The Easiest Way to Import GoPro HD MP4 to iMovie (iMovie 11 included)

 

May 16, 2013 2:07 am / Posted by Jack Fisher to iMovie Tips
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GoPro cameras (GoPro HD, Hero 2, Hero 3) are popular all over the world. The reason why it can rival against the largest brands like Panasonic, Sony, Canon is that it make easier for people to shoot activities videos. As sport cameras, they have made good examples.

As the GoPro HD cameras record videos in H.264 MP4, which is not an ideal editing format for editing in iMovie even in the iMovie 11, users always get some painful experiences when they try to edit GoPro HD MP4 files in iMovie.

"I am trying to import my MP4 files from my GoPro HD 960 to iMovie 11, to my surprise, all the files greyed after I saved all of them on my my hard drive. All these files open properly in QuickTime and VLC but can't be imported into iMovie (or iPhoto), what is the problem? Can anyone help me?"

It is just one of the common issues for GoPro HD camera users. As GoPor HD MP4 with codec H.264 is not friendly to iMovie, to import such files in iMovie, the best solution is to convert them to iMovie compatible formats, here, ProRes MOV, the natively supported format by iMovie is highly supported. To do this job, what you need is only an AVCHD Converter for Mac, which can perfectly convert the HD MP4 videos from GoPro cameras to iMovie, FCP, Avid, and other Mac apps with high quality remained.

Add GoPro HD MP4 videos to the Converter

Download and install the GoPro HD MP4 to iMovie Converter here, run it.
Drag and drop the MP4 files to the program, or go to the "Add files" button to import the camera videos to the software.

Select output format

Optimized presets for iMovie are offered, you just need to go to the iMovie column to set output format, here, ProRes MOV is recommended.

Start to transcode GoPro HD MP4 footage to iMovie

Click the Convert button in the end to start converting GoPro HD MP4 videos to iMovie. It may take a while if your files are large. After the process is finished, you will be directed to open the folded where you saved the converted files, then you can open iMovie to import the generated files to edit.