4K workflow in Final Cut Pro X/7

Posted on October 24, 2015 by admin

Q1: “Can FCP 7.0.3 edit 4k material? I’m working on a 4K project on a MacPro.”

Q2: “I may have a 4K edit job in the next few months. I’m running FCPX on an iMac. Can Final Cut Pro X support 4K files perfectly?”

As more and more 4K support cameras come out like Sony F5, F55, Sony AX100, Sony A7s, Panasonic GH4, DJI Phantom 3, Canon XC10 and more, more and more guys are stuck in 4K importing & editing issues. The typical one is how to import 4K to Final Cut Pro 7/X. In this article, we will talk about the issue and give you some hints.

Although FCP-X(FCP X 10.1.) supports some 4K videos( 4K ProRes, Sony XAVC and REDCODE RAW), while old version FCP X and Final Cut Pro 6/7 and like many editors use 1080p as primary delivery format and will continue to do so for a long time. If you want to have a smooth 4K video and FCP workflow, you are advised to convert 4K video to ProRes in proper settings(1080p) for further editing in FCP 6/7/X. With the help of Brorsoft Video Converter for Mac, you can easily achieve the goal.

Overall, this program is a completely professional 4K video converter, player and editor. Unlike some free video converters, it is capable of serving as the best 4K Video Converter for Mac. It provides hundreds of output format presets for 4K videos, such as Apple ProRes 422, Apple ProRes 422(HQ), Apple ProRes 422 (LT), Apple ProRes 422 (Proxy), and Apple ProRes 4444 for Final Cut Pro, AIC MOV for FCE (Final Cut Express) and iMovie, MP4 for any mobile or PC video players, and more formats for better editing, playing, and burning. This Ultra HD Video Converter is also available to customize the output resolutions to any size the users want.

How to Convert 4K videos to ProRes for Final Cut Pro

Step 1: Add 4K source video > Click “Add” button on the top of the main interface to load original 4K videos to the program. Or you can simply drag&drop the videos to the software.

Step 2: Choose ProRes as output format > Press “Format” option and navigate the mouse cursor to choose “Format > Final Cut Pro > Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)” as the best codec for FCP on Mac.

Step 3: Advance video/audio settings > You can click the “Settings” button and customize proper video/audio parameters if necessary. Video size, bitrate and fame rate are flexible and can be adjusted as you like. Usually 1920*1080 video size and 30fps video frame rate are recommended for FCP editing.

Step 4: Start 4K to FCP conversion Hit the convert button to start the 4k video to ProRes conversion on Mac OS X. After the conversion, click Open to get the output videos. And you can start editing these transcoded 4K files in FCP 7, FCP X. Create a project, make an event, drag the files to the event folder and start editing with light speed in FCP.

Importing Panasonic DMC-CM1 4K into FCP 7

Posted on June 9, 2015 by admin

Panasonic DMC-CM1, a large-sensor camera smartphone, can capture 4K video recording at 15fps, as well as Full HD recording at 30fps. I’ve got a Panasonic DMC-CM1, what I want is to work with the 4K files from DMC-CM1 in FCP 7. So my problem is will Final Cut Pro 7 support 4K files? Is it possible to edit Panasonic DMC-CM1 4K in FCP 7 natively?

A little searching turns out the result. Granted, Final Cut Pro(FCP X 10.1.) and above can support 4K files without much problem; while, the old version FCP X or Final Cut Pro 6/7 is not able to deal with 4K well(Currently 1080p is the primary delivery format for FCP). Thus, to use Panasonic CM1 4K files in Final Cut Pro 7, a suggestion is to convert DMC-CM1 4K MP4 clips to Final Cut Pro native format- ProRes.

Searching further, I found Brorsoft Video Converter for Mac is what most guys recommend. Overall, this 4K video converter provides the most reliable and professional 4K solutions to all format issues including 4K MP4, 4K XAVC/XAVC S, 4K MOV, 4K MXF and more. With it, you can transcode Panasonic CM1 4K video to FCP compatible ProRes 422, 4444 without any quality loss. It comes with various format presets for 4K videos, such as DNxHD for Avid, Apple InterMediate Codec for iMovie, MPEG-2 for Adobe Premiere. Besides, this 4K converter is also available to customize the output resolutions to any size like 1080p, 2K, 4K as users want. Just download it and follow the tutorial below to get the work done.

Convert Panasonic DMC-CM1 4K video for editing in FCP 7

1. Load 4K files

Run the program you just set up. Drag and drop the 4K video files to the converter. You can also hit Add files button to import videos to the app. If you wanna combine several videos into one file, you can click the “Merge into one” box.

2. Choose output format

Click “format” bar to choose the output format. You can freely choose Final Cut Pro > Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov) for FCP.

3. Adjust video, audio settings

Click the “Settings” button and customize proper video/audio parameters including Video size, bitrate and fame rate and mroe. Usually 1920*1080 video size and 30fps video frame rate are recommended for FCP 7 editing.

3. Start converting 4K footage to FCP

Hit the convert button of the best 4K to ProRes Converter. It will start converting 4K for importing to FCP immediately. Soon after the conversion, just click “Open” button to get the generated files for natively editing Panasonic DMC-CM1 4K video in FCP 7 as well as Final Cut Pro X perfectly.

How to play 4K Videos with QuickTime Player 7 on Mac

Posted on October 28, 2014 by admin

I have a 4K video in an mp4 container (H.264). QT player 7 would not play it fluidly (though I suppose it’s normal) and QT player X just shows a black screen. How can I play a 4K video in QuickTime? Searching online, I got some clues. And now I want to write down this article to help QuickTime player users to solve the QuickTime 4K video playback issues.

As you see, 4K is coming. But believe it or not, 4K video is very difficult tor playback on PC, Mac. Apple has offered 4K playback support on OS X Mavericks, but with limits. Even if you can add a 4K video to QuickTime player, it is still an exercise in frustration- content on the display appeared tiny. What you can do is to scale the 4K resolution and tweaking a setting. What’s more, if your 4K videos in a Mac unsupported format, it won’t work at all. In this case, what you need is to convert 4K video to QuickTime playable format first. To resolve all the issues, we can recommend you Brorsoft 4K Video Converter Mac, which is an all-in-one tool that can help you to convert and downscale 4K videos within one stop.

Overall, this program is a completely professional 4K video converter and player. Just like the way it is dealing with 1080p videos, it is surely in the support of converting 4K videos in any formats faultlessly. With it, you can fast convert 4K Ultra HD videos in MP4, MKV, MXF, XAVC, WMV, AVI, or any other extension to QuickTime playable format with least quality loss. Plus, this 4K video converting software provides the optimal presets for portable devices like iPad, iPhone, Galaxy Tablet, Surface Tablet, Kindle Fire HDX; editing programs like Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, iMovie, Avid MC, etc for better enjoying, editing 4K files. It is also available to customize the output resolutions to any size the users want. For Windows users, turn to 4K Video Converter to ensure perfect 4K playback.

How to View 4K Videos in QuickTime Player(Mac)

1. Load 4K footage Launch the 4K to QuickTime Converter Mac. Drag & drop 4K files to the program directly and your files would be added instantaneously. Or you can head to the “Add” button to locate the 4K videos you want to add.

2. Select output format Click format you choose MOV as target format. This video app offers the QuickTime Movie Format for you. Or, you can also choose “Common Video -> MOV – QuickTime (*.mov)” as the output format.

3. Tweak video, audio settings Click “Settings” button; you can adjust video and audio settings, including codec, aspect ratio, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate, and audio channel. To down-convert ultra HD 4K to 1080p for easier playback, you just need to adjust video size to 1920*1080.

4. Start 4K to QuickTime conversion Hit the “Convert” button to let this smart converter start encoding 4K to QuickTime .mov on Mac OS X. When the conversion is done, you can play the converted 4K videos in QuickTime player without hassle.

Additional Tips:

1. What are the PC/Mac system requirements for 4K playback?

I can give you some data points as I tested multiple configurations to find out myself. My requirements were 4Kp60. The tests were done using a 4k capable monitor connected via displayport (the monitor however was not mine). I tested this a few months ago, I believe.

Tests, in order of memory:
i7-4770k using integrated GPU: 4k@60, no issues.
EVGA nVidia GTX 750Ti: 4k@60, no issues.
i7-2600k using integrated GPU: 4k@60, no issues.
G540 Celeron CPU (2013 CPU) using integrated GPU: 4k@30 no issues, 4k@60 a slight slowdown during high action scenes. CPU was pegged @ 100% for majority of the scenes. I believe that this chip is using the same integrated GPU as the 2600k, so it may have simply been an issue of the performance capabilities of the chip.
EVGA nVidia GTX 680: 4k@60, no issues.

Of course, source video encoding is the most important aspect of these tests, so I tested with three sources:
Youtube 4k video scene (VP8 codec, I think?)
Netflix, House of Cards S2,Ep1 title sequence (Silverlight? Windows 8.1 OS).
Some random MKV that I don’t remember the codec of and I’m not sure why I mentioned it.

Conclusion, most modern GPUs and Intel CPUs can handle the scenes relatively well.

2. Some guys recommend third-party 4K video player apps like VLC, DivX Player, Media Player Classic, but all of them can’t be an ultimate solution for all 4K videos. Based on out testing, we found VLC can’t support 4K video well, Media Player Classic can play 4K movies but only on Windows… To have a smooth 4K playback on Mac/Windows, this professional 4K Ultra HD Video Converter is the best choice.

video playback tips

Just enjoy your video playback

Tag Archives: 4k video converter mac

4K workflow in Final Cut Pro X/7

Importing Panasonic DMC-CM1 4K into FCP 7

How to play 4K Videos with QuickTime Player 7 on Mac