mp4 How to convert Mp4 to MOV?

[josuebrown]

I record videos on my phone, the default filename is Mp4 format. However, I need to convert MOV to make windows media player easier to play and display. or I have to download K-Lite. So is there any way to convert MP4 video to MOV format? please guide me

[jfk]

WATCHOUT installs codecs to playback .mp4. There should be no need to convert them to .mov container. In fact, for WATCHOUT, .mp4 container is preferred over .mov.

On the other hand, your phone may encode the video for smallest file size which may include bi-directional frames. B-frames are not recommended for WATCHOUT, B-frames have been known to cause instability with prolonged playback. So you may wish to re-encode them as an .mp4 without B-frames and without audio for best results.

[freed flores]

On 11/18/2021 at 5:54 PM, jfk said:

WATCHOUT installs codecs to playback .mp4. There should be no need to convert them to .mov container. In fact, for WATCHOUT, .mp4 container is preferred over .mov.

On the other hand, your phone may encode the video for smallest file size which may include bi-directional frames. B-frames are not recommended for WATCHOUT, B-frames have been known to cause instability with prolonged playback. So you may wish to re-encode them as an .mp4 without B-frames and without audio for best results.

HOLA ,WATCHOUT DEJO DE CORRER MP4 TENGO QUE CONVERTIR A MOV O MPG ALGUNA SOLUCION PARA QUE CORRA MP4

Google Translate:

HELLO, WATCHOUT STOP RUNNING MP4, I HAVE TO CONVERT TO MOV OR MPG, SOME SOLUTION FOR IT TO RUN MP4

[RBeddig]

17 hours ago, freed flores said:

HOLA ,WATCHOUT DEJO DE CORRER MP4 TENGO QUE CONVERTIR A MOV O MPG ALGUNA SOLUCION PARA QUE CORRA MP4

Google Translate:

HELLO, WATCHOUT STOP RUNNING MP4, I HAVE TO CONVERT TO MOV OR MPG, SOME SOLUTION FOR IT TO RUN MP4

Their may be two reasons for this:

a) you have installed a third-party codec set on your computer which then can "steal" the playback capability from WATCHOUT

b) your MP4 files are actually H.265 files which are not supported by WATCHOUT 6. They are supported in WATCHOUT 7.

[Mike Fahl]

For the record, an MP4 file is actually already a MOV file as far as the container format is concerned, since MP4 is a proper subset of MOV. Apple donated the MOV file file format, and MP4 ended up using a limited subset of what may go into a MOV file. So while every MP4 file is a valid MOV file, a MOV file isn't necessarily a valid MP4 file (since it may contain stuff that isn't allowed in an MP4 file).

When it comes to the actual video encoding (the "codec" required to play the file), that's a separate story, as pointed out above. Both MOV and MP4 files can contain a variety of video and/or audio formats. Use a program such as mediainfo or ffprobe (part of the ffmpeg program suite) to see what's inside a MOV or MP4 file. 

Mike

[Brecht]

I'mconfused. I was convinced HAP is the best codec for playback in WatchOut? How can a compressed h.264 be better than uncompressed HAP for playback?

[RBeddig]

12 hours ago, Brecht said:

I'mconfused. I was convinced HAP is the best codec for playback in WatchOut? How can a compressed h.264 be better than uncompressed HAP for playback?

Did someone say so?

The HAP family of codecs is widely used on media servers - not only WATCHOUT - as it allows for very large videos in a reasonable to good quality, depending on which flavour of HAP and encoder you're using.

With HAP files you can probably play 20+ FHD@60 videos over 4 outputs at the same time if you have a powerful server.

The HAP codec compresses videos! The difference to other codecs, e.g. H.264, is that you'll see very little load on the CPU when playing back such files. HAP is actually more compressed than HAPQ. HAP uses less color depth which may lead to banding best visible when using computer generated gradients. HAPQ is a codec with 8bit color depth and better on gradients but it takes quite some space on your SSD and you'll need pretty fast ones too. Never embed audio in HAP files!

H.264 is rendered using the CPU and you'll see that the CPU load will be pretty high when playing larger H.264 files. There is also a limit of the actual pixel size when using H.264. With some experience and following the numerous tips on encoder settings (no b-frames, fastdecode,...) you can create high quality H.264 files to be used on WATCHOUT servers. You can even encode H.264 files with very little compression using an i-frame only setting. Then your files will get bigger of course.

As Jim said, you should pack your H.264 files in a MP4 container. But be aware, the load on the CPU will be much higher than playing HAP or HAPQ files.

MOV and MP4 unfortunately say nothing about the actual encoding. It's just an envelope for your encoded video. Important is, what's inside, like HAP, H.264, H.265, ProRes, Animation,...