When I back up footage shot on a 16gb P2 card on Panasonic's DVCPRO to my Mac, everything else from the card backed up fine except all these MXF files. It seems that my Final Cut Pro 6.0.1 can not read these files. The only option I have now is to find a MXF converter to convert all my MXF files to QuickTime MOV format so that I can edit them in Final Cut. The first option from Google search was one costing around $200 which I can't and don't want to afford for something like this. So I keep on searching until I find this Brorsoft Video Converter for Mac which says fully support for MXF files in its latest version. I downloaded the trial version of the program and import my MXF files for a test. The output MOV file is of fine quality, plus the conversion speed is quite fast! And the most important thing is its favorable price 35$. What a bargain!

Ok, you may want to know more about the detailed steps of converting P2 MXF files to MOV for further editing in Final Cut Pro. Now I will give you a complete guide on the issue.

Before you get started, you may need to download a trial version of Brorsoft Mac Video Converter which will in the followings steps help convert MXF files to MOV format.
Step 1. Add P2 MXF files to the program
Select MXF files and drag and drop to the program or you can click "Add" button to load the original files. If you have extra video files to be converted at the same time, you can import to the program too. This MXF Converter is quite an all-in-one video converter with EVO, TIVO, MTS, M2TS, Flash Video, etc supported.


Step 2. Choose QuickTime MOV output format
As you can see from the screenshot of output format list below, you are allow to choose different video or audio output for your specific purpose. In my case, I found QuickTime MOV format that I needed from "Common Video" catalog. You may have seen the default format option in my screenshot which is iPod Nano 4 MP4 file, because I had used the program earlier to convert some flash videos downloaded from YouTube to my iPod. It works great too!


Step 3. Join MXF files (optional) and convert
Before you click "Convert" button to start conversion, I'd like to present you all one big plus of the software. The ability to join/merge/combine multiple MXF and other video files to one output. It's such a great function for me when I was getting headache about all the small clips of my original MXF files. The only thing you have to do is to tick the checkbox of "Merge into one file" next to button "Settings". Or if you don't want to combine all your imported files, just leave the checkbox as default. Then click "Convert" button to start MXF to MOV conversion. You can get your output video in your destination folder instantly.



      




Ok, this is it, my personal conversion experience going through with MXF files produced by my Panasonic P2 camera. Hope it helps for you guys who have the same MXF editing problem as I did.