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MP4 is another video file format that is widely used and does not require QuickTime to play it. MOV files are usually larger in size and have lesser compression, providing a higher video quality. It’s a container for video and was developed by Apple. MOV is a file extension that’s used with QuickTime. bitrate settings.Try free MOV vs MP4, what’s the difference?įirst, let’s see how these file formats differ. See FFmpeg Wiki: H.264 and FFmpeg Wiki: AAC for more info, including CPU time vs. After encoding completes it moves a chunk of info from the end of file to the beginning so it can start playing faster when viewing via download. -movflags +faststart same as the Web Optimized option in Handbrake.
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yuv420p is the most compatible and universally supported. But not all pixel formats are supported by all players. libx264 supports many pixel formats and by default will choose a pixel format that most resembles the input. -vf format=yuv420p chooses YUV 4:2:0 pixel format.-c:a aac choose encoder aac to output AAC audio.-c:v libx264 choose encoder libx264 to output H.264 video.This will convert the MOV to H.264 video and AAC audio: ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -vf format=yuv420p -movflags +faststart output.mp4
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Audio formats compatible with MP4 include: AAC, MP3 (playback support depends on player), Opus (new format, so not universally supported).Video formats compatible with MP4 include: H.264, H.265/HEVC, AV1 (new format, so not universally supported), MPEG-4 (old format, not supported in HTML5).If you only care about local desktop usage, you can leave that out.
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