Mac Gems: iFlicks tags and converts video files for iTunes with finesse
There are plenty of apps that can transcode video from one format to another, and there are a number of nifty apps that let you tag media files with useful metadata. But Jendrik Bertram’s $20 iFlicks (Mac App Store link) does both, and I’ve found none better at combining the two tasks. iFlicks does its job with a clean, responsive, and very Mac-like interface that makes working with the software intuitive and fun.
Like the free Video Monkey, iFlicks can help you tag movies or TV shows you’ve ripped from your DVDs, recorded with an EyeTV-powered device, or downloaded from elsewhere—it supports adding artwork, genre, description, release date, episode titles and numbers, and more. It can also convert videos to smaller versions to save bits and bytes on space-crunched iOS devices, or to take files that iTunes can’t understand and make them playable on your Apple TV, to name just a couple examples. (As with other similar apps, iFlicks can convert only media files that aren’t protected with digital-rights-management [DRM] technology, which means it can't convert video purchased from the iTunes Store.)
The iFlicks window with items ready for tagging
Choosing your options
iFlicks’s Preset pop-up menu, where you choose the output format for files you plan to process using the utility, offers nine options: Reference File, iTunes Compatible, Universal, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, iPad, Apple TV 2, and New Apple TV & iPad. Most of the options are pretty self-explanatory, but it’s worth noting that the confusingly named iTunes Compatible option is what you use to add metadata without re-encoding. (It’s also worth noting that the iPhone preset maxes out at 480 by 360, so if you have an iPhone 4, 4S, or 5 or a recent iPod touch, you’ll want to choose the Apple TV preset, which provides a higher-quality video that still works with the latest iPhone models.) You can set any preset as the default.
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