MOV is a widely used video format developed by Apple Company, and it is dedicated to play on QuickTime Player. MOV dose better in video quality, which make itself a nice choice for numerous video users. However, it’s not only all about cons. Higher image quality also brings bigger file size. In addition, to play MOV video is hard for Windows users for its incompatibility. At this time, MOV video has to be converted to a more compatible format like MP4 for better playback and storage on Windows 10.
Why you can’t play MOV file on Windows 10
Some of you may not know that in January 2016 QuickTime has been not officially available on Windows 10/8/7. Therefore, the attempt to download Apple QuickTime on Windows 10 to play MOV files is not going to work. Also, other players like VLC and Windows Media Player still fails to play such videos.
You might say: “I’ve seen the list of formats supported by Windows 10, and there is MOV in it.” Well, as a matter of fact, if your MOV file is encoded with advanced codecs like HEVC, AV1, VP9, ProRes, etc., it will not be supported by Windows 10. Additionally, MOV may contains different tracks of video, audio or text. Anyone of them not being supported by Windows 10, then it fails to play. Moreover, the sources of MOV videos differs from each other for most of the time. For example, MOV encoded with HEVC or H.264 may come from iPhone and DJI drones, while the one with Prores/H.264 is shot by JVC cameras. Usually, large sized MOV video will confront with choppy playback on Windows 10.
So if we want to avoid problems mentioned above, the easiest way is to convert MOV to MP4.
How to convert MOV to MP4 and other formats supported by Windows 10
Here we focus on a specific tutorial of converting MOV to the most compatible video format MP4. As WinX Video Converter can process various files such as videos recorded by DJI drones, iPhone, Canon, Fujifilm and other cameras, we take this tool as an example to elaborate on this tutorial.
Step 1: After you have successfully install this Software on your Windows, click “+Video” icon to load MOV videos.
Step 2: No matter your MOV file is encoded with any type of codec or in any resolution and frame rate, it will be well accepted. In the popped up window “Output Profile”, you can choose “MP4 Video” as the target output format.
Step 3: Set an output folder as you need. If you want to speed up the process course, check the Hardware Acceleration box on the main UI. Then tap on “RUN”.
From time to time MOV video users find errors during MOV file playback on Windows. If you want a quick fix to this, WinX Video Converter is a good video converting software. Also, after conversion, the large file can be shrank by up to 90%, which is conducive to avoid choppy playback as well.