I'm looking for opinions on any quality differences between .mov and .mp4
Any difference in compression artifacts, bit rates, etc

Thanks

There shouldn't be any difference as they are just containers for the codec. It's a mystery why they even bother to offer the option.

Hi ,here is the difference between MP4 and MOV : http://www.differencebetween.net ... etween-mov-and-mp4/
Hope the link could help you

there is no difference, MP4 was created based on MOV. Mov is more suitable for Mac users where as MP4 is the industry standard and prefered by most. Mp4 will play on almost all devices where as Mov wont.

C_LUU Posted at 2016-3-31 14:24
there is no difference, MP4 was created based on MOV. Mov is more suitable for Mac users where as MP ...

Spot on. Both are containers for the same form of image compression, which is AVC/H.264. It is like putting the same breakfast cereal in a box with different labelling, the contents are still the same.

Morph1 Posted at 2016-3-31 14:20
from what I know mov is uncompressed and mp4 is compressed data...

You didn't read the article.

The relevant bit said:
To sum it up, MOV and MP4 are just containers and they do not present any real effect on the quality of the encoded videos. That is up to the codec like H.264 and the others. Choosing between MOV and MP4 should be based solely on where you want to play the resulting videos. If it is only meant to circulate around the Mac community, then you are pretty safe with MOV but if you want to put it in your PSP or any other non Apple portable device, then you are better off with MP4

Summary:
1.Both MOV and MP4 are lossy formats which sacrifices quality for file size
2.MOV was initially developed by Apple as a file format for QuickTime
3.MOV is the basis for the development of MP4
4.MP4 is the industry standard and has more widespread support than MOV
5.Saving your file to either MOV or MP4 would result in the same video if you use the same codec

In my experience, MOV is a pain in the rear when editing with anything not fruit flavoured.

Craig Rogers Posted at 2016-3-31 10:13
In my experience, MOV is a pain in the rear when editing with anything not fruit flavoured.

First of all the mov is a container and it has all from lossy formats up to uncompressed loss less. MP4 is not industry standard.
Also both MOV and MP4 are working perfectly in Windows and has been for ages.

Those containers in the Phantom 4 camera:
Both are : MPEG-4
Both are : AVC
Both are :  Variable  Bit rate   
Both are : 8bit
Both are : 4:2:0
                                    
Main differents are:
(I used media that were 1080x1920 to compare)
                                    The MP4   is:                             The Quicktime  is:
Format profile                    JVT                                            QuickTime
Codec ID                          avc1 (avc1/isom)                          QuickTime
Overall bit rate                   27.9 Mbps                                   40 Mbps
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)              0.269                                         0.386

There are more detailed tecnical data that differ but it would be to much to put it here.
The MP4 is fine but quicktime codec should be better for there it has more information, but i have not done any video comparison in scopes or visual on those containers from the phantom 4 camera.

I know old post, but I just had this question pop up.

And FWIW, I've basically had to use VLC player (which is free) to play any of my files recorded in MOV. I've just switched my default to MP4 and going to see how it goes.

Hey guys i know this is old but i just wanted to leave a comment. For a year i had been using mp4 and i always got grainy noisy footage, almost rendered useless....until last week i switched to mov. and wow...its made a massive difference, especially at keeping detail in shadows so yeah....i dont know why but with my experience mov seems to hold a lot more info than mp4.

djiuser_H7qixL4ed6kE Posted at 3-14 02:45
Hey guys i know this is old but i just wanted to leave a comment. For a year i had been using mp4 and i always got grainy noisy footage, almost rendered useless....until last week i switched to mov. and wow...its made a massive difference, especially at keeping detail in shadows so yeah....i dont know why but with my experience mov seems to hold a lot more info than mp4.

i dont know why but with my experience mov seems to hold a lot more info than mp4
But it doesn't.
Perhaps yu've been looking at small cached preview files and now you are looking at the full-sized files?
Really .. there is no difference in quality between mov and mp4.
There will be another explanation for what you observed.

If you want to easily convert the two formats, you can try Fucosoft Video Converter which is a full-featured software to convert, download, edit and burn any video/audio formats with just one click. Thus you can prepare your multimedia files for instant playback in any format and on any device. You can get it from here:https://www.fucosoft.com/video-converter.html

If you need to convert between MOV and MP4, you may try iDealshare VideoGo.
I use iDealshare VideoGo to convert between various video format like MOV, WMV, MP4, AVI, FLV, MPG, WEBM, H.265, etc