Convert Mov To Mp4 On Mac Free

It also lets you record video in iMovie and QuickTime on Mac to save video as MP4. How to Free Convert QuickTime MOV to MP4 Online. When you get a QuickTime MOV movie, you can also choose to convert it to MP4. If you prefer a free way to make the conversion, you can give some online converter a try. Click 'Save' to make a MP4 video copy of the original MOV file. In this way, you can free convert MOV to MP4 on Mac. How to free convert MOV to MP4 on Mac with iMovie. You can also rely on iMovie to convert MOV to MP4 free on Mac. IMovie is a powerful and professional video editor for Apple users to edit media files on Mac and iPhone/iPad. This page includes several effective and free ways to help you convert MOV to MP4 on Windows 10 and Mac. It also explains the differences between MOV and MP4 and answers whether converting MOV to MP4 loses quality. Now, read this article to learn more about converting MOV into MP4 on Windows or Mac computers. You can also make use of the free Preview feature that will be available once the MOV or MP4 video file is fixed. Convert MOV File to MP4 Using VLC: Step 1: Launch VLC Media Player and select Media Convert/ Save from the top toolbar. Step 2: In the next screen, click on Add and select the MOV file that you wish to convert to MP4. Choose the Converter menu on the top toolbar. Click the + icon to add your QuickTime MOV files or drag them into the program directly. Then choose your target QuickTime MOV file on the pop-up window. Click the Convert All To option to select the MP4 format on the top-right from the Video tab.

Summary :

MP4 is one of the most popular video formats; you can see it everywhere on the internet and most systems, programs & apps give support to this format. However, you still need to convert an MP4 video to another format in some cases. For instance, QuickTime Player can't open MP4, so you need to convert MP4 to MOV to play the video.

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Both MP4 and MOV are two commonly used formats for video files. It’s not easy to decide which one to use while making videos. However, you can know clearly which is better for you after reading the introduction to MP4 & MOV file formats and the brief comparison between them in part 1. Then (in part 2), MiniTool will show you how to convert from MP4 to MOV and vice versa in a few simple steps when necessary. After that (in part 3), some useful solutions to fix the issue when your QuickTime Player can't open MP4 will be provided.

Part 1: MP4 vs MOV

What Is MP4

MP4, also referred to as MPEG-4 Part 14, is a digital multimedia container format for storing video data and other relevant data needed for playing the video (like audio data, subtitles, and still images). The first version of MP4 file format was out dating back to 2001. In two decades of rapid development, MP4 has already become a standard in the industry. MP4 is so popular that all the common operating systems, media players, and gaming devices can support it.

MP4 is developed based on the MOV file format (which will be talked about later); the video data in it is highly compressed without losing too much quality. That’s why the size of an MP4 file is smaller than that of other video file types. Besides, MP4 can be used as a base of other multimedia files, such as 3GP and Motion JPEG 2000.

What Is MOV

Mp4

MOV, also known as QuickTime File Format or QTFF, is another popular digital multimedia container format designed by Apple for its QuickTime Player. MOV works best on iOS or Mac OS; almost all Apple products and video players can support MOV since Apple created it. MOV is widely used in videos, movies, and other multimedia files.

Convert Mov To Mp4 Adobe

The concept of tracks was adopted in MOV to store data: a particular type of data is kept on a track. Many such tracks present in the MOV container simultaneously to hold different types of data: video data, audio data, text data, etc. The lossy compression algorithm is used in MOV format to reduce the video size.

Main Similarities & Differences between MOV & MP4

MP4 and MOV share the following in common:

  • Both MP4 and MOV are popular file containers compatible across multiple platforms.
  • MP4 and MOV both keep the highly compressed data.
  • The size of MP4 and MOV files is smaller than videos stored in other formats.
  • The MPEG-4 format can be used by both the MP4 and MOV container formats.

MP4 and MOV are different from each other in the following aspects:

  • You’ll find an increase in the file size if you convert MP4 to MOV.
  • MOV was released by Apple Inc. in 1998 for QuickTime Player while MP4 was released by the International Organization for Standardization in 2001 as an international standard.
  • MP4 is more popular than MOV; it can be used in almost all operating systems (except for iOS/macOS), media players, and other applications.

Which Video Format to Choose

When to use MOV?

  • MOV is a better choice than MP4 in a professional environment since MOV supports codecs preferred by common professional editors.
  • If you tend to use the video files on Mac, MOV is quite safe and efficient.

When to use MP4?

  • If you want to use or share videos across platforms, MP4 is a good choice since it's a universal file format.
  • Most streaming platforms recommend you to use MP4 over MOV since it can work with much more streaming protocols.

Part 2: Convert MP4 to MOV Windows 10

How to play MP4 videos Windows 10:

  • Double click on the MP4 video and wait.
  • Right click on the MP4 file -> select Open with -> select a player in the list or click Choose another app to select another player.
  • Open the Windows Media Player or a third-party media player -> follow the on-screen instructions to add videos to the player.

You can use the same ways to play MOV videos on Windows 10. However, when trying to play MOV in Windows Media Player (the built-in player in Windows systems), you may receive the Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file error message. In this case, you need to fix the problem by:

  • Converting your video from MOV to MP4
  • Adding codecs to Windows Media Player
  • Repairing corrupted MOV videos
  • Troubleshooting Windows Media Player
  • Disabling & re-enabling drivers

Use MiniTool Video Converter

How to convert MP4 to MOV (.mp4 to .mov) on Windows 10?

Step 1, you should download a professional MP4 to MOV converter like MiniTool Video Converter.

Please get to know about the software before using it for video conversion to confirm that it won’t bring any damage to your data and system.

Step 2, you should install the software by initializing the setup wizard and following the on-screen instructions carefully.

  1. Double click on the setup file.
  2. Choose Yes in the User Account Control window.
  3. Click Install Now. You can also choose Custom Installation to change the default language and installation path before that.
  4. Wait for the installation to complete.
  5. Click Start Now or close the window currently & run the software later.

Step 3, you should add MP4 videos and convert them to MOV file format.

  1. Please add the MP4 videos you want to convert into the software by clicking on the Add Files icon/Add Files button at the top left or the big Add Files icon in the middle. If you want to add MP4 files via drag & drop, please close the software and re-launch.
  2. Navigate to the target video files -> select them -> click Open.
  3. Click on the edit button after Target to change the file name and output path for each file. Or click on the down arrow after Output to specify a storage location for all files.
  4. Click on the edit button under Target to select MOV as the target format and choose a resolution for each file. You can also click on the down arrow after Convert all files to to specify the target file format with a favorable resolution.
  5. Click on the Convert button after each file to start conversion separately. Also, you can select all MP4 videos and click on the Convert All button in the lower right corner to batch convert them.

Step 4, you should check the converted files.

  1. Shift to the Converted tab.
  2. Click on the Show in Folder button after each file to check them.
  3. You can also navigate to the output path you set to view the converted files manually.

By viewing the converted files in File Explorer, you’ll find the file extension is changed from .mp4 to .mov.

Convert .mov To Mp4 On Mac Free

Note: MiniTool Video Converter can also be used as a MOV to MP4 converter. You only need to load the MOV videos you want to convert and choose MP4 with a desired resolution as the output format in step 3 mentioned above. Other steps to convert MOV to MP4 are the same as that to convert MP4 to MOV. After the conversion, the file extension will be changed from .mov to .mp4.

Are there other choices for MP4 to MOV conversion? Of course, yes. A lot of converters are available for you to use for MP4 to MOV or MOV to MP4 conversion. Besides, you can use the free online converters directly to change the format of your video files.

Use FormatFactory

There are a lot of converters you can download to convert MP4 to MOV on Windows. Let’s just take FormatFactory as an example.

  1. Download, install, and run the FormatFactory app.
  2. Select Video in the left pane.
  3. Click -> AVI WMV MPG…. under Video (these formats, including MOV, are not listed separately).
  4. Click on the down arrow after Out Format to open the drop-down menu.
  5. Select MOV from the list and click Output Setting if you’d like to change the advanced settings like Video Encode, Video Size, Bitrate, etc.
  6. Click on the Add Folder icon to add an entire folder containing MP4 files or the Add Files button to add one or more MP4 files.
  7. Click on the Folder icon at the bottom to select a folder as the destination to store converted files.
  8. Click on the OK button in the bottom right corner.
  9. Select Start from the top menu and wait for the conversion to end.
  10. You can click on the File Information icon to browse the detailed information; click on the Open Output Folder icon to view converted videos, or click on the Play icon to play the converted files directly.

Popular Online Converters

Also, many free converters are provided for you to choose from online. Please follow this guide to convert MP4 to MOV directly on the internet.

  1. Open the browser you usually use: e.g. Chrome.
  2. Type MP4 to MOV into the search box and press Enter.
  3. Choose an online converter you prefer from the searching results.

I choose CloudConvert since it ranks first on my browser.

  1. Click on the Select File button in the middle.
  2. Navigate to the storage path of your MP4 file, select it, and click Open.
  3. If you want to load MP4 files By URL, From Google Drive, From Dropbox, or From OneDrive, you should click the down arrow after the Select File button.
  4. Click on the Convert button and then wait for the uploading and converting process to finish.
  5. Click on the Download button and wait until the downloading process is completed.
  6. Click on the Show in folder link in the Chrome downloads page or navigate to the Downloads folder on your Windows 10 PC manually.
  7. Now, you can check or play the converted video files.

That’s all about how to perform conversion from MP4 to MOV on a Windows PC.

Part 3: QuickTime Player Can't Open MP4

When users are trying to play MP4 on Mac using QuickTime Player, they may fail and receive the QuickTime Player can't open MP4 error.

  • QuickTime Player can't open “filename”.
  • The document “filename” could not be opened.

Two of the most possible reasons for causing this error are 1.the MP4 file itself is corrupted or damaged; 2. your MP4 is in an older or specialized media format that can't be compatible with QuickTime Player.

Convert Mov To Mp4 On Mac Free

How to Fix When QuickTime Player Won’t Play MP4

Choice 1: search for an app that works with your MP4 file.

You may have installed another app that can support the file format of the MP4 video you try to play.

  1. Open Finder as you usually do.
  2. Locate the MP4 file you want to play.
  3. Right click (or control-click) on it.
  4. Select Open With from the pop-up menu.
  5. Choose from the installed apps in the list that your Mac thinks might be able to open the MP4 file.

If this method failed, please go to search the Internet or Mac App Store for applications that are able to play the current MP4 file.

Choice 2: update QuickTime Player.

  1. Open QuickTime Player on your Mac.
  2. Select Help to see its drop-down menu.
  3. Choose Update Existing Software.
  4. Click Check for update now and follow the instructions to continue.

QuickTime 7 and above can deal with MP4 files as well as other formats. But you should note that QuickTime 7 pro is not a free player.

Choice 3: convert MP4 to MOV.

You have 3 options for MP4 to MOV Mac.

  • First, copy the MP4 videos to a USB disk -> connect it to a Windows PC -> convert MP4 to MOV by using the converters mentioned in part 2.
  • Second, search the Internet or Mac App Store for a converter that works with MP4 files on Mac.
  • Third, open a browser -> search for an online MP4 to MOV converter -> convert files under in-page guidance.

Choice 4 (the last choice): download the MP4 codec pack.

If the video/audio codec used by MP4 is not included in the QuickTime Player built-in codec pack, you can go to CENT (or Softonic) to download the MP4 codec pack for QuickTime as a supplementary.

Attention:

This approach is since it not 100% safe for your computer since it might bring along adware/malware. I advise you to take other choices if possible.

Part 4: Wrap Things up

Both Windows and Mac users sometimes need to convert a video file from MP4 to MOV. This page introduces MP4 and MOV in brief; then, it lists the main differences between them to help you decide which one to choose. After that, several useful ways to convert MP4 to MOV (and vice versa) are shown to you step by step. Hope this can help you deal with the MP4 to MOV or MOV to MP4 issues.

MOV is a relatively popular video format which widely known by Apple users. But in many cases, you need to convert MOV to MP4 for better support on some media players and platforms. This post will show you other effective ways to free convert MOV to MP4 on Mac and Windows computer with 5 online converters, iMovie and QuickTime.

5 best free online MOV to MP4 converters

Free way is always your first choice, whether you want to convert MOV to MP4, or do other conversions. When you Google how to convert MOV to MP4, you can see that most results leading to free online converters. This part will recommend 5 best ones from them for you to choose from.

cloudconvert

https://cloudconvert.com/mov-to-mp4

cloudconvert is one very popular free online converter which can help you convert MOV to MP4 with ease. Besides MOV, it is compatible with other video/audio formats like AVI, MKV, FLV, WMV, MPEG, AAC, MP3, FALC, and more. You are allowed to easily make conversion among 218 formats.

cloudconvert enables you to upload video from local hard drive, URL, DropBox and more. What's more, when you convert MOV to MP4, you will get basic information about these two formats. You will get better understanding about the formats. The disadvantage of this free online MOV to MP4 converter is that, you will have a long-time uploading and downloading. What's worse, you are more likely to get a failed download result.

ONLINE-CONVERT

https://video.online-convert.com/convert-to-mp4

ONLINE-CONVERT is a famous online MP4 video converter which lets you easily convert MOV to MP4 format. It isn't designed with a concise interface. But as soon as you enter this site, you will know ONLINE-CONVERT is an all-featured converting tool. The free online MOV to MP4 conversion is quite easy. It provides many output settings to guarantee you get a suitable converted MP4 file.

ZAMZAR

https://www.zamzar.com/convert/mov-to-mp4/

ZAMZAR is one powerful and popular online video converter which is compatible with over 1200 different conversions. This free online MOV to MP4 converter enables you to convert video, audio, ebook, picture and other files. After converting, you can directly download the converted MP4 video to your computer.

Convertio

https://convertio.co/mov-mp4/

Convertio is an all-featured online file converting software. Besides converting MOV to MP4 free online, it also carries other video/audio, document, ebook, etc. converting features. Click on 'From Computer' or 'From Dropbox/Google Drive/URL', you can easily upload the .mov file you want to convert. Choose the output format as MP4, and then click on red 'Convert' button to convert MOV to MP4 free online.

FreeFileConvert

https://www.freefileconvert.com/mov-mp4

FreeFileConvert is an easy-to-use online MOV to MP4 video converter. It allows you to import video from computer, URL and cloud service. Similar to cloudconvert, it also give you information about MOV and MP4, more detailed. It only offers some popular output video and audio formats like MP4, AVI, WMV, 3GP, and AAC, AC3, MP3, FLAC and so on. Same drawback, this free MOV to MP4 converter takes really long time to upload video, even for some small-size media files.

Online converters provides a simple choice to make the conversion like MOV to MP4, MP4 to MOV, or MP4 to MP3. While through our tests, we have to remind you first, you will get a failed conversion due to bad network connections or other reasons.

How to convert MOV to MP4 on Mac with QuickTime

If you are using a Mac and want to convert MOV to MP4 on Mac, you can turn to the default media player, QuickTime. QuickTime has the capability to play MOV and convert MOV to MP4 free. You can take the following guide to convert MOV to MP4 on Mac.

Compress Mov

Step 1. Launch QuickTime on Mac.

Step 2. Click 'File' > 'Open File' to import the MOV video you want to convert.

Step 3. Click 'File' again, and this time you need to click on 'Export' option.

Step 4. Click the 'Export As' and then select 'Movie to MPEG-4.' Here you can select a destination file folder for the converted file.

Step 5. Click 'Save' to make a MP4 video copy of the original MOV file. In this way, you can free convert MOV to MP4 on Mac.

How to free convert MOV to MP4 on Mac with iMovie

You can also rely on iMovie to convert MOV to MP4 free on Mac. iMovie is a powerful and professional video editor for Apple users to edit media files on Mac and iPhone/iPad. Actually, it is also able to save MOV video as MP4. This next steps will show you detailed information how to do that.

Step 1. Open iMovie app on Mac. You can click 'Finder' and then choose 'Applications' from the left-side pane if you can't find iMovie in Mac dock.

Step 2. When iMovie is launched, click File and then choose Import Media... option from the drop-down list.

Step 3. Choose the MOV video you want to convert and then click the Import Selected button on the bottom-right corner. Then the video will be loaded to iMovie.

Step 4. Click File > Share > File... to prepare saving MOV as MP4. Here, you can also upload the movies from iMovie to YouTube, iTunes, Vimeo, etc., directly.

You can handily adjust video tags, format, resolution, quality and compress in the new pop-up window. Then click Next... button to confirm the operation to convert MOV to MP4 on Mac.

Note: You can click Share icon on the top-right corner to directly save original MOV as MP4.

Professional way to convert MOV to MP4 on Mac and Windows PC

iMovie is a good choice to free convert MOV to MP4 on Mac. Moreover, many editing features are designed in this powerful video editor to help you edit video and adjust its output effects. While the bad thing is, iMovie is a little bit complex for many users. Here we sincerely introduce you with a great video editor and converter, Video Converter Ultimate. It carries many editing functions to make sure you output a MOV file you really like.

Convert Mov File To Mp4 Mac Free

Step 1. Click the download button above to install and launch this professional MOV to MP4 converter on your computer. Choose the right version based on your operating system.

Step 2. Click Add File to import the MOV videos you want to convert. You are allowed to convert one or more MOV files to MP4 at a time.

Step 3. As it mentioned above, many editing features like rotate, clip, crop, merge, adjust effects, enhance quality and more are offered in this MOV to MP4 converter. So before the final MOV to MP4 conversion, you can edit video and customize the output effects. It has a built-in media player to ensure you preview the changes.

If you are not satisfied with the original audio track or subtitle, you can change or add audio track and subtitle for the output videos with ease.

Step 4. Click Profile and select MP4 as the target format from the drop down list. Then click Convert button to start the video conversion from MOV to MP4. There won't be any image or sound quality loss during the conversion. And the MOV to MP4 conversion will be complete in a quite short time.

Part 5: FAQs of Converting MOV to MP4

Convert Mov To Mp4 Free

What are the differences between MOV and MP4?

Here’s a detailed comparison between MOV and MP4:
MOV V.S. MP4

Convert Mov Files To Mp4

Can VLC convert MOV to MP4?

Yes, you can use VLC to convert videos between MOV and MP4. You need to download and install VLC first. Then, launch it on your computer. Click the Add button to add the MOV file. Next, click the Convert/Save option to enter the Convert window, and then choose Video - H.265 + (MP3) MP4 as the target format. In the end, click the Start button to make the conversion.

How do I convert MOV to MP4 on my Android phone?

There are many video conversion apps on Android phone supporting the conversion from MOV to MP4 such as Video Format Factory, VidSoftLab – Video Converter, Video Transcoder, etc.

After reading this post, you can easily convert MOV to MP4, whether you want to free convert MOV to MP4 on Mac with iMovie or QuickTime, or make the conversion on Windows computer with free online converters, you can easily get what you need. Leave us a message if you still have any doubt.