MOV file type, a video container, is a common multimedia format often used in Apple's Quicktime for saving movies and other video files, using a proprietary compression algorithm developed by Apple Computer, compatible with both Macintosh and Windows platforms.MOV container (QuickTime Container File Type) can store different videos data formats, like MPEG-4 and OGG.
MOV files consist of consecutive chunks. Each chunk has 8 byte header: 4-byte chunk size (big-endian, high byte first) and 4-byte chunk type - one of pre-defined signatures: "ftyp", "mdat", "moov", "pnot", "udta", "uuid", "moof", "free", "skip", "jP2 ", "wide", "load", "ctab", "imap", "matt", "kmat", "clip", "crgn", "sync", "chap", "tmcd", "scpt", "ssrc", "PICT".
First chunk must be of type "ftype" and has a sub-type at offset 8. MOV defined by sub-type which must be "qt ".
To compose MOV file, iterating chunks is needed until unknown type is detected.
Let's examine the sample
When inspecting sample.mov file's binary data using any Hex Viewer, like Active@ Disk Editor we can see it starts with a signature ftyp (hex: 66 74 79 70) at offset 4, which defines QuickTime Container File Type.
File sub-type is qt__ (hex: 71 74 20 20) which points to MOV file type. First block size is 32 (hex: 00 00 00 20, big-endian, high byte first), size located at offset 0.
At offset 32 (hex: 20) is located the second chunk, which has a size of 8 and type mdat (hex: 6D 64 61 74).
The next chunk is located at offset 32+8=40 (hex: 28) and has a size 3,263,028 (hex: 00 31 CA 34) and type mdat (hex: 6D 64 61 74) at offset 44 (hex: 2C).
The next chunk is located at offset 40 + 3,263,028=3,263,068 (hex: 00 31 CA 5C) and has a size 21,189 (hex: 00 00 52 C5) and type moov (hex: 6D 6F 6F 76) at offset 1,836,019,574 (hex: 00 31 CA 60). This is the last chunk, so total file size is 3,263,068+21,189=3,284,257 bytes.
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