Play MOV Files on PS4 from USB Drive or Media Server

A mov file is a multimedia container file format developed by Apple. MOV files may contain video, audio, timecode, and text tracks, which can be used to store and synchronize different types of media. Each media track may be encoded using one of several different codecs.

Play MOV on PS4

Can PS4 Play MOV files?

The answer depends on whether PS4 can recognize the specific codec(s) used in the MOV file. The PS4 uses its built-in media player app to watch music, video and photo saved on USB storage devices and media servers. From PS4 supported video formats, we can see that it only recognize the following file formats with compatible video and audio codec.

MKV
- Video: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
- Audio: MP3, AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
AVI
-Video: MPEG4 ASP, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
-Audio: MP3, AAC LC, AC-3(Dolby Digital)
MP4
- Video: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
- Audio: AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
MPEG-2 PS
-Video: MPEG2 Visual
-Audio: MP2(MPEG2 Audio Layer 2), MP3, AAC LC, AC-3(Dolby Digital), LPCM
MPEG-2 TS
- Video: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2, MPEG2 Visual
- Audio: MP2 (MPEG2 Audio Layer 2), AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
AVCHD (.m2ts, .mts)

How to play MOV files on PS4?

If the MOV file are encoded with PS4 readable video and audio codec, just wrap the MOV container into PS4 supported container like MKV, AVI, MP4, MPEG-2 PS, MPEG-2 TS, AVCHD, etc. If the MOV files are compressed with PS4 not supported video or audio codec, you will need to perform a codec transcoding process.
Here, a workable and simple to use application called Pavtube Video Converter (best video converter review) is recommended to you. With the program, you can easily rewrap and also transcode virtually MOV files to PS4 readable file format with the correct video and audio codec. Besides MOV, it also faciliates to convert other unsupported file format including MKV, MP4, H.265/HEVC, AVI, WMV, FLV, etc for playing on PS4 from USB or media server.

For Mac users, you can turn to download Pavtube Video Converter for Mac to perform the same convesion on macOS Sierra 10.12 and Mac OS X El Capitan.

Tips: For people who plan to stream MOV to PS4 with Plex Media Server, if the content container in MOV files match the following settings, you can directly stream the MOV files to PS4 via Plex.
Resolution: 1920x1080 or smaller
Video Encoding: H.264 (Level 4.1 or lower)
Audio Encoding: AAC, AC3
Bitrate: 20Mbps or lower

If the content does not comply with above listed settings, Plex Media Server will automatically transcode the content for you.

How to Convert MOV for PS4 Playing from USB or Media Server?

Step 1: Load MOV files into the program.

Install and launch the program on your computer, click "File" > "Add Video/Audio" or "Add from Folder" to load unsupported MOV files into the program.

Step 2: Specify output file format.

Click "Format", from its drop-down option, choose PS4 supported MP4 video codec from "Common Video" > "H.264 High Profile Video(*.mp4)" to output.

Step 3: Adjust output audio codec.

Click "Settings" on the main interface to open the "Profile Settings" window, click "audio codec" drop-down list and select "AAC" or "AC3" as the compatible audio codec for PS4 playback.

Step 4: Begin the conversion process.

Go back to the main interface, click right-bottom "Convert" button to begin the conversion from MOV to PS4 supported file formats conversion process.

When the conversion is completed, click "Open Output Folder" to pop out the folder with converted files, then you can easily transfer and play converted files on PS4 via an external USB drive.

Additional tips to play video on PS4 from USB

1. Make sure your USB storage devices are in FAT and exFAT formats. PS4 doesn't recognize NTFS which means you can't play videos larger than 4GB. So reduce video size or split videos if need be, meanwhile, you have to convert NTFS to FAT32 or exFAT.

2. Create a folder and place all your videos into it when using a USB storage device so that your PS4 system can recognize and read them, otherwise you won't see anything. No specific folder name required for videos, but audio needs to be in a folder named "Music".

What's Next? Price: $35