For time-lapse videos, what software should one use? I have the following starting position:

I have a GoPro Hero 2 and have done some timelapse series. I took them and stitched them together with the software that go pro provides. This all worked well.

The Problem:

As soon as i want to watch these videos somewhere else, I can't. The software uses some codec apparently belonging to GoPro and obviously most common players won't play anything.
I already tried to convert the video to a wider accepted format(codec) but I wouldn't get anything I could watch. It either only used the first view pictures and then went black or 
the video was entirely black.

The Question:

Now my question is should I use an other program or is there any easy way to convert my current work into a format(codec) that is wider spread. What software would you suggest to use in such a case. This is only a hobby project so I'm not prepared to spend unreasonable amounts on fully fledged software suites.
So I finally got time and dug around. I unearthed multiple options to do a timelapse video, but the one I found best is actually the following:

The answer is so simple, I just didn't know a time-lapse video could be created with VirtualDub.

Here is how you do it and you can install and use your very own and wanted codec: manual

You can then work on the time-lapse movie with a video editor of your choice.