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saladiro

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 7, 2007
540
2
New York
hi, can anyone tell me the difference between mp4 and mov files? is one better quality? does one have pros and cons? what are the benefits of each?
 
They're different containers, not different codecs. For the average user that means absolutely nothing and shouldn't affect the A/V quality.

What affects the quality is the codecs used. Both MP4 and MOV usually contain the MPEG-4 codecs, which includes AAC and H.264. Other codecs include Xvid and DivX but they're rarely found in anything other than AVI containers.

In terms of quality you should find that H.264 is the best for overall file size and visual clarity. You need a more powerful computer than the others however. Any modern Mac within the last 2-3 years can play SD H.264 videos just fine.
 
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