What is a MOV file?
MOV — QuickTime Apple
What is it?
MOV is Apple's video format, the one recorded by iPhones and used by the company's own editing software. It's a flexible container capable of holding multiple video, audio, subtitle and timecode tracks.
It is the ancestor of MP4: when the MPEG group looked for a model to standardize its container, it borrowed the structure of QuickTime. The two formats remain so close that converting one to the other can often be done without recompressing the image.
History & origin
Apple launched QuickTime in 1991 — well before video on computers was taken for granted — and the MOV format came with it.
It has remained the reference format in production circles: ProRes, a codec widely used in professional editing, is housed inside a MOV container.
Why it is useful
Flawless quality and remarkable flexibility for editing, with support for multiple tracks and precise timecode.
Within the Apple ecosystem, everything works without any configuration.
Limits & drawbacks
Outside that ecosystem, playback can be less reliable, particularly with professional codecs that Windows doesn't recognize natively.
Files coming out of an editing session are often very large, since they're barely compressed if at all — this is a working format, not a delivery one.
Practical tips
To share or publish a video shot on an iPhone, convert it to MP4: the conversion is fast, with no noticeable loss in quality, and the file becomes playable on virtually any device.
Keep the MOV file if you plan to edit the footage: you'll preserve the best possible quality at the start of your workflow.
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