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:





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?).

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!