Extract Audio from MOV to AIF — Free Online Tool
Extract audio from a MOV file and save it as a lossless AIF file using uncompressed PCM audio. This tool strips the video stream entirely and outputs a 16-bit big-endian PCM AIF file — the native Apple lossless audio format — preserving every sample from the original MOV's audio track without any re-encoding artifacts.
to
FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
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Note: Browser-based encoding uses approximate quality targets. For precise CRF compression, copy the FFmpeg command above and run it on your desktop.
Estimated output:
Conversion Complete!
DownloadHow It Works
MOV files typically carry audio encoded with AAC or another compressed codec alongside a video stream. This conversion does two things simultaneously: it discards the video stream entirely (no video decoding occurs) and decodes the audio — whether it was AAC, MP3, Opus, FLAC, or Vorbis inside the MOV — and re-encodes it into uncompressed PCM signed 16-bit big-endian samples, written into an AIF container. Because AIF uses big-endian byte ordering (Apple's traditional architecture convention), the output is a true PCM audio file compatible with macOS audio tools, Logic Pro, GarageBand, and professional DAWs. If the original MOV audio was lossy (e.g., AAC at 128k), the AIF output will be a lossless PCM representation of that already-decoded signal — the decompression artifacts from the original codec are preserved but no further quality is lost.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg command-line tool. In the browser version of this tool, FFmpeg runs locally via WebAssembly (FFmpeg.wasm) — no files leave your machine. |
-i input.mov
|
Specifies the input file as a MOV container. FFmpeg reads the QuickTime container structure to identify the available video and audio streams, their codecs, sample rates, and track layout before any processing begins. |
-vn
|
Disables all video output, telling FFmpeg to completely ignore the video stream in the MOV. This means the video codec (e.g., H.264 or ProRes) is never decoded, making the extraction faster and ensuring no video data appears in the AIF output. |
-c:a pcm_s16be
|
Sets the audio codec to signed 16-bit big-endian PCM, which is the standard uncompressed audio encoding used in AIF files. The audio from the MOV — whether originally AAC, MP3, Opus, or FLAC — is decoded and re-encoded as raw PCM samples in Apple's big-endian byte order. |
output.aif
|
Defines the output filename and container format. The .aif extension tells FFmpeg to write an Audio Interchange File Format container, which wraps the pcm_s16be audio stream in the AIFF structure expected by macOS applications, Logic Pro, GarageBand, and compatible DAWs. |
Common Use Cases
- Extracting the audio from a Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve MOV export to deliver a lossless AIF master file to a client or mastering engineer
- Pulling dialogue or voice-over audio from a MOV camera recording to import as a lossless AIF track into Logic Pro or Pro Tools for post-production editing
- Archiving the audio from an Apple ProRes MOV project file into a standalone AIF for long-term storage without any additional quality loss from compression
- Extracting music or sound design from a MOV video deliverable to use as a lossless AIF stem in a new composition or remix project
- Converting MOV interview recordings to AIF so the audio can be analyzed in spectrum analyzers or waveform editors that require uncompressed PCM input
- Producing a lossless AIF version of a podcast recording that was exported as a MOV from a screen recording or video editing application
Frequently Asked Questions
If your MOV file contains AAC audio, the AIF output will not recover the quality lost during the original AAC encoding — that compression happened before this conversion. However, the conversion itself introduces zero additional quality loss: FFmpeg fully decodes the AAC stream and writes every decoded sample as uncompressed PCM into the AIF file. What you get is a lossless capture of the decoded AAC audio, which is the best possible representation of that signal at this stage.
The command uses pcm_s16be, which produces a 16-bit signed big-endian PCM AIF file — standard CD-quality bit depth. If your source MOV contains higher-resolution audio (e.g., 24-bit from a professional camera), you can change the codec flag to pcm_s24be for a 24-bit output: ffmpeg -i input.mov -vn -c:a pcm_s24be output.aif. For 32-bit float precision you could use pcm_f32be. Higher bit depths result in larger files but preserve more dynamic range headroom.
The AIF output will almost always be significantly larger than the audio portion of your MOV, because AIF stores uncompressed PCM while MOV typically uses AAC or another compressed codec. For example, one minute of stereo 44.1kHz 16-bit PCM audio is about 10MB uncompressed, while the same audio encoded as 128k AAC in a MOV would be under 1MB. The video stream from the MOV is discarded, so the AIF will contain only the audio data.
No — the AIF format does not support chapter markers or multiple audio tracks. This conversion extracts only the first (default) audio track from the MOV. If your MOV contains multiple audio tracks, FFmpeg will select the default one automatically. Chapter metadata and any subtitle streams are discarded. If you need to extract a specific non-default audio track, you can add -map 0:a:1 (for the second audio track) to the FFmpeg command before the output filename.
Yes — on macOS or Linux you can wrap the command in a shell loop: for f in *.mov; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -vn -c:a pcm_s16be "${f%.mov}.aif"; done. This processes every MOV in the current directory and outputs a matching AIF file. On Windows Command Prompt you would use: for %f in (*.mov) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -vn -c:a pcm_s16be "%~nf.aif". The browser-based tool processes files one at a time, so the FFmpeg command is especially useful for batch workflows.
AIF was developed by Apple and uses big-endian byte ordering tied to older Motorola/PowerPC architecture conventions, so native Windows support is limited compared to WAV (which uses little-endian PCM). Most professional DAWs on Windows — including Reaper, Ableton Live, and FL Studio — can import AIF without issues, but basic Windows utilities like Windows Media Player may not support it. If you need a lossless uncompressed format with broad Windows compatibility, WAV with pcm_s16le would be a more universally supported alternative.
Technical Notes
AIF encodes audio as big-endian PCM, which is the byte-order convention Apple used on Motorola 68k and PowerPC hardware — the codec flag pcm_s16be reflects this: signed, 16-bit, big-endian. The sample rate of the output AIF is inherited directly from the source MOV audio stream; FFmpeg does not resample unless instructed, so a MOV recorded at 48kHz (standard for video production) will produce a 48kHz AIF. This is important to note if your destination application expects 44.1kHz (standard for music/CD). If resampling is needed, add -ar 44100 to the command. The -vn flag ensures FFmpeg never allocates a video decoder, making the extraction fast regardless of how complex the MOV's video codec is. Metadata such as ID3-style tags or QuickTime metadata atoms from the MOV are generally not transferred to AIF, as AIF has limited metadata support compared to modern formats. If your MOV audio is already FLAC (lossless inside MOV), converting to AIF via pcm_s16be will decode FLAC losslessly and re-encode as PCM — no quality is lost, but if the FLAC was 24-bit and you use the default 16-bit output, you will lose bit depth in the conversion.