14 DAY TRIAL // Apple today published a fresh version of Compressor, a sidekick exporting tool for Final Cut Pro which assists movie makers in customizing output settings. The update is free for all existing users of Compressor 4.
Compressor 4.1.1 may seem like a minor incremental release by looking only at the version number, but tap into the changelog and you’ll begin to think otherwise.
Apple handled quite a lot of stuff in this release. For instance, the company fixes issues related to installing Compressor on a system where Qmaster was previously enabled.
Send to Compressor from Final Cut Pro X is now more reliable, and distributed encoding errors are fixed. Other addressed bugs are listed below, courtesy of Apple’s description on the Mac App Store.
• Fixes errors that could cause a hang when submitting a batch • Fixes a stability issue that could occur if multiple Compressor plug-ins are installed • Resolves an issue when viewing a plug-in setting without the plug-in installed • Includes general stability improvements
Customers who are yet to install Compressor 4.1 will be getting all this, plus some streamlined controls, a new interface with a single-window layout, preset destinations for common encoding scenarios, hardware-based H.264 encoding in supported Share operations, a simpler way of handling distributed encoding, 4K YouTube sharing support, integration with Chinese video streaming services, and support for Dolby Digital Plus encoding.
“Compressor adds power and flexibility to Final Cut Pro X export. Customize output settings, work faster with distributed encoding, and tap into a comprehensive set of delivery features,” Apple says.
Requirements include OS X v10.9 (Mavericks) or later, 4GB of RAM (8GB recommended for 4K), an OpenCL-compatible graphics card or Intel HD Graphics 3000 (or better) with 256MB of VRAM (1GB recommended for 4K), and 1.1GB of free disk space for installation.