With the Apple TV finally starting to ship, future owners will gladly welcome the latest update to Quicktime. Buried inside all of Quicktime’s rich features is an an export option called “Export to Apple TV.” What does it do? It exports videos for your Apple TV in high-def so you can actually put that 42-inch Plasma to use. The feature will export videos to a 720×404 or 1280×720 (720p) resolution movie file using the H.264 codec, which is equal to that of a DVD-quality flick.

Of course, high-rez doesn’t come without a cost. Each 90-minute film will set you back about 3GB of hard drive space. It should also be mentioned that you can’t transfer the resulting files to your iPod, but you can view them in iTunes. No matter since I wouldn’t want to watch an HD-film on my iPod’s screen anyway.

QuickTime gains 720P Apple TV high-definition export mode [iLounge]