Handbrake and Final Cut Pro are both very popular platforms. Final Cut Pro is a video editing software, developed and distributed by Apple, and therefore, compatible only with Mac devices. It’s the most popular video editing tool among creators. Most Youtubers and professional and amateur video makers use Final Cut Pro for their videos. Even many purchase a Mac computer only because they want to use Final Cut Pro.
What is Handbrake?
Handbrake is a completely different software. First of all, it’s open-source (that means that anyone can use it for free) and it’s compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux. Handbrake is a transcoder software for digital videos: in other words, it’s a video converter. It is actually one of the most advanced and versatile video converters available, which is why it’s so popular even among Mac and Final Cut Pro users.
What is Final Cut Pro?
Final Cut Pro can manage many videos, audio, image, and container formats. If we narrow down the field to only video format, the list of the formats supported by Final Cut Pro is very long and looks like this:
- Apple Animation codec
- Apple ProRes(all versions)
- Apple Intermediate codec
- AVC-intra
- DV (including DVCAM, DVCPRO, and DVCPRO50)
- AVCHD (including AVCCAM, AVCHD Lite, and NXCAM)
- DVCPRO HD
- H.264
- iFrame
- HDV
- Motion JPEG(OpenDML only)
- REDCODE RAW (R3D)
- MPEG IMX(D-10)
- Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2
- Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2
- XDCAM HD/EX/HD422
- XAVC
- QuickTime
Best Handbrake Video Format for Final Cut Pro
So, what is the best Handbrake video format for Final Cut Pro? Any compatible video format would work but the most recommended is the MP4 with the H.264 codec. With Handbrake the conversion is pretty simple: in the Output video tab, you can select the formats we’ve just mentioned along with other parameters such as the target size, the bit rate, and quality (Handbrake can maintain a certain video quality regardless of the size).
When you have a video format that is not compatible with Final Cut Pro, you can convert it with Handbrake. The most recommended Handbrake video format for Final Cut Pro would be the MP4 (which is 100% Quicktime-compatible) with the H.264 codec.