Well thanks to all your feedback I have just modified my "trial" dog walk video. My new Mic arrived today and that works well...so one problem solved!! Its a HyperX Solocast. Based on feedback here I have set my project at 1080/50fps and rendered at 1080/50fps ( mp4). I have now added a voice commentary whilst keeping the music track and found out how to play with the volumes etc. I tried a slowmo together with a zoom but think I overdid it a bit!! Its a bit blurry. ( pro tip from an amateur........do any slowmos before you add voice over clips or everything has to moved!! hehe). Probably better to do a slowmo with the Gopro. I used the lens correction on the opening and closing shots and added a flare at the end just for fun!!

Talking about Gopro resolutions most of my videos used to be windsurfing.........now they are mostly mountain biking and I choose my settings based on what I find works best with the rate of movement, the fact that the Gopro is usually on a chestie rather than tripod mounted, and typical light conditions. It is also the case that each iteration of Gopro has typically had settings that work better than others. So I want as high a resolution as I can given the light conditions, I want it to be 16:9, I want it to use H264 rather than HEVC and ( given the very limited or even non existant buffering of Gopro) to use a bit rate the micro SD can easilly handle. All of that for me on the Hero 7 adds up to 2.7k at 50fps and I only really change that ( to 1080) if light is really low. No doubt later Gopros are better able to handle 4k but I honestly see no benefit since most of my audience will view my videos on a phone and I view on an 1080 monitor or TV.

...and I managed to get the YT video onto the forum!!

@browj2.................resolutions are so confusing!! On a Gopro resolutions are quoted as for example.....720/960/1080/1440/2.7k

2.7k/50 is 4:3 Wide using HEVC

2.7k/50 is 16.9 Wide/Superview or Linear using H264

1440/50 is 4:3 Wide or Linear using H264

1080/50 is 16:9 wide/Superview/linear H264

all of the a bove with the best stabilisation....hyper.

note how 1080 for example uses the second aspect of the resolution.....1920/1080 whilst 2.7 k changes to using the first aspect of the resolution 2704/1520......why??

@mikerb

Seems to be less pixellation now. Love the floppy ears!

@mikerb

I agree about frame rate use dependant on when or what I am filming. I use 25 fps when light levels are lower but also sometimes for faster action if I can also use an ND filter to allow a longer exposure time because too high a frame rate on very fast moving subjects with shorter exposure times can produce a staccato effect within the frames (Take drum sticks striking a snare drum as an example). An amount of motion blur within an exposed frame in those instances can smooth out the action between frames. Shooting at 4k and then exporting to a lower resolution can also sometimes help reduce any noise in the video (not always though) and gives more opportunity to crop and centre the subject matter using the size / position / rotation tool and the reason you have the choice of aspect ratios if things go slightly wrong while shooting the footage. It helps with tracking.

When changing the speed of a clip to produce slow motion it is wiser not to drop the fps to less than half of the recorded value and if you right click the video portion of the clip and select 'Object Properties' and then go to the Video tab and tick 'Interpolate intermediate images' and select Full frame (non interlaced) that will produce additional blended frames between the existing frames also helping to produce a smoother Slow-Mo clip.

Ray.

Thanks for the slowmo tip. Continuing to be impressed with my PC. The modified version of the video took 2 minutes 45 seconds to render. This time I used the menu "export" option rather than the direct export option top right on the MS screen.

Re the storage issues, my process is to export video files from MS to my 2TB external drive. I upload to YT from there to share with friends and subscribers but also use Freemake Video Converter to convert from mp4 to mkv and save to a USB stick. I play that video in my Panasonic bluray player to view on my TV .......or my mates TV. I do not retain the imported gopro clips or MS project files for more than a few weeks. So I end up with no PC storage burden.

@mikerb Hi, can you click your icon at the top of this page - My Profile & update your Signature with the full name of your CPU, GPU & amount of RAM, also inc the Windows & Magix version, this will then always show at the bottom of your comments,

Done

@mikerb

use Freemake Video Converter to convert from mp4 to mkv

Mike, unless you have a specific need for MKV, there is no need to "convert" to MKV. MKV is simply the file container and the underlying video codec will probably just be H264 (the codec that Magix used to create the MP4 file). In any case, Freemake should be smart-rendering the MKV. A full re-render is not desirable as it reduces (albeit slightly) the quality of the video.

My Panny Bluray player and LG TV both play Magix 1920x1080 MP4s without issue.

@mikerb

Hi Mike,

Just watched the new version and enjoyed it even more. Well done!

Checking the settings when clicking on the video gave me 720p50 the first time, 360 the second time. Opening it in YT gave me 144. I switched to 1080p50. I don't think that YT likes my WiFi connection.

John CB

@mikerb

Hi Mike. Most TVs and Disc players now support MP4 but some older models don't. Our Lounge TV will only accept mov files. I have never come across one that needs MKV files but doesn't mean they don't exist. Interesting.

Normally I use the speed plugin to match movement to a backing music track but do occasionally use it for Slow-motion purposes.

I just practised what I preached for a demo for you.

I have found that over time Video uploaded to YouTube degrade in quality over time. Whether this is due to such servers always constantly changing drives to prevent data loss or whether YouTube has an automated system that re-encodes old videos to reduce their own drive space needed and overhead costs of running the business I don't know but I would always keep at least one copy of the finished video for archive purposes. Projects, not always as by the time I get around to thinking about maybe changing them or adding to them some of the effects no longer work or available so I may as well just start from scratch with the original clips. Plus there is no guarantee that any on line company will not change it's rules or get taken over or just deleted. Accounts not used for a set duration can be deleted especially if they are not generating income for YouTube. Flickr accounts will keep going for as long as the fees are paid but video length and resolution are limited. Every platform has its drawbacks but may not be of concern to everyone.

Ray.

@browj2

Hi John.

YT has been deliberately showing videos at lower resolutions to lower bandwidth on the server side for some time now. Even if you set you preferences to include the higher resolutions, often you will get sent a lower resolution file to view. I'm assuming that they assume that if you can't tell the difference you will leave the setting alone. It happens more often during peak USA viewing times.

Ray.

YT has been deliberately showing videos at lower resolutions to lower bandwidth on the server side for some time now.

I get at least 1080, every time (if it's available, of course). Sometimes I have to choose 1440 or 2160. I think the connection has a lot to do with it.

@AAProds

Hi Al.

I have a gigabit connection and there have been a lot of complaints about YouTube doing this for about eighteen months now. I agree it depends on how the connection is made and the routes the backbone structure uses. You may have a more 'direct' connection than I am getting. Within the UK it is pretty stable but goes down slightly at peak times such as now but once I start to ping servers abroad all bets are off as you can see.

Or rather you can't at present. Hang on a moment.

Nope! Rebooting my computer did nothing to improve uploading an image to the site. Will try later.

Hooray!

@mikerb

use Freemake Video Converter to convert from mp4 to mkv

Mike, unless you have a specific need for MKV, there is no need to "convert" to MKV. MKV is simply the file container and the underlying video codec will probably just be H264 (the codec that Magix used to create the MP4 file). In any case, Freemake should be smart-rendering the MKV. A full re-render is not desirable as it reduces (albeit slightly) the quality of the video.

My Panny Bluray player and LG TV both play Magix 1920x1080 MP4s without issue.

it is the format specified by my Panasonic Bluray player...............which admittedly must be a few years old now. Ironically my mtb riding partner has the same player and on cold wet winter days when we dont fancy riding we review the videos at his place.

Not sure I have noted YT making my older videos worse....but then again I probably assumed they were that bad in the first place given some were made on the very first ( SD) Gopro, then the 960 ( its max resolution!). What I do notice is that any video I post up to YT invariably seems to take a good few hours to be at its best suggesting YT continue to mess with it for a while. I have never really associated any specific time of day etc with whether the video immediately plays at 1080/50 or has to be changed in order to do so, so will start paying attention!

By the way with the voice over I found a menu option that automatically reduces the volume of both on board audio and music audio whenever it coincides with a voice over clip. Magic! But then I messed it up by changing one clip to slowmo so had to do it myself manually! Doh!

@mikerb

Hi Mike.

I do notice but only because I keep a copy of the file I upload and play it in sync on my second monitor with the YT version. It's normally fine detail like tree leaves becoming slightly blurrier or contrast banding of a blue sky or texture to clothing that go first.

I have trawled my way across your videos and the main thing more than quality for me is content. I love the Dorset coast kayak videos and wonder how on earth you ever find any time of year where the sea is that smooth. You must be a local. 😉

The YT videos are definitely re-encoded but in a way that I think a single file has all the resolutions embedded within it. Of that I'm not sure but would seem to be the case.

Ray.

Glad you liked some of my videos. Yes I live 1 mile from the sea.....Dorset Jurassic south coast.

@mikerb

It's nice to see a different perspective to Dorset from the one I have had as a holiday maker.

We have stayed at some cracking self catering lets.Truly beautiful places. Hate some of the inevitable summer road closures.

Ray.

@CubeAce

The YT videos are definitely re-encoded but in a way that I think a single file has all the resolutions embedded within it. Of that I'm not sure but would seem to be the case.

Ray, I don't think so. It would appear YT stores the various iterations as separate files:

There's also MKV variants available from the droplist.

@AAProds

Hi Al.

They all appear to have the same domain address. I would have thought if they were separate they would have to have different domain addresses. Whatever they are doing there is a lot going on server side. The connection speed also doesn't make complete sense either as to what resolution one is automatically given to view. It is easily changed once the video is selected and I have no problem viewing 4K or 8K video streams.

I'm beginning to wonder if it is about how many people from a given location is viewing at the same time as Australia has less than half the population of the UK. California is more populated than Australia.

Oops! nearly gave away my IP address then.

Here is my connection speed at home and when trying to ping servers abroad. Finally I can post images again.

As you can see, once pinging servers outside of the UK the download speeds drop dramatically.

Ray.

@CubeAce Hmm, I pay extra for super fast fibre broadband 🤔😒