Supported Video Formats in QuickTime Player on macOS 13

Apple’s QuickTime Player in macOS 13 (macOS Ventura) natively supports a specific selection of modern and industry-standard video containers and codecs out of the box. While it handles Apple-native and widely adopted web formats seamlessly, it does not support proprietary or legacy formats from other ecosystems without prior conversion. This guide details every default video format and codec compatible with QuickTime Player on macOS 13.

Supported Video Container Formats

QuickTime Player recognizes specific file extensions (containers) by default:

  • QuickTime Movie (.mov): Apple's native container format, supporting virtually all Apple-approved codecs.
  • MPEG-4 (.mp4, .m4v): The global standard format for digital video delivery on the web and consumer devices.
  • 3GPP (.3gp, .3g2): Legacy mobile video containers, supported primarily for backward compatibility.
  • MPEG-1 (.mpg, .mpeg): Basic legacy support for standard MPEG-1 video files.

Supported Video Codecs

The container alone does not determine playback capability; the video stream must also be encoded using a supported codec:

  • HEVC (H.265): Full hardware-accelerated playback for High Efficiency Video Coding, including 4K and 8K resolutions, with support for High Dynamic Range (HDR10 and Dolby Vision).
  • H.264 (AVC): Broad support for Advanced Video Coding (Baseline, Main, and High profiles) up to 4K resolution.
  • Apple ProRes: The complete family of Apple's professional editing codecs, including ProRes 422, ProRes 422 HQ, ProRes 422 LT, ProRes 422 Proxy, and ProRes 4444 (with alpha channel support).
  • Apple ProRes RAW: Native playback support for raw sensor data files generated by compatible cameras and recorders.
  • MPEG-4 Part 2: Standard MPEG-4 visual codecs commonly found in older digital media.
  • Motion JPEG (M-JPEG): Supported primarily for older digital camera footage and webcam recordings.

Accompanying Audio Codecs

For a video to play with sound, the integrated audio stream must also use a supported format:

  • AAC (Advanced Audio Coding): The standard audio format for MP4 and MOV files.
  • Apple Lossless (ALAC): High-fidelity lossless audio stream playback.
  • Linear PCM (LPCM): Uncompressed audio streams, common in camera originals and ProRes files.
  • Dolby Digital (AC-3) and Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC-3): Multi-channel surround sound, including spatial audio tracks (Dolby Atmos).

Unsupported Common Formats

QuickTime Player in macOS 13 does not natively support several popular containers and codecs, including:

  • Containers: MKV (Matroska), AVI, WMV, FLV, and WebM.
  • Codecs: VP8, VP9, AV1 (native decoding is limited or requires WebKit/Safari integration), and Windows Media Video.

Files using these unsupported formats must be transcoded into an MP4 or MOV container using H.264, HEVC, or Apple ProRes to play natively in QuickTime on macOS 13.