Now it seems that most of the world shares video codecs, programs to encode videos no longer have much importance, but some years ago the multitude of formats (Does anyone remember the codecs for Divx and OS X and Windows ?) made ??such programs were necessary in order to play videos smoothly.
Luckily we can forget about all these hassles, but remain as iOS devices where the formats are still somewhat restrictive . Handbrake is then my default option, but if you want something even simpler, and included in the system, you only Mountain Lion using.
And is that Apple has added an option, quite hidden, to convert any video into a compatible format (mp4) with different Apple devices . The conversion is as simple, we only select the size from one of the available (480p, 720p or 1080p) and quality. Press the Continue button and wait.
This program, or system utility, actually has another utility that can turn out to be even more interesting is the ability to extract audio from any video . To do this in the size selection menu you have to select the option: “audio only”.
How do I access this tool? Really easy, navigate using the Finder to the file you want to encode, once found right click on the file and select ” Encode Selected Video Files “. The program also has a line of code so you can add all the files you want at the same time.
This action is also available from Automator, so you can create a workflow which convert all your videos to a format compatible with iOS devices simply.
