GoPro Video Compression Without Quality Loss

Summary: Check out the post to learn how to compress GoPro videos without losing quality in 6 easy steps. All you need is a lightweight yet robust GoPro video compressor.

GoPro cameras, such as HERO11/10/9 Black, can capture stunning 5K/5.3K videos, and HERO8/7/6 black can deliver hi-res videos up to 4K. But what follows is the unreasonably huge file size. For example, recording a 60-second 4K@30fps video with GoPro HERO will occupy approximately 493MB of memory. Although GoPro HERO 11/10/9/8 Black uses a more advanced HEVC format to encode 4K, the file remains big.

When we shoot a 1-minute 4K@60fps video, it eats about 529MB of memory when ProTune is off, and 643MB with ProTune turned on. In addition to taking up too much space, the big file will result in choppy playback and editing, uploading time to increase, and failure to send video to YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, Email, and other programs which have strict limitations on file size and length.

To help you solve problems with uploading, playback, editing, and storage caused by large GoPro video files, we will explain to you how to compress GoPro videos and reduce GoPro video file size in 6 easy ways. This will enable you to easily upload your GoPro videos to Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, email, and other platforms.

Here is a quick preview of the 6 steps to compress GoPro video:

Step 1. Re-encode GoPro video

Step 2. Transcode GoPro H.264 to HEVC

Step 3. Compress GoPro 4K to 1080p

Step 4. Cut off unwanted GoPro clips

Step 5. Tweak GoPro video/audio parameters

Step 6. Split GoPro video

For the record, there is no need for you to follow all six steps in the given order. Feel free to choose any step to start with, and once you reach the desired file size on GoPro, you can stop the GoPro video compression.

How to Compress GoPro Videos without Losing Quality

To compress GoPro video, we need a GoPro assistant, and this is where VideoProc Converter comes to aid. Armed with the max-quality compression engine, the GoPro video compressor features all basic and advanced compression techniques and can easily reduce GoPro video file size to over 90% of the original without losing quality. The full hardware acceleration also helps to streamline the whole GoPro video compression process.

Free download the GoPro video compressor to resize GoPro 4K/8K video without losing quality with the following 6 methods.

Note: The operation below is based on the Windows version, and the procedure on Mac follows the similar rule.

Step 1. Re-encode GoPro Video File

GoPro uses a fast yet inefficient algorithm for video compression and encoding to reduce power consumption, which results in extremely large video file sizes. Fortunately, based on our test, we see a significant reduction in file size with little quality loss if re-encoding GoPro videos using VideoProc Converter, which could preserve the original parameter settings of the GoPro videos during the re-encoding process.

How to re-encode a GoPro video to compress GoPro video and reduce GoPro file size:

1. Open VideoProc Converter, and click on the Video panel.

2. Load the target GoPro video by clicking "+ Video". Hit "Target Format" at the bottom left and select an output format.

3. Now hit the "Run" button, and leave the rest to the program to re-encode and compress GoPro videos.

Step 2. Transcode GoPro H.264 to Highly-Compressed HEVC

Using an older GoPro model like HERO 5, your 4K videos are likely encoded with the H.264. And to significantly reduce the file size of your GoPro videos without sacrificing quality, you can transcode them with H.265/HEVC. The HEVC preset in VideoProc Converter downgrades the video resolution and auto-calculates the best bitrate for your video. This way, the file size could be reduced by 50% or more while retaining the best video quality.

1. Open VideoProc Converter and then you should select "Video". Load your GoPro 4K H.264 video to the compressing program.

2. Navigate to "Video" tab on the bottom bar, and choose "MP4 HEVC" profile.

By default, the resolution will be changed to 1920x1080, and if you want to keep original 4K resolution, simply click "Option" on the pending file, find "Resolution" and select 3840x2160 (4K).

3. Uncheck Nvidia/Intel/AMD to reduce file size. Based on our test, when converting a 643MB video file from H.264 to HEVC/H.265 using CPU-only software transcoding, the resulting file is only 62.8MB. (Note that when hardware acceleration is turned off, the video processing and conversion speed would be slower.)

5. Hit "RUN" to to transcode GoPro 4K H.264 video to HEVC/H.265.

Step 3. Compress GoPro 4K to 1080p

In theory, reducing the GoPro video resolution from 4K to 1080p will result in a decrease in quality. However, when playing the compressed file on a 1080p TV or mobile device, you won't perceive any loss of quality.

1. Start up VideoProc Converter and choose "Video".

2. Click "+Video" to import target GoPro 4K video.

3. Choose an output format from the shortcut menu at the bottom or click "Target Format" to get more presets.

4. Hit "Option" button, click the dropdown menu of "Resolution" and choose "1920x1080".

5. Click "RUN" to decrease GoPro video resolution from 4K to 1080p and reduce GoPro file size.

Step 4. Cut off Unwanted GoPro Clips to Reduce GoPro File Size

If we trim the excess GoPro footage without altering anything else, the quality of the original content will remain fully intact.

1. Launch VideoProc and click "Video" button on the main window.

2. Drag target GoPro 4K video into the interface or click "+Video" button in the top left corner to load source file.

3. After specifying an output format according to your own needs, click "Cut" button under the pending file and you will get access to a new panel.

4. Drag the green knobs on the slider to select the first clip you want to keep and click the orange "Cut" button. Repeat this operation to pick out other needed clips. Then, click "Done" to save your operations and exit this screen.

5. Hit "RUN" at the bottom right to export a shorter and smaller GoPro 4K video.

Step 5. Tweak GoPro Video/Audio Parameters

This is another useful way to compress GoPro videos. Once you have loaded the desired footage, simply click on the "Option" button to access the panel where you can tweak parameters such as bit rate, frame rate, GOP, and more.

1. Lower bit rate

Bit rate is one of the important factor that affects video quality and file size. Higher bit rates generally mean better video quality and also larger file sizes. Once the bit rate reaches a certain threshold, any further increase in quality will go unnoticed by our eyes, and instead, we would only observe the larger file size.

To decrease bit rate:

- Locate "Bit Rate" and choose "Manual" from its dropdown menu.

- Choose "ABR" and then you can reduce the value of the "Target Bit Rate".

2. Reduce frame rate

The frame rate can also impact the file size and fluidity of a video. It's recommended to use a high frame rate to record sports videos. However, if the video doesn't have many action scenes, setting the frame rate too high is unnecessary. In such cases, it's advisable to change the GoPro 4K 60/50fps to 30fps. And to lower the frame rate, access the "Option" tab, select "Frame Rate (FPS)", and choose "30".

3. Increase the value of GOP

GOP, short for group of pictures, consists of I-, B-, and P-frames. If the GOP size is 250, then there will be one I-frame and 249 B- and P-frames (the size of one I-frame is significantly larger than that of 249 B- and P-frames). While increasing the GOP size to 500, the I-frame remains the same as 1, and B- and P-frames go up to 499. So, when we increase the value of GOP, the proportion of I-frames in the video will decrease, thus reducing the file size. Click "Option", find "GOP", and now enter a desired GOP value.

4. Uncheck Force Copy

After clicking "Option" and then you'll find "Force Copy" under Audio Codec Options. When you transcode your GoPro 4K video with "Auto Copy" selected and "Force Copy" disabled, it will transcode the audio only and deliver a smaller file.

5. Remove audio track

If audio track doesn't mean much to you, you can remove the audio track off your GoPro 4K video to reduce the file size. Now, let me show you how to delete the audio track. Click audio track info in the pending file and uncheck it. Hit "RUN" and you will get a new file without audio.

Step 6. Split a GoPro Video into Several Small Parts

Splitting is another workaround if you don't want to compress GoPro video by converting GoPro video format, down scaling resolution, tweaking parameters or other methods we introduced above. After splitting, you will get some smaller video clips. Then you can send those files at different times to your friend or YouTube and the like.

1. Start up VideoProc if you have already installed it on your computer. Next, choose "Video".

2. Click "+Video" button to import the long GoPro 4K video.

3. Choose a compatible output profile.

4. Navigate to "ToolBox" tab, locate "Split" option and double click it.

Now, specify how many segments you want to split your video into, and how long each segment is. Click "Done" after you finish settings.

5. Click "RUN" button and you'll get shorter video clips later.

VideoProc Converter offers numerous effective methods to resize GoPro videos without compromising much of their audio and image quality. Download and explore the capabilities firsthand!

4 Different Scenarios to Compress GoPro Videos

Scenario 1: Upload GoPro videos to social media that support long videos

Although YouTube and Facebook allow users to upload long and large files, there're still limits on file size and length. If your GoPro 4K video goes over the limit of YouTube, Facebook, or other social media platforms, you can use VideoProc Converter to reduce GoPro file size and compress it.

VideoProc is a piece of one-stop video processing software that can easily resize 4K UHD videos shot by GoPro HERO11/10/9/8, DJI drone, iPhone, or other devices. It helps users reduce both the length and file size of a video with ease, stabilize shaky videos, tone down background noise, trim, split, and more. Armed with Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA powered [level-3 hardware acceleration](https://www.videoproc.com/video-process/full-gpu-acceleration-benefits-4k-video.htm), it can finish resizing or other video processing tasks at superfast speed.

Scenario 2: Share GoPro 4K video to social media that accept short video clips

• Instagram: allows users to upload videos of 3 to 60 seconds.
• Twitter: restricts the video length to 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
• Snapchat: only accepts a video that is less than 10 seconds.
• WhatsApp: it doesn't set limits for file length, but doesn't permit a video larger than 16MB.

If the video length of your GoPro 4K video goes beyond the limit, you can cut off the wanted segement and split it into multiple smaller pieces with VideoProc Converter.

Scenario 3: Send GoPro videos via email

Email provides a convenient means of sending files to anyone as long as we know their email address. But what we should note here is that every email provider has set a maximum attachment size limit, 25MB for Gmail, 25MB for Yahoo Mail, and 20MB for Outlook. To bypass the limitations, we can use a file-sharing service like Google Drive to create a link to access our GoPro 4K video or resize it using VideoProc before uploading it to email. And you can check this post to learn how to send large videos without losing quality.

Scenario 4: Store GoPro 4K video footage to hard drive

When capturing a plethora of stunning 4K video footage with your GoPro camera, you may want to save them in an external hard drive, cloud storage server, NAS, or other storage options for later editing. However, the challenge you may face is that 4K footage demands a significant amount of storage space, and your video editing software may experience lag after importing the 4K footage. 👉Check out here the Top ten 4K video editors👈.

Although many GoPro video editors have announced the support for 4K video, users may still encounter errors during importing. Professional video editing software, like Adobe Premiere Pro is large in size and demands high computer hardware specifications. Therefore, importing a massive 4K video can exacerbate the problem. And to solve the issues, you're suggested to refer to the methods above to compress your GoPro 4K videos without compromising quality before saving and editing.

Best GoPro Settings to Balance GoPro Video Qaulity and Size

In addition to utilizing post-processing to enhancing GoPro video quality, adjusting the GoPro camera settings can also yield a desirable balance between video quality and file size. Below are some recommended GoPro HERO11/10/9/8/7/6 Black video settings tailored to various activities.

GoPro HERO11/10/9 Black Video Settings:

GoPro HERO8/7/6 Black Video Settings:

Other tips:

GoPro cameras feature ProTune with which you can control white balance, ISO, color capture, exposure value compensation (EV) and sharpness. When Protune is on, your files will be easier to edit with professional editing software, but will be much larger than if ProTune is off. Therefore, if you don't want to spend much time in editing, leave it off to save space.