MOV to 3G2 Converter

MOV to 3G2 — Or Should It Be 3GP?

Almost everyone who lands here is choosing between two nearly identical mobile containers. The short answer: pick 3G2 if the target device is a CDMA2000 handset or a piece of software that explicitly asks for .3g2; pick 3GP for anything on the GSM/UMTS side; pick MP4 if the device is from this decade and you simply want a smaller file.

The two formats are siblings, not rivals. 3GP comes from the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, 3G2 from 3GPP2 — the bodies that standardised the GSM/UMTS and CDMA2000 network families respectively. ExifTool's file-type table describes 3G2 as "3rd Gen. Partnership Project 2 a/v" and classifies it as QuickTime-based, which is the same lineage as the MOV you are converting from. MDN treats both under one container entry with the MIME types video/3gpp and video/3gpp2.

Side-by-side Comparison

When to Pick 3G2

• The receiving device is a CDMA2000-era handset, or its manual and menus name .3g2 specifically.
• A legacy tool, kiosk, or embedded player accepts only .3g2 and rejects other extensions outright.
• You are matching an existing archive of .3g2 clips and want the set to stay consistent.
• You need the smallest possible file for a hard size or bandwidth ceiling and the player is from that era anyway.

When to Pick 3GP or MP4 Instead

• The phone was sold on a GSM or UMTS network — MOV to 3GP is the matching container, and the settings are identical to this page.
• The device is a smartphone from the last decade: MOV to MP4 gives dramatically better quality at the same file size and plays on essentially everything.
• You only want the same video to weigh less without changing container: compress MOV keeps the format and the quality ceiling.
• The destination is a web page: neither mobile container plays in browsers, so MP4 or WebM is the correct target.

How to Convert MOV to 3G2

1. Upload Your MOV File: Drag the .mov onto the page or click "Add Files" to browse. Several clips can be queued and encoded with the same settings.
2. Pick a Video Codec and Audio Codec: Video Codec offers H.263, H.264, MPEG-4 and Xvid and starts on H.264. Audio Codec offers AAC, AMR Narrow Band and AMR Wide Band, and starts with nothing highlighted — pick one deliberately.
3. Choose a Compression Mode and Resolution: File Compression starts on Quality Preset at "Very High (Recommended)"; Specific file size, Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate, Constant Quality and Constraint Quality are the alternatives. Video resolution starts on "Keep original", and Trim exports just a Time Range.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert and save the .3g2. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers and deleted automatically after a few hours. No sign-up, no watermark.

Codec Options and What They Force

Frequently Asked Questions

Is 3G2 better quality than 3GP?

No — they carry the same video codecs and, on this page, exactly the same encoder options. Any quality difference between two files you make here comes from the codec, bitrate and resolution you chose, not from the container. Choose between them on device compatibility alone.

Can I just rename a .3gp file to .3g2?

Sometimes it works, and it is still the wrong approach. The two containers use different brand identifiers in their file-type box, and players that care about the difference read that box rather than the filename. If a device demands .3g2, convert to it properly so the internal branding matches the extension.

Will converting MOV to 3G2 lose quality?

Yes, and that is the intended trade. Every conversion here is a full re-encode — our servers decode the MOV and encode fresh streams — so the picture is recompressed. Combined with the low resolutions these containers are used at, expect visible softening. That is the price of a file an old handset can decode.

Why is nothing selected under Audio Codec?

The group's configured default value does not match any of the three visible buttons, so none appears highlighted. It is a cosmetic gap rather than a failure: convert without touching it and the server falls back to the container's default, writing AAC audio. Select AAC, AMR Narrow Band or AMR Wide Band explicitly if you want certainty.

Does the 3G2 output support the CDMA speech codecs the format is known for?

Not as encode targets. The 3GPP2 file format was defined alongside the speech codecs used on CDMA networks, but this converter offers AAC, AMR Narrow Band and AMR Wide Band only. For speech destined for an old CDMA handset, AMR Narrow Band at 8 kHz mono is the closest match in behaviour and the most likely to decode.

Can 3G2 carry surround sound or high-resolution video?

Not usefully. The audio options here are stereo AAC or mono AMR, and any resolution beyond a few hundred pixels defeats the reason to use the format at all. If you need multichannel audio or a large frame, the container is wrong for the job — convert to MP4 instead.

My 3G2 came out squashed — why?

H.263 was selected. Its five legal frame sizes are all 4:3, and the scale is applied to both axes, so a 16:9 source is squeezed rather than letterboxed. Switch to H.264 and use a resolution preset; the presets set the target height and let the width follow the source aspect ratio.

How are my files handled and how long are they kept?

Your MOV is uploaded over an encrypted connection, converted on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — never shared, never made public, with no sign-up and no watermark. On a long clip the slow part is the upload, not the encode, so trimming to a Time Range first or cutting the source with video-cutter is the quickest route to a finished file.