How to Import Sony PXW-FS5 4K XAVC footage into Premiere Pro for further editing

Summary: From this article below, you can learn the best workflow of importing and editing 4K XAVC files from Sony PXW-FS5 with Premiere Pro.

The Sony PXW-FS5 looks to take the best of the FS7 and package it into a more approachable camera. It can record videos in your choice of XAVC-L or AVCHD. While due to its codec incompatibility with Premiere Pro, many people who want to polish the Sony PXW-FS5 footage with Premiere Pro, have suffered a lot from this trouble:

"Hi! I was told the Sony FS5 footage can natively ingest into Premiere CS6(Mac). But my footage is crashing every time I try to import. Any ideas?"
Currently, Premiere Pro CS6 will not natively support XAVC, but Adobe Premiere Pro CC, the latest version of Adobe Premiere Pro, has added support for this new camera format. To import XAVC to Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 and its previous versions, you can download Rovi Totalcode, a Plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro CS5/CS5.5/CS6 which has perfect support for Sony’s 4K XAVC format. However, this third-party plug-in will cost you a lot of money. In addition, it only works on Windows but not Mac.

Fortunately, there are still some cost effective but simple ways for you to import XAVC to Adobe Premiere Pro, namely, converting XAVC files to MPEG-2, ensuring the maximum editing efficiency and quality when working with all kinds of Premiere Pro. Along with some help from a top XAVC converter like Brorsoft Video Converter for Mac, it can be done quickly and easily.

Overall, the program is a professional yet easy-to-use XAVC to Adobe Premiere Pro Converter on Mac. With it, you can convert PXW-FS5, Sony FS7, Sony F5, Sony F55, PXW-X70, PXW-X160, PXW-X180, PXW-X500 and more recorded XAVC videos to Adobe Premiere Pro compatible MPEG-2 video without any quality loss. What's more, this XAVC converter can also transcode XAVC clips for editing in Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro, iMovie, etc flawlessly. The equivalent Windows version is Brorsoft Video Converter, which can encode XAVC files for Windows editing.

Download the best XAVC converter:

(Note: Click here for OS X 10.5)

Guide: converting Sony PXW-FS5 XAVC to MPEG-2 for Adobe Premiere
Step 1: Add original file

Click "Add File" button to import Sony PXW-FS5 XAVC videos to this powerful program. Or you can simply drag the videos directly to the software window list.



Step 2: Choose preferred format

Click "Format" pull down list to select Adobe Premiere/Sony Vegas> MPEG-2(*.mpg) as the best video format for Premiere Pro. WMV, MOV formats are the good choice as well.



Tip: Click the "Settings" button, you are able to enter the "Profile Settings" panel to adjust video and audio parameters for the converted files, including video size, bit rate, frame rate and more.

Step 3: Start conversion

Click the Convert button to start transcoding Sony PXW-FS5 XAVC to MPEG-2 for Adobe Premiere Pro.

Once the process is at 100%, click "Open" button on the main interface to find the generated videos, then you can transfer the encoded XAVC videos to Adobe Premiere Pro CC, CS6, CS4 or CS4 for editing easily and quickly.

More articles:

Sony PXW-FS7 Workflow with Premiere Pro: Editing 4K XAVC Files Smoothly

How to Edit Sony PXW-Z150 4K XAVC footage in FCP 7/X

Import 4K XAVC from Sony PXW-FS5 to Edit in Final Cut Pro X/7

Sony PXW-FS7 Workflow with Premiere Pro: Editing 4K XAVC Files Smoothly

Summary: Having troubles of importing and editing Sony PXW-FS7 XAVC footage in Premiere Pro? The best workaround is to convert those XAVC files to MPEG-2, a better video format for Premiere Pro. Read on to learn how-to.

Sony PXW-FS7 is the first 4K XDCAM camera to feature a Super35 CMOS sensor. Capable of shooting in 4K Quad Full HD1 (QFHD) and super slow-motion Full HD, this camera has the ability to record QFHD1 with 4:2:2 10-bit sampling up to 600 Mbit/s, with support for a variety of recording formats including include XAVC, which supports 4K* 60p, Full HD 60p even in 4:2:2 10-bit recording, as well as the common MPEG-2 HD 422 format used by many broadcast stations around the world. Though so excellent as it being, those XAVC files are a sheer nightmare for the majority of NLEs like Premiere Pro:

"I received my new camcorder-Sony FS7, but I am new to XAVC codec, so I was wondering if there is a tutorial of how to import Sony FS7 XAVC into Premiere Pro? After some tests by myself, I found that Premiere rejected these videos. Does that mean I can not edit XAVC files in Premiere natively?"

Actually, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, the latest version of Adobe Premiere Pro, has added support for this new camera format. While, users need to download Rovi Totalcode, a Plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro CS5/CS5.5/CS6 to support Sony's 4K XAVC format perfectly, if you want to import XAVC to Adobe Premiere Pro CC previous versions. Whereas, this third-party plug-in will cost you a lot of money, and it only works for Windows. Obviously, to many videographers, it's not an ideal way to solve the incompatibility problem. Alternatively, a easier and better workaround is to transcode these XAVC to Premiere friendly format MPEG-2.

Frankly, it's not hard as you imagine so long as you have a professional yet easy-to-use third-party program like Brorsoft XAVC Video Converter for Mac, which can easily transcode Sony PXW-FS7 XAVC to Premiere friendly format-MPEG-2 without quality loss. What's more, this powerful video converter offers other professional codec for NLEs, like Apple ProRes for FCP, AIC for iMovie/FCE, DNxHD for Avid and more. If you are a PC user and willing to encode Sony PXW-FS7 XAVC to MPEG-2 for Premiere CC/CS6/CS5, Brorsoft Video Converter is your first choice. Now download the software on your computer and follow the guide below to learn how to ingest Sony PXW-FS7 XAVC file to Premiere.

(Note: Click here for OS X 10.5)

How to Import Sony PXW-FS7 XAVC file to Premiere CC/CS6/CS5 for editing

Step 1: Load files to the program

Launch the XAVC to Premiere Pro Converter and click "Add File" button to locate the Sony PXW-FS7 XAVC file(s) you want to add. Or you can drag&drop the files into software window list directly.



Step 2: Choose Premiere Pro preferred format

Click "Format" pull down list to select Adobe Premiere/Sony Vegas> MPEG-2(*.mpg) as the best video format for Premiere Pro. WMV, MOV formats are the good choice as well.



Step 3: Adjust the video, audio settings

Click "Settings" to fix the frame rate, bitrate, video size, etc to your needs. To have a smooth editing with Adobe Premiere Pro, you need create the files with the appropriate resolution and frame rate that matches your source footage.

Step 4: Start conversion

Click the big "Convert" button at the bottom right corner to finish encoding Sony PXW-FS7 XAVC to MPG, MOV for Premiere CC/CS6/CS5 on Mac OS X.

When the conversion is done, you can find the output files by clicking "Open" button on the main interface, then you can transfer the encoded XAVC files to your Premiere Pro to play and edit without any problem.

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