How to Work With Sony HDR-MV1 MP4 footage in FCP X/7/6

The Sony HDR-MV1 Music Video Recorder lets artists shoot and share every performance with Full HD image quality and studio-quality sound. With HDR-MV1, recordings are made as data files in the MP4 format. However, many users find that Final Cut Pro might not work the Sony HDR-MV1 MP4 files due to the codec issue. For this purpose, this article will guide through how to rewrap and transcode .mp4 videos from Sony HDR-MV1 to FCP native format ProRes .mov for easier editing.

Final Cut Pro supports MP4 although, MP4 as a video container format that may contain various audio and video codec, not all of them can be imported to FCP correctly. The MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 encoded MP4 clips from Sony HDR-MV1 doesn't seem to be an ideal format for Final Cut Pro X or FCP 7. To successfully import Sony HDR-MV1 MP4 files to FCP, a recommended solution is to convert Sony HDR-MV1 video to Apple ProRes for FCP. Brorsoft Video Converter for Mac is just the right MP4 to FCP converter for you.

It's able to transcode Sony HDR-MV1 MP4 files to Final Cut Pro more compatible format ProRes 422, ProRes 422 HQ, ProRes 422 LT, ProRes 4444 without quality loss. Plus, this Mac video converter app can also encode MP4, MTS, AVI, MXF, XAVC, MKV, etc videos to Avid Media Composer, iMovie, Adobe Premiere Pro. Just download it and follow the tutorial below to get the work done.

Download and install MP4 to FCP converter:

(Note: Click here for OS X 10.5)

Import Sony HDR-MV1 video files to Final Cut Pro 7/X

Step 1: Load Sony HDR-MV1 video

Run the top MP4 to ProRes Converter and click "Add file" button to browse and import the MP4 footage to the converter. You can check the "Merge into one" box to join several video files together.

Step 2: Select ProRes as output format

Click the "Format" bar and select Final Cut Pro> Apple PreRes 422(*.mov) as output format.

Tip: You can click "settings" button in the main interface to customize the output video's parameters, such as resolution, frame rate, etc.

Step 3: Start Sony HDR-MV1 to FCP conversion

Click the arrow button to start transcoding Sony HDR-MV1 MP4 to ProRes MOV for FCP immediately. After the conversion finished, you can directly transfer the .mov video to Final Cut Pro X or FCP 7 for further editing without any problem(Just launch FCP, click choose File >> Import >> Files... to add your videos.).

Additional Tips:

If you wanna transcode Sony HDR-MV1 footage to iMovie, choose the "iMovie and Final Cut Express -> Apple InterMediate Codec (AIC) (*.mov)"; to get perfect editing in Premier Pro, select "Adobe Premiere/Sony Vegas> MPEG-2(*.mpg)