GoPro HERO Camera

GoPro HERO web site (http://www.goprocamera.com/) claims that you can only use 2GB SD card with GoPro HERO camera. However, you could actually put 8GB memory card and record up to 4GB single video file, or 2GB still pictures.

I tested with 8GB Kingston SD Card bought from Fry's. You can only record one single video file. So before you start hanggliding, surfing, driving, diving or whatever sport, make sure you delete all content.

I usually end up with 2.8GB video file before the batteries died.

You can record up to 4GB video (that's almost 2 hours) file with GoPro HERO video camera. However it "corrupts" when it is larger than 2GB and cannot be opened by any major media player and edtiors. When tries to open, you usually get the error message: "Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file."

However, with free software VirtualDub (from http://www.virtualdub.org/ ) 1.8.8 (also tested working on 1.9.1), you can fix the "corrupted" file and get your sport video back. Here is the steps:

• 1. Open the PICT0001.avi file in VirtualDub. A popup box shows "Reconstructing missing index block"

• • 1. You will notice the funny progress bar goes to 100% and stucks there while the index number still increases. This is a cosmatic bug in VirtualDub. Don't worry, just ignore it and wait for few minutes. Eventually the file will be fixed and a warning message gives you a summary of what has happened:

• 1. [IMPORTANT] select Video-->Direct Stream Copy option. Otherwise when you save the fixed file, VirtualDub doesn't apply any compression (or little?) and you will end with TB-size file.

• 1. Save the file: File --> Save As AVI. Highlighted is the projected file size. It is pretty close to the original file size.

Some other tips:

I actually use VirtualDub to split my video files into smaller segment files. Smaller segment files are easier to manage and edit in the Windows Movie Maker.