Best practices for importing Sony XAVC HS 4K files?

I recently purchased a Sony A7Cii camera, and could use some help with best practices for importing Sony's XAVC HS 4K files into Resolve. Do I need to import the entire "M4ROOT" folder, or can I just import individual .MP4 files from within that folder? And do I need to import the .XML file that is associated with each .MP4 file? I assume these .XML files contain metadata, but I'm not clear whether this data (EXIF info? LUTs? Gyroscopic data?) is accessed by Resolve.

Thanks for any advice!

Resolve 18 (though I will no doubt update to 19 or 20 before beginning to edit my next project), M1 Mac Mini, 16GB Ram, MacOS 12.7.6

I recommend using DaVinci Resolve Studio (Paid Version) because XAVC HS (H.265/HEVC) decoding is much smoother in Resolve Studio, which supports hardware acceleration for H.265. The free version can import H.265, but performance may be poor and color science support may be limited.

Import the entire M4ROOT folder from your Sony camera. Don’t just copy the .MP4. Resolve uses metadata from the folder structure for better compatibility. Going back to the Paid or Free versions, if you are using the free version, here is a recommendation so things will be snappier and better, especially with your hardware configuration. This is a bit of work but you will have a better experience editing and color grading.

Transcode your files to Shutter Encoder (free) to convert the files to a more edit-friendly code like ProRes 422 HQ, preserving the resolution, frame rate, and timecode. Import these files to Resolve and edit and/or grade it there. Good luck.

I recommend using DaVinci Resolve Studio (Paid Version) because XAVC HS (H.265/HEVC) decoding is much smoother in Resolve Studio, which supports hardware acceleration for H.265. The free version can import H.265, but performance may be poor and color science support may be limited.

Since Zack is using an M1 Mac he is already getting the full decode acceleration, using Studio wouldn't change performance in this case.

Unfortunately, DR is not reading all that metadata anyway.
Gyro data is only read from BM's own cameras. Use Sony's own software if you need to stabilise shots done with their lenses or Gyroflow for any other lens.
If you need specific information, just use Sony's Catalyst Browse. All the metadata you see there is contained in the MP4.

Thanks everyone for your responses!

I should have mentioned in my original post that I'm using Resolve Studio. In any case, I assume that I will optimize or use proxy media for editing purposes, since on a long-form project I'd prefer to work with ProRes 422HQ files.

However, I'm still a bit unclear whether I am taking any risks by importing just selected MP4 files rather than the entire M4ROOT folder - is Resolve in fact dependent upon seeing the entire folder structure for any reason?

Uli - just to confirm, you are saying that all the metadata that can be read by Sony's Catalyst Browse is contained in the .MP4 files, not in the .XML files? And that the only reason to save the .XML files would be for the gyro data (which I know requires third-party software/plug-in to use)?

...However, I'm still a bit unclear whether I am taking any risks by importing just selected MP4 files rather than the entire M4ROOT folder - is Resolve in fact dependent upon seeing the entire folder structure for any reason?...

The traditional answer is you keep all the files. However in actual practice those are often not used. It varies with each camera and NLE.

My documentary team has many Sony mirrorless and pro cameras, and we normally don't keep the folder tree. So far I haven't seen it needed when using Resolve or Catalyst Browse.

When importing via FCP's import dialog (vs drag/drop from Finder), having the folder tree can enable setting In and Out points for the import. However that is codec-specific. I haven't seen a similar issue on Resolve.

With some older Panasonic codecs which used segmented files, the metadata files enabled stitching the file segments together.

With the older AVCHD format, it was important to keep the AVCHD folder tree (seen as a file bundle on MacOS) because FCP needed that for a proper rewrap on import. I don't think that was an issue for Resolve.

With RED .R3D files it's imperative to keep the entire folder tree intact, but that is a segmented system.

So the "keep the folder tree" issue is complex. But for Sony mirrorless and pro cameras, my team normally does not keep that, only the video files. When we offload using ShotPut Pro or OffShoot (formerly Hedge), it's sometimes easier to just grab the entire folder, whether needed or not.

Re transcoding 4k XAVC HS to ProRes 422 optimized media before editing, that is not needed for image quality reasons. On Apple Silicon, it's usually not needed for performance reasons, because the hardware acceleration is so fast. You'll have to evaluate that yourself. But it's a performance issue, not an image quality issue.

SOP for all modern media.

!. Copy the entire card to your Media drive.
2. Use the Media Storage panel on the Media page to navigate to the folder and locate the clips.
3. Right click on the clips you want, and Add into Media Pool.

There are times when you can break that without problems, but doing that will always work properly.

Uli - just to confirm, you are saying that all the metadata that can be read by Sony's Catalyst Browse is contained in the .MP4 files, not in the .XML files? And that the only reason to save the .XML files would be for the gyro data (which I know requires third-party software/plug-in to use)?

Well, let me clarify:
If you use Sony lenses, the stabilisation in Catalyst Browse only works if you have the XML too. In that case, I'd take care to copy them.
For third-party lenses to be used with Gyroflow, it doesn't matter.
All other metadata are in the MP4 too. BTW, enough of the XML is plain text and you can compare for yourself.

Allow me to add a general remark:
I'm with Jim that it is usually a good idea to copy the complete data (which are not huge anyway).
OTOH I can understand that you'd like to have the MP4 clips alone for workflow reasons. Sony's file structure is quite complex and inexperienced users might struggle a bit. Given the widespread use of such cameras, it would be nice if the developers would build automatic recognition into DR, like Apple did for FCP-X.

Thank you Uli and everyone else for your responses. They are all both informative and very helpful!