What is a MOV file?
By Ajiri Ogba · Updated
MOV is Apple's QuickTime video format: iPhone camera videos and Mac screen recordings are saved as .mov files. MOV is a container, so what really matters is the video codec inside it — recent iPhones use HEVC (H.265), which some devices and sites can't play, so MOV is often converted to H.264 MP4.
MOV vs MP4
MP4 was based on Apple's QuickTime format, so the two are closely related and can hold the same codecs. The difference in practice is support: MP4 is accepted almost everywhere, while MOV, especially with HEVC video, is mainly at home on Apple devices.
If a MOV already contains H.264 video and AAC audio, it can be rewrapped as MP4 without re-encoding (desktop ffmpeg: -c copy). If it contains HEVC, it needs re-encoding for wide compatibility.
Converting MOV on this site
- MOV to MP4, MKV or AVI: H.264 at CRF 23 with AAC audio
- MOV to WebM: VP8 with Opus audio
- MOV to MP3: extracts the audio track
- Everything runs in your browser with ffmpeg; files up to 500MB