The MOV file format is most commonly associated with Apple and the QuickTime video clip. The file format was developed by Apple as was QuickTime Player, it is compatible with both the Microsoft and MacOS platforms. MOV files are capable of storing two or more tracks which can be video, audio, text, graphics or effects. This flexibility makes this file format very popular for music and video editing.
MOV files use a proprietary compression algorithm and each track that is held within the file is made up of an encoded media stream or a reference to a media stream that is located in another file - this allows the embedding of existing media. QuickTime player which was developed and created by Apple allows a user to open and play .MOV files and later version of QuickTime Player, such as QuickTime Pro allows the user to edit and export .MOV files.
Associated programs
Apple QuickTime Player CyberLink PowerDirector Roxio Easy Media Creator
Using Zamzar it is possible to convert MOV files to a variety of other formats:
mov to 3gp (3GPP Multimedia File) mov to 3g2 (3GPP2 Multimedia File) mov to aac (Advanced Audio Coding File) mov to ac3 (AC3 Audio File) mov to avi (Windows video file) mov to flac (Free Lossless Audio Codec) mov to flv (Flash video) mov to gif (Compuserve graphics interchange) mov to ipad (MPEG-4 (H264) Video File) mov to iphone (MPEG-4 (H264) Video File) mov to ipod (MPEG-4 Video File) mov to mp3 (Compressed audio file) mov to mp4 (MPEG-4 Video File) mov to mpg (Moving Picture Experts Group File) mov to ogg (Ogg Vorbis Compressed Audio File) mov to wav (Windows audio file) mov to webm (Multimedia Container Format) mov to wmv (Windows Media Video)
The Flash Video format is a video format defined by Adobe Systems. Flash Video has been accepted as the default online video format by many sites. Notable users of it include YouTube, Hulu, VEVO, Yahoo! Video, metacafe, Reuters.com, and many other news providers. Flash Video is viewable on most operating systems except iOS, via the Adobe Flash Player and web browser plugin or one of several third-party programs.
Flash Video FLV files contain video bit streams which are a proprietary variant of the H.263 video standard, under the name of Sorenson Spark (FourCC FLV1). Sorenson Spark is an older codec for FLV files but it is also a widely available and compatible one, because it was the first video codec supported in Flash Player. The Flash Video FLV file format supports two versions of a so called 'screenshare' (Screen video) codec which is an encoding format designed for screencasts. Both these formats are bitmap tile based, can be lossy by reducing color depths and are compressed using zlib. The second version is only playable in Flash Player 8 and newer - Audio in Flash Video files is usually encoded as MP3. However, audio in Flash Video FLV files recorded from the user's microphone use the proprietary Nellymoser Asao Codec. FLV files also support uncompressed audio or ADPCM format audio.
Associated programs
FFDShow Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery Viewer VideoLAN VLC Media Player Windows Media Player
