If you experience any issues working with Sony A7S II XAVC-S 4K footage in Sony Vegas Pro, you may wish to read this post. It gives a clue on converting A7S II XAVC-S 4K movies to MPEG-2/MOV/WMV for use in Sony Vegas Pro with optimum performance.
How to load Sony A7S II XAVC-S 4K footage to Sony Vegas Pro 12?
“Hi, all, I’ve been using AVCHD for years and now switched to a new Sony A7S II camera which has a new codec – XAVC S – as well as “standard” AVCHD. From what I’ve been able to discover so far, XAVC-S is designed for 4K video, has double the bitrate of AVCHD, and the output video files are twice as big as comparable AVCHD files. I’m editing with Sony Vegas Pro 12, and it seems not to have native support for XAVC S 4K files. My question is, ‘how can I make Vegas Pro 12 recognize XAVC-S 4K files from my Sony A7S II? Any clues? Thanks in advance.”
Sony developed XAVC S to put 4K workflows in reach of more and more users in the consumer market. XAVC S supports 4K, HD, and proxy workflows, and utilizes the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec. XAVC S is aimed squarely at the television broadcast market. It supports only the slightly lower 3840×2160 resolution and utilizes an MP4 wrapper which is more widely supported by consumer-level devices. XAVC S gives producers who don’t need to meet digital cinema requirements a more economical way to bring a 4K workflow to their projects.
As far as we know, Sony Vegas Pro 12 is the first native 4K XAVC editor. The latest version Vegas Pro 13 comes with support for 4K XAVC S and XAVC files, while the former version Vegas Pro 12 only has support for XAVC 4K files. If you intend to edit XAVC-S MP4 video in Vegas Pro 12 without upgrading to version 13, you will have to process file conversion.
On the other hand, working with XAVC S 4K files can be taxing on your computer, especially if you don’t have the most powerful machine to edit on. If you find that your computer has trouble keeping up with your XAVC S footage, consider transcoding them to a format that is compatible with Vegas Pro first.
With HD Video Converter installed, you can create optimized files for editing in Vegas Pro. Read on to find a step-by-step guide talking about how to convert Sony A7S II XAVC-S for editing in Vegas Pro 12/13 with optimum performance.
First of all, download a demo of HD Video Converter (for Windows or Mac)
Sony A7S II XAVC S and Vegas Pro workflow – how to convert Sony A7S II XAVC-S MP4 recordings for editing in Vegas Pro 12/13?
Follow these steps:
Step 1: Start up HD Video Converter as a professional Sony A7S II XAVC-S to Vegas Pro Converter. Click ‘Add File’ to import your source media to the program.
Step 2: Select output format
Click the drop-down list besides ‘Profile’, choose ‘Adobe Premiere/Sony Vegas > MOV (AVC) (*.mov)’ as the most compatible format for Vegas Pro with best quality. You can choose ‘MPEG-2 (*.mpg)’, or ‘WMV (VC-1) (*.wmv)’ as well.
This method is also available when you want to edit XAVC-S files in Adobe Premiere Pro CC/CS5/CS6 and Adobe After Effects.
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 (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: When ready, click ‘Convert’ to start transcoding Sony A7S II XAVC-S MP4 files to Vegas Pro supported format. As soon as the conversion is complete, click ‘Open File’ button to locate the generated files and now you are able to open them in Vegas Pro 12 or version 13 easily for further editing.
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