MOV to MP4 Converter
Convert iPhone and QuickTime MOV files to MP4. Most files finish in seconds with zero quality loss.
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MOV and MP4 Are Closer Than They Look
MOV is Apple’s QuickTime container, introduced in 1991. MP4 is the ISO standard that came later — and it was built directly on top ofthe QuickTime file format, which Apple submitted as the starting point for the MPEG-4 specification. The two formats share the same internal structure of nested “atoms” or “boxes”, and most of the time they hold exactly the same thing inside: H.264 video and AAC audio.
That family resemblance is why this conversion is usually so fast. When the video inside your MOV is already H.264, there is nothing to re-encode. This tool simply rewrites the container around the untouched video and audio streams — a process called remuxing. A five-minute iPhone clip finishes in a few seconds, and the picture is bit-for-bit identical to the original. No generation loss, no softening, no re-compression.
When re-encoding is unavoidable
Some MOV files hold codecs that MP4 cannot legally or practically carry. The tool detects this and re-encodes only when it has to:
- Apple ProRes — the editing codec used by Final Cut and by iPhone’s ProRes recording mode. Enormous files, and no consumer player expects ProRes inside MP4, so it gets converted to H.264.
- HEVC / H.265 — what recent iPhones record by default in “High Efficiency” mode. It can live in an MP4, and this tool keeps it as-is, but older players may still refuse it. If your target device is old, convert to H.264 with the WebM/MP4 tools instead.
- PCM or ALAC audio — uncompressed or Apple Lossless audio tracks get converted to AAC, which every MP4 player understands.
- Animation, Motion JPEG, or DV — legacy QuickTime codecs from older cameras and screen recorders.
After conversion the tool tells you which path it took, so you know whether the result is a lossless copy or a re-encode.
Why iPhone Videos Cause So Much Trouble on Windows
Send a video from an iPhone to a Windows PC and it often arrives as a .mov that Windows Media Player refuses, or that plays with sound but no picture. Two separate things are usually going on. First, the container is QuickTime, which Windows handles inconsistently. Second, since iOS 11 the iPhone records in HEVC by default, and HEVC decoding on Windows requires a codec extension that is not installed out of the box.
Converting to MP4 fixes the container problem immediately. If the file still won’t play, the codec is the culprit — in the iPhone’s Settings, under Camera → Formats, switching from “High Efficiency” to “Most Compatible” makes future recordings use H.264 instead.
How to Use
- Drag in a .mov file, or click to browse. Nothing is uploaded — the file stays in your browser.
- Click Convert to MP4. The tool inspects the streams first and picks the fastest safe route.
- If it reports “Copying streams”, you are getting a lossless remux and it will finish in seconds.
- If it reports a re-encode, expect roughly 1–3 minutes per minute of 1080p footage.
- Preview the result, then click Download MP4.
Technical notes
- Fast path: H.264 or HEVC video with AAC audio is copied stream-for-stream, no re-encode
- Slow path: anything else becomes H.264 (CRF 23) with AAC audio at 128 kbps
- Streams kept: the first video track and the first audio track. Timecode tracks and QuickTime-only metadata tracks are dropped, because MP4 players ignore them anyway
- faststart: the index is moved to the front of the file so it can start playing before it fully downloads
- Rotation: the orientation flag is carried over, so portrait phone video stays portrait
- Not preserved: multiple audio languages, chapter markers, and embedded subtitle tracks
FAQ
Will I lose quality?
In the common case, no — not even a little. When the video is already H.264 or HEVC, the picture data is copied across untouched and the output is mathematically identical to the input. Quality only changes if the tool reports a re-encode, which happens with ProRes and other editing codecs.
Why did it finish in three seconds?
Because nothing had to be re-compressed. Remuxing is essentially a file-rewriting operation: read the video packets, write them into a different envelope. It runs at disk speed rather than encoder speed.
Can I just rename the .mov to .mp4?
Sometimes it works, and that is exactly why it is a bad habit. The containers are similar enough that lenient players will accept a renamed file, but stricter ones — and most editing software and upload validators — read the internal structure and reject it. Remuxing produces a genuinely valid MP4 instead of one that happens to survive a lenient parser.
Is my video really not uploaded?
Correct. The conversion runs inside your browser tab through FFmpeg compiled to WebAssembly. There is no server involved, which is also why there is no queue, no size-based paywall, and no watermark.
My file is bigger than 300 MB.
Browser memory is the constraint — the whole file has to fit in the tab. For larger footage, desktop FFmpeg runs the identical command: ffmpeg -i input.mov -c copy -movflags faststart output.mp4.
Does the file size change?
Barely. A remux only swaps the container overhead, so the output usually lands within a percent or two of the original. If you actually want a smaller file, use the video compressor instead — that one re-encodes on purpose.
What happened to my subtitles?
They are dropped. QuickTime subtitle tracks and MP4 subtitle tracks use different formats, and silently mistranslating them causes more problems than it solves. If you need burned-in subtitles, that has to be done during a re-encode with a dedicated tool.
⚠️ Reference Only
Output is generated based on your input and is provided for reference. Results may vary depending on your specific use case, edge cases, or environment-specific behavior. We do not guarantee accuracy of conversions, validations, or computed values.
Always verify critical outputs against official documentation or production environments. We are not responsible for any decisions or losses based on these tool results.