What is an M4V Video File
"After reading this article, I found that I confounded the M4V and MP4 format before. Yeah, your article is informative, thanks a lot. M4V is clearer for me now." more >>
"After reading this article, I found that I confounded the M4V and MP4 format before. Yeah, your article is informative, thanks a lot. M4V is clearer for me now." more >>
Below is a true story from a user wondering what an M4V file is and how to open it.
Question: One of my friends emailed me an M4V file but I'm not sure how to use it, please help!
Answer: Before you can open an M4V file, you will need to determine what kind of the .m4v extension refers to. Indeed, it is a MPEG-4 video that is similar to most of us.
From Wikipedia, we learn that the M4V file format is a video container format which is very similar to the MP4 format and it is defined in the systems part of MPEG-4 standard. In addition, M4V is developed by Apple Inc. and is protected by DRM copy protection.
Apple uses M4V to encode video files, such as TV episodes, movies, and music videos in iTunes Store, so all the videos downloaded by iTunes will be saved as the .m4v extension. And the HandBrake and Air Video Server on the Macintosh also takes .m4v as the default file conversion format.
As for a protected video downloaded from iTunes, you need a computer or player authorized with the account used to purchase videos from iTunes to play. For unprotected videos, you can change the extension from .m4v to .mp4 and play it on other devices.
As was said before, M4V is developed by Apple and needless to say, iPhone, iPad, iPod, iTunes and other Apple devices used M4V generally. Nowadays, with the rapidly booming of Apple products, M4V is becoming more and more commonly used. Other players/devices that can play and open M4V files are listed below:
With DRM removed, it can be played in the webOS Video Player for use on the Palm Pre, Palm Pixi smartphones.
It is also playable by the Android operating system with its video player.
Handbrake-produced M4V files can also be played on the PlayStation 3, with full Dolby Digital 5.1 surround support.
Since we have learnt that M4V is very similar to MP4, then we should know the differences between them though the differences are slight.
Important Tip: If you can't open M4V videos on Windows or the existing player, you can convert the M4V file to more common file formats or the one that supported by your player. There are 2 ways to convert a M4V video file. One is to open the M4V file in its default program and choose to save the open file with another format. The other is to use third party M4V video converter software or file conversion online service. Choose the proper one for yourself.
