Working with Sony AX100 XAVC S in FCP 6/7/X

Summary: Wanna an easy way to transcode Sony FDR-AX100 4K XAVC S to Final Cut Pro for smooth workflow? Read this article below and you will how to.



A new 4K camcorder FDR-AX100 from Sony has come to us. What impressed me most is that the FDR-AX100 uses the new highly efficient XAVC-S 4K compression format (60Mbps bit rate) to record 4K @ 30p. Although Sony PXW-Z100 utilizes the same format as Sony FDR-AX1, with every new camera it still comes with different workflow. In this article, I will focus on Sony FDR-AX100(XAVC S) and Final Cut Pro workflow. You can read on to get some tips and tricks you want.

Well, when we handle 4K XAVC S recordings from Sony FDR-AX100, we will find it is a painful experience to import and edit XAVC-S videos in FCP. The basic reason is that Sony FDR-AX100’s XAVC S codec is a new one, and is not widely supported. As far as I know FCP 6/7 and even FCP X can’t support XAVC S 4K & HD perfectly. As a new AX100 user, you may also be troubled by the similar problem. To get rid of the issues, you need to transcode Sony XAVC S to ProRes- a more "edit" friendly codec with a video app like Brorsoft Video Converter for Mac.

It is the best Sony XAVC S video converter tool for you. The program comes with several optimized format for FCP as well as iMovie, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro. It enables you to transcode Sony AX100 XAVC S to ProRes 422, ProRes 4444 for using in Final Cut Pro directly without any codec problems. What’s more, this 4K Video Converter Mac also provides an access to touch up TiVo videos, which including trimming, cropping, appending artistic effects and more. Just download it and follow the tutorial below to get the work done.

Convert/Import Sony FDR-AX100 4K files to Final Cut Pro

Step 1. Launch the XAVC S to ProRes Converter and click "Add File" button to locate the XAVC S file(s) you want to add.



Tips:
1) Check the “Merge into one file” box, you can join several video clips together if necessary.
2) If you are also a FCP X user, before you try to do the conversion, don’t forget to make sure that you have installed the Apple ProRes Codec manually since the FCP X asks users to install it by themselves.

Step 2. Choose FCP preferred format. Click “Format” pull down list to select Final Cut Pro> Apple PreRes 422(*.mov) as output format. This format is specially designed for FCP, so that you can edit 4K video in Final Cut Pro perfectly.



Step 3. Click "Settings" to fix the frame rate, bitrate, video size, etc to your needs. To have a smooth editing with Final Cut Pro, you need create the files with the appropriate resolution and frame rate that matches your source footage.

Step 4. Click the big "Convert" button at the bottom right corner to finish encoding XAVC S from Sony FDR-AX100 to ProRes for Final Cut Pro 6/7 or FCP X.

After the conversion, you can find the output files by clicking "Open" button on the main interface, then you can transfer the encoded XAVC S files to FCP to play and edit without any issue.

See more:

Sony FDR-AX1 Workflow in Final Cut Pro
Editing Sony F55/F5 XAVC clips in Final Cut Pro