Editing GoPro videos

I took a couple of hours worth of video canoeing down the Rappahannock. Now I’m looking to edit them, fast forwarding some of the long flat water sections, getting rid of the annoying guy talking through it while eating peanuts (me) etc… Anyone familiar with video editing that can give me some tips?

Windows or Mac
Windows or MAc?

Video editing
You want a cheap, basic video editing software. Mac has I-movie that’s free with Macs. For PC try here or more:



http://www.desktop-video-guide.com/top-7-video-editing-software-review.html



There is a learning curve. Much too involved to explain here: but you drag your file into a time line and chop out sections and re-save it and you can add music etc. I edited for years using Final Cut Pro the top Mac program and I took courses, read and did a lot os swearing too.

On Windows
There is the Windows MovieMaker - free and might already be onyour computer. Probably the most basic of software and crashes occasionally, but easy to use and does the job well enough for short movies. Has all the basics: transitions, titles, text, can add music or voice, fade in/out, add photos, save on DVD or for youtube, etc.


windows movie maker
Make sure to make copies your original clips and work with the copies. Window Movie Maker is a great place to start and is plenty powerful enough to make some pretty good movies.

One o’ de best fer de $$,

– Last Updated: Feb-11-12 7:01 PM EST –

Serif's MoviePlus X5. Kin do 95% o' wat de so-called "Professional" NLE programs kin do wit a bit easier larnin' coyve.

MS Movie Maker is very, very limited 'specially iffin' yer usin' de 2.1 version dats included in Winders XP. It kin not use GoPro's mp4 (h.264) codec. De new one in Winders 7 kin though.

http://www.serif.com/movieplus/

FE

Thanks
Thank you all for the replies. I use windows. I’ll start looking through the programs mentioned.



Scott

Just need codecs…
There are free codecs that enable MovieMaker to read the files … If it was not crashing and corrupting its projects occasionally, it would be more than enough for casual movies… As it is, it is barely so, because I have had to redo a couple of times as it seems to not like lots of slow motion effects and corrupts the project beyond repair…



QuickTime Pro is an alternative of similar capabilities, but I found MovieMaker more intuitive and faster to work with. Get QuickTime demo for free from Apple, find a code on YouTube to demo the Pro version and if you like it - buy it from Apple. I hate to have to go through a hack just to demoing, but Apple did not have a demo of the Pro version, and I’m sure glad I did not pay for it to try it - not good IMIO…

I use VideoWave
in an old version of Roxio Easy Media Creator 9. I started out using MovieMaker, but switched to VideoWave because it imported and saved more file types than my old XP version MovieMaker. I haven’t used MovieMaker in years so I don’t know if that is still an issue, but based on FE’s post, it sound’s like it might be. This was the first video I made with MovieMaker. The source files are long gone, and all that I have left is this 320 by 240 version, but it still makes me laugh to hear daggemat’s narration.



http://www.woonsocket.org/farmington.html



As Kocho said, you really don’t need a lot of features – as long as it can trim clips and add transitions, titles and background music it should work fine. FE’s recommendation looks good. VideoWave is OK, and is comparably priced, but there are probably better options.



Good luck – look forward to seeing your video.