How can I work with Sony A7S II XAVC-S 4K footage in Adobe Premiere Pro fluently? If you are having issues editing Sony A7S II XAVC-S 4K media in Premiere Pro, you may wish to read this post. It explains a workaround to transcode Sony A7S II XAVC-S files for editing in Adobe Premiere smoothly without any hassles.
How do I use XAVC-S 4K video from Sony A7S II in Premiere Pro CS6?
“Hi, there, I received my new Sony A7S II last month. This camera employs XAVC-S codec to capture 4k video recordings in MP4 format. I know that support for XAVC-S was added in Premiere Pro CC 7.1. My issue is that I have Premiere Pro 6.0 installed and not the CC version. I have paid a lot of money for my Premiere Pro 6.0 version and it seems that there won’t be an update for my 6.0 pro version to support Sony XAVC-S codec. Are there any workarounds to let Premiere Pro CS6 recognize Sony A7S II XAVC-S 4K footage? I would really appreciate any help. Thanks.”
If for some reason you are unable to use Sony A7S II XAVC-S 4K media in Premiere Pro smoothly, we would recommend transcoding them to an intermediate format that is best suitable for Adobe Premiere editing. Check this short tutorial to learn an easy way of converting Sony A7S II XAVC-S 4K video for use in Premiere Pro.
Here’s what you need
HD Video Converter
You can download a demo version (for both, PC and Mac) to have a try. They are not free but it is totally worth it.
Sony A7S II XAVC-S 4K Video Converter – convert Sony A7S II XAVC-S 4K files to QuickTime for editing in Premiere
The steps:
Step 1: Start up HD Video Converter as a Sony A7S II XAVC-S 4K Video Converter for Premiere. When its main interface pops up, click ‘Add File’ to input your source media.
Step 2: Choose output format for Premiere
1) To convert Sony A7S II XAVC-S 4K media for editing in Adobe Premiere Mac version, from ‘Profile’ list, select ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as output. The ProRes codec is best suited for editing in FCP X and its former version FCP 6 and FCP 7. Additionally, the ProRes codec can also be imported to Premiere Pro and DaVinci Reslove for editing without a glitch.
Note: Only Mac version has the ‘Final Cut Pro’ profile.
2) For the purpose of converting Sony A7S II XAVC-S 4K files for editing in Premiere Windows version, from ‘Profile’ list, choose ‘Avid DNxHD (*.mov)’ as output format under ‘Avid Media Composer’ column.
In addition to DNxHD and ProRes, you can also select ‘MOV (AVC) (*.mov)’ as output format under ‘Adobe Premiere/Sony Vegas’ option.
This method is also available when you want to edit Sony A7S II XAVC-S 4K files in After Effects and Sony Vegas.
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: Custom video and audio settings
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: Start Sony A7S II XAVC-S 4K footage to QuickTime MOV Conversion
When ready, click ‘Convert’ to start format conversion. As soon as the conversion is complete, you can click ‘Open Folder’ button to get the exported MOV files for use in Premiere with optimum performance.
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