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MOV
What is a MOV file?
The Apple video container. What iPhones and most editing software produce.
What MOV is
MOV is a container: a wrapper that holds streams encoded by something else. It is used for editing and broadcast.
The extension is .mov, and the full name is QuickTime Movie. Both matter less than what the file can hold, which is what the rest of this page is about.
Where MOV came from
Apple published it in 1991. The specification is QuickTime File Format.
A format that has been readable for that long is a format worth trusting with something you want back in ten years.
The specification is published, but by its owner
It is written down and implementable, though the vendor decides what the next version looks like. In practice that is enough for the file to keep opening; it is not enough to be sure of it.
It can be transparent
MOV carries an alpha channel, so a logo keeps its soft edges over whatever sits behind it instead of arriving in a white box.
MOV is a box, and the codec is what is in it
It usually holds H.264, HEVC and ProRes. This is the distinction behind most "why will this not play" questions: two files with the same extension can contain entirely different encodings, and a player that refuses one may be perfectly happy with the other.
It also explains why changing container is often fast and lossless while changing codec is neither. Moving the same stream into a different box rewrites the box; re-encoding rewrites the picture.
What else it can carry
MOV can hold several audio tracks and subtitle tracks.
That matters mostly when converting: whatever the target cannot hold is dropped, usually without a warning.
What opens MOV
Final Cut Pro, QuickTime Player and Adobe Premiere Pro read it, and so do most programs of the same kind.
If a file will not open, the format is rarely the problem — it is more often that the program predates it. Converting to something older is the reliable way past that, and it is what the rest of this site is for.
Opening it in a browser
Only some browsers read it.
Where support is uneven, serving a second format alongside it is the usual answer — the browser takes the one it understands and nobody is left out.
It is a working format
MOV is meant to be opened and changed. Keep the file in this format for as long as the work is going on, and export from it whenever a finished copy is needed.
The facts, in one place
| Extension | .mov, .qt |
|---|---|
| Media type | video/quicktime |
| Published by | Apple |
| First published | 1991 |
| Specification | QuickTime File Format |