iTunes Supported Video and Audio Formats Explained

What video and audio formats does iTunes support? Why doesn't iTunes let me add files? Many people are asking these questions. In this article, we'll list the video and audio formats supported by iTunes and also some tips on playing video/audio in iTunes.

iTunes supported video formats:

According to Apple, iTunes supports any video format that works with QuickTime and files purchased or downloaded from iTunes store. That means if your videos files have a .mov, .m4v, or .mp4 file extension, generally you can play them in iTunes. However, there are also limitations on video codecs, sample rate, etc. So if your .mov, .m4v or .mp4 files are rejected by iTunes, that may be because of a codec problem.

iTunes supported audio formats

iTunes supported audio formats include: MP3, AAC, AIFF, WAV, Audible .aa files and iTunes purchased M4A and M4P music files. iTunes can convert between MP3, WAV, AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless.

Tips on iTunes video/audio playback

1. Play other video and audio formats in iTunes

But maybe you have some files in other formats, like AVI, VOB, WMA, etc. For video, you can use a Video Converter to convert the videos to iTunes supported video formats and then transfer the converted video files to your iTunes library. For audio, generally, when you add the music to your iTunes library, iTunes will tell you it's not supported and will convert it automatically.

2. Play DVD movies in iTunes

As we know, iTunes doesn't support any DVD formats. To watch DVD movies in iTunes, you can simply apply a DVD Ripper program to convert the DVD movies to iTunes highly compatible H.264 MP4 video files.

3. Play iTunes purchased video/music on non-Apple product

iTunes movies are often protected by the DRM protection and music bought before April 2009 are also DRM protected. If you want to transfer these protected iTunes movies and music to non-iPod player like Archos, Android phone, Zune, PSP, etc. you need to remove iTunes DRM with a professional DRM remover and convert the files to your player supported formats.