from: http://www.gtamotorcycle.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=85835
I have had several people ask me how I've posted my GoPro videos on YouTube to display in either high quality Widescreen or HiDef widescreen so I thought I would make a forum post detailing exactly how to accomplish this. Since there is a GoPro Wide group buy taking place, I figured many could make use of this information.
Please remember, that there is no way to make GoPro videos "higher quality" than their native 512x384 resolution, however by converting them in this manner they will at least display on YouTube in widescreen format. Because of the "fish-eye" wide angle lens used by the GoPro Wide camera, stretching the video wider actually looks pretty good (compared to stretching a non wide-angle video).
I will use three examples to demonstrate the different rendering options - a native unedited/unprocessed clip, a clip stretched to 852x480 (which will render into youtube allowing "watch in high quality" link) and a clip stretched to 1280x720 (which will render into youtube allowing "watch in high def" link). My personal favorite is the 2nd option (852x480) but it's simply personal preference.
The screenshots I will use come from the video editing software Sony Vegas 8.0, however the settings referred to can be used with any video editing software of your choice.
Step #1 - Create your project (see left-hand screenshot below)
The first step is to setup your project before importing your video. This is an important step, otherwise your video will be imported into the wrong template, and no matter how you then try to render the video you will have problems. Use the below settings to create your project:
Width: 512
Height: 384
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0 (Square)
Frame Rate: 29.970 (NTSC)
Once the project has been created, simply import your GoPro video into your project and edit it accordingly.
Step #2 - Render your video (see right-hand screenshot below)
Once you have completed editing your video, it's time to render. Use the below settings to render video that youtube will process and present as either a High Quality video (the HQ button below video) or as a High Definition video (the HD button below video). Again, it's important to remember that you're not actually increasing the resolution of your GoPro videos, you are simply tricking YouTube into thinking it's a better resolution than what GoPro actually records to. The only advantage to this is that a) your videos will be widescreen without the black bars on either side of your video and b) the video will be larger on youtube (if you use the HD settings below).
Render as High Quality:
Frame Size: 852x480
Frame Rate: 30
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0
Variable Bit Rate Max: 4,000,000 Average: 3,000,000 (or use a constant bitrate of 4,000,000)
Codec: MainConcept AVC/AAC (mp4)
Render as High Definition:
Frame Size: 1280x720
Frame Rate: 30
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0
Variable Bit Rate Max: 5,000,000 Average: 4,000,000 (or use a constant bitrate of 5,000,000)
Codec: MainConcept AVC/AAC (mp4)
Three Examples of Rendering:
Unedited Raw GoPro Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJJ-1hBufgo&fmt=18
High Quality Widescreen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeneSRxhWNc&fmt=18
High Definition widescreen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6vC6e1JOYQ&fmt=22
Project/Render Settings Screenshots:
