The PMW-500 is Sony Professional's first XDCAM HD422 Camcorder with solid state recording. It supports full-HD 422 50-Mbps MXF record and playback based on highly developed MPEG-2 Long GOP compression technology. Uniquely, it can also be switched to record in HD 420 35-Mbps MP4 format which makes for seamless integration when used alongside XDCAM EX models. Though it is professional on capturing videos, but many users met the importing problem while trying to edit Sony PMW-500 MXF footages in Final Cut Pro 6/7/X on Mac.

What plug-in do I need to install so i can import and edit .MXF video files in Final Cut. The suggestion of doing Log and Transfer doesn't work (the .MXF files are gray out not allowing me to select it.) [Final Cut Pro 7, Mac OS X (10.5)]

I'm interested in the new Sony PMW-500, but I'm still working on an Apple G5 with FCP 6.0.6. Is there an application, plug-in, etc. for the older FCP to take in MXF files? [G5, Mac OS X (10.4.11)]

Sony PMW-500 XDCAM MXF format is not compatible with Final Cut Pro 6/7/X so it is difficult to edit these videos in it smoothly. If you want to import Sony PMW-500 XDCAM MXF in Final Cut Pro 6/7/X for editing smoothly, the easy workaround is to transcode MXF to Apple ProRes encoded MOV format, which is natively supported by Final Cut. Along with some help from a professional Mac MXF to MOV Converter. it can be done.

To help those who wanna edit Sony MXF files in Final Cut Pro X/7/6, here I share with you a simple guide to convert Sony PMW-500 MXF files to Apple ProRes 422 MOV format.

Downloading the App - Brorsoft MXF Converter for Mac

(Note: Click here for OS X 10.5)

Overall, the program is a professional yet easy-to-use MXF to ProRes Converter on Mac OS X which can not only convert Sony PMW-500, PMW-320, Sony FS700 recorded MXF files to Apple ProRes codec videos for Mac editing, but also provide simple video editing functions for you. The mac MXF to MOV Converter can convert HD videos from Canon C300, XF100, XF105 and XF305, and Panasonic P2 for editing in Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro X, Final Cut Express, iMovie, Avid MC, Adobe Premiere Pro etc. Just download it and follow the tutorial below to achieve your goal smoothly.

Guide: Transcoding Sony PMW-500 MXF files to ProRes 422

Step 1: Import MXF files from your Sony PMW-500 to the MXF to FCP Converter Mac.

Note: Before conversion, you need to transfer MXF files from your Sony PMW-500 to Mac Hard Drive, then click the "add files" button to browse to import MXF videos.

Step 2: Click the format bar, and move mouse cursor to "Final Cut Pro > Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)" as output format.

Step 3: Click "Convert" button to start transcoding Sony PMW-500 mxf files to Apple ProRes MOV for Final Cut Pro 6/7/X under Mac OS.

Some more helpful features of the Free Mac MXF to MOV Converter:

1. Settings- click to set video resolution(1920×1080/1440×1080/1280×720/720×480), bitrate（from 1Mbps to 20Mbps）, frame rate (24p/30p)

2. Editor (next to "Add" icon)- click to set deinterlace, denoise, mute, volume up, trim, crop, etc.

Once the MXF to ProRes 422 conversion is done, you can transfer Sony PMW-500 MXF footage into Final Cut Pro 6/7/X for editing smoothly on Mac with ease.

Related guides:
How to import P2 MXF to iMovie
How to ingest Sony XDCAM MXF to Premiere Pro
How to transcode Sony XDCAM MXF to DNxHD for Avid