MyMediaTools

Convert 3G2 to MOV — Free Online Tool

Convert 3G2 files from legacy CDMA mobile devices into MOV format for use in Apple's professional editing ecosystem. This tool re-encodes the H.264 video and AAC audio streams into a QuickTime-compatible container, unlocking MOV features like chapter markers, multiple audio tracks, and subtitle support that 3G2 cannot carry.

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Estimated output:

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How It Works

3G2 is a stripped-down container designed for CDMA mobile transmission — it shares structural similarities with MP4 but intentionally omits many professional features to minimize file size for over-the-air delivery. During this conversion, the H.264 video stream is re-encoded using libx264 at CRF 23, and the AAC audio is re-encoded at 128k bitrate. Because both formats share H.264 and AAC as codecs, the quality loss from re-encoding is minimal at default settings, but the output gains the full MOV container structure: Apple QuickTime metadata atoms, support for multiple audio tracks, chapter markers, subtitles, and transparency via appropriate codecs. The -movflags +faststart flag also repositions the MOV metadata at the start of the file, making it suitable for progressive streaming.

What Each Flag Does

Flag What it does
ffmpeg Invokes the FFmpeg binary — the open-source multimedia processing engine that this browser-based tool runs via WebAssembly. All conversion logic is executed locally in your browser, not on a remote server.
-i input.3g2 Specifies the input file in 3G2 format — the CDMA-era mobile container developed for 3GPP2. FFmpeg automatically detects the H.264 video and AAC audio streams inside and makes them available for re-encoding.
-c:v libx264 Sets the video encoder to libx264, which re-encodes the H.264 video stream from the 3G2 source into an H.264 stream fully compatible with the QuickTime MOV container and Apple editing tools.
-c:a aac Sets the audio encoder to AAC, re-encoding the audio from the 3G2 file's AAC stream into a clean AAC stream with proper QuickTime-compatible framing inside the MOV container.
-crf 23 Sets the Constant Rate Factor for libx264 video encoding to 23, which is the default quality level. This balances file size and visual quality well for most 3G2 source footage, which was originally encoded at low mobile bitrates.
-b:a 128k Sets the AAC audio bitrate to 128 kilobits per second, which is a standard quality level that preserves the audio fidelity from the original 3G2 file without inflating the MOV output size unnecessarily.
-movflags +faststart Moves the MOV file's metadata (moov atom) to the beginning of the output file. This is important for QuickTime compatibility and allows the MOV to begin playing or importing in Apple apps before the entire file is read.
output.mov Specifies the output filename and container format. The .mov extension tells FFmpeg to write a QuickTime MOV container, which unlocks support for chapters, subtitles, multiple audio tracks, and Apple-native metadata atoms unavailable in 3G2.

Common Use Cases

  • Importing video clips recorded on an older CDMA phone (Verizon or Sprint era) into Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve, which expect MOV or prefer QuickTime-compatible containers
  • Archiving legacy 3G2 footage from early-2000s mobile cameras into a more durable and feature-rich container that preserves compatibility with macOS and Apple ecosystem tools
  • Adding chapter markers or secondary audio tracks to a 3G2 video by first converting it to MOV, which supports these features natively in QuickTime
  • Preparing mobile-sourced 3G2 video for upload to Apple-centric video workflows, such as iMovie projects or ProRes pipelines that start from an H.264 MOV source
  • Converting a collection of 3G2 clips from an old phone backup into MOV so they can be played and scrubbed natively in macOS Finder and QuickTime Player without third-party plugins
  • Re-packaging 3G2 news or field footage captured on CDMA networks into MOV for delivery to broadcast editors working in Apple-based post-production environments

Frequently Asked Questions

Because this conversion re-encodes both the video and audio streams rather than simply remuxing them, there is a small generation loss. At the default CRF 23 for H.264 and 128k for AAC, the quality difference from the original 3G2 is minimal and visually indistinguishable in most cases. Since 3G2 files were already heavily compressed for CDMA mobile transmission, the limiting factor is usually the original quality of the source, not the re-encoding step.
Yes. MOV with H.264 video and AAC audio is one of the most natively supported formats in Apple's video editing suite. Final Cut Pro, iMovie, and QuickTime Player all handle this output without any additional plugins or codec packs. The -movflags +faststart flag also ensures the file's index is at the beginning, which benefits both import performance and scrubbing in these applications.
3G2 files were deliberately encoded at very low bitrates optimized for CDMA mobile network transmission, often well below what standard H.264 encoding at CRF 23 would produce. When re-encoding at default quality settings, FFmpeg targets a perceptual quality level rather than matching the original bitrate, which typically results in a larger file with better fidelity. If you want to minimize file size, you can increase the CRF value (e.g., to 28 or 35) at the cost of some additional quality reduction.
MOV supports both subtitles and chapter markers natively, but 3G2 does not carry either of these features — so the conversion itself cannot transfer subtitle or chapter data that doesn't exist in the source. However, once you have the MOV file, you can add subtitle tracks or chapter markers using tools like FFmpeg with a separate subtitle file, or through QuickTime Player Pro and Final Cut Pro's chapter marker tools.
To adjust video quality, change the CRF value in the -crf flag: lower numbers (e.g., 18) produce higher quality and larger files, while higher numbers (e.g., 28 or 35) produce smaller files with more compression. To adjust audio quality, change the value after -b:a — for example, -b:a 192k for better audio fidelity or -b:a 96k for a smaller file. For a direct command example: ffmpeg -i input.3g2 -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 18 -b:a 192k -movflags +faststart output.mov
Yes. On macOS or Linux, you can use a shell loop: for f in *.3g2; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 23 -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart "${f%.3g2}.mov"; done. On Windows Command Prompt, use: for %f in (*.3g2) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 23 -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart "%~nf.mov". This is especially useful when migrating a large archive of legacy CDMA phone videos to a modern MOV-based workflow.

Technical Notes

3G2 and MOV share a common ancestry — both are derived from the ISO Base Media File Format (ISOBMFF), which means their internal atom/box structures are similar, but they diverge significantly in the features they expose. 3G2 was defined by the 3GPP2 consortium specifically for CDMA networks and restricts many container-level features to keep files small and transmission-friendly. MOV, by contrast, is Apple's original QuickTime container and supports a much richer metadata model, including user data atoms, multiple edit lists, and reference movies. During this conversion, both the video (H.264/libx264) and audio (AAC) codecs are shared between the source and output formats, but re-encoding is still performed rather than a direct stream copy because the container atoms and sample tables need to be rebuilt in QuickTime-native form. The -movflags +faststart flag moves the moov atom to the front of the file, which is essential for streaming and fast seek in QuickTime Player. One known limitation is that 3G2 files from some older CDMA handsets may contain non-standard or vendor-specific metadata atoms that FFmpeg will silently drop during conversion — contact information, GPS coordinates embedded by the phone, or proprietary DRM flags may not carry over into the MOV output.

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