The following article provides a detailed description of the exact settings and options that will produce the best quality 360 video using Insta360 studio.

“Stitching” is the process of creating a spherical (360) video from two or more fisheye videos by combining, warping and blending into a single frame using spherical projection (usually equirectangular projection).

With a 360 spherical video a single frame shows everything that’s happening around the camera - 360 degrees horizontal and 180 degrees vertical. Because 360 video from Insta360 cameras are fully stabilized, the result is a super smooth video that includes all the highlights. You’ll never miss a shot, even if the action happened behind you.

Video tutorial: How to create a 360 video

Because the Insta360 One RS 1-inch 360 Edition camera records two 200-degree views back-to-back, a stitching software is needed to prepare the spherical or reframed video. This software is Insta360 Studio, and it is provided for free by Insta360 for Windows and Mac (versions for iOS and Android are also available, but not covered in this guide).

Overview of Insta360 Studio 2023 user interface

For this tuturial we used video recorded with the Insta360 One RS 1-inch 360 Edition camera inside our Mantis RS360 housing

View product

Step 1: Import files into Insta360 Studio

You can import files directly from the camera, from the camera’s memory card, or after copying them to your computer or USB drive. We strongly recommend to copy all files onto a backup drive before editing or recording any further videos.

In order to edit straight from the camera you have to enable the camera’s U-Disk mode and connect the camera via USB-C cable to your computer.

Remove the mSD card from the camera and connect it using a card-reader. Alternatively, you can copy the videos straight from the camera in this way:
1. On the camera, got to: Settings -> General -> USB and enable U-Disk mode
2. Connect the camera with a USB Type C cable to the computer.
Start Insta360 Studio.
Insta360 Studio will offer to import the files automatically.
You may choose Later, Select Files, or Import all.
You can also import files by clicking on “Open Files”, or dragging & dropping files into the left panel.

Step 2: Adjust stitching parameters

Adjust Stabilization, Stitching, and Colour with the panels on the right hand side of Insta360 Studio

The first step after choosing your recording is to set up the correct Stabilization, Stitching, and Media Processing settings using the side panels on the right.

Move the playhead marker on the timeline until you find a frame that is suitable for color correction.
Frames that show sand, faces, or your primary subject are usually good choices.
Using the sidebar panels on the right side of Insta360 Studio configure the following settings:

Stabilization panel:
- Enable "FlowState Stabilization"
- Enable "Direction Lock"
Stitching panel:
- Enable “Optical Flow Stitching”
- Enable “Chromatic Calibration”
- Stitching Calibration:
  - Do not click the "Calibrate" button, the algorithm is not optimized for the housing.
  - Click the "Reset" button if it is enabled.
Media Processing panel:
- Enable "AquaVision 2.0"
- Set "Hue" and "Strength".
  - Often a Strength setting between 30 and 70 works well.
  - Avoid strong cyan/purple water.
  - Too much strength will produce strong contrasts and excessive blue banding.

Step 3: Set the beginning and end of the clip

Adjust the start and end of the clip using trim markers

The next step is to choose the start and end of the clip you would like to export. Often you just want to remove the first and last few seconds, or maybe you want to export only a 10 second clip showing a particular highlight.

Follow these steps to set a start and end for your video:

Enable the 360 view by clicking on “360" View” button at the center top.
Click on the timeline to place the play head where you would like the clip to start.
Press “Set Trim Start” button.
Place the play head where you would like the clip to end.
Press the “Set Trim End” button.

When you export the video, it will only export the frames between the Trim Start and Trim End markers.

Note: Once the Trim Start and Trim End markers are set, you cannot place them outside of the selected segment using the buttons. But you can click-hold onto the Trim Start or Trim End marker and drag them along the timeline to increase or shorten the segment.

Step 4: Export

During the export process, Insta360 Studio applies your changes to each frame and renders a video file at the desired resolution.

Resolution: The default shown will be the resolution that the video was recorded in, for example 5888x2444 for the 6K mode. However, we recommend to change the export resolution to 7680x3840 (8K), because this is the step where this can be achieved with the best result.

Since YouTube has removed the support for 5K and 6K videos, any files uploaded need to have the full 8K resolution of 7680x3840 or will be shown at only 4K resolution, which is not quite enough for a good 360 degree video experience.

Export 360 video

Click “Start Export”
Click “Export 360 video”
Adjust export settings
- For YouTube and post production
  - Bitrate: 200 MBit/s
  - Resolution: 7680 x 3840
  - Encoding: H.264
    - H.264 is better for further editing and streaming
    - H.265 is a smaller file size / more data per frame.
  - Export Type: Video
- For VR Goggles:
  - Bitrate: 120 MBit/s
  - Resolution: 7680 x 3840
  - Encoding: H.266
    - H.264 is better for further editing and streaming
    - H.265 is a smaller file size / more data per frame.
  - Add “_360” to the end of the filename, for example “VID_xxx_360.mp4”

That’s it!

Currently Insta360 Studio does not have the ability to string several segments into one video. You can only export one segment at a time, and then need a video editing software to combine several clips into one video and add titles and transitions.

Popular choices for video editing software include Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, iMovie, Kdenlive, OpenShot, Shotcut or VideoStudio.

Background info: files and projects

Here’s some technical information on how the camera stores recordings and how you can backup your edits.

About Insta360 One RS 1-inch 360 Edition recordings:

Each recording with the Insta360 ONE RS 1-inch 360 Edition consists of 3 files:

VID_(date)_(time)_00_(indexnumber).insv
Back direction (display not visible) with full resolution recording, audio, gyro data, model, serial number.
VID_(date)_(time)_10_(indexnumber).insv
Front direction (display visible) with full resolution recording, audio.
LRV_(date)_(time)_11_(indexnumber).insv
Back+Front side-by-side low resolution recording, audio, gyro data

The LRV_ file is needed for editing with the mobile App. When editing on Windows or Mac the LRV_ file provides previews, but is not strictly needed.

Although the files have the “.insv” file ending, they are normal MP4 video files (with additional metadata) and can be played by any video player program that supports MP4 files. For example, you can drag & drop them into VLC as they are. For other programs you might have to rename them to have the .mp4 file ending.

How to copy and back up Insta360 Studio projects:

The Insta360 Studio project files with the editing settings are stored on your computer and can be backed-up and copied to another machine.
On macOS and Windows the project folders are stored in the subfolder Documents/insta360/Studio/Project/ of the user’s home folder.
The project file is named like VID_(date)_(time)_00_(number).insv.insprj, e.g. VID_20230624_102721_00_009.insv.insprj
You can copy the project file to the same folder as the recordings and then transfer them together to a different computer.
To open a copied project, simply double-click on the .insprj file to open the project in Insta360 Studio. The .insprj has to be in the same folder as the two .insv files.

Tutorial: How to quickly stitch a
360 video with Insta360 Studio