Reader Brett Morrison finds that his new iPhone gives more than he cares to receive. He writes:
I’m enjoying my new iPhone 4S but I’ve found that when shooting movies it captures files at 1080p, producing big files. After downloading these movies to my Mac I often want to post or email them. I find converting them to a smaller size a bother. Is there an easy way to do that?
There is. And the avenue to that easier way is Automator. Try this:
1. Launch Automator.
2. From the sheet that appears select Image Capture Plugin and click Choose.
3. Select Movies from the Library pane and drag the Encode Media action into the Workflow area.
4. From the Setting pop-up menu choose 720p (or 480p if you want a very small movie). Uncheck the Same as Source File option in the action and choose Movies from the Destination pop-up menu.
5. Name and save the workflow (call it “Smaller Movies,” for example).
6. Jack your iPhone into your Mac and launch Image Capture.
7. Select the iPhone in the Devices pane and then select the movies on the phone that you want to import.
8. From the Import To pop-up menu at the bottom of the Image Capture window choose your Smaller Movies workflow and click the Import button.
Two versions of your movies will be imported to your Mac. The original full-sized versions will appear in your Pictures folder and the smaller, converted versions will be found in your Movies folder, ready for you to post or email at your leisure.