MOV file

What it is

A MOV file is a container: it says how the tracks are laid out and timed, while the codec of each track decides how the picture and sound are compressed. Two MOV files can therefore behave very differently. A MOV with H.264 video plays almost anywhere, while a MOV with ProRes video is a large editing master that many players cannot decode.

Property	MOV
Type	Container for time-based media
Tracks	Video, sound, timecode, text, chapters and metadata
Common video codecs	H.264, HEVC, Apple ProRes, ProRes RAW, Apple Animation
Transparency	Only with a codec that carries alpha, such as ProRes 4444 or HEVC with alpha
Relation to MP4	MP4 derives from the QuickTime format, but the two are not fully interchangeable
MIME type	video/quicktime

iPhones record HEVC video by default with the High Efficiency camera setting and H.264 with Most Compatible. iPhone 13 Pro and later Pro models also record ProRes, and iPhone 17 Pro records ProRes RAW.

Sources: Apple, QuickTime File Format (2001), Classic QuickTime standards, develop magazine, QuickTime 1.0: You Oughta Be in Pictures (summer 1991), Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices, About Apple ProRes on iPhone, iPhone 17 Pro technical specifications; MDN, Media container formats. Read 27 October 2026.

ProRes in a MOV file

Apple ProRes is a video codec. ProRes video is normally stored in a MOV file, and Final Cut Pro 10.3 and later can also write it to MXF. Apple introduced ProRes 422 in April 2007 with Final Cut Studio 2. SMPTE publishes its bitstream as RDD 36, revised in 2022.

ProRes compresses every frame on its own (intra-frame), which keeps editing and scrubbing fast but makes files much larger than H.264 or HEVC, which compress across frames. Apple says ProRes files recorded on iPhone are up to 30 times larger than HEVC files.

ProRes codec	Chroma and bit depth	Target data rate at 1920×1080, 29.97 fps
ProRes 4444 XQ	4:4:4, up to 12 bits, alpha up to 16 bits	about 500 Mbit/s
ProRes 4444	4:4:4, up to 12 bits, alpha up to 16 bits	about 330 Mbit/s
ProRes 422 HQ	4:2:2, 10 bits	about 220 Mbit/s
ProRes 422	4:2:2, 10 bits	about 147 Mbit/s
ProRes 422 LT	4:2:2, 10 bits	about 102 Mbit/s
ProRes 422 Proxy	4:2:2, 10 bits	about 45 Mbit/s

Only ProRes 4444 and 4444 XQ carry an alpha channel, which Apple describes as mathematically lossless. The picture itself is lossy: Apple describes 422 HQ as visually lossless.

Sources: Apple, Apple ProRes white paper (April 2022), Apple unveils Final Cut Studio 2 (15 April 2007), About Apple ProRes on iPhone; SMPTE, RDD 36:2022, Apple ProRes Bitstream Syntax and Decoding Process. Read 27 October 2026.

Which apps open it

Platform or app	Opens MOV	Notes
Mac, QuickTime Player	Yes	Exports MOV with H.264 or HEVC up to 4K; does not export MP4
iPhone 17 Pro	Plays HEVC, H.264, AV1 and ProRes
Windows, Media Player app	H.264 out of the box; HEVC with the HEVC Video Extension	Microsoft's codec page does not mention MOV or ProRes; the legacy Windows Media Player 12 plays QuickTime files only up to version 2.0
Android	Not listed	Android's supported media formats name 3GP, MP4, MKV, WebM and TS containers
Chrome	MOV is read as part of its MP4 support	H.264; HEVC only with hardware support; no ProRes
Firefox	Depends on the codec	HEVC on Windows from Firefox 134
VLC	Yes	Hardware HEVC decoding, 10-bit and HDR from VLC 3.0
Final Cut Pro	Yes	All ProRes versions, ProRes RAW, H.264, HEVC, Apple Animation
DaVinci Resolve 21.1	Yes	Decodes and encodes ProRes 422 Proxy to 4444 XQ on macOS and Windows; ProRes RAW decode only
Premiere Pro, After Effects, Media Encoder	Yes	ProRes 422 and 4444 export on Windows as well as macOS since December 2018
Photoshop	Imports and exports MOV
Canva	Yes, as an uploaded video	Up to 1 GB; ProRes 422 is supported, ProRes 4444 is not; 4K uploads are stored at 1080p

Sources: Apple, Export movies in QuickTime Player, iPhone 17 Pro technical specifications, Final Cut Pro supported media formats; Microsoft, Codecs in Media Player and File types supported by Windows Media Player; Android, Supported media formats; Chromium, Audio/Video; MDN, Web video codec guide; VideoLAN, VLC features and VLC 3.0.0; Blackmagic Design, DaVinci Resolve 21 supported codec list (September 2026); Adobe, ProRes export on Windows (10 December 2018) and Supported file formats in Photoshop (updated 9 June 2026); Canva, Check file upload formats and requirements. Read 27 October 2026.

How to convert it

Route	How	What the conversion loses
Mac, QuickTime Player	File > Export As, choose a resolution	Re-encodes to H.264 or HEVC in MOV; transparency is kept only when exporting an alpha source such as ProRes 4444 to HEVC
Mac, Finder	Control-click the file > Encode Selected Video Files	Re-encodes; the higher-quality or more-compatible choice sets the codec
FFmpeg, change container only	ffmpeg -i clip.mov -c copy -map 0 clip.mp4	Nothing, when MP4 accepts every codec in the file; -map 0 keeps all audio tracks, which FFmpeg otherwise reduces to one
FFmpeg, MOV to H.264 MP4	ffmpeg -i clip.mov -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac clip.mp4	ProRes quality, 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 colour reduced to 4:2:0, the alpha channel, and extra audio tracks without -map 0
FFmpeg, to ProRes	ffmpeg -i clip.mp4 -c:v prores_ks -profile:v hq clip.mov	Apple lists FFmpeg's ProRes as an unauthorised implementation that may produce decoding errors
Freedam	Plays the file as an H.264 stream in the browser; downloads give the original MOV	The stream is 4:2:0 and at most 1080p; the original is untouched

Sources: Apple, Export movies in QuickTime Player, QuickTime Player automation tips, Authorized Apple ProRes products; FFmpeg, ffmpeg documentation, codecs. Read 27 October 2026.

How to convert it with AI

An AI assistant that can run commands on your computer, such as a coding agent in a terminal, can install FFmpeg, the open-source video tool and run the conversion for you. Paste a prompt like this one, change the folder names, and read each command the assistant proposes before you approve it: it runs with your permissions on your files.

Install FFmpeg on this computer (Homebrew on macOS, apt on Debian or Ubuntu, winget on Windows) and check that `ffmpeg -version` works.

Then, for every .mov file in the folder ~/Videos/mov, check its codecs with ffprobe. If its video is H.264 or HEVC and its audio is AAC, change the container to MP4 without re-encoding and keep every track:
ffmpeg -i clip.mov -c copy -map 0 clip.mp4

Otherwise, for example for ProRes, re-encode to H.264 and AAC:
ffmpeg -i clip.mov -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac clip.mp4

Write the MP4 files to a new folder ~/Videos/mp4 and keep the originals unchanged. When you have finished, tell me which files were copied and which were re-encoded, and list any that failed, with the error.

MOV in Freedam

Freedam accepts .mov files in the asset library, including H.264, HEVC and ProRes video, and stores the original unchanged.

• Preview: FFmpeg extracts a poster frame, trying 2 seconds into the video first and then later points (10 and 30 seconds, 1, 2 and 5 minutes) when the frame is nearly black. Frames at 10, 25, 50 and 75% of the duration are offered as alternative covers, and a custom cover image can be uploaded.
• Renditions: the poster frame gets the same WebP sizes as an image. For playback, Freedam encodes an adaptive HLS stream in H.264 and AAC, in 6-second segments, at 1080p (5 Mbit/s), 720p (3 Mbit/s), 480p (1.5 Mbit/s) and 360p (0.8 Mbit/s), skipping sizes larger than the source. ProRes and other 4:2:2 sources are converted to 4:2:0 for the stream, so a ProRes master plays in the browser without being downloaded.
• Downloads: the original MOV file, or a watermarked copy when the access rules require one.
• Metadata: on upload Freedam reads the duration, bitrate, video codec, width, height and frame rate, the audio codec, channels and sample rate, and the container, and checks the file for Content Credentials. The description, keywords, creator and copyright notice in the file's IPTC or XMP fields fill the asset's own fields.

Frequently asked questions

Is MOV the same as MP4?

No. MP4 is derived from the QuickTime file format, so the two have the same structure, but they are not fully interchangeable. A MOV file whose codecs MP4 also supports, such as H.264 and AAC, can usually be changed to MP4 without re-encoding.

How do I play a MOV file on Windows?

The Windows Media Player app plays H.264 video out of the box and HEVC with the HEVC Video Extension from the Microsoft Store. VLC also lists MOV among its input formats. For ProRes, Blackmagic Design lists ProRes decoding on Windows in DaVinci Resolve.

Why are ProRes files so large?

ProRes compresses each frame on its own, so editing software can decode any frame without reading its neighbours. ProRes 422 HQ runs at about 220 Mbit/s for 1080p video at 29.97 frames per second, and Apple says ProRes files from an iPhone are up to 30 times larger than HEVC.