Video file formats: jungle or not?

Thu, 08/03/2007 - 13:36 — brunodbo

One of the questions we asked ourselves when starting this mobile phone video project was:

"What about the file format of mobile phone video? Doesn't every mobile phone brand uses its own video format? Won't this make it very difficult for people to actually use mobile phone video?"

This fear proved to be false. In fact, there even seems to be a standard for mobile (phone) video: 3GP, or third generation mobile video standard. From the 3GP website:

"3GP is a file format specially developed for third generation mobile devices. It is based on the MP4 file format. (...) 3GP also describes image sizes and bandwidth, so content is correctly sized for mobile display screens. 3GP files are viewable on a PC using QuickTime or RealPlayer. You can play the downloaded 3GP file on your PC using QuickTime of RealPlayer."

Great.

Since 3GP is based off the (well known and popular) MPEG-4 video file format, there are quite a few 3GP conversion programs out there (more on these programs in a later post). These programs can be used to convert a 3GP file that comes out of your phone to another file format for later use in a video edit. Or you can upload the converted file directly to your blog or your website.

Another plus of 3GP's relation to MPEG, is that you can play these files in programs such as Quicktime or Realplayer (both are widespread and available for most computer platforms. So watching a mobile video clip that comes straight off your phone, is no problem.