Transcode Sony NEX-FS700 footage to Edit in Final Cut Pro 7/X smoothly

Summary: Cannot import 60p/50p AVCHD video footage from Sony NEX-FS700 to Final Cut Pro 7 or FCP 7 for editing? Get the best Mac MTS to ProRes Converter to achieve your goal smoothly.



“I have purchased the newly released Sony FS700 Camcorder, it records MTS videos, when I import the recordings to Final Cut Pro 7 I always got problems, can you give me some suggestions to help me import Sony FS700 MTS clips to FCP?”

Sony NEX-FS700 is able to shoot full 1080p video in a range of frame rates up to 60p, the FS700 provides the option of recording AVCHD footage onto SD card/MemoryStick or via the FMU (flash memory unit) port, or it can output 4:2:2 video (with embedded timecode) via HDMI 1.4 or 3G/HD-SDI to an external recording unit. Using the FS700, you can record Full HD .mts clips at 1080/60p or 50p mode. While enjoying the stunning HD image quality, many folks are having problems when importing FS700 60p/50p AVCHD footage to Final Cut Pro 6/7 (even with the lastest FCP X). If you’re in such a situation, you can read on the article to learn more, which mainly shows you how to get Sony NEX-FS700 1080 50P/60P footage and FCP 6/7/X to work beautifully.

The reason that you can't successfully ingest those recorded AVCHD footages on 1080 60P/50P format to Final Cut Pro is limited by the FCP itself. Currently 1080/60p or 1080/50p footage is a very non-standard format and it’s unsupported in FCP 6/7 even the lastest FCP X. In order to import NEX-FS700 60p AVCHD footage into FCP for smoothly editing, you can use 3rd-party software to re-wrap and convert 60p/50p MTS to Apple ProRes encoded mov format first, which is a native format for Final Cut Pro 6/7/X. It’s a great way to achieve your goal smoothly. For this purose, this article will show you how to transcode Sony NEX-FS700 AVCHD Footage to ProRes MOV in detail.

Converting Sony NEX-FS700 60p/50p AVCHD to Apple ProRes MOV for Final Cut Pro 6/7/X

The quick workaround is to use the easy-to-use yet professional app called Brorosft MTS/M2TS Converter for Mac which can be used as a Sony AVCHD MTS Converter under OS X Leopard (10.5), Snow Leopard (10.6), Lion (10.7), Mountain Lion (10.8). It is free, clean and safe to install and use. With it, you can effortlessly transcode MTS to ProRes MOV for Final Cut Pro 6/7/X, and it works well and converts flawlessly. Below is how.

Step 1: Load Sony NEX-FS700 1080p MTS to Mac MTS to ProRes Converter.

Use a card reader to copy and transfer the .mts files to iMac hard drive disk, run Mac Sony MTS Converter as the fast Mac MTS to ProRes Converter, and click the “Add” button to load the .mts videos. You can also use the drag-and-drop method to load the 1080p .mts files to the application UI.

Step 2. Choose outout format

Press “Format” option and navigate the mouse cursor to choose “Format > Final Cut Pro > Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)” as the best codec for FCP 6/7 and FCP X on Mac. The Mac Sony MTS converter will transcode Sony NEX-FS700 MTS to FCP 6/7 or FCP X compatible MOV with ProRes as video codec in HD 1920×1080.



Step 3. You can click “settings” button in the main interface to customize the output video’s parameters, such as resolution, frame rate, etc.



Step 4. You can edit the MTS video before you convert Sony FS700 MTS to ProRes MOV.

By clicking “Edit” button, you can trim, crop the video, or add watermark and adjust effect to the videos which you will convert.



Trim – Choose to reserve the part you need. Just choose the chapter which you need to trim, to set “start time” or “end time”, type the portion which you want to save.

Crop – Remove black edges of your video or just get the scale of this video you want.

Effect – Adjust the effects by adjusting the parameters, such as:

1) Deinterlacing – If there are some stripes on the picture, you can check this option to make a better picture effect. (Checked by default)

2) If you want to get 3D effect, just enable this fuction and do settings:

Step 5. Start the conversion

Click the “Convert” icon under the preview window, and the Mac MTS to ProRes Converter will start transcode FS700 1080p 50p/60p MTS to Prores MOV for FCP(X) on Mac.

After the conversion, click the “Open” button to locate converted files, then load ProRes .MOV files in FCP (X). Now you can successfully and easily import Sony NEX-FS700 1080 60p/50p MTS footage to FCP 6/7 or FCP X for editing with best quality.

Additional Tips:

1. 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.

2. If you want to edit AVCHD MTS in iMovie, you just need to choose the "iMovie and Final Cut Express -> Apple InterMediate Codec (AIC) (*.mov)" in the second step.

3. If you want to batch conversion, the professional iMedia Converter for Mac is the best choice for you.

Tips for importing and editing Canon Vixia HF G10 AVCHD to Final Cut Pro X

Summary: How to bring AVCHD from Canon Vixia HF G10 into FCP X for editing without rendering

Vixia HF G10 camcorder is Canon's high-end offering for 2011. Though it is an old camera for some users, packed with so many mouth-watering features and functions it doesn't seem to right to call this model a 'consumer camcorder'. Yet, still at a consumer price-point the HF G10 brings professional capabilities to those who seek to do more while staying within the means of their budget.

However, I could'd ingest videos from HF G10 into FCP X after I upgraded my Mac OS X to Mountain Lion 10.8.2. I tried importing several times, but I failed in the end. Searched widely and I got know, that VIXIA HF G10 brings professional capabilities; however, AVCHD is highly compressed and not ideal for editing with Final Cut Pro. Although, Apple has claimed FCP X can natively support AVCHD files, but in fact it can not support AVCHD files from all the camcorders and with many problems less success just like the issues occurred on this VIXIA HF G10, particularly those FCPX softwares worked on OS Mountain Lion. Since Apple ProRes is the codec natively supported by FCP, you’d better to convert Canon 1080p or 1080i MTS to ProRes with a third party Prores converter to avoid any potential problems.

To achieve the goal smoothly, I am using Brorsoft MTS/M2TS Converter for Mac which is one of the best Mac compatible AVCHD conversion tool I've found and applied. I’ve used it to convert the 1080p AVCHD from my Canon Vixia HF G10 to ProRes 422 for FCP X successfully. Plus, this tool can also help you to convert Canon AVCHD to iMovie, Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Express, with various preset video formats for editing software. Very intuitive and easy to use. Also, you can use it as a Mac editor to deinterlace the original 1080i footages, crop video size, trim video clips, and add special effects and text/image/video watermarks to output videos. Just follow the guide below to encode Canon VIXIA HF G10 videos to Final Cut Pro X playable format before importing and editing.

How to transcode Canon VIXIA HF G10 AVCHD MTS footage to Apple ProRes 422 MOV on Mac OS X

Step 1. Install and run the MTS Converter for Mac and import Full HD 1080i/p files from Vixia HF G10 into it.

Step 2. Choose Final Cut Pro > Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov) as output format.

Tips:
1) To edit in FCP X with best quality, pls select Apple ProRes 422(HQ)(*.mov).
2) To get a smaller file, please choose Apple ProRes 422(LT)(*.mov).

Step 3. Go to Profile Settings panel and you can set video size and frame rate as you want. Here you can refer to the recommended best video/audio settings as the below screenshot shows.

Step 4. Start Converting Canon Vixia HF G10 AVCHD to ProRes via clicking "Convert" button.

After the workflow, pls click "open" and run your FCP for directly draging and droping the converted video to FCP X for freely editing.