Post
by robin326 » Dec 13, 2013
The Sony PMW-100 XDCAM HD422 Handheld Camcorder delivers broadcast-quality 50 Mb/s MPEG-2 recording at 1920 x 1080 in a very compact form factor. Even loaded with an SxS card and the packaged Li-ion battery, the PMW-100 weighs slightly less than 4 lb. And with two SxS slots that accept cards with capacities up to 64 GB, you can record up to 240 minutes even at the highest quality. That's a crucial merit for mobile documentarian or news gatherer to cover events & news stories for long days.
Last week I shot some sports game videos with PMW-100 for local TV stations. Though I can manipulate editing software skillfully, I find that FCP could not recognize and view MXF footage after ingesting Sony PMW-100 XDCAM video files into FCP X. I search the internet and try to look for any FCP workflow or solution to view Sony XDCAM MXF file. A suggestion is to download and install the Sony XDCAM Transfer application. But I still have trouble with MXF footage due to its complex procedures. I need an easier solution to solve my problem fast. Finally, I use Aunsoft TransMXF Pro for Mac to convert XDCAM to ProRes MOV, the native codec to read MXF in FCP. This excellent MXF viewer can also transcode MXF file to MOV with DVCPRO HD, XDCAM, HDV, AIC MOV and even multiple audio tracks MOV for viewing in editing systems on Mac (including Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks) with perfect audio and video synchronization.
Step1: Import or drag & drop Sony PMW-100 XDCAM MXF to TransMXF Pro for Mac
Connect Sony PMW-100 XDCAM camcorder to your Mac computer hard drive via USB cable
You can import MXF content via clicking “add video†or “add folder†in the upper corner or just drag MXF to the program directly.
In this step, you may encounter that the MXF with just video but no audio. A suggestion is to click "add folder" to load the entire XDCAM MXF whole structure folder to avoid of missing audio caused by metadata loss. Then, you'd better to preview the raw MXF before converting Sony XDCAM to ProRes MOV.
If you want to merge MXF files, just need to check the "Merge into one" box.
Step 2: Select ProRes 422 as export format for FCP X
Click "format" and under the FCP menu, you can clearly see proper formats for FCP, among which, native codec to read XDCAM MXF files in FCP X, including ProRes 422 and ProRes 444. You can also directly enter FCP in the search bar, even faster.
ProRes 422 HQ is recommended here for offering even greater headroom to preserve the quality f even the most demanding.
Step 3: Set proper frame rate for output ProRes 422 HQ MOV
Set proper frame rate is important. The video frame rate is up to 60fps under the ProRes 422 format profile settings. After much verification, here suggests 25P in PAL (30P in NTSC) to keep high video quality and smooth edit in FCP X. You can also adjust other settings, like video size, video bitrates, audio channels, etc. I prefer to set video bitrates as high quality and choose 5.1 channels for better audio and video quality.
Step 4: Transcode Sony PMW-100 XDCAM to ProRes 422 HQ MOV
Click "Conversion" icon to transcode Sony PMW-100 XDCAM HD 422 MXF to MOV for FCP X at high speed. After XDCAM MXF to ProRes Conversion, you will be able to get the output files via clicking on "Open" button and then import the converted videos to FCP X.
More than of offering solution to view and play MXF files, Aunsoft TransMXF Pro for Mac is able to convert XDCAM MXF to iMovie, XDCAM MXF to QuickTime, XDCAM MXF to Avid, XDCAM MXF to Adobe Premiere/Sony Vegas, XDCAM MXF to FCE, etc. with native codec. All my problems with MXF formats seem to be solved with this all-in-one MXF to Mac conversion tool.
