XAVC S is basically H.264 rewrapped to be simpler to edit.
Here’s a list of NLEs that support XAVC S, AVCHD and MP4:
- Adobe Premiere Pro CC 7.0 onwards
- Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.0.x via the Sony PDZK-LT2 plugin
- Avid Media Composer 7 via the third party plugin MediaReactor Workstation from Drastic Technologies, $495 (Sony PDZK-MA2 plugin only supports XAVC, not XAVC S)
- Grass Valley Edius Pro 7
- Sony Vegas Pro 12
- Autodesk Smoke 2014 onwards
- Editshare Lightworks Pro 11
No matter which NLE you choose, editing Sony A7s footage is a breeze. I use Adobe Premiere Pro, and all I do is drag and drop the footage (or Import…) and edit. Done. Nothing else required. To learn how to edit XAVC S in FCP-X, click here.
What processor to use?
Every time you play back, the processor must first uncompress the file before playing. XAVC S 4K has four times the pixels and twice the data rate.
For XAVC HD footage, even low end computers (i5 processors, quad core) are good enough for XAVC S. For 4K XAVC S (only on the a7R II and a7S II) you need better processors like an i7 or Xeon.
What drive setup to use?
- XAVC HD tops out at 50 Mbps (6.25 MB/s)
- XAVC 4K (only on the a7R II and a7S II) tops out at 100 Mbps (12.5 MB/s)
You will never need more than one hard drive (no need for RAID 0) for real-time playback. Even a portable 2.5? platter drive via USB 3.0 delivers 65 MB/s or about 10 streams of 50 Mbps XAVC in 1080p. However, depending on the kind of projects you do, you’ll need a better setup.
For 1080p work
If you are looking for a cheap but faster drive, I highly recommend the HGST Touro S 1 TB 7,200 rpm drive. It does about 120 MB/s. You can connect 2-4 of these via a USB 3.0 hub like the Transcend TS-HUB3K or similar (which also deliver external power to the drives so you don’t have to worry). If you want, you could RAID them via software RAID. No need for expensive systems at all!
For 4K/UHD XAVC S
You’ll get half the performance as you would with 1080p, but the hard drive is not going to be your main bottleneck.
For 4K Prores/DNxHR
Prores HQ 4K runs about 110 MB/s. A fast 7,200 rpm drive will not cut it when you add titles, grades, etc. Therefore, real-time editing and playback demands RAID 0 (at least 3-4 drives) or an SSD via USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt.
If you’re doing small 5-15 minute projects (finished length), then four of the Touro S drives in RAID 0 should work fine. If you’re shooting longer projects like feature-length movies or documentaries, you need larger drives. In this case, one popular drive is the G-technology G-Speed 4-bay series in RAID 0. It goes up to 16 TB if you want it to. E.g., if you’re shooting a 90 minute movie with a shooting ratio of 20:1 you’ll need only 12 TB.
I use an Areca 5026 (B&H, Amazon) 12 TB (3TB x4 Seagate Barracuda drives) Thunderbolt enclosure in RAID 0 purely for editing. It gives me about 500 MB/s, which is more than what I need.
That’s all as far as editing XAVC S is concerned. It cannot get any simpler than H.264 and/or Prores!
