Does Windows- 7 already have something that would convert .m4v to .mp4?

If not, how would I do that?

3 Answers

In most cases, it's easy enough to just rename your file from .m4v to .mp4. There is no conversion needed.

Both .m4v and .mp4 can be used as extensions for the MPEG-4 Part 14 container format. While .m4v isn't used that often, .m4a is common for audio-only files.

There are two cases in which renaming does not work:

1. Sometimes, .m4v is also used as an extension for raw MPEG-4 Part 2 video bitstreams. In this case, renaming is not possible. The file has to be multiplexed into an .mp4 container instead. This can be done, for example, with ffmpeg: ffmpeg -i input.m4v -c copy output.mp4

2. When they originate from iTunes, .m4v files may be protected by Apple's DRM. In this case, renaming to .mp4 is not possible, and you cannot convert the file itself either, as it is copyright-protected and can only be played with iTunes on the machine it was bought on.

In either case, it is not necessary to convert the file by re-encoding it. This would only deteriorate the video quality. It is certainly not necessary to buy some kind of video conversion software for this task either.

6

Leawo total media converter, or maybe AVS Video converter
They are both paid, but have free versions

6

You can check this convertor out WinxHD, it's not free but you can easily work your way round and it facilitates m4v to mp4 or vice versa.

Hope I helped.

Enjoy :)

2