iPhone 13 will not record MP4 video output

Question

iPhone 13 will not record MP4 video output

Various sources say that iPhone can save videos in .MP4 instead of .MOV. I went into my settings, into camera, into Formats, and changed my setting to "Most Compatible", as instructed. However, when I recorded a video the video was still a .MOV file, not an .MP4 file. My question is why won't the video save as an .MP4? MP4 is the most flexible format to use for other applications, and it shouldn't be necessary to use a third party conversion program.

iPhone 13, iOS 17

Posted on Aug 3, 2024 6:46 AM

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Answer 1

Rich839

Level 8

47,628 points

Aug 3, 2024 7:19 PM in response to eugenefromfrankfort

Hi,

.Mov files are not all alike. A .mov file is a bucket that contains any number of codecs, and the codecs can differ from one .mov file to another.

Open your .mov file in QuickTimePlayer and do a Window/Show Movie inspector. I believe that the codec will be shown as H.264. If so, you are good to go. H.264 is as universally compatible as Mp4. Open in QuickTime Player an Mp4 file created by exporting from iMovie. Do a Window/Show Movie Inspector and you will find that the codec is H.264. That is, unless you recorded it in HEVC (H.265) that is much less compatible than H.264.

-- Richg

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Answer 2

Rich839

Level 8

47,628 points

Aug 4, 2024 8:00 AM in response to Rich839

I might also mention that Mp4, like .mov, is a container format that can contain various codecs, some of which may not be compatible with iMovie. For example, not all Mp4 vids are compatible with iMovie. It must be Mp4/AAC, using the H.264 codec. AAC stands for Advanced Audio Coding. Apparently, what makes Mp4 so universally compatible is the H.264 codec in the Mp4 bucket.

-- Rich

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Answer 3

weflower

Level 1

13 points

Aug 6, 2024 9:00 AM in response to Rich839

Rich839 is correct (technically correct, the best kind).

But it still seems odd that iOS even saves videos with the .mov extension in "Most compatible" mode. It pretty much defeats the purpose of being able to easily share them when other phones or apps see the .mov extension and won't even try to play it.

You can change the extension to .mp4 and it will work, though.

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