.QT File Extension

Apple QuickTime Movie

Developer Apple
Popularity
3.0  |  36 Votes
 

What is a QT file?

A QT file is a movie file saved in the QuickTime File Format (QTFF), a multimedia container format developed by Apple. It contains one or more audio, video, or text (subtitle) tracks and typically uses the MPEG-4 codec for compression. QT files most often store movies and video clips.

More Information

Screenshot of a .qt file in Apple QuickTime Player 10.5
QT file open in Apple QuickTime Player 10.5

In 1991, Apple released QTFF, which eventually led to the formation of the MPEG-4 standard. Apple designed QTFF to support various media types to accommodate the transfer of multimedia between applications, operating systems, and devices.

Video files saved in QTFF may use the .qt or .mov file extensions but .MOV files are much more common than QT files. Since MOV and QT files often store video compressed with the MPEG-4 codec, they are commonly interchanged with .MP4 video files.

More information about the QuickTime File Format

QTFF is object-oriented and forward-compatible, allowing it to support new object types introduced over time. In addition, the format supports media data, which is the video, audio, or text data, and metadata. The metadata includes the media compression utilized, timing information, the number of media tracks, and an index of the media data location.

How to open a QT file

You can open QT files with various multimedia players, such as Apple QuickTime Player (Mac) and VLC media player (cross-platform).

You can also play QT files in Android and iOS with VLC for Android and VLC for iOS.

How to convert a QT file

VideoLAN VLC media player can convert QT files to the following video formats:

  • .MP4 - MPEG-4 Video
  • .WEBM - WebM Video
  • .TS - Video Transport Stream
  • .ASF - Advanced Systems Format
  • .OGV - Ogg Video File

VLC media player can also convert the audio in QT files to the following formats:

  • .MP3 - MP3 Audio
  • .OGG - Ogg Vorbis Audio
  • .WAV - WAVE Audio
  • .FLAC - Free Lossless Audio Codec
Open and view .QT files with File Viewer Plus.Free Download

Programs that open QT files

Verified by FileInfo.com

The FileInfo.com team has independently researched the Apple QuickTime Movie file format and Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS apps listed on this page. Our goal is 100% accuracy and we only publish information about file types that we have verified.

If you would like to suggest any additions or updates to this page, please let us know.