Is there a free .3g2 converter out there?

December 15, 2009 4:45 PM

Is there a free .3g2 converter for the mac out there?

I'm trying to edit a video from my phone with iMovie, but it's in .3g2 which iMovie doesn't recognize. I've done some searching but everything costs $.

Is there a free one out there? Google only led me to ffmpeg and VLC, both of which didn't recognize the format.

posted by biochemist to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

I do this by opening them in Quicktime, and then selecting 'export'.
posted by dmd at 5:00 PM on December 15, 2009

I think iMovie should read .3g2 but if you have QuickTime Pro or Mac OS X 10.6, which comes bundled with Pro features, you could resave 3g2 files to another format iMovie can work with.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:00 PM on December 15, 2009

Response by poster: I can see the export option in Quicktime, but it's greyed out and asks me if I want to buy Pro. I don't have Snow Leopard, unfortunately.
posted by biochemist at 5:15 PM on December 15, 2009

Give Avidemux a shot.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 5:17 PM on December 15, 2009

Yeah, QT7 (& possibly 6?) should open them, but I don't think QT X in Snow Leopard does. Also, IIRC, QT7 doesn't handle all the possible audio/video formats that can be contained in .3gp/.3g2 files.

I think ffmpegX handles more formats in those containers than QT does, but it's been a long time since I touched one.
posted by Pinback at 5:20 PM on December 15, 2009

Quicktime on Snow Leopard definitely opens them, I was just watching one.
posted by meta_eli at 7:38 PM on December 15, 2009

Actually VLC on OS X plays .3g2 files for me too... Perhaps there's something broken/weird with the particular file you've got?
posted by meta_eli at 7:39 PM on December 15, 2009

Best answer: meta_eli: Are you sure they're playing in Quicktime X, not an older version e.g. QT 7 (which the Snow Leopard updater will move to /Applications/Utilities if previously installed, or include as an optional extra on fresh installs)? I didn't think it handled them, but am willing to be corrected on that. I don't have a 10.6 machine or .3g2 file handy to test with at the moment.

In the past I've found VLC to be a bit finicky on certain files, particularly when the audio codec isn't recognised - it often just refuses to play them. And I'm not sure if it handles the higher-quality AMR-WB/+ codecs that .3g2 files may contain (it does handle AMR-NB).

Interesting… I just noticed that Zamzar, the on-line document converter, claims to handle .3gp/.3g2 files. If all else fails, give that a whirl.
posted by Pinback at 8:55 PM on December 15, 2009

Although I've never used it myself, media-convert.com seems to list .3g2 as one of the input formats it can convert.
posted by blueberry at 9:39 PM on December 15, 2009

Response by poster: Thank you MeFi! I thought this would never be solved.
posted by biochemist at 12:04 AM on December 16, 2009