MOV File Format

MOV files are typically found on devices that use iOS like iPad, iPhone and others. This is explained by that fact that MOV file extension was originally designed for Apple’s iTunes and QuickTime. No wonder why if you’re recording video using Apple device it will end having MOV extension. Let’s discover more about this format.

MOV files are an Apple QuickTime Movie files. Those files are stored in a QuickTime File Format, uses Apple’s proprietary compression algorithms and usually hold audio, video and text data in the same file which leads to a large amount of options regarding subtitling, adding various metadata and ripping audio from the video.

The type of video container used in MOV files is MPEG-4 video container. This is one of the reasons why MOV files are supported by almost every operating system and not only by iOS.

MOV files are huge and require a lot of storage space on the device. This leads to common problem when it comes to keeping a lot of MOV files in one device. The following part of the article is going to describe ways how to open, edit and compress MOV files.

How to Open, Create, Edit and Compress MOV file

To create an MOV file you should record a video using an Apple device. This is not the only way to create a MOV file, but one of the most common and simple ones. If you want to take videos in MOV on your non-Apple device, please check if the settings could be changed to allow your device record in MOV. In the case when this option is unavailable consider converting your video files to MOV afterwards.

To open a MOV file you will need a QuickTime video player. This MOV file player is pre-installed on Mac and iOS and can be installed on Windows. To open the file while using Apple device, double-click or tap on the video. It will start playing very soon.

By the way, you don’t need to install QuickTime if you already have VLC or Windows Media Player on your computer. If those programs are installed, double-clicking will trigger video to play as well. If you don’t have neither of those programs on your computer then download open-source MOV player VLC for free.

VLC player also works for Mac in case if the QuickTime doesn’t suit your needs good enough or became corrupted over time.

You can also play MOV files online in condition of uploading your files to Google Drive or any other online cloud storages. Pay attention to that fact that playing videos online consume a lot of traffic so it’s better to watch MOV files while connected to Wi-Fi.

It wouldn’t be a problem to play MOV file on iOS supported device, but as for Android devices you should download VLC player for Android. As its PC version the VLC Mobile Video Player is available in Google Store for free.

To edit MOV file there are a few MOV file editors found online for free. We will name some of them, but of course, there are more MOV editors that can be downloaded online. Filmora Video Editor, Avidemux, and Movavi provide free and simple software to work with MOV files. You can easily split, trim, merge, crop, add metadata, transitions and background music to MOV files using those programs.

To address the problem of compressing large MOV files you can use Movavi video editor or request help of one of the MOV file compressors available online like youcompress.com or keepvid.com’s video compression tool.

Take notice that meddling with compression of the MOV file can possibly lead to data and quality losses so proceed with caution and don’t delete the original video until you make sure that compressed file is perfect for you.

How to Convert MOV to Other Formats

It’s very easy to convert MOV file to another format since there are a lot of comfortable solutions available: both online and offline.

To convert MOV to any format you can use one of these video converters: Any Video Converter Free (fast and has bonus filters), Freemake Video Converter (quick and flexible), Free HD Video Converter Factory (easy to use and has editing tools built-in). Of course, there are more solutions on the Internet.

If you’d like to skip the downloading software, use online MOV converters like video.online-convert.com, convertfiles.com, freefileconvert.com and many others.

Hope this page helped you to get every bit of information about MOV file you needed!