February 17, 2023
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Want to convert iTunes M4V videos to MP4 for playing on non-Apple devices? Have some DRM-protected M4V files that you want to remove DRM? In this article, you will learn how to convert M4V to MP4 on Mac with 3 different solutions! Let's dive right in...
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M4V file format is a video container that Apple developed to encode videos, movies, and other content in its iTunes store. It is very close to the MP4 file format, but is occasionally protected by FairPlay DRM copy protection and thus accessible to only Apple devices.
MP4 stands for MPEG-4 and is one of the most widely used container formats that allow a combination of audio, video, subtitles, and images to be held in one single file. and it can be played on the most popular devices.
Compares with MP4 files, M4V videos are FairPlay DRM-protected. Thus, M4V can only be played on authorized Apple products. In other words, outside of the Apple ecosystem, you can do nothing with these files. MP4, on the other hand, is absolutely the most widely used video format. Almost all TVs, computers, portable players, and devices can recognize MP4. It is also the default format for streaming and broadcast as it loads faster.
There are mainly two types of M4V videos, one is DRM-encrypted and the other is DRM-free. As .m4v and .mp4 files use the same video (H.264) and audio (AAC) codecs, they are all technically mp4 files anyways. When you simply rename DRM-free M4V video from “XXX.m4v" to “XXX.mp4”, it can be played on many MP4 devices and software.
However, the video format is too complicated to just rename the file. Even if you rename the .m4v to .mp4, its file structure is still unchanged. To get an actual MP4 file, you need a video transcoder to convert M4V to MP4 on Mac.
Cisdem Video Converter is always worth mentioning. It’s able to make video and audio conversions between over 600 formats, including M4V to MP4, MP4 to M4V, or MP4 to iTunes. There is no limit on input file size. You can load 100MB, 500MB, or 1GB M4V files and convert them to MP4 at incredible speed without half crashing or freezing. You can also edit the video by cropping, watermarking, trimming, as you like before conversion.
To convert video from M4V to MP4, first, download and install Cisdem Video Converter on Mac.
Import M4V videos to the software by clicking the "File" > “Add File(s)” button or by dragging and dropping them. You can convert multiple files simultaneously via the batch conversion function.
Note: If the M4V videos are on your iPhone or iPad, just connect the device to the computer, and drag and drop to directly input the target videos there.
Besides, feel free to modify files before M4V to MP4 conversion, if necessary. Press the pen icon in the top right corner of the file name to crop, trim, deinterlace, watermark, or add subtitles to the video.
Click the output format option, and then select MP4 as the output file format. If you want to convert video for a particular mobile device, just plug the device into your computer and the program will detect and choose the right format for you.
Press “Convert” to start the batch conversion task. When done, click the “checkmark” icon to open the folder containing the converted files.
Convertfiles.com is a convenient way to convert M4V to MP4 online for free without having to install any software. Besides video files, it’s also an all-in-one online converter to handle audio, presentation, e-book, drawing, image, archive, and document files. Although Convertfiles.com makes things simple, it is slow when converting a 4k M4V video and it can only process one video at a time. Additionally, the security of an online converter can't be guaranteed.
Using the above method, many people can easily change DRM-free M4v to MP4. However, when it comes to iTunes DRM-protected M4V files, things get a lot more difficult even though we have already purchased them. If the video is DRM-protected it should stay as m4v, and you can’t change its extension to play it. In this case, we’ll need to strip the video of its DRM.
TunesKit is the app that can losslessly remove DRM encryption from rented and purchased iTunes movies, and convert it from M4V to MP4, MOV, MKV, and other formats at very fast speed and high quality. And is compatible with both Mac and Windows.
Note that TunesKit is only compatible with an iTunes version lower than 12.6.2. If you have the latest version of iTunes, please use the first method.
Regardless of protected or unprotected M4V video, iTunes can't export it to MP4 or other video formats on Mac. The same goes for the Windows version of iTunes. Only a few output audio formats are supported, including AAC, MP3, and WAV.
Requiem is the no.1 talked free app that can remove DRM from songs, and videos on iTunes. However, Requiem hasn’t been updated since 2012 Version 4.1, and can only support iTunes 10.7 or earlier, also, it can not work with Mac OS X 10.8 or above. which is a very old-fashioned way, and most of the tutorials on the web are all using the Windows version of Requiem to convert DRM-protected files to MP4, which is very complicated so we advised you don’t use Requiem to convert M4V to MP4 on Mac.
“Can I use handbrake to remove DRM from iTunes M4V movies" is a commonly asked question by most Mac users. Though as a well-known free video converter and DVD ripper, handbrake can convert M4V format, in the official site, it states clearly that it can’t convert any files that are DRM protected, Therefore, quite obviously, you can’t turn DRM-protected M4V videos to MP4 with Handbrake. If someone told you that you can convert M4V to MP4, they are only restricted to the non-DRM M4V video types.
VLC is a very popular Mac video player that also has the ability to convert videos, Though VLC works perfectly to convert M4V files to other formats. But when it comes to copy-protected iTunes movies, that's a totally different story, as it is unable to remove DRM (eg: convert m4v to mp4). If you add an iTunes M4V video to VLC, it will not recognize it, let alone convert it.
If, again, the files don’t have DRM, QuickTime Pro can convert M4V files to MP4. But unfortunately, QuickTime Pro stopped being maintained and updated in 2016. The current QuickTime X or QuickTime 10 can convert M4V to 4k/1080p/20p/480p MOV and M4A audio.
The above three methods are tested by us and can help you convert M4V to MP4 on Mac. Each of them has its own unique advantages and disadvantages, Regardless of which method you ended up following, I hope one of the methods above will help you turn M4V movies into MP4 If you have other methods that work please leave them in the comment below.
Rosa has worked in Mac software industry for more than eight years. She believes that the purpose of software is to make life better and work more productively. In addition to writing, Rosa is also an avid runner.