MOV to WAV Converter

Q: Will the WAV stay in sync with my video?

If you leave **Start at** empty, the WAV begins at the first frame of the clip and has the same length, so placing both at the same point on the timeline lines them up. Avoid changing the sample rate later inside a project that runs at another rate.

Q: How do I shrink a WAV that is too big to email?

Switch **Channels** to Mono for speech, which halves the size, or convert the finished WAV with [WAV to MP3](/wav-to-mp3) once editing is done. For listening only, [MOV to MP3](/mov-to-mp3) skips the WAV step entirely.

Editors, mixing engineers and transcription services want the sound of a QuickTime clip as plain PCM. This page extracts the audio of a .mov file as a 24-bit, 48 kHz WAV, the same rate video projects run at.

or drop MP4, MOV, MKV … files here ·

Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes

Output

Convert to

Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.

How to use this tool

1
Upload the MOV clips
Add up to 20 .mov files from an iPhone, a Mac screen recording or a camera, each up to 95 MB.
2
Check bit depth and sample rate
This page uses Bit depth 24-bit and Sample rate 48 kHz. Choose 16-bit and 44.1 kHz instead if the WAV is going onto a CD or into a sampler that wants CD format.
3
Extract to WAV
Press Extract to WAV. The files keep the names of the clips, which makes it easy to match them in your editor later.

One minute of stereo WAV at 44.1 kHz and 16-bit takes about 10.1 MB, whatever the video looked like. At this page's 48 kHz and 24-bit it is about 16.5 MB, the price of maximum editing headroom.

Why editors ask for WAV instead of the MOV's audio

Apple introduced QuickTime and its .mov format in 1991, the same year Microsoft and IBM defined WAV as part of their RIFF file family. Both have been around for decades, but they do very different jobs: MOV wraps compressed video and audio for playback, while WAV stores raw PCM samples that an editor can cut and process without decoding.

A MOV from an iPhone carries AAC audio. Audio editors can usually import it, but every edit and export means another decode and encode, and some tools, such as many transcription and sound-analysis services, accept only WAV. Extracting once to PCM gives you a clean master to work from. A MOV from a cinema camera or a ProRes export often already holds LPCM, and then the WAV is an exact copy of the recorded sound.

The cost is size. WAV size depends only on sample rate, bit depth, channel count and length, as the table shows. A 3-minute stereo clip at 48 kHz and 24-bit comes to about 50 MB, which is fine for a project folder but too large for most email attachments.

WAV size per minute by bit depth and sample rate

Stereo, per minute, MB = 1,048,576 bytes. Mono is half of each value.
Sample rate	16-bit	24-bit	32-bit float
44.1 kHz (CD)	10.1 MB	15.1 MB	20.2 MB
48 kHz (video)	11.0 MB	16.5 MB	22.0 MB
32 kHz	7.3 MB	11.0 MB	14.6 MB
16 kHz (speech)	3.7 MB	5.5 MB	7.3 MB

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

MOV converter

WAV

Waveform Audio File

WAV is an audio container created by Microsoft and IBM in 1991, usually holding uncompressed PCM audio. It preserves full quality, which makes it standard for recording, editing, sound effects and mastering. A minute of CD-quality stereo takes about 10 MB, so files are large. Every operating system, editor and most players open WAV, though metadata support is limited.

Compression: Lossless
Transparency: –
Animation: –
Introduced: 1991 · Microsoft and IBM

WAV converter

People convert MOV to WAV to edit the sound of an iPhone or camera clip in a DAW or a video editor, or to send it to a transcription service, without adding another round of lossy compression.

Take the WAV into Logic, Premiere or Audacity

Mac with Logic Pro or GarageBand

01Extract the WAV here and save it to your project folder.
02Drag it onto an empty audio track.
03When asked, keep the project at 48 kHz so nothing is resampled.

iPhone or iPad

01Upload the clip from Photo Library in Safari.
02Save the WAV to Files.
03Open it in GarageBand or LumaFusion from the Files browser.

Windows with Premiere Pro or Audacity

01Download the WAV next to the original MOV.
02Import both; place the WAV under the clip at the same start point.
03Mute the clip's own audio and edit the WAV.

MOV to WAV questions

Why use 24-bit for a WAV taken from an iPhone video?

The iPhone stores AAC, so 24-bit does not uncover extra detail. It does give you headroom: gain changes, EQ and noise reduction in your editor work on finer steps before you export. If the WAV only needs to be listened to or transcribed, 16-bit is enough.

Is the WAV from a ProRes or camera MOV lossless?

Often, yes. Professional cameras and ProRes exports usually record uncompressed LPCM inside the MOV, commonly 24-bit at 48 kHz, so extracting it to WAV at the same settings copies the samples without any compression loss.

Will the WAV stay in sync with my video?

If you leave Start at empty, the WAV begins at the first frame of the clip and has the same length, so placing both at the same point on the timeline lines them up. Avoid changing the sample rate later inside a project that runs at another rate.

Should I pick 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz?

Use 48 kHz for anything that goes back into a video project, because that is the rate film and television audio work at. Use 44.1 kHz, the CD rate, for a music release, a CD or a sampler preset.

How do I shrink a WAV that is too big to email?

Switch Channels to Mono for speech, which halves the size, or convert the finished WAV with WAV to MP3 once editing is done. For listening only, MOV to MP3 skips the WAV step entirely.