WMV to 3G2 Converter

How to Convert WMV to 3G2 Online

1. Upload Your WMV File: Drag and drop or click "Add Files" to select WMV recordings — typically Windows Movie Maker exports, screen captures, or older webcam clips. Batch conversion is supported.
2. Pick a Video Codec and Quality Preset: Default video codec for 3G2 is H.264 (best compression and reasonable legacy support). H.263 is available for the broadest legacy 3GPP2 handset compatibility, and MPEG-4 Part 2 is also offered. Set Quality Preset (Highest → Lowest), target a Specific file size in MB/KB, or fine-tune with Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate, Constant Quality, or Constraint Quality.
3. Pick an Audio Codec, Resolution, and Trim (Optional): Default audio codec is AMR-NB (the narrowband speech codec native to 3GPP2 handsets); switch to AAC if you need music quality. Under Video Resolution, keep original or pick a Preset Resolution (240p, 360p, 480p, 720p), set width × height, or scale by Resolution Percentage. Use Trim → Time Range to extract a segment with start time and duration in HH:MM:SS.sss.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Files process in your browser session — no sign-up, no watermark, no upload to a third-party server.

Why Convert WMV to 3G2?

WMV (Windows Media Video) is Microsoft's container for video encoded with WMV1/WMV2/WMV3 (VC-1) and paired with WMA audio — common in Windows Movie Maker projects, older PowerPoint exports, and screen recordings from the early-to-mid 2000s. 3G2 is the 3GPP2 mobile container designed for CDMA2000 handsets. Both formats are now legacy, but the WMV → 3G2 conversion still has real use cases:

• Archiving footage shot on a CDMA feature phone — If you have old WMV exports that were originally recorded on a Verizon, Sprint, MetroPCS, U.S. Cellular, or Cricket flip-phone, re-encoding back to 3G2 preserves the original mobile-format provenance for digital archives.
• Playback on retained legacy hardware — Verizon shut down its 3G CDMA network on December 31, 2022, and T-Mobile finished the Sprint CDMA shutdown on March 31, 2022, but many CDMA feature phones still work as offline media players. 3G2 with H.264 + AMR-NB plays on those handsets where MP4 may not.
• Forensic and legal preservation — Investigators and digital-evidence labs sometimes need to keep media in the container format originally produced by a target device. Converting a WMV transcript to 3G2 maintains a chain-of-custody-friendly mobile format.
• MMS-friendly small files — 3G2 with AMR-NB audio at 320×240 is one of the smallest practical video formats. Useful when emulating SMS/MMS workflows for testing or for sending short clips over carriers that still support 3G2 attachments.
• Educational and museum exhibits — Mobile-history exhibits and university media-studies courses display CDMA-era video on period hardware. 3G2 is the authentic container.
• Round-trip testing of mobile media pipelines — Developers building tools that handle 3GPP2 streams test against real 3G2 input. Converting from WMV gives a controlled source.

For modern phones, tablets, browsers, and smart TVs, use WMV to MP4 instead — 3G2 has no native playback path on iOS, modern Android, Windows 11, or any current browser.

WMV vs 3G2 — Format Comparison

Audio Codec Choice for 3G2

3G2 supports a wider audio codec set than 3GP because the 3GPP2 spec adds CDMA-specific speech codecs. Pick by your output goal:

Note: 3G2 explicitly excludes Enhanced aacPlus (HE-AAC v2) and AMR-WB+ — those are 3GP-only.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is AMR-NB the default audio codec for 3G2?

AMR-NB (Adaptive Multi-Rate Narrowband) is the speech codec adopted by 3GPP for early-3G voice and is the most universally decoded audio stream in 3GPP2 players. It's voice-optimized — narrowband (200–3400 Hz) at 4.75–12.2 kbit/s — so a one-minute clip is roughly 50–90 KB of audio. If your WMV source is music or mixed content, switch to AAC-LC under Audio Codec for full-bandwidth quality at the cost of file size.

How much smaller will my 3G2 file be compared to the WMV?

Typically 3–10× smaller, depending on the WMV bitrate and your target resolution. A 50 MB 720p WMV recording becomes roughly 5–15 MB as 3G2 at 360p with H.264 + AMR-NB. The savings come from H.264's higher coding efficiency vs WMV3/VC-1, the lower target resolution, and AMR-NB's tiny audio footprint. If you need an even smaller result, drop to 240p or QVGA (320×240) and lower the CRF/quality preset.

What resolution should I pick for 3G2 output?

3G2 was designed for screens of 176×144 (QCIF) up to roughly 480×320. Use 320×240 (QVGA) for legacy CDMA feature phones, 480×360 if your target player can handle it, and avoid going above 720p — 3G2 above HD defeats the format's purpose and many 3GPP2 decoders will refuse to play it. The Preset Resolutions dropdown lists the standard mobile sizes.

Will my CDMA flip-phone still play 3G2 files now that the network is shut down?

Yes — Verizon shut down its 3G CDMA network on December 31, 2022, and T-Mobile finished Sprint's CDMA shutdown on March 31, 2022, but those shutdowns only affect cellular voice and data. The handset hardware still decodes locally-stored 3G2 files via Bluetooth or removable storage if the phone supported that originally.

Should I convert to 3G2 or MP4?

Use MP4 unless you have a specific reason to keep 3GPP2 provenance. MP4 plays on every modern phone, browser, OS, and smart TV from the past decade. 3G2 has zero native playback on iOS, modern Android, current Windows, macOS, or any major browser. Pick 3G2 for archiving authenticity, legacy CDMA hardware playback, or mobile-pipeline testing — and use WMV to MP4 for everything else.

What's the difference between 3G2 and 3GP?

Both are based on the ISO base media file format (ISO/IEC 14496-12). 3GP (video/3gpp) was specified by 3GPP for GSM/UMTS networks (AT&T, T-Mobile in the US, and most of the world). 3G2 (video/3gpp2) was specified by 3GPP2 for CDMA2000 networks (Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular). The two containers share most video codecs but 3G2 adds CDMA-specific speech codecs (EVRC, EVRC-B, QCELP, SMV, VMR-WB) and excludes HE-AAC v2 + AMR-WB+, which are 3GP-only. If you need GSM-era format instead, see WMV to 3GP.

Can I trim the WMV during conversion?

Yes. Set the Trim option to Time Range and enter a start time and duration in HH:MM:SS.sss (e.g., 00:01:30.500) or seconds. Trimming runs before encoding, so it both extracts the segment you want and reduces output size — useful since 3G2 is meant for short clips.

Will the WMV's WMA audio convert cleanly to 3G2's audio codecs?

Yes. The conversion fully decodes the WMA stream and re-encodes to your selected 3G2 audio codec (AMR-NB by default, AAC-LC if you choose). Quality is bounded by the codec you target — AMR-NB will compress music aggressively because it's a speech codec, so for music-heavy WMV pick AAC-LC. There's no way to copy WMA directly into a 3G2 container; the spec doesn't permit WMA.

What if I just want to compress the WMV without changing format?

If your goal is a smaller WMV (not mobile container), use Compress WMV instead. That re-encodes within the WMV container without switching to 3GPP2.