UPDATE: Since writing this guide, many cameras now have the option within their menu to select 25 or 50fps. This is useful for when doing television work.
If you are making videos for YouTube or for playing at home on a PC or Playstation then you should go for the higher frame rate; 30 or 60fps.

This guide applies to customers using the ContourHD or GoPro HD cameras which record at either 30fps or 60fps. You only need to change the frame rate of your video if you intend to broadcast your video within a PAL country or if you are looking to burn your footage to DVD or BD. First you will need a bit of software called Xilisoft HD video converter. You can download it for MAC or PC from the links below. You will need to pay for this software but it is worth every penny and is probably the easiest and cheapest method of converting video frame rates without losing quality or getting jittery video after the conversion.

Xilisoft HD Video Converter (Windows) Click on the picture to download. Or download a trial version here

Xilisoft HD Video Converter (MAC) Click on the picture to download. Trial not available

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you have downloaded and installed Xilisoft HD video converter ultimate you can start to process your video files.

Step 1

Drag your video file in to the main window of the HD Converter software.

 

Step 2

Right click on the file you have dragged in to Xilisoft and select "Prior Decoding with DirectShow"
Make sure this option is ticked.

 

Step 3

Choose the file format you want to output your video file to.
Do this by clicking the drop down box next to "Profile" towards the bottom of the software window.
Depending on what video editing software you are using you will probably want to select "HD MOV Video (*MOV)"
Or, if you are having difficulty importing MOV files in to your edit suite then select "HD AVI Video (*AVI)"

 

Step 4

Select the output resolution and quality settings.
In most cases your will want to choose either 1280x720 or 1920x1080
keep the quality settings set to high to maintain image quality.

 

Step 5

Click the Profile Settings Tab.

In the pop out window, change the frame rate to 25
All other settings can be left alone.

 

Step 6

Choose where to save your converted video files. Make sure you have plenty of HDD space before doing so, HD videos files can be quite large.

 

Step 7

Press the convert button and wait until file is converted.

TIPS

1: You can batch process files in this way using Xilisoft HD video converter. Just drag as many videos as you like in to the window and set it off converting.

2: The speed of this process heavily depends on your computers processor and RAM. Dual core or Quad core is recommended. Most Laptop computers will take a long time to even convert a little bit of video.

3: We have found the best results from the GoPro HD and ContourHD cameras are when you shoot at 60fps and then convert to 25fps. This also reduces the wobble-vision effect you get when recording at 1080p with these cameras.

For the ContourHD 720p model, use the switch in SD mode.
For the ContourHD 1080p model, use the software to select Wide Action mode (720p 60fps)
For the GoPro HD Cameras, use the camera LCD menu to select R3 (720p 60fps)

Happy editing!