Compressor 4.1.2: Device Compatibility

A cool new feature, or maybe not so new, that I discovered recently in Apple Compressor is the ability to determine if your compression settings are compatible with specific Apple devices.

If you are like me, always creating custom compression settings, you may never see this; which is a shame because it can be quite helpful.

Here’s how it works.

Open Compressor and click the Settings text button at the top. Twirl down Apple Devices and pick the option you want. (In this case, I’m selecting Apple Devices HD (Best Quality).)

With that setting highlighted, open the Inspector and click the Video tab on the right. About half-way down, under Video Properties, is a list of all Apple devices. The green buttons indicate which Apple devices are compatible with that compression setting.

Import a clip to compress and apply the Apple Devices setting to that clip. When you do, the Encode For option becomes available.

Change the setting between Best Quality and More Devices and watch what happens to the green buttons.

This is a very fast way to determine if your compression settings support the devices you need to support.

EXTRA CREDIT

This option is also available when creating a custom setting using H.264 for Apple Devices, but not when using MPEG-4, which is why I haven’t noticed it before.

---

Bookmark the permalink.