If you are looking for a smooth way to work with Sony F55/F5 4K XAVC footage in FCP 7 or FCP X, you may have interest in this post. It displays a way of converting Sony F55/F5 4K XAVC MXF files to ProRes 422 for use in FCP 7/X with optimum performance.
In recent years Sony has slowly began to roll out a new format, XAVC. What began with the Sony F55 and F5 cinema cameras is now a format that is used in multiple ENG cameras, DSLRs, broadcast decks, and more.
The core technology of XAVC is H.264 MPEG-4 AVC, the same technology that is used in AVCHD cameras and DSLRs. But while AVCHD typically runs between 24 and 35mbps and is 8-bit 4:2:0 Long-GOP, XAVC aims much higher. The reason XAVC was invented was Sony needed a next-generation format to be able to deliver 4K content with. It needed to be high quality in order to appeal to the commercial and cinema world. One important aspect was moving up to 10-bit recording. Sony’s also not a big fan of licensing existing codecs. So, in 2012 when they were getting ready to launch the F5 & F55 they wanted to have their own high quality deliverable native editable format that could encompass 4K workflow. Hence XAVC was born.
For a fast and fluid Sony F55/F5 4K XAVC workflow in FCP 7/X, people sometimes need to transcode Sony F55/F5 4K XAVC MXF files to a format that is best suitable for use in FCP, such as Apple ProRes codec, FCP’s favorite editing codec, which FCP will recognize and handle well. Read on to find a step-by-step guide talking about how to convert Sony F55/F5 4K XAVC files to ProRes 422 for FCP editing.
Here’s what you need
HD Video Converter for Mac
[Guide] How to encode F55/F5 4K XAVC video files to ProRes 422 for FCP editing?
Download, install and run HD Video Converter for Mac, then follow these steps:
Step 1: Run HD Video Converter for Mac as a professional F55/F5 XAVC to ProRes Converter. When its main interface comes up, click ‘Add File’ to load source video to it.
Step 2: Select ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as output format for opening with FCP 7/X
From the ‘Profile’ list, move to ‘Final Cut Pro’ catalogue, and select ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as target format. Apple ProRes is the best suited editing codec for FCP 7 and its most recent version FCP X. When loading them into Final Cut, you needn’t wait for a long time for rendering.
Important: If you’ve loaded a number of video clips to do batch conversion, please do remember ticking off ‘Apply to All’ option before you start.
Step 3: Adjust video and audio settings (for advanced users)
If necessary, you can click ‘Settings’ button and go to ‘Profiles Settings’ panel to modify video and audio settings like video encoder, resolution, video bit rate, frame rate, aspect ratio, audio encoder, sample rate, audio bit rate, and audio channels. 3D settings are also available.
Step 4: Click ‘Convert’ to start F55/F5 4K XAVC video files to ProRes conversion.
Step 5: Click ‘Open Folder’ to get generated ProRes 422 QuickTime files for transferring and editing in Final Cut Pro 7/X with optimum performance.
To import the transcoded files into Final Cut Pro 7, simply navigate to File > Import > Files and select the converted clips. Alternately you can simply drag and drop the files into your “Bin.”
To import the transcoded files into Final Cut Pro X. navigate to File > Import > Media. In the window that comes up select your transcoded ProRes clips. DO NOT check “Create Optimized Media” OR “Create Proxy Media”. Both of these check boxes are unnecessary because we already converted the media to ProRes which means Final Cut Pro X can use the footage without “optimizing” it. Checking this box would create a redundant and time consuming second transcode of your footage.
You’re now ready to edit!
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