Which video format for viewing on MAC and PC?

Question

Level 1

8 points

Which video format for viewing on MAC and PC?

My System: Intel iMAC, retina 4k, late 2015; running on El Capitan OS X 10.11.6.

My Objective: I have MP4 videos stored on my HD which plays well on my MAC. I would also like to play those videos on my friend's Windows PC during my visit to his home. It makes sense to store them on an USB so that all my videos are on a single storage device which can be used on both MAC and PC.

My Issue: I have not been able to find an article in Apple Support to address this specific objective. The closest I found are:

How can i change a video clip format that will play on a PC to play on my MAC

Re: How do I format external Seagate 4 tb HD "ExFAT"? from NTFS

The first thread may be out-of-date considering the reply was made in 2013. So after considering the more recent second thread (QUOTE "..Set the format to....ExFAT if you wish to use it with both Mac (10.6 or later) and Windows...MBR is an old Windows partition scheme which can be used on both Mac and Windows" UNQUOTE), I have taken the following steps:

(1) Reformatted an 33MB USB using Disk Utility 15.0 into exFAT and Master Boot Record;

(2) Moved all my MP4 videos by dragging them from HD to the reformatted USB (i.e. those MP4 files are no longer on my HD).

In Finder, the MP4 files on the USB still carry the extension "mp4" but the icons in the "Preview Column" indicate "M4V" files. Now as I tried to watch those videos on QT 10.4 (and other 3rd party video players on my MAC), the videos failed to be played on all of those players on my MAC.

My Questions: (A) Is there a way to store mp4 files on an external device which can be viewed on both MAC (without running Windows natively) and PC? (B) I also tried to drag the mp4/m4v(??) files on the USB back to the HD but the same problem persists - any solution to bring those videos back to their original MAC-viewable state?

iMac, Upgraded from 10.6.8 to El Capitan

Posted on Aug 31, 2016 3:18 PM

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Answer 1

raina_b22

Community Specialist

Sep 1, 2016 10:19 AM in response to gaminhk

Hello, gaminhk!

Thank you for reaching out and using the Apple Support Communities. We see from your post that your seeking a way to make your MP4 videos viewable on both Mac and Windows PCs. Having that shared compatibility between both operating systems is very important, especially when you want to share to them with others.

In this situation, the best way to ensure that both a Mac and a Windows PC can access the videos from the same external device is to make sure the device is in the correct disk format. This article explains how to format a device or disk (e.g. USB flash drive, external hard drive) into the proper format that is accessible by both Mac and Windows computers: Disk Utility 12.x: Format a disk for Windows computers

In regards to your second question, check out this article: If QuickTime Player can‘t open an audio or video file

Please let us know if this resolves your issues.

Kindest Regards.

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Answer 2

dialabrain

Level 10

124,631 points

Sep 1, 2016 11:42 AM in response to gaminhk

FWIW, MP4 videos should play on both OSX and Windows. The M4V file format is a video container format developed by Apple and is very similar to the MP4 format. The primary difference is that M4V files may optionally be protected by DRM copy protection. Apple uses M4V to encode video files, such as TV episodes, movies, and music videos, in its iTunes Store. M4V files should still play on your Mac although if DRM protected they won't play on a Windows PC.

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Answer 3

Sep 1, 2016 11:57 AM in response to gaminhk

gaminhk wrote:

...My Questions: (A) Is there a way to store mp4 files on an external device which can be viewed on both MAC (without running Windows natively) and PC? ...

The simplest solution would be to install VLC from VideoLAN on both computers. It comes in versions for both Windows and Macs and can play virtually any video files, including .mp4, without any file modification.

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Answer 4

matthk

Level 1

21 points

May 8, 2017 8:14 PM in response to FatMac-MacPro

No need. MP4 files will play on both OSX and Windoze without the need for extra software.

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