MP4 to MOV
An MP4 is what everything writes and everything plays
…
- 1
Where your MP4 came from
An MP4 is what everything writes and everything plays. If you are converting away from one, it is because something specific wants a different box.
- 2
Why you are converting it
Final Cut Pro, Compressor and older Apple workflows ask for MOV by name, and some of them will not import an MP4 at all even though the video inside is identical.
- 3
The thing that decides the wait
Usually nothing. H.264 goes into a MOV as it stands, so the picture is copied rather than re-encoded and the conversion is close to file copy speed.
FAQ
- How do I convert MP4 to MOV?
- Drop the file on this page and press the button. It runs in your browser, so there is no upload, no account and no daily limit.
- Why will my software not open a MP4 file?
- Nothing refuses an MP4. What wants something else is usually an Apple editing workflow asking for MOV, or a web page that would rather serve a smaller WebM.
- Is there anything odd about MP4?
- Going out of MP4 is the one direction where compatibility gets worse on purpose, in exchange for something else: a smaller file, or a container a particular editor prefers.
- Why MOV specifically?
- Usually nothing. H.264 goes into a MOV as it stands, so the picture is copied rather than re-encoded and the conversion is close to file copy speed.
- Is the file uploaded?
- No. The video is opened and written back out in the page. No request carries it anywhere, which the network panel will show you while it runs.