

About the Giant Trance X4 2009

The 2009 Giant Trance X4

Frame Technology
Trance X is cutting-edge superiority with features like a hyper-engineered main triangle, absolutely dialed geometry and 5 inches of Maestro Suspension that’s active under pedaling and braking alike. But all you need to know is this: Trail riding just got that much better.

Features
– Marzocchi 33R 120mm suspension fork, Giant Air rear shock
– Shimano hydraulic disc brakes
– Race Face Ride XC handlebar and stem
– WTB Speed Disc rim/sealed hub, wheelset

Average Retail Price : $1500

2009 Giant Trance X4 Specs

HDR photo’s of my new Giant Trance X4

[Show as slideshow]

Frame Technology
Trance X is cutting-edge superiority with features like a hyper-engineered main triangle, absolutely dialed geometry and 5 inches of Maestro Suspension that’s active under pedaling and braking alike. But all you need to know is this: Trail riding just got that much better.Features
– Marzocchi 33R 120mm suspension fork, Giant Air rear shock
– Shimano hydraulic disc brakes
– Race Face Ride XC handlebar and stem
– WTB Speed Disc rim/sealed hub, wheelset
Average Retail Price

August 4, 2010/0 Comments/by Rip3d

Blog, Featured Content

HDR Mountain Bike Photography

Giant Trance X4 HDR

This year I have started shooting HDR images on the trails, personally I am really intrigued by this method, and I actually like the outcome of the photo’s.
For everyone that has never heard of HDR photography, just google it for plenty of info, but in short it means the following..

In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight.[1]

The two main sources of HDR imagery are computer renderings and merging of multiple photographs, which in turn are known as low dynamic range (LDR)[2] (also called standard dynamic range (SDR)[3]) photographs.

Tone mapping techniques, which reduce overall contrast to facilitate display of HDR images on devices with lower dynamic range, can be applied to produce images with preserved or exaggerated local contrast for artistic effect.

[Show as slideshow]

I am still new to this technique and am still learning the hard way, but at least I am having fun doing it..

For lots more Mountain Biking in HDR take a look at my MTB HDR Gallery : www.mtb-trails.com and also my MTB HDR Flickr account : www.flickr.com/photos/rip3d/ ALL photos taken by me on the trails I ride.