What Video File Formats Are Compatible with and Supported by MacBook Pro/Air, iMac, Mac Pro, Mac mini?
Indeed, as WMV is for windows, the very native video for a Mac computer is MOV. You can import video files like MOV, QT, MPEG-4, M4V, H.264, 3GP, MP3, AAC, etc to QuickTime Player. And MOV is the most common one. Since QuickTime Player is the default player for all Mac desktop and notebook types, be it iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook or Mac Pro, the video formats supported by QuickTime will also be compatible with Mac computer running OS X v10.6.x or later, or even the latest macOS Catalina.
Mac Video Audio Formats & Codecs Supported
- Mac Supported Video File Formats
QuickTime Movie (.mov), MPEG-4 (.mp4, .m4v), MPEG-2 (OSX 10.0-10.6 are exclusive), MPEG-1, 3GPP, 3GPP2, AVCHD (OSX 10.0-10.7 are exclusive), AVI ((Motion JPEG only), DV; - Mac Supported Video Codecs
MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, H.263 H.261, Apple ProRes, Apple Pixlet, Animation, Cinepak, Component Video, DV, DVC Pro 50, Graphics, Motion JPEG, Photo JPEG, Sorenson Video 2, Sorenson Video 3, H.263, H.261, Apple ProRes, Apple Pixlet, Animation, Cinepak, Component Video, DV, DVC Pro 50, Graphics, Motion JPEG, Photo JPEG, Sorenson Video 2, Sorenson Video 3 - Mac Supported Audio File Formats
M4A, m4b, .m4p (all are iTunes audio), MP3, Core Audio (.caf), AIFF, AU, SD2, WAV, SND, AMR - Mac Supported Audio Codecs
AAC, HE-AAC, Apple Lossless,MP3, AMR Narrowband, MS ADPCM, QDesign Music 2, Qualcomm PureVoice (QCELP), IMA 4:1, MACE 3:1 (Mac OS X 10.6.x only), MACE 6:1 (Mac OS X 10.6.x only), ALaw 2:1, ULaw 2:1, Integer (24-bit, 32-bit), Floating Point (32-Bit,64-Bit)
What Are the Best Video Formats for Mac Computer?
• MOV: Using the special compression algorithm developed by Apple's Mac, MOV is a very common multimedia format often used for saving movies and other video files, compatible with both Macintosh and Windows platforms. It is the born video format for QuickTIme of Mac.
• MP4: MP4, as an abbreviated term for MPEG-4 Part 14, is an international standard that has more support. It is a container format, allowing a combination of audio, video, subtitles and still images to be held in the one single file. It also allows for advanced content such as 3D graphics, menus and user interactivity. MP4 files are supported by many video programs and various hardware devices, Sony PSP and various DVD players, most DirectShow/Video for Windows codec packs.
• M4V: M4V video file format is developed by Apple Inc., who uses it to flag as a video file and attach it to iTunes, by encoding TV episodes, movies, and music videos in the iTunes Store under official DRM copy protection; therefore, put it in other way, the copy-protected Apple video using FairPlay DRM copyright protection on the basis of MPEG-4 AVC video compression. It can be played directly by QuickTime Player, VLC, RealPlayer, DAPlayer, MPayer and some other HD video players.
How to Make Mac Supports More Videos?
Indeed, the supported video formats of Mac QuickTime can be extended by use of some third-party codec plug-ins. But perhaps you need to install a pile of such components one by one to make it more supportive. And in many cases, users are afraid of the adware and malware. So there is another once-and-for-all way to make all kinds of videos playable on MacBook, iMac, MacMini and Mac Pro running even on macOS Catalina (10.15) or lower, no matter what version of OS it is running – by converting AVI (DivX, Xvid), MPEG,WMV, AVCHD, MTS/M2TS, VOB, FLV, RM, RMVB, WebM, Google TV, 3GP, etc to Mac supported videos with the best Mac video converter in the following procedure.
B. If you want to convert videos existing on your Windows to Mac videos, just download WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe on PC.
Related Mac Video Formats Solutions
Convert MKV, M2TS, AVI, WMV, ASF and so on to MOV or any Mac supported formats with WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe on Windows PC, and transfer the videos to Mac. Similarly, you can move these video files to your Mac at first step, and then convert them to Mac videos with the help of WinX HD Video Converter for Mac.
Answer: Many windows computers will play mov videos, but some fail and need a plug-in to do it. The most universal codec there is would be avi-xvid. Granted this is more intel than mac, but mac will play it. This is your best idea for a cross platform, go with AVI, open the QT Player> Edit > QT Preferences> File types.
As explained above, MOV, MP4 (H.264) and M4V are the most recommended formats for Mac. VideoProc (for Windows) or VideoProc for Mac will help you convert all incompatible videos to be Mac supported videos with suitable specifications.
VideoProc - One-stop Video Process Software
A fast video/audio/DVD converter, a video editor, a video compressor, a video recorder, and YouTube video downloader.
You can convert any 4K, HD and standard videos to Mac acceptable files for perfect playback, download online video on Mac, and record Mac or iPhone screen with ease.
About the Author
Matthew Palmer@matthew_palmer
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Mac Supported Media Formats
Supported Formats | |
---|---|
Mac compatible Audio file and data formats | AAC, AIFF, WAVE, uLaw, AC3, MPEG-3, MPEG-4 (.mp4, .m4a), .snd, .au, .caf, Adaptive multi-rate (.amr) |
Video file formats Supported by Macs | AVI, AVR, DV, M-JPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, AAC, OpenDML, 3GPP, 3GPP2, AMC, H.264, HEVC, iTunes (.m4v), QuickTime (.mov, .qt) |
What is the Best Video Format for macOS?
- MOV (A filename extension for the QuickTime multimedia file format)
- MP4(A digital multimedia format most commonly used to store video and audio, subtitles and still images.)
- M4V (A video container format developed by Apple and is very similar to the MP4 format.)