Compressor (software)


Compressor is a video and audio media compression and encoding application for use with Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio on macOS. It can be used with Qmaster for clustering.

History

The application used to be available as part of Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Motion, and DVD Studio Pro, but after those stand-alone products were discontinued, it became available as part of Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio.
With the release of Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5, Compressor was upgraded to version 4 and is available to purchase separately on the Mac App Store for $49.99.

Features

Compressor is used for encoding MPEG-1, MPEG-2 for DVD, QuickTime.mov, MPEG-4, MPEG-4 H.264 and optional QuickTime Exporter Components to export to Windows Media, for example. Among its other features is the ability to convert from NTSC to PAL and vice versa, and the ability to 'upconvert' from Standard Definition video to High Definition video with feature detail detection to prevent serious quality losses. Filters can be applied to video during the conversion process, and the video can be cropped.
With its update to 4.2 in April 2015, Apple added performance upgrades, as well as the ability to use Compressor to produce a compliant package to submit video content for distribution to the iTunes Store.