canon 5d mark ii native H264 to ProRes in FinaCut X

[Sandeep Sajeev]

Depending on your workflow, you may want to add Reel and Timecode information to your footage before working with it in FCPX.

But you don’t need to convert your H264 files to ProRes before editing anymore. Just check the Optimize Imported Media box on import and FCPX will transcode the media to ProRes 422 in the background.

[Bill Davis]

No. You don’t HAVE to transcode anything.

The issue is whether your system’s processor and I/O is fast enough to efficiently handle the 5d’s already pretty heavily compressed H-264 data stream in real time.

Letting FCP-X “optimize media” into ProRes lets the system work more efficiency, since it “expects” that as it’s native codec and won’t have to do any additional transcoding math “on the fly” in order to handle the files internally.

So you’ll avoid issues like slowdowns and possible dropped frames or sluggish performance when compositing shots or playing back sequences – but X works fine with all types of footage without transcoding IF you have the computing power and system throughput speeds required.

Simple as that.

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[Javad Ahmadi]

Thank you for your feedback!

Javad Ahmadi
Alive ProStudios