The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20110907073400/http://support.apple.com:80/kb/HT3775

Media formats supported by QuickTime Player

  • Last Modified: July 27, 2011
  • Article: HT3775
Email this article
Print this page

Summary

QuickTime Player natively supports the following media formats and codec components. You can also extend QuickTime to support additional codecs and components.

Products Affected

QuickTime X, OS X Lion

Below are the video and audio file formats and codecs that QuickTime Player can playback in Mac OS X v10.6.x or OS X Lion:

Video
  • QuickTime Movie (.mov)
  • MPEG-4 (.mp4, .m4v)
  • MPEG-2 (OS X Lion only)
  • MPEG-1
  • 3GPP
  • 3GPP2
  • AVI
  • DV
  • MPEG-2 (OS X Lion only)
  • MPEG-4 (Part 2)
  • H.264
  • H.263
  • H.261
  • Apple ProRes
  • Apple Pixlet
  • Animation
  • Cinepak
  • Component Video
  • DV
  • DVC Pro 50
  • Graphics
  • Motion JPEG (Mac OS X v10.6.x only)
  • Photo JPEG
  • Sorenson Video 2
  • Sorenson Video 3

Audio
  • iTunes Audio (.m4a, .m4b, .m4p)
  • MP3
  • Core Audio (.caf)
  • AIFF
  • AU
  • SD2
  • WAV
  • SND
  • AMR  
  • AAC (MPEG-4 Audio)
  • HE-AAC
  • Apple Lossless
  • MP3
  • AMR Narrowband
  • MS ADPCM
  • QDesign Music 2
  • Qualcomm PureVoice (QCELP)
  • IMA 4:1
  • MACE 3:1 (Mac OS X v10.6.x only)
  • MACE 6:1 (Mac OS X v10.6.x only)
  • ALaw 2:1
  • ULaw 2:1
  • 24-Bit Integer
  • 32-Bit Integer
  • 32-Bit Floating Point
  • 64-Bit Floating Point

 

Additional Information

You can also extend QuickTime to import or play other popular and specialized media formats using codec components. This article lists common Apple and third-party codec components and the filename extensions they support.

Important: Information about products not manufactured by Apple is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute Apple’s recommendation or endorsement. Please contact the vendor for additional information.