Latest Apple Pro Video Formats Update Adds MXF Playback.

If you are running the latest Mac Sierra OS the recent Pro Video Formats update, version 2.0.5 adds the ability to play back MXF OP1a files in Quick Time Player without the need to transcode.

mxf-playback-e1479727374478 Latest Apple Pro Video Formats Update Adds MXF Playback.
Direct preview of an XAVC MXF file in the finder of OS Sierra.

You can also preview MXF files in the finder window directly! This is a big deal and very welcome, finally you don’t need special software to play back files wrapped in one of the most commonly used professional media wrappers. Of course you must have the codec installed on your computer, it won’t play a file you don’t have the codec for, but XAVC, ProRes and many other pro codecs are include in the update.

At the moment I am able to play back most MXF files including most XAVC and ProRes MXF’s. However some of my XAVC MXF’s are showing up as audio only files. I can still play back these files with 3rd party software, there is no change there. But for some reason I can’t play back every XAVC MXF file directly in Quicktime Player, so play as audio only. I’m not sure why some files are fine and others are not, but this is certainly a step in the right direction. Why it’s taken so long to make this possible I don’t really know, although I suspect it is now possible due to changes in the core Quicktime components of OS Sierra.  You can apply this same Video Formats update to earlier OS’s but don’t gain the MXF playback.

Thanks to reader Mark for the heads-up!

9 thoughts on “Latest Apple Pro Video Formats Update Adds MXF Playback.”

  1. Not meaning to sound naive, but I own an FS5, not a 7; so are XAVC files wrapped in .mxf all the same, and will the capability to preview directly in the Finder apply to the FS5 as well? Thanks 🙂

    1. mxf is mxf. It’s a file container, so it should make no difference which camera it’s from as long as the codec is supported. So FS5 material should behave just the same as FS7.

      1. Thank you sir– I suspected as much, but wanted to make sure before I upgrade my OS… I’ve been holding out for various reasons on Sierra, until now, that is. Have a great week 🙂

  2. Hi Alister, thanks for the news – very useful. Have you had any compatibility issues with Sierra and industry related software – like premiere, or resolve?

    I always like to hold back upgrading until major bugs are worked out

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