There’s an easy way in OS X Lion to convert media from one format to another using preset conversion settings. One method uses Automator and can be launched from the Finder. The other uses terminal and either afconvert or the new avconvert command.
The Automator method is the easiest and requires you to go to Finder, select the video file you want to convert and choose “Encode Selected Video Files” from the context menu. This will launch a dialog box in which you can select your video conversion settings and the destination. You can process one file at a time or multiples files in a batch conversion. Automator also works with audio files and the conversion process is the same as described above for video.
OS X owners comfortable with the command line can use afconvert to convert an audio file from one format to another or avconvert to do the same with video. Type “afconvert -h” in terminal to get a list of all the options you can use in the audio conversion. The command avconvert is a new command added in OS X Lion. Besides format conversion, it also lets you extract the audio or video track from a clip, change frame rates, add closed captioning and more.
You read more about Automator video conversion and audio conversion at the Mac OS X Automation website. Additional information on the terminal commands can be found in Apple’s Mac OS X Developer Library.
Lion: Encode media from Automator or the command line originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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