Lossless Copy Canon/Nikon/GoPro DSLR H.264 clips to Final Cut Pro 7/FCP X editing

H.264 is a new video codec standard which can achieve high quality video in relatively low bitrates. So it is a popular video format for playing. But it is not a good format for editing. As we all know the H.264 DSLR is more and more popular for us. Like the Canon T3i, 60D, and 5D Mk II, 5D Mark III, Nikon D700, etc can capture in .mov container with this H.264 codec. Plus, like GoPro Hero 2, GoPro Hero 3 can also shot in this H.264 format in .mp4 container. But more the H.264 videos, the more video to FCP importing problems we will meet.

To successfully transfer H.264 clips to Final Cut Pro 7/FCP X for further editing without any error, I'm glad to show you the best practice to transcode/prepare H.264 footage to the codec ProRes and import it into FCP. But before starting the covnersion, you need the professional H.264 to ProRes for Final Cut Pro 7/FCP X Converter.

How to reformat H.264 video to ProRes.



Step 1, download, install and Open the Video Converter program and click the add file button to import your H.264 clips to it. You can check the “Merge into one” box to join some clips together if you need.

Step 2, click on the pull down menu of “Format”, and choose Apple ProRes 422(*.mov) as target format from the presets list in “Final Cut Pro”. Of course, Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)(*mov), Apple ProRes 422(LT)(*mov), Apple ProRes 422(Proxy)(*mov) are also the proper format for FCP 7/X.

Step 3, hit Settings icon. In the Profile Settings window, you can adjust the video and audio parameters. If you have full HD 1080p videos, 1920*1080 video size, and 30fps(or 25fps for PAL) video frame rate is recommended.

Step 4, click the Convert button to start converting 1080p H.264 footage to editable ProRes for FCP X/7 on Mac OS X.

Once it is completed you can quit the H.264 video converter for Mac and copy DSLR H.264 files into FCP X/7 .

How to take converted videos to FCP

For FCP 7: Simply navigate to File > Import > Files and select the converted clips. There is no need “Log and Transfer” with typical camcorders.

For FCP X, navigate to File > Import > Media and in the window that comes up, select your transcoded ProRes clips.

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