Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Import Canon XF400/405 4K MP4 to iMovie

The new professional camcorder - XF400 and XF405 from Canon can record UHD 4K video at up to 60p in MP4 format with MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 compression codec. For Mac users who wish to turn your 4K footage into stunning movies with a free but professional Mac NLE editing application, iMovie is absolutely your first and best choice. The following article will show you how to get a smooth workflow of Canon XF400/XF405 4K MP4 with iMovie.

Can iMovie handle 4K video?

It's no loner a secret that Apple has updated support for 4K video editing on both iMovie for Mac and iMovie for iOS devices since the iMovie 10.1 version. That's really a good news for those people who have the needs to work 4K video with iMovie.

Media compatibility of Canon XF400/405 4K MP4 with iMovie

Although iMovie can now handle 4K resolution video editing, however, it doesn't mean that you can throw any 4K video with any container file formats and compression codec to it. The fact is that you will have no problems to import the 4K H.264 video recorded with iPhone 5SE/6/6S Plus to iMovie, how about the 4K MP4 video shot with Canon XF400/405?

The answer is that although iMovie has included native import support for the 4K H.264 MP4 video, however, you won't get a high quality and performance workflow if you try to work H.264 video directly with iMovie. The main reason is that H.264 is a mathematically intense. It takes some serious computer horsepower to decode its compression. In addition, as it is so mathematically challenging, it takes longer to render H.264 files than other formats. If you wish to get a best editing workflow of 4K video with iMovie, we highly recommend you to encode Canon XF400/XF405 to Apple Intermediate Codec, which is an an intermediate format that features high performance and quality, being less processor intensive to work with than other editing formats.

Best tool to encode 4K H.264 MP4 to AIC for iMovie

Here, you can get the job easily completed with a powerful yet simple to use application called Pavtube Video Converter for Mac (review). The program can assist you to convert Canon XF400/405 4K H.264 MP4 to iMovie most favorable Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) with best quality and super fast encoding speed. The program supports batch conversion mode, so that you can load multiple Canon XF400/XF405 4K video into the application for conversion at one time.

Pavtube Video Converter for Mac keeps constant update for the new Mac OS, therefore, feel free to install and download it on your Mac computer even if you have upgraded to the new macOS High Sierra 10.13. The program itself is very easy to use, no matter experienced user or fresh could handle it very well. The result file produced with the program are pretty high quality, the quality of the converted video is almost identical to the original video.

Step by Step to Transcoded Canon XF400/XF405 4K to AIC for iMovie Editing

Step 1: Import Canon XF400/XF405 4K videos.

From "File" drop-down option, select "add Video/Audio"to add Canon XF400/XF405 4K H.264 MP4 video files into the program.

Load Canon XF400/XF405 4K video

Step 2: Choose output file format.

From "Format" drop-down option, choose iMovie best editing codec by selecting "iMovie and Final Cut Ex..." > "Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC)(*.mov).

Output iMovie AIC format

Step 3: Start the conversion process.

After all the settings is over, go back to the main interface and hit right-bottom "Convert" button to start to convert Canon XF400/XF405 4K video to iMovie best compatible Apple Intermediate Codec editing format.

When the conversion is completed, launch iMovie on your Mac computer to import converted video to iMovie for smooth editing workflow on either fast or slow Mac computer.