3gp

3rd Generation Partnership (commonly abbreviated as 3GP) is one of the most common video formats capable of playback on standard Mobile Devices. These are typically low-to-mid grade phones, while SmartPhones tend to be capable of playing higher quality and higher frame rate RAM, MP4, AVI, M4V and other video formats.

It is important for any video message designed for widespread distribution to also be converted into this format, as for the foreseeable future, it will be the dominant choice of video playback formats for Mobile Phones worldwide (though MP4 is slowly gaining dominance and adoption).

Specifications

• 3GPP specifications: http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/html-info/26244.htm
• 3GPP2 specifications: http://www.3gpp2.org/Public_html/specs/

3GP Project

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration agreement that was established in December 1998. The collaboration agreement brings together a number of telecommunications standards bodies which are known as “Organizational Partners”. The current Organizational Partners are ARIB, CCSA, ETSI, ATIS, TTA, and TTC. <ref>3GPP About Us: http://www.3gpp.org/About/about.htm</ref>

The establishment of 3GPP was formalized in December 1998 by the signing of the “The 3rd Generation Partnership Project Agreement”. <ref>3GPP Agreement: http://www.3gpp.org/About/3GPP.ppt</ref> Some argue that video formatting standards or the groundwork for such, arose before the formalizing of the 3GPP, and that this was a publicity stunt or coerced effort by the players to make a fledgling group's work on assorted mobile communications standards seem more official. Regardless, the 3GPP now oversees this work and acts as a self-regulating body and arguably, more of a cohesive organization, despite the wide geographic distribution of its members.

Resources

• 3GPConverter Project: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=192375
• AMR Audio Codec for 3GP video and Mobile audio files: http://www.penguin.cz/~utx/amr
• Mobile devices that supports 3GP Player: http://www.3gp-player.com/doku.php?id=3gp_support

Tutorials

• Add Video Mime Type for 3gp Video on Apache Server: http://contentdeveloper.com/2006/06/add-video-mime-type-for-3gp-video-on-apache-server/
• Ubuntu Forums section on how to compile ffmpeg with AMR support to ensure 3GP conversion/streaming capabilities: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2960258
• 3GP ffmpeg-based Shell Converter Script: http://blog.mypapit.net/2007/04/ffmpeg-based-batch-flv-to-3gp-converter-scripts.html
• Ubuntu/Debian-distro guide to patching your ffmpeg for 3GP audio: http://blogger.rukker.org/2006/07/12/enable-mp3-and-amr-support-in-ffmpeg-ubuntudebian/
• Apple -- 3GPP and 3GPP2 FAQ: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/technologies/3gpp/faq.html

Resources

• 3GPP Live: http://www.3gpplive.org/ (interviews with 3GP community members and innovators)

External Links

• wikipedia: 3GP
• 3GPP: http://3gpp.org
• Latest 3GP Music Videos resource: http://www.mv3gp.com/3gp_videos_latest93.html
• Apple's Darwin Streaming Server Resources for 3GPP: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/technologies/3gpp/
• 3GP Converters: http://www.3gpformat.net/#3gp-converters
• How to Convert a Flash Video File: http://www.ehow.com/how_2257423_convert-flash-video-file.html
• How to Use Moyea Video to 3gp Converter: http://www.ehow.com/how_2297165_use-moyea-video-3gp-converter.html

See Also

3G | 3gp converter | MMS | SMS | E-Mail