Quicktime

Writable

video · also known as MOV, QT

The QuickTime file format is a format for storing multimedia content, principally video, developed by Apple. The basic data unit in a QuickTime file is the atom. Each atom contains size and type information along with its data. The size field indicates the number of bytes in the atom, including the size and type fields. The type field specifies the type of data stored in the atom and, by implication, the format of that data. Atoms are hierarchical in nature. That is, one atom can contain one or more other atoms of varying types. For example, a movie atom contains one track atom for each track in the movie. The track atoms, in turn, contain one or more media atoms each, along with other atoms that define other track and movie characteristics. This hierarchical structure of atoms is referred to as a containment hierarchy. A QuickTime file is simply a collection of atoms. QuickTime does not impose any rules about the order of these atoms. Apple discontinued the support of Windows Media Player in the year 2016. Windows Media Player thus only supports file format versions 2.0, or earlier, of QuickTime Movie files. Newer QuickTime Movie files can be played on Windows with VLC Media Player.

Identify it

Extensions	`.mov.qtm.qt`
MIME types	`video/quicktime`
Signatures	`6d6f6f76` at byte 4 (QuickTime variant1) `6d646174` at byte 4 (QuickTime variant2) `636d6f76` at byte 4 (QuickTime variant3) `6674797071742020` at byte 4 (QuickTime variant4) `706e6f74` at byte 4 (QuickTime variant5) `736b6970` at byte 4 (QuickTime variant6)
PRONOM	`x-fmt/384`
Wikidata	`Q942350`
Library of Congress	`fdd000052`

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Open it

FFmpegOpen sourcereads and writes · LGPL-2.1-or-later / GPL-2.0-or-later
Q141647658Open sourcereads and writes · Apache Software License 2.0 / MIT License
Q141647665Open sourcewrites · Apache Software License 2.0 / MIT License
Apache TikaOpen sourcereads · Apache Software License 2.0
ExifToolOpen sourcereads · Artistic License / GNU General Public License, version 1.0 or later
GStreamerOpen sourcereads · GNU Library General Public License, version 2.0 or later
HandBrakeOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License, version 2.0
HuMo-genOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License, version 3.0
libexiv2Open sourcereads · GNU General Public License, version 2.0 or later
PhotoRecOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License
Q2596578Open sourcereads · GNU General Public License, version 2.0
Q3898244Open sourcereads · BSD licenses / GNU General Public License / GNU Lesser General Public License
Q50938515Open sourcereads · GNU Affero General Public License, version 3.0 or later
VLC media playerOpen sourcereads · GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1 or later
xineOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License
Adobe Auditionwrites
Adobe Encorereads and writes
Adobe Premiere 6.0reads and writes
Any Video Converterreads and writes
Awave Studioreads and writes
Canon EOS 5D Mark IIwrites
Canon EOS 5D Mark IIIwrites
Canon EOS 5D Mark IVwrites
ENVIreads and writes · proprietary license
Final Cut Pro Xreads and writes · proprietary license
Grapherwrites
Gryphon Software Morphwrites
Mathematicareads and writes · proprietary license
MotionArtist 4writes
Movavi Video Editorreads and writes · proprietary license
MusicMaker MXreads and writes
NVivoreads and writes · proprietary license
Panorama Maker 2000writes
Pinnacle Studio 17 Ultimatereads and writes
Q207902reads and writes · proprietary license
ScatterShow 1.1writes
Sound Forge XP Studiowrites
Video Factoryreads and writes
VideoStudio Pro X5reads and writes
VideoStudio X7reads and writes

And 46 more in the JSON record.

Convert it

To	With	Fidelity	Command and losses
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) 1.2.1	FFmpeg	Partial	`ffmpeg -i in.mov out.flac` Audio track only: the video is dropped.
Waveform Audio	FFmpeg	Partial	`ffmpeg -i in.mov out.wav` Audio track only: the video is dropped.
Matroska 1-4	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.mov out.mkv` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.
MPEG 1/2 Audio Layer 3	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.mov out.mp3` Lossy audio only: the video is dropped.
MPEG-4 Part 14	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.mov out.mp4` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.
Ogg	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.mov out.ogg` Lossy audio only: the video is dropped.
WebM	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.mov out.webm` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.

Documentation

kaitai grammar: https://github.com/kaitai-io/kaitai_struct_formats/blob/master/media/quicktime_mov.ksy

Sources

From Converters (FFmpeg, ImageMagick, Pandoc, LibreOffice), Just Solve the File Format Problem (File Formats Wiki), Kaitai Struct format gallery, PRONOM, Wikidata. Updated 2026-10-24.

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