Hardware Acceleration

Converting video normally means your CPU does all the heavy lifting — every frame gets processed by your processor, which takes time and generates heat. Hardware acceleration offloads this work to dedicated video chips in your Mac, making conversions dramatically faster.

What's the Difference?

Without hardware acceleration, converting a 1-hour video might take 30-60 minutes and max out your CPU the entire time. Your fans spin up, battery drains, and your Mac feels sluggish.

With hardware acceleration, that same conversion might finish in 5-10 minutes. Your CPU stays cool, battery life is preserved, and you can keep using your Mac normally while it converts in the background.

How It Works in Fetchii

Fetchii automatically uses hardware acceleration when you choose H.264 (HW) or H.265 (HW) as the Codec in the Transcode Video sheet (right-click a downloaded video and choose Convert > Transcode Video). There's nothing to configure — VideoToolbox (Apple's hardware video framework) is used behind the scenes.

If you need software encoding instead (for VP9/WebM output), simply choose VP9 as your codec. VP9 always uses software encoding, and it's the only codec that shows the Speed option.

What Hardware Gets Used

On Apple Silicon Macs (M1, M2, M3), the dedicated Media Engine handles video encoding. It's incredibly efficient — you can encode video without significantly impacting battery life or performance.

On Intel Macs, Quick Sync Video (part of Intel graphics) does the encoding. Still much faster than software, though not as efficient as Apple Silicon.

Supported Formats

Hardware acceleration works with the most common codecs:

Encoding (converting to):

Fetchii's hardware encoding covers H.264 and H.265; it doesn't offer ProRes output.

Decoding (reading from): Your Mac can hardware-decode H.264, H.265, VP9 (Apple Silicon), and AV1 (M3 and later).

Quality: Is It Worse?

Here's the honest truth: hardware encoding is slightly less efficient than software encoding. At the same bitrate, software produces marginally better quality.

But "marginally" is the key word. For most purposes — watching on a TV, sharing online, archiving home videos — you won't notice any difference. The quality is excellent.

If you're doing professional color grading or archival work where every bit of quality matters, you'd want a dedicated encoding tool. For everyday conversions, hardware acceleration is the way to go.

When to Use Each

Use hardware acceleration for:

• Quick conversions (most of the time)
• Converting several videos in a row
• Working on a laptop where battery matters
• Preview encodes before final output

Use software encoding (VP9) for:

• WebM output for the web
• An open format instead of H.264/H.265
• Videos a hardware encoder won't accept

Apple Silicon is Especially Good

The M-series chips include a dedicated Media Engine that's separate from both the CPU and GPU. This means:

• Encoding video doesn't slow down your other apps
• Battery drain is minimal even during long conversions
• Multiple videos can encode simultaneously without performance issues
• M1 Pro/Max/Ultra and M2 Pro/Max have even more encoding capacity

If you have an Apple Silicon Mac, there's very little reason not to use hardware acceleration for everyday conversions.

Troubleshooting

Conversion fails with H.264/H.265: Some unusual video files have issues with hardware encoders. Try using VP9 codec instead, which uses software encoding.

Quality seems noticeably worse: Choose High (CRF 18) as the Quality. With hardware codecs, a higher quality setting means a higher bitrate, which compensates for the slight efficiency difference.

Encoding is still slow: Make sure you selected H.264 (HW) or H.265 (HW) (not VP9). The Quick Transcode presets in the Convert menu use hardware encoding too, except VP9 - WebM.

Tips for Best Results

• Pick a higher quality — With hardware encoding, High (CRF 18) gets you closest to software quality
• Use H.265 for Apple devices — Hardware H.265 encoding is very efficient on modern Macs
• Don't worry about battery — Hardware encoding is designed to be energy-efficient
• Run several at once — Start conversions one after another; hardware handles them efficiently