Convert MOV to MP4
Turn QuickTime and iPhone recordings into MP4 files that play on Windows, Android, smart TVs and every editor. When the video inside is already H.264 it is copied across untouched — no quality lost, and seconds rather than minutes.
- Never stored
- No queue, no waiting
- No signup, no watermark
How it works
Add your MOV
Drop the file. You are shown its length, size, picture size and which codecs are inside.
Keep or convert
H.264 video is copied as it is. HEVC — what newer iPhones record — is converted to H.264 so that older players and editors can open it.
Download the MP4
Same picture, same sound, in the container everything understands.
Two names for very nearly the same thing
MOV and MP4 are closer relatives than any other pair of video formats. The MP4 specification was built from QuickTime's file format, and the two still share the same internal structure — the same boxes, in the same arrangement, holding the same kinds of data. A .mov from an iPhone contains H.264 or H.265 video with AAC sound, which is precisely what an MP4 holds, so the conversion moves the tracks across without decoding them. It takes seconds and loses nothing, and calling it a conversion slightly overstates what happened.
That is the common case. The exception is professional footage, and it is a large exception: a .mov straight out of a camera or an edit suite may hold ProRes, DNxHD or an uncompressed format, which have no place in an MP4 and must be genuinely re-encoded. Expect that to take real time and to change the file dramatically — ProRes runs to gigabytes per minute precisely because it is built for editing rather than for delivery, and the H.264 that comes out is a small fraction of the size and no longer suitable for grading.
If your MOV has transparency, this conversion will destroy it silently. ProRes 4444 and QuickTime Animation can carry an alpha channel, used for titles, logos and overlays; H.264 in an MP4 cannot carry one at all. There is no warning that a format can give here, because the result is a perfectly valid video that simply has a black or white background where the transparency was. Keep the MOV if the clip is meant to sit over something else.
The extra tracks a MOV carries do not come across: timecode, which an editor uses to synchronise takes; camera metadata about the lens and settings; and any additional audio or subtitle tracks beyond the first of each. The page says when something was left behind. For an iPhone clip none of this matters; for footage going back into an edit, it may matter a great deal.
When you want something else
For footage that is going to be edited rather than watched, do not convert it. ProRes and DNxHD are large on purpose — they decode cheaply and survive repeated re-encoding, which is what an editing timeline needs. Turning them into H.264 to save disk space makes every subsequent step slower and every export worse.
ffmpeg does the same remux while keeping what this drops: ffmpeg -i in.mov -c copy -map 0 out.mp4 carries every track, including timecode. If a re-encode really is needed, -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -preset slow gives a visually lossless result, and it is worth running on a machine that can spend the time.
Frequently asked questions
Does converting lose quality?
Not when the video is copied: MOV and MP4 are two wrappers around the same kinds of video, so an H.264 MOV becomes an H.264 MP4 with the picture bytes untouched. Only HEVC and ProRes files have to be re-encoded, and those are done at high quality.
Why will my iPhone MOV not play on Windows?
Two reasons. Either it is a QuickTime wrapper Windows Media Player never learned, or it is HEVC, which older Windows versions cannot decode without a paid codec. This converter fixes the first by rewrapping and the second by converting to H.264.
Is my video stored anywhere?
No. Nothing is stored at any point. A 4 GB holiday video never travels anywhere, which is also why this is so much faster than a queue-and-wait site.
Will the rotation be right?
Yes. A clip filmed upright carries a rotation flag, and that flag is carried into the MP4, so it plays the right way up. If a player still shows it sideways, use Rotate Video and bake the turn into the picture.
What about ProRes files from Final Cut?
ProRes is enormous and no browser can encode it, so the video is converted to high-quality H.264. The result is a fraction of the size and plays everywhere — but for further colour grading, keep your ProRes master.
Can I convert several clips at once?
One file at a time here, so the settings stay clear. To put several clips end to end in one MP4, use Merge Video.
Good to know: Multiple sound tracks and subtitle tracks are not carried over: the main video and sound track are kept, and you are told when something was left behind. Timecode and camera metadata tracks are dropped.
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