A .mov file is a Quicktime movie file. Quicktime is a video and audio container format developed by Apple Computer Inc. It doesn't define the actual compression technology the video has to use, but just defines the video structure instead.
Quicktime Alternative is an excellent player for Quicktime files. Also there are several software titles available to download at AfterDawn that allow Quicktime files to be encoded to other formats such as MPEG (for use with VCD, SVCD or DVD for example).
