Working with Sony PMW-320K MPEG-2 Long GOP footage in Final Cut Pro X


Are you looking for a smooth workflow for Sony PMW-320K MPEG-2 Long GOP footage and FCP X? Congratulations, you are in the right place. This post displays a way of converting PMW-320K MPEG-2 Long GOP files to ProRes for use in FCP X with optimum performance.
workflow for Sony PMW-320K MPEG-2 Long GOP footage and FCP X
Issues working with Sony PMW-320K footage in FCPX
“Hi, all, I just started using the Sony PMW-320K, which shoots 1920 x 1080 HD recording with MPEG-2 Long GOP Codec. I’m having trouble editing PMW-320K footage in FCPX. I have installed XAVC/XDCAM Plug-in for Apple (PDZK-LT2). The alarming thing now is that when I try to import media into FCPX from the card it crashes FCPX AND corrupts the media! So I managed to convert the footage to ProRes but a bit by luck and have not been able to do a group of clips. It would be great if you could direct me to a workflow. Thanks.”

You will find there are some third party workflows where you convert everything to QuickTime using the “Sony XDCAM Converter for Mac”. Some of you may hate this idea because you don’t want to waste more time and disk space than you have to. But in some situations, this is a necessary process to solve incompatibility issues. The short tutorial below will guide you through the process of transcoding Sony PMW-320K footage to ProRes for use in FCP X flawlessly.

Here’s what you need
HD Video Converter for Mac
converting PMW-320K MPEG-2 Long GOP files to ProRes

How to transcode Sony PMW-320K MPEG-2 Long GOP files to ProRes 422 for FCP X in a fast way?

Follow these steps:
Step 1: Run HD Video Converter for Mac as a professional Sony PMW-320K Video to FCP X Converter. When its main interface comes up, click ‘Add File’ to load source video to it.
issues working with Sony PMW-320K footage in FCPX

Step 2: Select ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as output format for opening with FCP X
From ‘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 former version FCP 6 and the most recent version FCPX. When loading them into FCP (X), you needn’t wait for a long time for rendering. To create smaller files, transcode your source files to Apple ProRes 422 (LT).
trouble editing PMW-320K footage in FCPX
Apple ProRes 422 – Higher quality than Apple ProRes 422 (LT);
Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) – Keep original video quality for editing in FCP;
Apple ProRes 422 (LT) – Get a smaller file sizes than Apple ProRes 422;
Apple ProRes 422 (Proxy) – SD levels – 480i/p and 576i/p. Used in offline workflows.
Apple ProRes 4444 – Edit and finish 4:4:4 material.
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 Sony PMW-320K files to ProRes MOV conversion.

Step 5: Click ‘Open Folder’ to get generated ProRes QuickTime files for transferring and editing in Final Cut Pro X with optimum performance.

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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