MKV to MOV Converter
On a Mac, an .mkv file is a dead end: QuickTime Player will not open it and Apple's editing apps will not import it. Converting to MOV gives the video a container Apple software reads natively, with H.264 picture and AAC sound.
Video Converter
or drop MP4, MOV, MKV … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Lower is better quality and a bigger file. 18 looks identical to the source, 23 is the default, 28 and above shows visible softening.
Frames per second. Keep the source rate unless a platform asks for a specific one; 15–20 fps is plenty for GIFs.
Only used for PowerPoint files and single still images: how long each slide or picture stays on screen.
Auto uses AAC for MP4/MOV and Opus for WebM. Copy keeps the original sound untouched when the new format supports it.
192 kbps is transparent for music; 128 kbps is enough for speech.
Width of the animation in pixels; height follows the aspect ratio. 480 px suits chats, 720 px or more gives a high-quality GIF but a much larger file.
GIF holds at most 256 colors. Fewer colors make a smaller file but cause banding on gradients and skin tones.
Mixes palette colors in a fine pattern to hide banding. Sierra gives the smoothest result; none gives the smallest file.
Whether the animation repeats endlessly or plays one time and stops.
Optional. Seconds (e.g. 75) or minutes:seconds (1:15). Leave empty to start at the beginning.
Optional. Same format as the start time. Leave empty to keep everything up to the end.
The converted file will be at or just under this size.
How to use this tool
- 1
Add the MKV
Upload up to 20 MKV files, 95 MB each. Longer recordings can be cut into parts with Start at and End at after upload.
- 2
Pick a codec
Video codec is set to H.264 for the widest support in Apple apps. Choose H.265 if you edit on a recent Mac and want a smaller file.
- 3
Convert to MOV
Press Convert to MOV, then open the file in QuickTime Player or drag it into your iMovie or Final Cut Pro library.
How do I convert MKV to MOV on a Mac or PC?
Upload the .mkv file in any browser and press Convert to MOV. You get H.264 video with the main audio track as AAC, which QuickTime Player, iMovie and Final Cut Pro open directly.
Why Apple apps refuse MKV files
Matroska appeared in 2002 as an open container that could hold almost anything: any codec, any number of audio and subtitle tracks, chapters, even attached fonts. Its name comes from the Russian nesting dolls. In 2010 Google built WebM on a subset of it. Apple never adopted it, and to this day macOS treats .mkv as an unknown file.
That leaves Mac users with files from screen recorders, game capture, video downloads and media libraries that VLC plays but nothing in Apple's editing chain accepts. MOV is QuickTime's own format, so converting is the shortest path from an MKV to a working timeline.
MKV
Matroska video
MKV is the Matroska multimedia container, an open-source format first released in 2002. It can hold nearly any video and audio codec plus unlimited audio tracks, subtitle tracks, chapters and attachments in one file. That flexibility makes it popular for films with several languages, screen recordings from OBS and long-term archiving. Phones, browsers, editors and some TVs do not support MKV, even when they support the codec inside.
- Compression
- Lossy or lossless
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 2002 · Matroska project
MOV
QuickTime movie
MOV is the QuickTime container format created by Apple in 1991. iPhones record MOV files, and professional editing tools use it for high-quality codecs such as Apple ProRes, including versions with transparency. It can hold multiple video, audio, timecode and subtitle tracks. MOV files from editing software can be very large, and some Windows apps, Android phones and websites play them poorly or not at all.
- Compression
- Lossy or lossless
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 1991 · Apple
MKV goes to MOV when footage has to enter Apple's world: QuickTime Player, iMovie and Final Cut Pro read MOV natively and refuse Matroska, even when the H.264 inside is identical.
What carries over from MKV to MOV
| Original MKV | MOV from this page | |
|---|---|---|
| Video codec | H.264, HEVC, VP9 or AV1 | H.264, or H.265 if selected |
| Main audio track | AAC, AC-3, DTS, FLAC or Opus | AAC at 192 kbps |
| Extra language tracks | yes | no |
| Subtitle tracks (SRT, ASS, PGS) | yes | no |
| Chapters and attached fonts | yes | no |
| Opens in QuickTime Player and Final Cut Pro | no | yes |
Three checks before you convert MKV to MOV
Find the default audio
Open the MKV in VLC and look under Audio → Audio Track. The track marked first is the one that goes into the MOV.
Save subtitles separately
Extract any subtitle track you need before converting; styled ASS subtitles and PGS images from Blu-ray rips do not fit a MOV anyway.
Choose quality for editing
For a file you will cut and export again, lower Quality (CRF) to 18 so a second encode does not stack visible loss on top of the first.
Expect the MOV to be close to the MKV's size when the source was H.264, and larger when it was HEVC or AV1, which compress more efficiently than the H.264 default. If you only need a QuickTime-friendly copy of an MP4 rather than an MKV, use MP4 to MOV instead.
MKV to MOV questions
Why won't my Mac open an MKV file?
macOS ships no Matroska support. QuickTime Player, Photos, iMovie and Final Cut Pro read MOV and MP4, so a double-click on an .mkv shows an error even if the video inside is plain H.264. Third-party players such as VLC and IINA play MKV, but they do not help when you need to edit.
Which audio track ends up in the MOV?
The converter keeps the main audio track, normally the first or default one in the MKV, and encodes it as AAC at 192 kbps. If a film or episode has several languages, check in VLC which one is marked default before converting, since the others are not carried over.
Can I keep the subtitles from the MKV?
Not inside the MOV produced here. Export the subtitle track first, then convert it into the format your editor accepts with the subtitle converter. Final Cut Pro, for example, imports SRT captions alongside the video.
MKV to MOV or MKV to MP4: which should I choose?
Pick MOV when the next stop is Apple software or a client that specifies QuickTime files. Pick MKV to MP4 when the file needs to play on Windows, Android, smart TVs and the web as well. The picture inside can be identical; only the container differs.
Why is my MKV episode too big to upload?
A 24-minute 1080p episode is typically several hundred megabytes, above the 95 MB per-file limit. Split it with a desktop tool first, or convert only the scene you need for an edit.
