Video format guides

Every one of these started as a real search. Each answers the question first, then shows you the fastest way to fix it - in this browser or in the app.

When a video will not play

Why your MOV file won't play on Windows (and how to fix it)

They double-clicked a .mov — usually one someone AirDropped or emailed them from an iPhone — and got a black screen, an error, or audio with no picture. Every page they have opened tells them to install VLC or buy a codec, and they do not want to install anything on this machine.

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Why iPhone videos won't play on Android phones

Someone sent them a video from an iPhone and their Android gallery shows a grey thumbnail or an error. Half the pages they find blame resolution or frame rate, which is wrong and wastes their time.

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HEVC video won't play on Windows 11: the permanent fix

They have H.265 footage from a phone, drone or action camera, and Windows either refuses it or plays audio over a black screen. The results all push Microsoft's paid HEVC Video Extensions or a codec pack, which fixes one PC and nothing else.

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Video plays but there's no sound: fixing an unsupported audio codec

The picture is fine, the sound is silent, and every result tells them to install AC3Filter, a codec pack, or VLC. Nobody offers a fix for the file itself, so the problem follows the file to the next device.

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DaVinci Resolve imports MP4 as audio only: why, and the fix

The clip drops into the media pool as a waveform with no picture. Forum threads take twenty replies to establish what is actually inside the file, and the answers end at 'install HandBrake' or 'buy Resolve Studio'.

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Premiere Pro won't import MKV — remux it, don't re-encode it

An editor has OBS or downloaded footage in MKV and Premiere refuses it. The consensus advice is to run it through HandBrake, which re-encodes and costs a generation of quality before the edit even starts, or to rename the extension, which is actively dangerous.

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CapCut says 'file not supported': what's actually wrong

They are mid-edit on a phone with an error message in hand. CapCut's own help page admits the trap but does not solve it, and the rest of the SERP is scraped listicles.

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On your phone, Mac or PC

Privacy and online converters

Getting a video into an app

How to convert a video so WhatsApp will send and play it

A video refuses to send, or sends as a document that the recipient cannot open. Every ranking page is a Windows shareware pitch, several quote file-size numbers that are years out of date, and none of them converts anything.

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How to send a large video on Discord without Nitro

Their clip is rejected, or it uploads and shows as a dead file instead of playing. Every ranking page states a different, wrong upload limit — 8MB, 10MB or 25MB — so they cannot even tell what target they are aiming at.

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Video too large to email? How to get under the attachment limit

An attachment bounced or was silently converted into a Drive link the recipient cannot open. They want the file to arrive as a file, and they do not want to put a work video on a random website to get there.

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What video format works on a USB car stereo

They copied a film onto a USB stick, plugged it into the car, and the head unit either ignores the file or shows an unsupported-format message. No major site owns this query, so they are reading a decade-old affiliate page.

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Getting an MKV to play on a smart TV from USB

They put a movie on a USB stick, the TV either skips the file or plays the picture with a 'sound format not supported' banner, and the only pages that come up are ad-heavy affiliate posts from a decade ago.

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'PowerPoint cannot play media': how to fix the video in your deck

A deck is due, the video shows a black rectangle in the conference room, and the fixes on offer are Optimize Compatibility (which frequently fails) or installing K-Lite on a machine where they have no admin rights.

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Quality and file size

Formats and codecs

Prefer it on your phone?

Video Converter is free on iPhone and Android, converts with the device's own hardware encoder, and keeps every conversion in a history you can re-share.