Thanks for sharing,
Reinhard and Son Engineering, Inc!
Amazing work for a unique and very capable setup! I can only assume that this is a
family of engineers!
Obviously the camera is higher resolution than any "web cam" we might purchase, but the working model looks very weather-proof. I assume the neighbors are not too uncomfortable?
Would be interesting to see the control system. Is it software-based or do you have electro-mechanical controls in the house? Does it have some automatic features like 'time-lapse' panorama or a system to avoid directly pointing at the Sun?
Why the hell is Apple using mov for capturing videos on iPhone?
I suppose because they have quite a bit of experience with it? And it kind of keeps it "in the family". But, as you've seen, it's not very user-friendly for sharing with non-Apple devices.
Technically, I think ".mov" is simply a "container" for the ".mp4" video
format. As you've found, it is usually possible to simply change those three characters and view the video in more generic viewers. As with many Apple methods (remember file
Type and Creator codes, ADB connections and even Thunderbolt and Lightning), the "major players" adopted other I/O schemes (serial and USB). There may be things ".mov" can store/record that other video containers cannot, but it's codec is probably proprietary so only Apple can use it for free.
BTW, I did not need to do anything other than double-click the link for the video.