Transform Sony Alpha NEX-3N AVCHD MTS to ProRes for FCP on Mac

Admin — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 10:56:06 +0000

This guide aims to help you quickly convert Sony Alpha NEX-3N AVCHD to FCP on Mac, with which you can easily get your footages working in portable devices or other traditional NLE editing programs.

“Hi, I some videos shot with a Sony NEX-3N, they are great; but I am new to mac and don’t know how to deal with the footages in FCP, it seemsthe AVCHD files are not supported by FCP. What can I do? Thanks!”

Sony Alpha NEX-3N is one of the latest entry-level models from Sony, with lower price than its predecessor but remaining most useful features such as excellent 16 megapixel image sensor, changeable lens and good video performing. All these features together contribute to make Sony NEX-3N to be an excellent camera for recording vivid videos.

As for video shooting, Sony NEX-3N can shoot 1080/24p or 60i footages which are wrapped in AVCHD, or you can choose to output mp4 format.

Unfortunately, most traditional NLE editing programs on Mac including FCP, Avid, Adobe Premiere Pro, iMovie, FCE don’t favor AVCHD .mts videos natively. To edit Sony Alpha NEX-3N AVCHD footages in FCP on Mac, you’d better transform Sony NEX-3N AVCHD footages to FCP compatible Apple ProRes codec for further editing.

Read More: MTS Column | Sony Column

How to transform Sony Alpha NEX-3N AVCHD MTS to ProRes 422 for FCP?

Step 1. Load Sony NEX-3N AVCHD MTS files.

Get this Pavtube MTS/M2TS Converter for Mac installed; Connect your Sony Alpha NEX-3N to your Mac via USB, or insert your SD card to Mac, browser the .mts files from AVCHD > BDMV > STREAM. Launch the Mac app, click to top left two icons to load individual videos or the entire folder.

Step 2. Select best video format for FCP.

Click on the “Format”, you would see all profiles for different programs and devices. It’s recommended to choose “Final Cut Pro > Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)” as the most compatible video codec for FCP.

Tip: You are able to adjust profile preset before conversion by clicking “Settings” which is marked as 3 above. But it’s better to use the default profile settings because they are the most optimized for each output devices.

Step 3. Transform Sony Alpha NEX-3N AVCHD footages to Apple ProRes 422 MOV.

Click the “Convert” button to start the fast transcoding Sony Alpha NEX-3N MTS to ProRes on Mac. Once finished, you could locate the generated .MOV files by clicking “Open” icon and load these converted files to FCP for video editing on Mac.

Import AVCHD MTS to Final Cut Pro – AIC Converter-Import AVCHD/MTS to FCP/FCE/iMovie

Transform Sony Alpha NEX-3N AVCHD MTS to ProRes for FCP on Mac