If you’re looking for a way to encode audio and video, Adobe has a solution to offer that may appeal to your preferences and needs. It’s called Adobe Media Encoder. It was once an integrated part of Adobe Premiere Pro before Creative Cloud was introduced in 2013. Since then it can be used as a standalone program.

Being a part of the Adobe Creative Cloud certainly has its own appeal to Adobe users, but it’s not the only reason why people prefer to use the media encoder. Its support for workflow automation and a wide range of formats, coupled with its user-friendly interface, are some of the primary factors that contribute to its popularity.

Features and Highlights

Customizable Workspace

The user interface of Adobe Media Encoder 2025 consists of several main panels. There are five of them, to be precise, which include Preset Browser, Encoding Panel, Media Browser, Queue Panel, and Watch Folder.

You can customize its workspace to suit your needs so that you can work with it more efficiently. After you are satisfied with the new layout, it can be preserved by saving it as a new workspace. If you make more than one custom workspace, you can switch between them for different projects.

Watch Folder

When you add files to the folder designated as the Watch Folder, they trigger the program to start the encoding process automatically. Put simply, it is an automation tool that allows you to encode multiple files without doing it on your own.

The encoding begins once Adobe Media Encoder detects the files that are added into the watch folder, unless you enable the option to delay the encoding.

It is also known as “hot folder”, which is immensely helpful for users who deal with repetitive tasks. You can create more than one watch folder, each with different encoding presets for different workflows. After the files are encoded, they will be exported to a subfolder named Output in the watch folder.

Preset Browser

Preset Browser is as useful as, if not more useful than, Watch Folder. Both help streamline the encoding process in their own ways. By using presets, you can apply a set of encoding settings to process files in one click.

In addition to the built-in presets, which are known as system presets, there are user presets. The latter are, as implied by the name, presets that are created by users to deal with various encoding and transcoding tasks. The Preset Browser helps you manage the presets and quickly find the presets you need.

Adobe Media Encoder 2025 Free Download for Windows

One of the improvements that have been made so far to the media encoder is the addition of a preview functionality that provides a side-by-side visual comparison between the source video and encoded output.

The feature is useful for checking the output quality before export. If it is less satisfactory than expected, you can adjust the encoding settings to get a better final result. You can click the link below to download Adobe Media Encoder 2025 for Windows: