How to convert video and audio on Mac: Ultimate guide

There are many formats of audio files, which is dazzling. It's cumbersome to manage, and it can be very frustrating when you try to play audio but your favorite player cannot play a specific file due to the file type.

This seems hopeless, but don't worry! You can usually convert audio and video files without losing quality. Here we will walk you through how to convert video to MP3, MP4 to MP3, and many other useful audio and video conversions.

Easily convert video and audio

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How to convert video to audio

For example, converting video to audio (for example, MP4 to MP3) is not so much about converting a video file as extracting audio tracks from it. This is very handy when you want to convert a collection of music videos into a playlist to put into an iPod, or extract the sound of a video taken at a concert, or maybe use your favorite songs as an iPhone ringtone.

macOS comes with built-in media encoding, allowing you to convert video to audio directly in Finder. There are similar features in QuickTime. The downside is that it is quite limited because you can't choose what the generated audio file is, as it generates the M4A track by default.

Your Mac provides a very straightforward way to convert video files into audio.

How to use the default macOS video to audio converter

1. Open Finder on your Mac
2. Navigate to the video file you want to convert
3. Right-click the file
4. Select "Encoding Selected Video File" from the drop-down menu
5. Under the Settings heading, select Audio only from the drop-down menu
6. Select Continue

A separate MP4 file will be created and loaded to the same location as your video file. Please note that this will not delete or change your video files in any way. This method can be used to convert any video file type to an audio file—but you cannot select the audio file type. It will always be MP4.

A better approach is to use Permute.

With Permute, you can choose to convert video to audio in almost any format you like. MOV to MP3, MOV to MP4, MKV to MP3 - you can choose at will!

To convert movies to audio files using Permute, follow these steps:

1. Open Permute on your Mac
2. Drag the video you want to convert into the Permute window
3. Next to "Video", select the drop-down menu
4. Select the audio type you want to convert to
5. Select the "Play" icon on the child window where the video is located

That's all you need to do. Permute will instantly convert your videos to audio!

Permute is very fast, so you should be able to get audio in the same folder as your video file very quickly. Keep giving it some movies and see how it works (After joining Setapp, you can try Permute Converter for a free week, a subscription service for Mac apps.)

How to convert video and music to other media formats?

"MKV to MP4", "FLAC to MP3", "M4A to MP3" - There is a good chance that you've entered one of these in a Google search at some point, because the media file format can be a hassle. Some files take up too much space, such as FLAC, which may be 10 times the size of the equivalent MP3. Other files are not supported by Mac's built-in video player, such as MKV. Regardless of the situation, you need an audio or video converter to convert files into a more friendly, wider format, usually MP4 for video and usually MP3 for music.

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Free trial is safe and reliable As we mentioned earlier, the number of video formats is amazing. MP4, MOV, 3GP, 3G2, ASF, MKV, VOB, MPEG, WMV, FLV, AVI—the list continues. Fortunately, Permute can handle all these file types and convert them to audio using the above steps. If you don't see the type of audio file you want to export, here's how to add more options in Permute:

1. Follow the first three steps above
2. In the drop-down menu, select Add Preset
3. In a new window, select the "plus" icon in the lower left corner
4. Choose your favorite media conversion format!

Now you can continue with Steps 4 and 5 of the above steps and Permute will easily convert the audio!

To convert audio to MP3 or any other format, just follow the same five-step program. The only difference you will see is where Permute displays "video" in the video file, and for the audio file you want to convert, it displays "audio" and limits the conversion type to the audio file.

Please read also:

• Play MP4 on Mac
• Convert M4a to Mp3 on Mac
• Convert video files
• Trim videos and trim MP3 on Mac

How to change the media format when downloading?

When downloading videos from the internet, you may want to choose the type or quality of the file you want to download. The best application for this task is Pulltube.

Pulltube accepts URLs from YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and many other popular websites. To download YouTube videos to transfer to audio files, follow these steps:

1. Open Pulltube on Mac
2. Drag or paste the video link (or, install the Pulltube extension in your browser to save the link faster)
3. At the bottom of the window, select HQ custom quality: You can choose to convert mp4 to mp3
4. Continue personalization by trimming videos or adding subtitles
5. Click to download the video.

Is it possible to convert audio to video?

There is no clear reason to convert an audio file to a video, especially since you will only see a blank screen.

However, audio files can be superimposed on video. If you have an audio file to use as an audio track or narrative track, just add it as an audio file to your favorite video editor to make it play on the video.

How to use an online media converter

Most online services cater to the most popular users who want to convert videos to audio: those who want to save YouTube videos to use as audio tracks.

The most popular online conversion services - YTMP3 and Y2Mate - are all focused on this. These services are easy to use, but lack control and quality. After copying and pasting the link, you have to click a few buttons to start the download, and the final audio quality may be mixed. To learn more about these tools, read our full review: Best YouTube to MP3 Converters of 2020.

All online services have caused the same concerns. We are not very happy with the quality of the audio they return from the video file. Some even limit the number of files you can convert, or require you to pay or register for their services. None of them allows us to actually customize the type of audio file we receive.

in conclusion

There are many reasons to convert video files to audio. You might want to listen to it as a podcast, especially if you plan to not have a reliable internet connection for a while – or just want to reduce the amount of data you use.

Converting files locally on your Mac is still the best way forward. Permute and Pulltube make use of your Mac hardware, so you can rest assured that the end product will be great. No need to rely on cloud-based servers and hope for the best!

Both apps are part of the seven-day trial version of Setapp, the world's best suite of productivity apps for Mac. In addition to Pulltube and Permute, you can also access nearly 200 excellent Mac applications. After the trial period, Setapp costs only $9.99 per month. Try it now!

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