If you are looking for a fast and smooth way to work with Sony HDR-CX900 AVCHD footage on Mac through FCP X or iMovie, you may wish to read this post. It explains how to transcode Sony CX900 AVCHD files to ProRes 422 for FCP X editing and how to encode Sony CX900 MTS video to AIC .mov for use in iMovie.
The CX900 cleverly records in web-ready and professional quality simultaneously. That gives you flexibility to share files instantly via NFC/Wi-Fi, and save higher-res files for later editing. For more conventional video shooting, the HDR-CX900 offers traditional AVCHD up to 28 Mbps / 50p (60p in the NTSC countries e.g. the USA) plus a rather unusual 50 Mbps recording mode with files stored in Sony’s XAVC-S format.
For a quick, direct and fluid editing workflow, people sometimes need to transcode Sony CX900 footage for use in NLEs. We have talked about how to edit CX-900 XAVC-S footage in iMovie and how to use CX-900 XAVC-S MP4 in FCP X in our previous posts, and here in this post, we will continue talking about how to transcode Sony CX900 MTS files to a Mac friendly format for use in FCP X and iMovie with optimum performance.
Here’s what you need
HD Video Converter for Mac
[Guide] How to convert Sony CX900 AVCHD .mts to QuickTime movie format for editing in FCP X and iMovie?
To do this:
Step 1: Open up HD Video Converter for Mac as a Sony CX900 AVCHD Converter for Mac. When its main interface comes up, click ‘Add File’ to load your source media.
Step 2: Select output format for your editing program
To convert Sony CX900 AVCHD for iMovie, from ‘Profile’ list, choose ‘Apple InterMediate Codec (AIC)(*.mov)’ as output format under ‘iMovie and Final Cut Express’ column.
To transcode Sony CX900 AVCHD files for FCP X, select ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as output format under ‘Final Cut Pro’ column. The ProRes codec is also workable in its former version FCP 6 and FCP 7.
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 (optional)
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: Begin Sony CX900 AVCHD to MOV Conversion on Mac
When ready, click ‘Convert’ to start format conversion. Once the conversion process is complete, you can click ‘Open Folder’ button to get the generated AIC MOV files or ProRes MOV files for editing in iMovie or FCP X with optimum performance.
Tips:
If you don’t want to wait for the entire conversion process, you can tick off ‘Showdown computer when conversion completed’ and go away to do other things.
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