Convert 3G2 to WMV — Free Online Tool
Convert 3G2 files from CDMA mobile devices into WMV format using the msmpeg4 video codec and wmav2 audio codec — making your footage compatible with Windows Media Player and Windows-based workflows. This tool runs entirely in your browser via FFmpeg.wasm, so no files ever leave your device.
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FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
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Settings
Note: Browser-based encoding uses approximate quality targets. For precise CRF compression, copy the FFmpeg command above and run it on your desktop.
Estimated output:
Conversion Complete!
DownloadHow It Works
3G2 files use an MP4-derived container designed for CDMA mobile networks, typically encoding video with H.264 (libx264) and audio with AAC. During conversion to WMV, both streams must be fully re-encoded: the video is transcoded from H.264 into Microsoft's MPEG-4 variant (msmpeg4), and the AAC audio is transcoded into WMA v2 (wmav2). The output is wrapped in Microsoft's ASF (Advanced Systems Format) container, specified explicitly with the -f asf flag since WMV is an ASF-based format. Because both the video and audio codecs change entirely, this is a full transcode — not a remux — so processing time depends on file length and your device's CPU.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg program, which handles the full transcode pipeline — demuxing the 3G2 container, decoding the H.264 video and AAC audio, re-encoding both into Microsoft codecs, and muxing the result into an ASF/WMV container. |
-i input.3g2
|
Specifies the input file — a 3G2 container, which is an MPEG-4-derived format developed for CDMA mobile networks, typically holding H.264 video and AAC audio recorded on a mobile device. |
-c:v msmpeg4
|
Sets the output video codec to msmpeg4 (Microsoft MPEG-4 version 3), the standard video codec for WMV files and the format natively supported by Windows Media Player without additional codec installation. |
-c:a wmav2
|
Sets the output audio codec to WMA version 2 (wmav2), transcoding the source AAC audio into Microsoft's proprietary Windows Media Audio format, which is the native audio codec for WMV/ASF containers. |
-b:v 2000k
|
Sets the video bitrate to 2 Mbps, which provides a reasonable quality baseline for standard-definition mobile footage from a 3G2 source; increase this value if your source has higher resolution or you want better visual fidelity in the WMV output. |
-b:a 128k
|
Sets the WMA v2 audio bitrate to 128 kbps, which is adequate for typical mobile-recorded speech and ambient audio commonly found in 3G2 files from CDMA devices. |
-f asf
|
Explicitly forces the output container to ASF (Advanced Systems Format), the Microsoft container that underlies the WMV format; this ensures correct file structure for Windows Media Player and other ASF-aware applications, since WMV is technically an ASF container holding msmpeg4-encoded video. |
output.wmv
|
The output filename with the .wmv extension, signaling a Windows Media Video file — an ASF container with msmpeg4 video and wmav2 audio ready for playback on Windows systems. |
Common Use Cases
- Playing old footage captured on a CDMA mobile phone (e.g., a Verizon or Sprint device from the late 2000s or early 2010s) on a Windows PC that uses Windows Media Player as its default video application.
- Submitting video content to a Windows-centric corporate intranet or legacy media management system that only accepts WMV files.
- Editing 3G2 clips in older versions of Windows Movie Maker or other Windows-native editors that natively support WMV/ASF but not MPEG-4-based containers.
- Archiving mobile-shot 3G2 videos into a WMV format for a Windows-based digital asset library that standardizes on Microsoft media formats.
- Preparing 3G2 footage for streaming through a legacy Windows Media Services server, which uses ASF/WMV as its native delivery format.
- Converting a collection of 3G2 videos from a decommissioned CDMA device into a format that remains playable on Windows workstations without installing additional codecs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, some quality loss is inevitable because this conversion requires a full re-encode of both the video and audio streams. The original H.264 video in the 3G2 file is decoded and then re-encoded into the msmpeg4 codec, which is a less efficient compression algorithm than H.264 — meaning it needs more bitrate to achieve comparable visual quality. The default output bitrate of 2000k is generally adequate for standard-definition mobile footage, but if your 3G2 source is already compressed at a low bitrate, you may notice softening or blocking artifacts in the WMV output.
WMV is not a standalone container format — it is video encoded with Microsoft's MPEG-4 codecs stored inside an ASF (Advanced Systems Format) container. FFmpeg recognizes the .wmv file extension and applies the correct muxer, but explicitly passing -f asf ensures the ASF container is used regardless of how the output filename is interpreted. This is the standard and reliable way to produce a properly structured WMV file that Windows Media Player and other ASF-aware applications will open correctly.
3G2 files can carry metadata such as recording timestamp and sometimes GPS coordinates embedded by the mobile device. However, ASF/WMV uses a completely different metadata schema than the MPEG-4-derived 3G2 container, and FFmpeg does not automatically map all 3G2 metadata fields into their ASF equivalents during this conversion. Basic title or date fields may transfer, but GPS data and device-specific tags are typically dropped. If preserving metadata is important, record it separately before converting.
No — by default, FFmpeg preserves the original resolution during this conversion. If your 3G2 source is 176x144 or 320x240 (common CDMA mobile resolutions), the WMV output will be the same dimensions. The msmpeg4 codec will encode whatever resolution it receives. If you want to upscale the output, you would need to add a scale filter to the FFmpeg command, such as -vf scale=640:480, but be aware that upscaling low-resolution mobile footage will not recover lost detail.
WMV output quality in this command is controlled by the -b:v flag, which sets the video bitrate. The default is 2000k (2 Mbps). To increase quality, raise this value — for example, replace -b:v 2000k with -b:v 4000k or -b:v 6000k. Similarly, the audio quality is set by -b:a 128k; raising it to -b:a 192k or -b:a 256k will improve audio fidelity. Unlike the H.264 input which uses CRF-based quality control, the msmpeg4 codec uses bitrate-based encoding, so higher bitrate values directly result in better quality and larger file sizes.
Yes. On Windows, you can use a simple batch script to loop over all 3G2 files in a folder: for %f in (*.3g2) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:v msmpeg4 -c:a wmav2 -b:v 2000k -b:a 128k -f asf "%~nf.wmv". On macOS or Linux, the equivalent shell command is: for f in *.3g2; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v msmpeg4 -c:a wmav2 -b:v 2000k -b:a 128k -f asf "${f%.3g2}.wmv"; done. This is especially useful for large batches or files over 1GB that exceed the browser tool's file size limit.
Technical Notes
The msmpeg4 codec used in the WMV output is Microsoft's implementation of MPEG-4 Part 2, specifically the version 3 variant (also called MS-MPEG-4v3), which was designed for compatibility with Windows Media Player without requiring additional codec packs on Windows XP and later. It is notably less compression-efficient than the H.264 codec used in the source 3G2 file, so WMV files produced at equivalent visual quality will generally be larger than the source. The wmav2 audio codec is a standard WMA codec that produces good quality at 128k for speech and typical mobile audio content. Neither the 3G2 nor the WMV format supports subtitle tracks or chapter markers, so no data of that kind is lost in this conversion. WMV's ASF container does support multiple audio tracks, but since 3G2 typically carries only a single audio stream, this capability is not relevant for most 3G2 sources. DRM can be applied to WMV files post-conversion using Microsoft's tools, but FFmpeg itself does not add DRM. The -f asf flag is essential and should not be removed, as omitting it can cause muxing inconsistencies even when the output filename ends in .wmv.