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Change MXF recording on Sony PXW X70?
I’m still a student so bear with me if this question is stupid…
We just got a Sony PXW X70 in yesterday and of course, right away my boss ran out and used it to record a bunch of footage which he now wants to use to make a training video.
Unfortunately, he cant view any of the footage he shot. I took a look at the files on the SD card and they are all MXF files which I think need a converter to be viewed and edited. We lost our lead producer a few weeks ago which leaves me (the student) as the only “video” person in our small group (other 2 people are a graphic designer and public relations spec.) so I guess I’m the one who has to figure it out.
I’m thinking this might be a simple matter of changing the recording settings so that the files aren’t saved as MXF?
I had a chance to briefly glance at the menu on the Sony (that cam is confusing af to navigate, btw) and Im not sure which settings I would change the recording & audio formats to to eliminate this issue and produce a file that can be easily viewed on a MAC and imported into FCP but still good quality.
If someone could advise me , that would be awesome! I don’t want to just go in and start changing settings willy nilly so I’m hoping one of you can walk me through.
ZombieCat
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4 Replies
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If you have FCPX (current version is 10.3.1), the MXF files will import directly (although I recommend using FCXP to make a Camera Archive first and importing from that). There’s no need to convert the files.
I also don’t have any problem playing MXF files in Quicktime directly but you really shouldn’t go into the card file structure to do that.
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Okay I will go try that. We do have FCPX but honestly I HATE using it. I prefer FCP 7 and even Premiere (which we also have).
Will the MXF files import into those as well?
ZombieCat
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If you have a recent version of PPro CC then MXF would work in that as well.
FCP7 was discontinued in 2011 (coming up on 7 years) so if codec compatibility is important you should move to any modern NLE.
If you have to start converting files that’s going to slow you down tremendously. If you have to go do a lower resolution file (I believe the X70 even shoots in DV) then the quality is going to suffer (IMHO not acceptable for professional corporate work).
If NLE cost is a factor, it might be interesting to try the free version of Da Vinci Resolve.
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The X70 uses the XAVC-L codec. (I don’t believe FCP 7 can deal w/ these)
I’m using PP cc 2015.4. Go to the Media Browser inside PP and locate the drive w/ the file you want (it’s usually in a folder “Private”) and import. There will be a bunch of files that will be discarded in the process, but you be left with (if memory serves me well) a folder (XDROOT) in your project. You’ll find your editable clips in that folder.
Good Luck,
Jim
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