Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Includes a Video & Media Encoder in the Finder

Feb 26, 2011 - 16 Comments

mac-os-x-lion-video-encoding-1080p

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion includes media and video encoding tools directly in the new Finder.

You can access the video encoder by right-clicking on a movie file and then selecting “Encode Selected Video Files” as seen in the screenshot below:

mac-os-x-10-7-encode-video

This brings up the conversion settings where you can select your media encoding options. Here you can set encoding to 480p, 720p, 1080p, or audio only. These options cover the full spectrum of existing iOS hardware, and also suggest that future iOS devices will be capable of playing 1080p video (Apple TV 3 maybe?).

mac-os-x-lion-video-encoding

The audio only option is another nice touch and looks like it’ll remove the need for tools like Evom if you want to convert video files to MP3 format.

Users wanting an easy way to convert videos for your iPhone or iPad is evidenced by apps like the video to iPhone tool Miro Video Converter sitting at the top of the Mac App Store. It’s clear Apple wants to remove the (perceived) complexity of these kinds of tasks, and building a media encoder into Mac OS X Lion is a great step in that direction.

It’s worth pointing out that while this feature appears in the Developer Preview, it may or may not be released in the final version of Lion. I think it’s a great addition to Mac OS X, so let’s hope it is.

Thanks to David for the tip and screenshots!

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Posted by: William Pearson in Mac OS, News

16 Comments

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  1. […] Mac OS X from Lion onward includes built-in encoding tools to perform conversions of video to audio, you can also extract an audio track from a movie by using […]

  2. […] machines doing the hard work. Just another nifty surprise I did not know about yesterday… Read more here. Cancel […]

  3. […] a video file to an audio track is made extremely easy with the help of Mac OS X Lion’s new media encoding abilities that are built directly into the Finder. This has been tested to work with .mov, .m4v, .mpg, and […]

  4. jji7skyline says:

    I can’t find this in the normal version (10.7.2) of Lion… was it taken out? :(

  5. […] same encoder in Mac OS X Lion also includes the ability to encode and convert video files directly in the Finder too, making this utility even more powerful. By selecting a movie file, you […]

  6. Bingo says:

    Apple does NOT even support their own technology.
    I am talking about xgrid and opencl.
    Which would have the ability to work across different CPUs and GPUs.
    QuickSync is a Intel only thing and it is NOT as fast as GPU acceleration. Not even close compared to the high end GPUs out there.
    I am thinking Intel’s misinformation bloggers have paid a visit here.

    • ceding says:

      Hmm, Macs as well are an “Intel-only thing”. So, it doesn’t matter that Quick Sync is faster or slower at video compression than GPUs “out there”. Quick Sync is what’s “in there”, in the latest line of MacBook Airs and upcoming MacBook Pros. It’s in the Core i5 and i7 CPUs, so there is really no reason for Lion (and Final Cut/Compressor) not to take advantage of it.

      Now, to come back to your original point, recent benchmarks I’ve seen give Quick Sync higher marks than CUDA, on a speed and even image-quality basis. But it doesn’t matter…

    • Alden says:

      I thought I’d reference Anandtech’s article on QuickSync and how it’s far faster than the greatest GPU accelerated video encoding, and the video looks cleaner. I, too, am hoping and waiting for Apple to support the wonderful hardware encoding offered by the SandyBridge chipset.

      http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/9

  7. […] om iOS. Och då menar jag inte funktioner så som den grymt häftiga möjligheten att kunna koda om video och annan media direkt i findern, utan de ännu mindre nyheterna. När man laddar ner filer via safari – för vi använder […]

  8. […] nouvelle fonction fait également son apparition dans le Finder de Mac OS X Lion. On peut désormais convertir un fichier vidéo d’un simple […]

  9. pogopop77 says:

    Didn’t know about Quick Sync. For common formats like MP3, AAC, and H.264 it’s amazingly fast. Would definitely make sense for Apple to support it!

  10. ltcommander.data says:

    What’d be even cooler is if they supported the Quick Sync dedicated hardware transcoder in Sandy Bridge which has been shown to be faster than GPGPU accelerated encoding on even the fastest high-end GPUs.

  11. pogopop77 says:

    What would be really cool is if the Apple encoder used OpenCL to leverage the parallel processing capabilities of the GPU to speed up encoding.

  12. Dogs says:

    Wish there was an option to just keep the dimensions of the existing file.

    The biggest problem with Adobe Media Encoder is that it tries to force you into TV standards, really sucks if you are making multimedia work and want to encode for example a video graphic for a Flash experience.

  13. Peter says:

    This is fantastic news when you consider the amount of crapware in the realm of conversion tools.

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