FCP X and Importing Sony FDR-AX100 XAVC S Files on Yosemite

Summary: Start editing Sony FDR-AX100 XAVC S files immediately upon import into Final Cut Pro X, without rendering! Here is Pavtube Mac XAVC S Video Converter for FCP X that enables native XAVC S editing on FCP X. 

See also: Top 3 Best XAVC S Video Converter for Mac Review 

Sony FDR-AX100: 

At this year's CES, the Ultra-HD Sony FDR-AX100 Handycam has been announced. It will also shoot Full HD footage, with Sony claiming that it was supersample down from 4K to improve video quality, something we're interested to test for ourselves. Full HD footage can also be shot in the XAVC-S format at 60fps (as well as 30 and 24fps), or you can opt for more traditional AVCHD at this resolution. 

 

Question: Sony FDR-AX100 XAVC S editing workflow in FCP X 

I have just recieved a fully maxed out new Mac Pro 6.1 ordered on December 18th. My main use for the 12-core model will be editing and exporting 4K video productions. I plan to purchase the Sony FDR-AX100 4K camcorder that was just announced at the CES last week. Sony has had a consumer camcorder on the market since last September (the Sony FDR-AX1) which uses the same XAVC-S codec as the not yet released Sony FDR-AX100. 

If anyone has had any experience editing this format in Final Cut Pro X, I would be pleased to learn of their experience and the specs of the computer they are using. I am hopeful that editing XVAC-S footage on the new Mac Pro will be possible without the large file sizes produced by transcoding. Thanks in advance for responding. 

From: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5786566?tstart=0 

Final Cut Pro X allows users to import video onto a hard drive (internal or external), where it can be edited, processed, and output to a wide variety of formats. At this time I go to my Final Cut Pro X which does not support Sony AX100 XAVC/S files directly. 

The solution is a $35 program called Pavtube XAVC S HD Video Converter for Macwhich can be used to convert the Sony AX100 XAVC/S files to FCP friendly Prores codec MOV format, which is intermediate format that features high performance and quality, being less processor-intensive to work with on Mac OS X. With it you are able to edit XAVC and XAVC/S files in FCP X smoothly and then share a better video with friends or post the edited videos to blog. 

One hint – if you do convert to ProRes you can eventually delete your original camera files to save space, or better yet save them off to another drive as your field backups. The ProRes files lose nothing over the camera originals. They're just bigger because they're no longer Long GOP. Now follow me to learn how to convert Sony FDR-AX100 XAVC/S videos to Apple Prores 422 (HQ) for FCP X editing on Mac OS X. 

Just free download or buy Pavtube XAVC S Video Converter for Mac, and install on your Mac: 

  

Step 1. Load your Sony XAVC S files 

Launch the Program and the main interface will pop up there in front of you, click the "Add video", we can add files with individual clips or select the "Add from folder", we can load them in a complete folder. 

Tips: You can joint multiple XAVC/S files on to one output file by checking Merge into one file on the interface. 

 

Step 2. Select Apple Prores MOV format for FCP X. 

Many output format here and you are recommended to select "Apple Prores 422 (*.mov)" files under "Final Cut Pro" because it best compatible format for FCP X. 

 

Tips: 
1. To keep original video quality for editing in FCP, select "Apple ProRes 422"; 
For SD levels – 480i/p and 576i/p and offline workflows, select "Apple ProRes 422 (Proxy)"; 

2. To edit and finish 4:4:4 material, choose "Apple ProRes 4444". 

3. If you want to keep the 4K quality and there is no proper choice under "Size (pix)" drop-down menu, then you can just type 3840*2160 in this place. 

 

Learn more Apple ProRes, please refer to Types of Apple ProRes Codecs 

Step 3. Convert Sony AX100 XAVC/S video to Apple ProRes. 

Click "Convert" button to start conversion and then click "Open" button to locate the generated files for FCP X. 

Lanunch Final Cut Pro, choose File > Import > Files……, and browse to where you save the converted Sony FDR-AX100 XAVC-S video clips to. Choose the Apple Prores MOV file that you'd like to import. 


Additional Tips: 

1. How to load your files into FCP X can be learned here. 

2. Other NLEs, like Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Pro CS6, After Effects CC, Premiere Elements, FCE, iMovie, Avid, Aperture 3, DaVinci Resolve, Kdenlive, Keynote, iPhoto, etc. can also deal with XAVC S 4K files by Pavtube Softwares. 

Just give a try. Happy New Year 2015! 

Good News: Never miss to get Saving up to $44.1, MXF/MTS/M2TS/MKV/FLV/MOV Converter.etc at Pavtube Bundles Deals, 
such as: HD Video Converter for Mac($35) + DVD Creator for Mac($35) = $39.9, Save $30.1 

Source: http://lovecamcorder.tumblr.com/post/108066129607/import-fdr-ax100-xavc-to-fcp-x