QuickTime Export Components preset in Compressor

Preset summary

Displays the preset name and transcoding format used by Compressor, as well as an estimated output file size. When you add a preset to a job or change the preset’s properties, this summary is automatically updated.

General properties

These properties cannot be modified and may be unusable in future versions of macOS.

• Name: Displays the name of the preset.

• Description: Displays the description of the preset.

• Extension: Displays the extension of the output file, based on the preset chosen in the “Encoder type” pop-up menu, described below.

• Allow export segmentation: This option is not available for the default encoder types that are included with Compressor. It may be available for other encoders.

• Default location: Select an item from the pop-up menu to set the default save location for transcoded files.

Video properties

The properties in this area of the Video inspector are based on the file format assigned to the preset. You can change the file format in the General inspector; for more information, see the Presets property in “General properties,” above.

• Frame size: For presets that use the QuickTime Export Component format, this property is automatically set to Automatic.

• Center crop for output aspect ratio: Select this checkbox to ensure that when changing the aspect ratio in the Frame size pop-up menu, the video remains centered in the new aspect ratio.

• Pixel aspect ratio: For presets that use the QuickTime Export Component format, this property is automatically set to Square.

• Frame rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the playback rate (the number of images displayed per second) for the output file. See Retiming options in Compressor.

• Field order: For presets that use the QuickTime Export Component format, the field order is set automatically.

• Color space: Use this pop-up menu to convert the source media to a new color space. Choose Automatic to allow Compressor to choose the best color space based on the selected preset. You can also choose a manual preset to override the default. See Transcode a video file to a different color space.

• RAW to log: Use this pop-up menu to select how ProRes RAW conversion is done. Choose Automatic to allow Compressor to choose the conversion method. You can also choose a manual preset to override the default. This option is available only if the source is ProRes RAW.

• Camera LUT: Use this pop-up menu to select the camera lookup table (LUT) applied to the source. Select a custom LUT to transform your video from one color space to another. This preset is enabled if the source is ProRes RAW and if “RAW to log” is set to a value other than None. This preset is also enabled if “Camera log” in video properties in the Job inspector is set to a value other than None.

• Stereoscopic: Use this pop-up menu—available when working with stereoscopic files or creating new presets to be used with stereoscopic files—to choose which eye (left or right) the transcoded video on the source file corresponds to:

  • Automatic: Automatically sets which eye the transcoded video corresponds to. In source video that contains information from both eyes, Compressor chooses the hero eye for the transcoded video. Compressor does this by using tags in the file. If Compressor can’t determine which eye to use from file tags, Left Eye is chosen.

  • Left Eye: Sets the transcoded video to the left eye of the stereoscopic source.

  • Right Eye: Sets the transcoded video to the right eye of the stereoscopic source.

  Note: Working with MV-HEVC spatial video requires a Mac with Apple silicon that’s running macOS Sonoma 14 or later. Other systems treat MV-HEVC stereoscopic video as monoscopic HVEC files, using only the hero eye.

Cropping, Padding, Rotation, and Flip

Customize the final cropping, sizing, and aspect ratio in Compressor using the Cropping & Padding properties. Cropping removes video content from an image. Padding scales the image to a smaller size while retaining the output image’s frame size. For more information about these properties, see Intro to modifying frame size in Compressor.

You can also rotate and flip the final output image in Compressor using the Rotation and Flip properties. These allow you to rotate a widescreen image to be vertical, or to reverse the image horizontally, vertically, or both.

• Cropping: Use this pop-up menu to set the dimensions of the output image. The default cropping is None, but you can select one of the predetermined presets in the menu to change the dimensions of the output image. The Letterbox Area of Source menu item detects image edges and automatically enters crop values to match them. This is useful if you want to remove a source file’s letterbox area, by cropping out the black bars above and below the widescreen image. To ensure that when changing the aspect ratio the video remains centered in the new aspect ratio, select the “Center crop for output ratio” menu item. You can also enter custom values into the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right text fields below the menu to create your own custom cropping.

• Padding: Use this pop-up menu to set the scaling of the output image while retaining the size of the frame. This is particularly useful when you’re creating a pillarbox (black bars on the sides of the frame) or a letterbox (bars above and below the frame) around your source material. The default cropping is None, but you can select one of the predetermined presets in the menu to add a standard padding preset. The Preserve Aspect Ratio menu item ensures that the aspect ratio remains unchanged as you add padding. The custom option allows you to enter your own scaling dimensions in the fields; other options use predetermined dimensions. You can also enter custom values into the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right text fields below the menu to create your own custom padding. The default padding is None.

• Rotation: Use this pop-up menu to set the rotation of the output image. The default rotation is None, but you can choose to rotate your image 90 degrees, 180 degrees, or 270 degrees. This is useful in situations when a camera was oriented incorrectly when capturing the video.

• Flip: Use this pop-up menu to flip the output image. The default flip is None, but you can choose Horizontal, Vertical, or Horizontal and Vertical. This is useful if you want the output image to mirror the input image horizontally, vertically, or both. Note: the Rotation property is always applied before the Flip property, which can change the specific Flip option to use in an output image you also rotate.

Video effects

For a list of available video effects in Compressor, and instructions on how to add a video effect to a preset, see Add and remove effects in Compressor.