The Easiest Way to Convert MXF to MOV for QuickTime Player
“Yesterday, I tried to play video on the computer, but failed. This video comes from my Sony’s XDCAM. Who can help me to solve this problem? Thanks a lot.”
Do you have the same problem as Julie? Yes, I have. Last week, I borrowed a Sony camcorder from my friend for capturing family barbecue time. When my friend asked me for a camera, I hurriedly transferred the videos from the camera to the computer and deleted them from the camera.
When I wanted to watch this video, I experienced the same problem as Julie- it could not be played on the QuickTime player. I'm not sure if I made a mistake when copying the video from the camera to the computer, or if the computer can't play Sony camcorder video.
I checked a lot of information from Wikipedia and Quora, and finally, I solved this problem successfully.
Below is the step-to-step guide.
Part1: How to convert MXF to MOV on the computer
First, what is MXF? And why do we fail to play MXF files on Mac (QuickTime)?
Material Exchange Format (MXF) is a container format for professional digital video and audio media defined by a set of SMPTE standards.
However, the QuickTime supports to play MOV MiniDV, DVCPro, DVCam, AVI, AVR, MPEG-1, OpenDML and Macromedia Flash, not including MXF format. That’s why do we fail to play MXF on QuickTime.
Second, how to solve this problem?
Two options exist for saving movies from a web browser:
Save as source – This option will save the embedded video in its original format. (not limited to .mov files.)
Save as QuickTime movie – This option will save the embedded video in a .mov file format no matter what the original container is/was.
As you can see, the MOV plays an important role for QuickTime. So, one of the most straightforward ways to solve this problem is converting MXF to MOV format.
When it comes to converting MXF to MOV format, we have to mention this tool-f2fsoft MXF to MOV Converter.
It is the most professional video/audio converter. Let me do a brief introduction to it.
It can convert hundreds of video formats. For example, it converts MXF to MOV, AVI, and MP4.
So, you don’t need to find another video converter to convert MXF to MP4 or AVI format. f2fsoft Video Converter can handle all difficult video converting problem.
Apart from converting videos, it can also convert audio files, such as FLAC to MP3 conversion.
Last but not least, we can free download it on the computer.
Now, does it get your attention? Lets’ start to convert MXF files to MOV.
Step1 Run and open f2fsoft Video Converter on your computer.
Step2 Click Add Folder button to load MXF file from the computer. The MXF video will be displayed on the window, like below’s picture.
Step3 On the bottom of the interface, click the small downward arrow icon beside Settings button, choose General Video>MOV QuickTime Video (*.mov) in the drop list.
Click the Settings button, there is a pop-up window. Click the inverted triangle drop-down button beside Resolution>Keep Original, and then click OK button on the bottom of the window. This operation can help you to convert MXF files to MOV without quality loss.
Step4 Click the Convert button to finish the task.
Part2: What are the other video formats from Sony camcorder
Except for MXF format, the MP4, AVCHD, XAVC S 4K, and XAVC S HD video formats are also supported by Sony camcorders.
1. If you choose to shoot a professional HD format (4K level), the video you shot is in MXF format.
2, The ordinary video format shots by Sony camera generally is the MP4 format. Apparently, the MP4 video quality is lower than MXF.
3. AVCHD also is one of the HD video formats, the file extension (generally) are MTS (on the camcorder), and M2TS (after importing to computer). So, you can also check this article: How to convert MTS to MP4 format?