Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Super Easy Steps for Editing Sony F3 XDCAM video in Final Cut Pro 7

This guide shows you how to edit Sony F3 XDCAM file with Final Cut Pro 7 supported files in two ways.

Sony F3 XDCAM video in Final Cut Pro 7

Many of our customers have expressed concern about how to use the XDCAM EX footage that is recorded to SxS cards on the Sony PMW-F3 camera. After all, Final Cut Pro will not work with these files natively. However, Sony has provided an efficient and simple tool called “XDCAM Transfer” that addresses this exact problem.

Main Interface of Sony's XDCAM Transfer Utility:

xdcam transfer interface

XDCAM Transfer simply changes the file wrapper from the MP4 file that Final Cut Pro doesn’t understand to a Quicktime MOV file that Final Cut Pro can edit natively. And since there is no “transcoding”, XDCAM Transfer will process the video clips as fast as your system can copy the files. This means your videos will be ready to edit in minutes, not hours. Simply give this procedure to your editor, and their system will be ready to edit your Sony F3 footage in 10 minutes or less!

xdcam transfer preferences

XDCAM Transfer Preferences Menu

Disclaimer: This workflow is only for Intel based Macs (MacBook Pro Laptops and MacPro Towers) with OS X v10.5 or later and Final Cut Pro 7 installed. This procedure will not work for PowerMac systems or Final Cut Pro 6 users.

1. Install required software (listed below) and reboot as needed.
2. Open XDCAM Transfer.
3. From the XDCAM Transfer menu, select “Preferences”.
4. On the Import tab, set the folder that the transferred material will be saved to, and close the Preferences menu.
5. In the main XDCAM Transfer interface, click the Add button in the bottom-left corner.
6. Browse to either a mounted SxS card in a card reader, or a copy of the “BPAV” folder that was saved to a hard drive on-location.
7. Click on the new item in the left “Source” pane, then select “Import All Clips” from the File menu.
8. Open Final Cut Pro 7.
9. From the File menu, select “Import”.
10. Select the clips from the import folder you specified in your XDCAM Transfer Preferences menu. Now you’re ready to edit!

Mac Software Required All-In-One Mac Package (SxS Device Driver, SxS UDF Driver, XDCAM Clip Browser, and XDCAM Transfer)

Download – 71.9mb

The package above contains all four of the following pieces of software. Individual links provided as a courtesy.

Sony SxS Device Driver v1.0.5

Download – 1.1mb
Sony SxS UDF Driver v1.0.1 (File System Driver)

Download – 426kb

Sony XDCAM Clip Browser v2.6

Download – 69mb
Sony XDCAM Transfer v2.12

Download – 32.7mb

But as far as we know, XDCAM Transer always bring your crash issue, and the 
procedure above is complex for beginners, what's more, the workflow only works with FCP 7. T
o find an easier and effective way, you just need to get help of Pavtube HD Video Converter for Mac which can convert Sony F3 XDCAM videos to FCP 7 comptible Apple Prores codec for natively importing in Final Cut Pro 7(same in FCP X) on Mac. This will be a 
super simple way!

Monday, August 4, 2014

Re-encode Canon XF205 MXF to iMovie for editing and importing on Mac

Want to edit Canon XF205 MXF video in iMovie? Here we'll show you how to convert and import XF205 MXF to iMovie for smooth editing.

I am a professional musician. My work required me to rent a Canon XF205 camcorder for a music video project to edit in iMovie. But frustratingly, iMovie 11 can’t ingest the MXF at all. Any solution can suggest?


From above words of one XF205 camcorder user,  what’s a pity that these professional camcorders Canon XF205 record footage in MXF format cannot be recognized by iMovie on mac, even the latest version iMovie 11. So, how to import Canon XF205 MXF files to iMovie for editing with output video quality loseeless? Here we’d like to share the solution of importing Canon XF205 MXF to iMovie.

Our Best Answer

By using a third party MXF to iMovie Converter, you can easily make Canon XF205 footage  editable in iMovie including the later version iMovie 11. If you are looking for a fast, independent software application for converting MXF to iMovie supported MOV or to a variety of other formats, the Pavtube MXF Converter for Mac is what you need. And this program is fully compatible with the latest OS X 10.9 Mavericks. Download it and have a try.

Re-encode Canon 205 MXF to AIC for use in iMovie

Step 1: Run Pavtube MXF Converter for Mac as the best MXF to iMovie Converter. When its main interface comes up, click ‘Add Video’ to import your source files to the program.

mxf to imovie converter

Step 2: Select "iMovie and Final Cut Express > Apple Intermediate Codec(AIC) (*.mov)" as the best editing format for iMovie.

imovie best format

Step 3: Adjust video and audio settings (for advanced users)

If necessary, you can click ‘Settings’ button to modify video and audio settings like resolution, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate and audio channel.

Step 4: Click ‘Convert’ to start Canon 205 MXF footage to AIC conversion for iMovie.

Step 5: When the conversion complete, click ‘Open’ to get generated AIC.mov files for using in iMovie with optimum performance.

Tips:

1. If you want to do some editing like trim a certain MXF segment file to smaller ones, get rid of black edges of source file, add video effects, etc. this MXF Converter for Mac will be do these.

2. If your MXF files have 2 audio tracks or more, here is a new program specially designed for multi-track preserving and mixing features, named iMixMXF. Featured formats include: MOV/MP4/MPG/WMV/FLV/MKV and more.

3. You can also learn how to convert Canon MXF video in FCP and edit Canon MXF in Movie Maker, Sony Vegas, Pinnacle.

Read More:

Friday, August 1, 2014

Convert DVD movies to play on TV with a 16:9 widescreen display and burn into new DVD disc

If you have large collection of DVD movies, you may choose to watch with TV with a 16:9 widescreen display and then burn to DVD for playing, this article tells you how to.

There is nothing eye catching as enjoying a high definition DVD on TV with big screen with family and friends in the comfort of your home. Nevertheless, if you want to become one of those who are enjoying these incredible new TV experiences, then you will have to convert your video to a TV supported file. For this purpose, you will have to find a good DVD ripper or a converter.
Play DVD on TV


To complete the conversion, you need a DVD converter tool. Here Pavtube DVDAid is recommended to help you rip DVD to TV compatible video formats with easy operation and high output quality. Furthermore, you can even extract audio files from DVD for playing on TV.

Mac version is available here; well support Mac Mavericks: Pavtube DVDAid for Mac.

Download it right now and start enjoying your DVD movies with full HD quality on TV!

Step 1. Run Best DVD Converter and import DVD disc.

Click "Load disc" icon to load DVD disc from ROM, or DVD folder, ISO images files.

I also noticed if you have an ISO file to import, it will recognize the ISO automatically with no need to run virtual driver and mount ISO files firstly. Good design.

DVD to TV Converter

Step 2. Choose format.

Click“Format” drop-down list and choose "Common Video >H.264 Video(*.mp4)"; it's the most widely used format which will be supported by your TV.

TV suppported format

Step 3. Adjust video specs or change aspect ratio (Optional)

If you are not satisfied with default specs, then click "Settings" to enter Profiles Settings windows; here you can customize video frame rate, bitrate,size and other settings freely.

TV mp4 settings

If you want to trim, crop, editaudio/subtitles or adjust aspect ratio, click the pencil-like icon and switchto "Crop" tab. Choose Advanced mode, lock the "Keep Ratio" and you can free change aspect ratio.Usually it will be set to "Original"; it would be ok to playback on TV, or you can change it to 16:9.

watch on widescreen tv

Step 4. Start conversion.

Click the big red "Convert" to start converting your DVDs to H.264 MP4.

After the conversion, click "Open output folder" to quick locate converted files; transfer the files to the USB drive then plug the drive in the TV.

If you want to rip your DVD as well as burn all kinds of videos into playable DVD for watching, try the bundled software DVDAid($35) + DVD Creator($35) = Only $35.9, Save $34.1.

It is so easy to stream the DVD disc from PC to TV for enjoying on a 16:9 screen display and burn into DVD for watching with my family. Just enjoy!

Here is the way streaming Blu-ray to TV and how to watch all your movies on TV.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Successfully Import Various M4V files to FCP 6/7/X for editing

How can I import M4V video files to FCP 6/7/X on Mac? Here is the best workaround to convert M4V video files to FCP Prores MOV for editing.

If you are a Mac user, you may have encountered the problem that you can't import M4V to FCP for importing and editing successfully.

import m4v to fcp

So why can't you import M4V into FCP?

Reason 1: FCP will not import movies with extra tracks such as a chapter track, if your M4V files contain extra tracks, FCP will refuse to import.

Reason 2: M4V is a container video format which may encode with a variety of codecs like H.264, MPEG-4 and etc. If the M4V files are using the H.264 codec which is not meant for editing, your FCP will fail to import those kinds of M4V movies, let alone to edit M4V in FCP.

How to Successfully to Import M4V to FCP?

The best way is to convert M4V video to a format that is friendly for editing in FCP, the best supported video format is Apple Prores Codec MOV format, once you convert M4V to FCP Prores codec, you can edit the videos in FCP 6/7/X natively.

Which software can convert M4V to FCP supported Prores codec MOV format?

Here Pavtube HD Video Converter for Mac is the best software to transcode M4V to FCP native format, the output format has been optimized for FCP, iMovie, FCE, you can load many different video formats to convert, such as M4V, MKV, AVI, WMV, AVCHD, MTS, M2TS, MXF, etc.  What's more, it allows you edit videos like crop videos, merge videos, trim videos, add watermarks etc to make your videos more personalized. Now please free download this best M4V to FCP converter, and follow the easy steps below to convert M4V files to FCP on Mac with good quality.

Step 1. Import M4V files to Mac M4V to FCP Converter.

Click "Add file" to import videos to the program. You can import and convert several multimedia files at a time. Added videos can be previewed on the right.

convert m4v to fcp

Step 2. Select output format as FCP

Click the Format bottom of the program, and then choose "Final Cut Pro" > "Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)" as the output format. The M4V to FCP Converter will optimize the output video for FCP.

fcp best format

Step 3: Adjust the output video's parameters as you want.

Click the Setting button after the Format to get the Profile Settings.

prores settings

Step 4: Start to convert M4V to FCP 6/7/X on Mac (OS X 10.9 and OS X 10.10 supported)

After all the settings, just click "Convert" to convert M4V to Prores .mov file for editing in Final Cut Pro on Mac OS X.

P.S.

If you have made a home movie using FCP on Mac, you can try converting these FCP home video to DVD for sharing as you like.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

AVI to iMovie: An easy way to import AVI to iMovie on Mac

This article will explain why we often failed to import AVI to iMovie, and I will introduce a step by step guide on how to successfully import all kinds of AVI files to iMovie.

Why We often Encounter Problem in Importing AVI to iMovie?

AVI (Audio Video Interleaved) is common video file format which might be one of the most used file formats for saving video files online and offline. And most of AVI videos is either downloaded from the Internet or taken by your cameras. All in all, iMovie only reads AVI that both the audio and the video were compressed by using a codec that iMovie can recognize. If your AVI video files are not imported, it's because of the codec used to create the AVI file is not supported by iMovie.

import AVI to iMovie on Mac

So if your source AVI files can't be accepted by iMovie on Mac, you need to convert AVI to iMovie compatible code AIC. I know a program that named HD Video converter for Mac, is just the ideal AVI to AIC conversion software.

It can not only easily transcode any kind of AVI video to AIC .mov for iMovie editing, but also provides simple video editing functions for you. Besides, the Mac video converter ca nconvert HD videos from HD camcorders or DVs (like JVC, Panasonic, Sony and Cannon) for editing in Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express, iMovie, Avid MC, Adobe PremierePro etc. Just download it and follow the tutorial below to convert AVI to AIC for iMovie on Mac.

An easy way to import AVI to iMovie on Mac

1. Load AVI files to the Mac Converter

Install Pavtube AVI to iMovie Converter on your Mac, and launch it when installation complete. Drag & drop AVI files to the Mac app directly, or click "Add Video" or "Add from folder" button to locate the AVI files you want to add. Batch conversion is available here, so you are allowed to import several files at one time.



2. Choose the optimized preset for iMovie

Select "iMovie and Final Cut Express>Apple InterMediate Codec(AIC) (*mov)" as output format for editing in iMovie. The program has already optimized the video settings for iMovie. The output videos will keep the original quality of AVI video.

iMovie best format

Tip: You can click "Settings" to customize the output parameters, adjust the resolution, bitrate as you want.  (Optional) 

AIC Settings

3. Start AVI to iMovie conversion

Hit the "Convert" button and Pavtube HD Video Converter for Mac will convert your AVI rapidly.

 4. Import converted file to iMovie (Mavericks 10.9 supported)

After the conversion, you can import the output files to iMovie. Launch iMovie, from the File menu, choose Import > Movies, navigate to the folder that output AVI videos are saved. Select the files and click "Import".

Bingo! You did it! With this AVI to iMovie Converter you can now import any AVI from your video camera to iMovie, easily and rapidly. All AVI videos can be edited with your favorite iMovie now!

What's more, here is Blu-ray iMovie editing solution, and the way to convert MKV to iMovie on Mac.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Copy Blu-ray to Hard Drive for watching with one audio track or multiple audio tracks

This article will show you how to convert Blu-ray for storing on hard drive for watching on your computer with two ways, one is keeping multi-track, another is keeping one audio track.

If you are a BD movie lover and have large Blu-ray collections, you may want to copy Blu-ray to computer hard drive at first. Once you create digital backup of your BD disc, it will prevent your Blu-ray from scratching, cracking and other physical damages even lost. Meanwhile, you are set free to all kinds of other neat stuff with it, such as transcode Blu-ray to MP4 and other format so you can watch it on a handheld devices and digital media player. Then how to get it done? Is it possible to play Blu-ray movies in different languages or simply one native language?

Copy Blu-ray to Hard Driv


Then you are required to start Blu-ray to MP4 conversion with one audio track or multiple audio tracks. Here Pavtube ByteCopy is the best tool to accomplish your goal. It can not only convert convert Blu-ray to MP4 format with multi-track quickly and easily for freely selecting the subtitles you wanted and force subtitles you need for watching, but also can rip Blu-ray to MP4 in only one audio track without quality loss. With it, you can also rip Blu-ray to External Hard Drive with Forced Subtitles.

Here is the Mac version- Pavtube ByteCopy for Mac.

Part I: Convert Blu-ray to Multi-track mp4 for watching

Step 1: Download and install Pavtube Bytecopy

Step 2: Load the Blu-ray Movies you want to convert or Backup

This step is quick and easy, and the software will help you choose the main movie, if you want to convert other parts of movies you can manual select.

Rip Blu-ray to Multi-track MP4

Step 3: If you want to convert your Blu-ray movie with Multi-track, please click "format" bar and choose the "Multi-track MP4(*.mp4)" under "Multi-track Video" option.

Multi-track MP4 format

Tip: Click the "Settings" button to check all video & audio settings. By default it will check all the audio tracks (languages), so if you only need some of the languages, just check the unwanted ones.

Btw, video size, bitrate and frame rate can all be changed if you are not satisfied with default settings.

Don't forget to click OK to confirm all the changes.

Multi-track settings

Step 4: Start to convert Blu-ray to multi-track mp4.

At the same time of converting, you can enjoy other things. Once conversion completed, you can enjoy the Blu-ray movies on your computer with VLC player with multiple languages.

Part II: Convert Blu-ray  to mp4 for watching with only one audio track

Step 1. Run the program, load your Blu-ray movies into it.

Step 2. Choose video formats for playing on computer. Click on “Format” box, you can easily find the “Common Video” category and you can find "H.264 Video(*.mp4)" for easily playing on your portable devices.

You can select the one accroding to your device model. If this choice can’t meet your need, you can also click on “Settings” to set parameters.

Step 3. After the above steps, start the process by converting Blu-ray to MP4.

Once the task is finished, locate the converted video files by clicking on “Open”. Then you can enjoy and watch your Blu-ray movies the way you like (with multiple audio tracks or one audio track). Pretty simple. Hope the article helps.

Learn how to backup Blu-ray with lossless mkv with ByteCopy. If you have only DVD movies, read the way to fast copy and rip Iron Man 3 DVD on Windows or Mac.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Top 5 Best HD Video Converter for Mac Review

The best HD Video Converter for Mac software can help you show and tell your family and friends about all your favorite moments, whenever and wherever. There have been many reviews about the best Mac HD Video Converters so far.




In this article, we've picked up the top-rated Mac HD Video Converter with their features, easiness, speed, video quality and price all considered, giving its pros and cons so that you can tackle all your video files on Mac with end result you definitely satisfy.


Here is the comparison chart, if you want to know more, please go on reading:

Top 5 Best HD Video Converter for Mac Review

Top 1. Pavtube HDVideo Converter for Mac


Price: $35

A professional video converting tool that can handle almost all video formats on the digital market. It was designed to convert high-definition videos from camcorders, digital video recorders and the like into popular video formats on Mac, including MKV, MP4, VOB, MPG, MOV, Tivo, WMV, 3GP, AVI, DV, TS, FLV, 3GP, 3G2, MP3, FLAC, MKA, OGG, WAV, etc. so that you can enjoy the HD videos on Android Devices, Windows 8 Devices, iPad 3, iPhone 5, iPod 5, Apple TV 3, PS3, Xbox, WD TV player, Video-DVD player, PSP and edit in Final Cut Pro (X), FCE, iMovie, Adobe Premiere, Avid Media Composer, etc.

Main Features:
  • Various output video formats that supported for popular editing tools and media players
  • Turn 1080p/720p MKV, MOV, MXF, MTS, AVI, MPG, VOB to compatible format for free playback, editing, uploading and burning.
  • Powerful editing functions (e.g. trimming, cropping, adding watermarks, add video effect, etc), we also called it ‘Tiny Editor’
  • Audio and video sync technology that can handle your original files smoothly

Unique Advantages:

  • Support encode/decode H.265, XAVC MXF, M3U8
  • With a 6X conversion speed, you can save a lot of time
  • Fast conversion speed and high quality preserved
  • Both SD and HD videos you can handle well
  • Good settings you can adjust on your own
  • Perfect customer service you can enjoy all the time
Disadvantages: not found yet


Top 2. Xilisoft HD Video Converter for Mac

 

Price: $39.95

Xilisoft HD Video Converter is a professional HDTV converter tool designed to transform your video to various high definition video formats like HD ASF Video, HD AVI Video, HD H.264 Video, HD Quick Time Video, and HD MPEG4 Video. It can convert TS to WMV HD, AVI to TS HD, WMV HD to TS HD. Xilisoft HD Video Converter can also convert audio to audio, video to audio and picture. The HD Video Converter also supports the H.264 video format, offering much higher efficiency than MPEG2 standard used in DVD videos.

Windows Version: Xilisoft HD Video Converter

Key Feature:

  • Support HD videos such as AVCHD (mts, m2ts), TS, H.264/AVC, MKV.
  • Convert popular formats like AVI, MPEG, WMV, MP4, DivX, RM, MOV, and FLV.
  • Convert HD to SD videos and audios; supports CD decoding.
  • Transfer output files to iPad/iPad2/iPhone 4/iPod/PSP/iTunes directly after conversion
Pros
  • Very ease to use
  • Good compression and fast process
Cons
  • Takes a lot of CPU
  • Output can be a big file
Top 3. Leawo Mac HD Video Converter 

 

Price: $29.95

Leawo HD Video Converter is a powerful solution for HD video format conversion. Designed to convert HD video to many popular formats, like AVCHD to AVI, MOD/TOD to MP4, MTS/M2TS to MKV, etc., this high definition video converter (HD converter) fully supports 720p and 1080p HD videos. This powerful HD video converter is also featured at good audio/video synchronization, clear picture quality and smooth output. For advanced users, the program provides handy video edit functions to trim HD video length, crop HD video display size, add image and text watermarks and adjust video effects in several factors. Professional conversion settings are also available such as video bit rate, frame rate, audio channel, etc. for custom conversion.

Windows Version: Leawo HD Video Converter

Key Feature:
  • Convert HD Video to Common and 3D Video.
  • Output Video with Customized Settings and Effects.
  • Useful Functions for Best HD Conversion Experience.
Pros
  • It lets you extract audio from your videos
  • It's very easy to use
  • Intuitive graphic interface
Cons
  • No customer support actually exists - in spite of links on the website

Top 4. Aiseesoft HD Converter for Mac


 

Price: $35

Aiseesoft HD Video Converter is best HD Converter to convert HD video to general video, convert general video to HD video, and among HD videos. Furthermore, this HD Converter can convert HD video, general video and almost all audios to AAC, AC3, AIFF, AMR, AU, FLAC, MP3, M4A, MP2, OGG, WAV, WMA.

Windows Version: Aiseesoft HD Video Converter


Key Feature:
  • Convert HD videos and general videos.
  • Convert audio files.
  • Edit output video effect.
Pros
  • Powerful video convert function
  • Product works decent
  • It allows you to add a video watermark
  • Fast conversion speed.
Cons
  • Worst Customer Service.
  • Aiseesoft doesn't care about their customers, want to make a buck at our expense!

Top 5. Tipard HD Video Converter for Mac

Price: $39.00

Fully support most HD(High-Definition) video encoder and HD decoder, Tipard HD Video Converter can convert 1080P, 720P and other HD video to general video, convert general video to HD video, convert among HD videos, such as HD TS, HD MTS, HD WMV, HD MPG, HD MPEG4, H.264/AVC, HD AVI, HD ASF, etc. Moreover, this HD Converter has audio conversion and audio extraction functions. Using Tipard HD Video Converter, you can easily get any segment of the videos, adjust video frame size, set video effect, add watermark, and merge videos.

Windows Version: Tipard HD Video Converter



Key Feature:
  • Convert among HD videos.
  • Convert HD video to general video.
  • Convert general video to HD video.
  • Edit your video
Pros
  • It has a friendly, simple and very intuitive interface
  • It captures video from multiple devices in real-time
  • It eases the selection of video fragments and their composition
  • It includes numerous image effects and predetermined transitions
Cons
  • No "keep original resolution" option
  • The output profiles for specific electronic devices are not always up-to-date
  • Developer claims you can trim input files with this program but it isn't very clear how to trim
  • The trial is only available for Windows.
  • It's only available in English.
  • High system requirements to fully use the application.
Top 6. ImTOO HD Video Converter for Mac

 

Price: $39.95

ImTOO HD Video Converter is a HD converter and HD encoder software designed to transform your videos to diverse high definition video formats like HD ASF Video, HD AVI Video, HD H.264/AVC Video, AVCHD video, HD Quick Time Video, HD MPEG4 Video, etc. e.g. convert AVI to HD, convert MKV files to HD. On top of this, it can also convert audio to audio, video to audio and picture, as well as create videos from pictures.

Windows Version: ImTOO HD Video Converter

Key Feature:
  • Convert HD videos in Full-HD 1080p.
  • Convert HD videos to different video formats.
  • Extract music/pictures from videos & convert music to different formats.
  • Makes different videos playable on devices such as iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, PSP, PS3, Xbox & many others.
Pros
  • Great interface
  • Great format support
  • Lots of new profiles
  • Up-to-date with the most recent devices
  • Video editor
Cons
  • No video editor
  • Some features are hard to find
Conclusion:

Actually, the six Mac video converters are almost on a par with each other. But with their video conversion abilities, available options, easiness, speed and quality in mind, I bet you surely have your answer which one is more favored.

While as to me, Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac does win my vote as in my test. It did bring us a slew of amazing features besides its excellent video converting ability, fast speed, original output quality and no-brainer interface. Being a professional video converter, it could convert Blu-ray, DVD and video to almost all popular and hot video and audio formats like AVI, MP4, WMV, FLV, RMVB, MPEG, 3GP, MKV, MP3, AAC, etc. Besides, it allows for video editing tools including trimming, cropping, splitting, attaching srt/ass/ssa subtitles and special effects to add more fun when watching movies and videos.

Just import the video, choose the output format from the pop-up window, and press the "Convert" button, you can get the video converted with this top HD Video Converter for Mac from Pavtube.

Read more:

Best MKV Video Converter for Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite
Best OS X 10.10 DVD Ripper - Convert DVDs on Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite