If you came upon issues editing Sony HDR-CX900 XAVC-S footage in FCP 7 or FCP X, you may have interest in this post. It displays a way of converting Sony CX900 XAVC-S MP4 files to Apple ProRes for use in FCP smoothly.
How can I import and edit Sony HDR-CX900 XAVC-S in FCP7?
“Hi, there, can anyone help please? I have loads of XAVC-S footage in MP4 wrapper taken with a Sony HDR-CX900 camera which I want to edit in Final Cut Pro 7. My issue is that FCP 7 does not work with XAVC-S natively and I also can not find a plug-in to help me load the XAVC-S files to FCP 7. Someone told me that I needed a converter app to transcode them to Apple ProRes codec for editing in FCP 7. The XAVC-S format is quite new for me, and I haven’t worked with it before. Is the conversion inevitable? If so, which program will you recommend to encode Sony HDR-CX900 XAVC-S to ProRes for FCP 7 editing? Please advice. Thanks.”
The HDR-CX900 supports versatile shooting with XAVC S, AVCHD and MP4 codecs. As for the XAVC S format, it uses MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 for video compression and linear PCM for audio compression, while saving files in a MP4 wrapper. The highly compressed files allow extensive record times. If for whatever reason you need to transcode HDR-CX900 XAVC-S MP4 media to ProRes for use in FCP 7 or FCP X, you can try out HD Video Converter for Mac, a universal video converter app, which works well as a Sony XAVC-S Converter for FCP.
A quick guide on how to convert Sony HDR-CX900 XAVC-S to ProRes for FCP 7/X editing
Follow these steps:
Step 1: Run HD Video Converter for Mac as a professional Sony HDR-CX900 XAVC-S to ProRes Converter. When its main interface comes up, click ‘Add File’ to load source video to it.
Step 2: Select ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as output format for opening with FCP 7/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 7 and its most recent version FCP X. When loading them into FCP (X), you needn’t wait for a long time for rendering.
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 HDR-CX900 XAVC-S to ProRes MOV conversion.
Step 5: Click ‘Open Folder’ to get generated ProRes 422 QuickTime files for editing in Final Cut Pro 7 or FCP X with optimum performance.
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