FCPXML to Final Cut Pro 7 XML
Final Cut Pro X and Final Cut Pro 11 export their projects as FCPXML, a format of their own. Much of
the post-production world still exchanges edits as the older Final Cut Pro 7 XML (the xmeml
format): Premiere Pro imports it, and so do many audio, color and conform tools. This converter
writes that format from an FCPXML export.
What the FCP7 XML holds
- One sequence per Final Cut Pro project, with its frame rate (including 23.976, 29.97 drop frame and 59.94), frame size, audio sample rate and start timecode.
- Video tracks for the primary storyline, connected clips and secondary storylines, stacked in the order Final Cut Pro composites them. Audio tracks grouped by role, stereo sources as stereo pairs.
- Clip in and out points, with the exact source position for every clip, so clips on mixed frame rates land on the right frame.
- Speed changes as Time Remap, including reverse, freeze frames, Final Cut's automatic speed for 25 fps footage in 24 fps projects, and speed ramps split into steps of constant speed.
- Transitions with their length and alignment, so dissolves sit across the cut as in Final Cut Pro.
- Basic Motion (position, scale, rotation, anchor), Crop, Opacity, Audio Levels and Pan, with keyframes and with Final Cut's fade handles turned into keyframes.
- Compound clips as nested sequences, multicam clips as their active angles, synchronized clips as linked clips, event clips as master clips in bins.
- Markers, clip notes, roles, reels, scenes and takes in the logging fields.
Checked how
In testing, every converted file is checked for consistency (every clip, file and sequence reference resolves, in and out points make sense) and read back with OpenTimelineIO's Final Cut Pro 7 XML reader, which must find the same sequences and the same clips on the main track. The test files are real Final Cut Pro exports from FCPXML 1.2 to 1.14 and exports from DaVinci Resolve.
Also in the download
EDLs for every track, an OpenTimelineIO file, captions as SRT, a media list, the markers with timecodes and a report of the effects and color corrections that the FCP7 format can't hold.
More about what this tool reads and writes: Final Cut Pro to Premiere Pro Converter (FCPXML to XML).