GoPro HERO4 Black takes Emm Award-winning GoPro performance to a whole new level. Incredible high-resolution 4K30 and 2.7K50 video and high frame rate 1080p120 video enable stunning, immersive footage of you and your world. Owning a new GoPro Hero4 Black, good experience, but something turns to frustrating when I tried to import GoPro Hero4 4K to iMovie for further editing.
I have scoured the internet, tried everything I could find about GoPro Hero4 to iMovie workflow. Some guys mentioned the new iMovie that came with Yosemite, can now handle 4k video – including stabilization, exporting to 4k files, cropping down to 1080, and other simple edits like Ken Burns, etc. I’ve upgraded to iMovie 10.0.6 in Yosemite, but NO luck. It seems that iMovie still can’t process 4K videos from GoPro Hero4 well.
To solve the problem, the quick workaround is to transcode GoPro Hero4 4K to iMovie natively supported formats in 1080p. Along with some help from a 4K video converter, it can be done effortlessly. Here I share a simple guide on how to convert Hero4 4K .MP4 to AIC .mov for editing in iMovie smoothly. If you’re facing the issues, read on to find the answer.
Brorsoft Video Converter for Mac is the utility I applied in this workflow. Overall, the program is the best Mac Video Converter for GoPro Hero4 footage, which will create an iMovie friendly file format- Apple InterMeidate Codec .mov keeping the original quality in OS X Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion and more. Besides iMovie, this software can also export professional encoders like DNxHD for Avid, ProRes for Final Cut Pro, MPEG-2 for Adobe Premiere Pro and more. Just download it and follow the tutorial below to get the work done.
Convert GoPro Hero4 Black 4K MP4 files to iMovie on Yosemite
Step 1: Add Gopro 4K files > Install and launch the best GoPro to iMovie Converter and load source 4K MP4 clips to it.
Step 2: Choose output format > Hit the “Format” bar and select iMovie and Final Cut Express > Apple InterMediate Codec(*.mov) as output format on the drop-down menu.
Tip – Profile Settings:
In case the default settings do not fit your requirement, you can click “Settings” button and enter “Profile Settings” panel to adjust video size, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate and audio channels. if you don’t stick with 4K video, you can downsize 4k to 1080p for easier editing on your computer.
Step 3: Start GoPro 4K to iMovie conversion > Click the arrow button to start converting GoPro Hero4 4K to AIC MOV for iMovie.
Once the process is completed, click “Open” button to find the generated videos. Then you can transfer the converted GoPro Hero4 4K MP4 to iMovie for editing easily and quickly.
Editor’s Note: For GoPro Hero4 Black owners who stick with 4K video, there are some tips. After some further digging, here is what I found about 4K exporting with iMovie 10.0.6 in Yosemite.
To set the resolution of the shared movie: Choose an option from the Resolution pop-up menu. Unavailable resolutions appear dimmed.
Tip: You can export a 4K clip in its native resolution by selecting a 4K clip in the browser.
To set the output quality of the shared movie: Choose an option from the Quality pop-up menu. To manually set the output quality of the shared movie, choose Custom from the Quality pop-up menu, and drag the slider to set the target bit rate. As you drag the slider, the estimated file size that appears below the preview thumbnail is updated.
Related Guides:
How to upload GoPro Hero3 video to YouTube
Importing GoPro Hero3 video to Adobe Premiere Pro CS6