Help Treatment by Android of .mov and .mp4 files

[Bob Hawkins]

I purchased a Samsung Galaxy Tab A for my wife in April. I set myself the task of transferring her pictures and videos from her superseded iPad mini and Motorola Moto G 4G 'phone into a new folder structure on the Samsung tablet. I find such operations far simpler to carry out in conjunction with my desktop PC.
I decided to place videos into the same folders as the static images so that everything relating to one holiday, say, was in the same location, rather than duplicating the whole folder structure for videos. I do not know whether this is an accepted practice.
I believe the videos on the mobile 'phone and WhatsApp images, for example, are in .mpg format. It seems that video images from the iPad mini are in .mov format*. The .mpg4 files show as picture thumbnails on the tablet but the .mov files as icons only, which is somewhat frustrating.
I wonder if others share this experience and whether anything constructive might be done to overcome it

* Is .mov an Apple format only, or does it occur elsewhere?

 

[mikedt]

Were the MOV and MP4 videos purchased from the iTunes Store? If so they're locked with proprietary Apple only DRM, that can only be played on an iOS device, or in iTunes on a Mac or PC.

If they came from other sources like a digital camera, or torrent, and don't have DRM, they should play on Android no problem. Try VLC, that can play just about any video format, except ones locked with DRM.

MOV was originally a QuickTime format invented by Apple, but I've seen some digital cameras that shoot video as MOV, like a Canon I used to have

 

[svim]

I'm recommending you just skip messing with the default video player and install a good, third-party media player like MX Player or VLC. Both are very capable multimedia apps that can handle a much larger number of different media file types (including .mov) than the default video and audio players.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLC_media_player#Format_support

 

[Bob Hawkins]

mikedt, svim
I thank you for your replies. It is obvious I was not clear in my original post.
I have no difficulty in playing any of the videos; I use VLC, too, already. I should have stated my issue is with 'My Files' folder, which shows icons rather than thumbnails for .mov files, and with 'Gallery' which omits .mov files totally, although it displays .mp4 files and I wondered whether Android does not recognise .mov format when displaying thumbnails if it is Apple format, largely, as svim suggests, hence my post title.

 

[steiny180]

V L C . . .

 

[svim]

The My Files app is a file manager, it is not a video player. The Gallery app is primarily a photo manager, with rudimentary to dismal support for video. Apps like VLC or MX Player however are actual multimedia viewers that include support for a really wide range of different file types (both video and audio).
Try using VLC to open those mov files instead.
... and just my opinion but I find VLC's interface to be a lot more enjoyable to use when watching video or listening to audio, it has a much more extensive feature set. MX Player is still my primary multimedia player app though.

 

[mikedt]

The stock Samsung Gallery app is probably fine for managing photos and videos shot with the device itself. But for media like MOV, which is still really an Apple thing, you need a more capable media manager and viewer. The Gallery app probably doesn't recognise things like MKV movies either.

Windows didn't recognise and play MOV for a long time, and you had to install QuickTime to play them.