How to Import Sony HXR-NX5U AVCHD footage to Apple ProRes 422 for FCP

Summary: If you have troubles while working Sony HXR-NX5U AVCHD files with Final Cut Pro, you can consider trascoding HXR-NX5U AVCHD Footage to Apple ProRes, the best suited editing codec of FCP.

Part 1. What's Sony HXR-NX5U AVCHD?
The Sony HXR-NX5U can recorded AVCHD format, which utilizes the MPEG-4, AVC/H.264 video codec, allows users to record HD video footage onto random access media, such as Memory Stick PRO Duo and SDHC memory cards. Its intelligent and sophisticated algorithm makes AVCHD a highly efficient compression format ideal for memory recording and IT-based editing.

Part 2. How to Convert Sony HXR-NX5U AVCHD .mts files to Apple ProRes 422 for Final Cut Pro?

Some HXR-NX5U users would like to import HXR-NX5U AVCHD MTS to Final Cut Pro for editing. However, AVCHD files are not natively supported by Final Cut Pro and must be transcoded to FCP friendly codecs such as QuickTime movie and Apple Intermediate Codec before importing to FCP. To lower the quality loss during transcoding, Apple introduced the Apple ProRes family in 2008 to help Final Cut Pro works more efficiently with HD contents.

This tutorial will give you the detailed guide on how to convert/transcode HXR-NX5U AVCHD MTS to Apple ProRes 422 encoded files for Final Cut Pro. First of all, we highly recommend the best AVCHD to FCP Converter for Mac. With the Mac MTS/M2TS converter, you can deals with AVCHD footage straightly from Sony HXR-NX5U and exports HD contents encoded in Apple ProRes family (ProRes 422, ProRes 422 LT, ProRes 422 HQ, ProRes 422 Proxy, ProRes 4444) for editing and playing back in FCP.

Download AVCHD to FCP Converter for Mac free



Step 1. Install and run Mac AVCHD to FCP Converter, The main interface appears as below: you can click on "Add Video" to add your HXR-NX5U AVCHD MTS files to the program from your Sony camcorder or from a card reader, or from and archived folder that contains your source media.

Step 2. Click on the dropdown menu of “Format” and then move you pointer to “Final Cut Pro”, under the sublist there are a few formats which are all compatible with Final Cut Pro. Here we recommend the “Apple ProRes 422(HQ) (*.mov)” as the best output format for NEX-FS100EK MTS. Then you can set the output folder by clicking “Browse” icon as you need.

Note: If you want the files be in smaller size, you are hoped to follow Final Cut Pro>Apple ProRes 422(LT)(*mov) option. If your files size is at SD levels, you are advised to choose Final Cut Pro>Apple ProRes 422(Proxy)(*mov), which is recommended for 480i/p and 576i/p shootings as well.

Step 3. Click the “Settings” icon and you will go into a new interface named “Profile Settings”. You can adjust codec, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate and audio channel in the interface according to your needs and optimize the output file quality.

Tips: You'd better set the video frame rate as 30fps, video size as 1920*1080 to keep the best quality for editing in FCP. If you wanna have a smaller file size but keep the good quality, you can change the video size to 1440*1080.

Step 4. When ready, please click 'Convert' button to convert Sony HXR-NX5U AVCHD footage to Apple ProRes 422 for editing with FCP. when the conversion is finished, simply click 'Open' button to get the exported ProRes 422 files for using in Final Cut Pro X, or FCP 6 and FCP 7 with optimum performance.

More tips:

Canon Vixia AVCHD to FCP, Avid, Premiere and Sony Vegas

Sony A7/A7R AVCHD and iMovie/FCE workflow

Convert/Import Sony Alpha AVCHD MTS to iMovie

Sony FS100/FS700 AVCHD and FCP X Workflow

Sony HXR-NX5U AVCHD workflow in iMovie

Why Final Cut Pro refused reading my AVCHD MTS file?

Summary: If you faced obstacles when importing AVCHD MTS camera clips into Final Cut Pro to do further editing, this post guide you through the process of making AVCHD footage editable in FCP.

Final Cut Pro is no doubt a great choice for video hobbyists and filmmakers to make creative movies from camera/camcorder recordings. But users who are not quite familiar with FCP may face obstacles even when importing camera clips, especially those in MTS format. See an example, “Hello we captured footage with the Canon HF100 Hi-Def Camcorder, transferred the video files onto an external drive. We’re now trying to import those MTS files into Final Cut Pro 7 but it seems they are not supported… how do you import them?”

Our analysis
If you have MTS files, we assume you are using an AVCHD camera. If that’s the case, when you capture the data files from the SD Card or whatever media you are recording to, it is critical that you capture the entire directory structure. From there, you can use File->Log and Transfer and select the base directory, and Final Cut Pro will import everything for you.

The following screenshot shows the AVCHD Structure on card/disk



AVCHD is a format created for consumer camcorders. The structure actually mimics the basic structure of Blu-ray. Some TV sets and Blu-ray players can play these clips directly from the SD-Cards. For editing only the .MTS files in the STREAM folder are needed. They actually contain a H.264 video stream (some tools like an MTS to FCP Converter can re-wrap/transcode these MTS streams to ProRes .MOV for FCP without changing any data).

FCP should read the mts videos if the AVCHD volume structure is kept as unaltered. Otherwise, Final Cut Pro would not read the .mts files directly. If you only saved some loose .mts videos without keeping an entire AVCHD file structure, you need to use an MTS to FCP Converter program on Mac to do format conversion before editing. The recommended solution is HD Video Converter for Mac, you can run it as an MTS to ProRes Converter. It runs $35.

AVCHD MTS to ProRes Converter



Transcode AVCHD MTS clips to Apple ProRes for Final Cut Pro editing

Launch AVCHD MTS to FCP Converter program, drag your AVCHD files in, select ProRes MOV as target format, click the convert tab and that’s all. Now you can edit AVCHD MTS clips in Final Cut Pro with ease.



If necessary, you can click ‘Settings’ button to adjust video and audio settings such as image resolution, video bit rate, frame rate, audio bit rate, sample rate and audio channel.

Apple has designed the ProRes codec to work quickly and easily with Final Cut Pro, that’s why HD Video Converter provides expert Apple ProRes settings for FCP. More than converting MTS to FCP, it also features ability to transcode MXF to Avid MC, repack MXF to FCP, encode AVCHD to AIC for iMovie and more.

Also read:

FCP 7 not recognizing my MXF file – convert MXF to ProRes for FCP 7

How to edit AVCHD files taken with Canon LEGRIA camcorder on Mac?

How can I import Canon Rebel T3i / EOS 600D MOV clips into iMovie ?