Apple Final Cut Pro 6 - Manual (Page 321)

320 Part IV Logging, Capturing, and Importing
About Importing Video Files
You can import any QuickTime-compatible media files into Final Cut Pro, but to avoid
rendering, your media files need to match your sequence settings. For example, if you
create a motion graphics title sequence in another application and then export to a
QuickTime movie for use in Final Cut Pro, make sure you export using the same
settings as the sequence into which you plan to edit the title sequence.
Before you export a movie file for use in your Final Cut Pro sequence, do
the following:
1 Check the following sequence settings:
 Frame rate (editing timebase)
 Image dimensions
 Pixel aspect ratio
 Video codec and quality settings
 Audio sample rate and bit depth
For details on how to do this, see Volume IV, Chapter 27, “Sequence Settings and
Presets.”
2 Set your QuickTime export settings to match the settings of the sequence you want to
edit your exported media file into.
To import a QuickTime movie file into Final Cut Pro, follow the steps in “ Importing
Media Files ” on page 316.
If any of the settings in your imported QuickTime file don’t match your sequence
settings, a red video render bar appears in the Timeline when you add that clip to the
sequence. You can check the settings of the clip by choosing
Edit > Item Properties > Format.
About MXF-Based Formats
MXF is not a video format itself, but rather a format that can contain almost any kind of
video or audio media. MXF is similar to QuickTime, which is not a single video signal, but
a general media format that can contain video compressed with supported codecs, audio
with different sample rates, video with different dimensions, frame rates, and so on.
A number of video formats can be stored within MXF files. For example, a DV movie
can be stored within an MXF file. Final Cut Pro works with QuickTime media files, so you
need to convert MXF data to QuickTime before you can start editing.