Sony PDW-F800 XDCAM HD422 MXF workflow in Avid Media Composer and Premiere Pro

Summary: Follow this article you will know how to solve Sony  PDW-F800 XDCAM HD422 MXF editing problems with Avid Media Composer and Premiere Pro on Mac.

Sony has announced the new PDW-F800 XDCAM Camcorder, and you'll be able to get your hands on it at the Abel booth at NAB. This camera is basically a PDW-700 camera with some upgrades that many of our customers have been asking for. The list of new features that come standard with the camera include: 24p recording, variable frame rate recording (over-crank & under-crank), user gamma modes, dual-optical filters (ND and Color Correction), and SD recording modes. They have also added the ability to record proxy video data directly to a USB memory stick, so your editor can start working immediately with these files.


The PDW-F800 offers very high quality HD recording at a data rate of up to 50Mbps using the MPEG-2 4:2:2P@HL compression and the recorded video format is MXF. But for Mac users, using Sony PDW-F800 XDCAM HD 422 MXF is a big problem. The mxf files will not be handled perfectly in Mac editing software like Avid Media Composer and Premiere Pro due to the incompatible format and codec. Especially, some XDCAM HD422 MXF raw footage was shot in 50 fps, it can't be accepted by Avid MC and Premiere Pro.

So if you want to smoothly edit Sony PDW-F800 XDCAM HD422 MXF in Avid Media Composer and Premiere Pro, you first need to convert Sony PDW-F800 XDCAM HD422 MXF video to Avid and Premiere compatible mov format.

First of all, we highly recommend the professional Sony XDCAM MXF Converter for you, which allows you to convert/transcode Sony PDW-F800 XDCAM HD422 MXF files to Avid/Premiere friendly format easily and quickly without any video and audio problem. Below, we give you the step-by-step guide. 

Convert Sony PDW-F800 XDCAM HD422 MXF to Avid Media Composer and Premiere Pro on Mac OS X 


Step 1: Add MXF video files. 

Download and run Pavtube Mac Sony XDCAM Converter. Connect Sony PDW-F800 XDCAM camcorder to your Mac computer hard drive via USB cable. 

Click the button "Add File" or "Add from folder" to add Sony PDW-F800 XDCAM HD422 MXF files, or directly drag and drop your Sony XDCAM HD MXF files. 
 

Step 2: Select an output format for Avid Media Composer and Premiere Pro. 

Click on the "Format" and get the dropdown menu, then move you pointer to Adobe Premiere/ Sony Vegas-> MOV(AVC)(*.mov) for output in Premiere Pro for editing.



And if you need to edit in Avid MC, choose Avid Media Composer -> Avid DNxHD (*.mov), this format is best for Avid native editing.   


Step 3: Click "Settings" icon to adjust audio and video parameters. 
Click the "Settings" icon and you will go into a new interface named "Profile Settings". You can adjust codec, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate and audio channel in the interface according to your needs and optimize the output file quality. 

Step 4: Start Converting. 

Click the "Convert" button; it will convert Sony PDW-F800 XDCAM HD422 MXF files to MOV for Avid Media Composer and Premiere Pro on Mac immediately. 

After the Sony XDCAM to MOV Conversion, you will be able to get the output files for Avid MC and Premiere Pro via clicking on "Open" button effortlessly.

Afterwards, you can import the converted Sony PDW-F800 XDCAM HD422 MXF videos to Avid Media Composer and Premiere Pro freely for further editing without any trouble. 

Mac Video Importing Tips

• Premiere Importing: How to import video files or projects to Premiere Pro?
• Avid Media Composer Importing: How to import Media files to Avid MC?

XDCAM related guides:

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How to Import XDCAM into FCP X without using any plugin
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