Tips for Fixing Corrupt MXF files on Mac

Summary: If you are trouble of importing and editing MXF files on Mac due to the corrupt MXF files, you'll won't miss this tutorail on how to fix damaged MXF files.

In general, when you got some MXF footages, you may would like to make some "operation" on them before uploading to Twitter or posting on FaceBook with the help of editing softwares like Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, iMovie, etc. Everything will work seamlessly, that is, if your cards have been copied correctly to the hard drive with their entire folder structure intact. While, if without that whole folder structure, you are effectively locked out of accessing your footage. You won’t be able to import and edit MXF files on Mac easily anymore. Well, this article aims to help you fix corrupt MXF clips on Mac for working with ease.

What is MXF?

MXF, short for Material Exchange Format, is a new developed video container format for professional digital video and audio media defined by a set of SMPTE standards. This video format is created specifically for HD digital camcorders including Canon XF, Panasonic P2. If you have one of these camcorders like Canon XF100, Canon XF105, Canon C300, Canon XF305, you must be familiar with the MXF format, because Canon XF series camcorders output captured data in MXF extension.

Though MXF file is reliable format used for storing video files, it can get corrupted for any oblivious reasons. There are various incidents or events that can lead to MXF corruption. Mentioned below are a few common situations that end up corrupting your MXF files and need to be repaired:

*CF card formatted in camera or deleted accidentally
*Compact Flash card became corrupt and MXF files were recovered using disk recovery software
*A full CF card was put in camera instead of a blank one, footage was overwritten with new content before operator could dump the data off of it
*Last clip on Canon CF card is unplayable. Rest of clips are OK
*Card failed to copy data across on computer

How to Fix Corrupt MKV Video Files?

Well, corrupt MXF files don't have a coherent structure. It’s really hard to recover them. So if for whatever reason your card structure doesn't come across intact, what can you do? As you know, Final Cut Pro, iMovie, Avid MC and other NLE system need a correct card structure to read and ingest (P2)MXF clips. In this case, transcoding MXF files to FCP (X) or other NLE natively compatible format in a 3rd party app is a feasible workaround.

Overall, Brorsoft MXF Converter for Mac is the best choice. It will allow you to grab the .MXF files and transcode them into ProRes 422, DNxHD, Apple InterMediate Codec .mov, etc, ensuring maximum editing quality and efficiency when working with Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, iMovie, FCE and more editing programs. You can batch transcode as many of them as you like and it works pretty quickly. Of course, if you are Windows PC user and want to work with MXF files in Windows Movie Maker, Sony Vegas Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, etc, download and install Brorsoft MXF Converter.

Tutorial: How to Convert C300 MXF to FCP, iMovie, Avid MC

Step 1: Add MXF footage Launch the program and click "Add" button to import the MXF files to the top C300 MXF Converter Mac. Batch conversion is supported.



Step 2: Select output format Click on the “Format” bar and choose a best editable format. For editing C300 MXF in FCP X or FCP 6/7, select Final Cut Pro > Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov) as the output format. Choose iMovie and Final Cut Express > Apple Intermediate Codec(AIC) (*.mov) as output format for editing C300 footage in iMovie, FCE smoothly. For importing C300 MXF to Avid Media Composer, please select choose Avid Media Composer->Avid DNxHD(*.mov)..



PS: You also can click “Settings” to set video frame rate, video size and Video Bitrate as you want.

Step 3: Select output format As soon as all things are finished, please click “Convert” button to start theCanon C300 MXF conversion on Mac OS X.

Once the conversion is 100% completed, you can smoothly copy the converted C300 MXF files to FCP/Avid/iMovie under Mac OS X(Mavericks). Don’t worry about cannot handle your corrupt C300 MXF files anymore.

Editor’s Note: How to Copy MXF Files Correctly?

Well first, and this may go without saying, but if you’re going to get an intern or producer to do it make sure they know what they’re doing. Essentially you must copy the entire card structure (preferably not through dragging and dropping in the finder).

Sony and Canon both have free browser apps that will let you back up your media. Or you could invest in something to duplicate your cards to multiple drives simultaneously. You are backing them up as you go, right?