JVC GY-HM650U workflow on Mac iMovie and FCP X


If you are looking for a smooth JVC GY-HM650U workflow on Mac iMovie and FCP X, you may have interest in this thread. It presents a workaround to transcode JVC GY-HM650U footage to QuickTime movie format for editing on Mac through iMovie and FCP X with optimum performance.
smooth JVC GY-HM650U workflow on Mac iMovie and FCP X

JVC GY-HM650U features multiple encoding formats and wide media format compatibility. The details include:
Multiple encoding formats:

  • HD MPEG2 (35/25/19Mbps)
  • AVCHD 1920×1080 60i
  • 1080/60p recording capability
  • SD H.264
  • 480×270 H.264 (web)
  • 960×540 H.264 mode

Wide media format compatibility:

  • .MXF with rich Metadata (optimized for asset management)
  • .MOV (Final Cut Pro)
  • .MP4 (XDCAM EX™)
  • AVCHD with additional lower bitrate AVCHD modes

If you are having any issues editing JVC GY-HM650U footage on Mac iMovie and FCP X , we would recommend transcoding them to a format that is best suitable for use in your NLEs, such as converting to AIC .mov for iMovie and converting to ProRes 422 for FCP X. Here’s a quick guide telling you how to encode JVC GY-HM650U video to a Mac friendly format for use in iMovie and FCP X smoothly.

Software requirement
HD Video Converter for Mac
smooth JVC GY-HM650U workflow on Mac iMovie and FCP X

Follow these steps:
Step 1: Open up HD Video Converter for Mac as a JVC GY-HM650U Video Converter for Mac. When its main interface comes up, click ‘Add File’ to load your source media.
transcode JVC GY-HM650U footage to QuickTime movie format

Step 2: Select output format for iMovie/FCP X
1) Select AIC .mov as output format for iMovie
To convert JVC GY-HM650U video files for iMovie, from ‘Profile’ list, choose ‘Apple InterMediate Codec (AIC)(*.mov)’ as output format under ‘iMovie and Final Cut Express’ column.
transcode JVC GY-HM650U footage to QuickTime movie format
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.

2) Select ProRes .mov as output format for FCP 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 X and its former version FCP 6 and FCP 7. When loading them into FCP X/6/7, you needn’t wait for a long time for rendering.
JVC GY-HM650U Video Converter for Mac

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 JVC GY-HM650U video clips 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/ProRes MOV files for editing in iMovie/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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