Convert 3GPP to WMA — Free Online Tool
Convert 3GPP mobile video files to WMA audio, extracting and re-encoding the AAC or MP3 audio track into Windows Media Audio format using the wmav2 codec. This is useful when you need Windows-ecosystem-compatible audio from 3G-era mobile recordings.
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FFmpeg Command
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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
During this conversion, FFmpeg demuxes the 3GPP container and discards any video stream entirely, extracting only the audio track — typically encoded as AAC or libmp3lame inside the .3gp file. That audio is then decoded and re-encoded from scratch using the wmav2 (Windows Media Audio v2) codec at a default bitrate of 128k, and wrapped in a WMA container. Because the source audio codec (AAC or MP3) is incompatible with WMA, this is a full transcode — not a remux — meaning there is a generational quality loss as audio is decoded from one lossy format and re-encoded into another. The video track in the 3GPP file is simply dropped, since WMA is an audio-only container.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg tool, which handles the entire demuxing, decoding, encoding, and muxing pipeline needed to extract audio from the 3GPP container and produce a WMA output file. |
-i input.3gp
|
Specifies the input file — a .3gp container, which is the 3GPP multimedia format commonly produced by older mobile phones and cameras, typically containing H.264 video and AAC audio. |
-c:a wmav2
|
Sets the audio encoder to wmav2 (Windows Media Audio version 2), which is the standard codec for WMA files and provides better quality and compression than the older wmav1 codec at equivalent bitrates. |
-b:a 128k
|
Sets the audio bitrate to 128 kilobits per second for the wmav2 encoder. This is a balanced default for WMA — sufficient for music and voice content — and produces a file roughly comparable in quality to a 128k MP3, though the two codecs have different characteristics. |
output.wma
|
Defines the output filename and tells FFmpeg to write a WMA file. The .wma extension causes FFmpeg to use the ASF muxer, which is the correct container for Windows Media Audio streams. The video track from the 3GPP input is automatically dropped since WMA supports audio only. |
Common Use Cases
- Archiving voicemails or voice memos recorded as .3gp files on older Nokia or Samsung mobile phones into a format compatible with Windows Media Player libraries.
- Converting field recordings captured on a 3G-era mobile device into WMA for submission to a Windows-based broadcast or content management system that requires WMA input.
- Extracting audio from a 3GPP video clip — such as a short phone-recorded video — to create a standalone audio file compatible with Windows Media DRM workflows.
- Preparing audio content originally distributed via 3G mobile networks for re-distribution on older Windows platforms or devices that natively support WMA but not AAC or 3GPP.
- Migrating a collection of .3gp recordings from a legacy mobile phone backup into a Windows Media Player playlist without needing to install additional codecs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, some quality loss is unavoidable. The audio inside a .3gp file is typically encoded as AAC or MP3 — both lossy formats. Converting to WMA with wmav2 requires fully decoding that lossy audio and re-encoding it into another lossy format, which introduces a second generation of compression artifacts. To minimize degradation, use the highest available bitrate (320k) if audio fidelity matters. However, for voice recordings or low-quality mobile audio, the difference at 128k is usually not perceptible.
The video stream is completely dropped. WMA is an audio-only container format and has no mechanism to store video data. FFmpeg automatically strips the video when writing to a .wma output file, keeping only the audio track. If you need to preserve the video, you should convert to a container like MP4 or MKV instead.
wmav2 (Windows Media Audio version 2) is the default and preferred codec because it offers significantly better audio quality and compression efficiency than wmav1 at the same bitrate. wmav1 is a legacy codec from Windows Media Player 6 and earlier, and there is rarely a reason to use it unless you need compatibility with extremely old software or hardware. The FFmpeg command uses wmav2 explicitly to ensure you get the best quality WMA output.
Replace the value after -b:a with your desired bitrate. For example, to encode at 192k instead of the default 128k, change the command to: ffmpeg -i input.3gp -c:a wmav2 -b:a 192k output.wma. Higher bitrates like 192k or 256k will produce better audio quality and a larger file, while lower bitrates like 64k or 96k are useful if file size is the priority, such as for voice-only content from 3GPP recordings.
Yes. On Linux or macOS, you can use a shell loop: for f in *.3gp; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:a wmav2 -b:a 128k "${f%.3gp}.wma"; done. On Windows Command Prompt, use: for %f in (*.3gp) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:a wmav2 -b:a 128k "%~nf.wma". This processes each .3gp file in the current directory and saves a corresponding .wma file with the same base filename.
WMA does support standard metadata tags including title, artist, album, and track number. FFmpeg will attempt to carry over any metadata embedded in the 3GPP container to the WMA output automatically. However, 3GPP files recorded on mobile phones often contain minimal or no metadata, so the WMA file may simply have no tags. You can add or override metadata in the FFmpeg command using flags like -metadata title="My Recording".
Technical Notes
The 3GPP format (.3gp) was designed for constrained mobile environments — files typically carry H.264 video with AAC audio, or in lower-bandwidth variants, MPEG-4 video with AMR or MP3 audio. AAC was the standard audio codec for 3GPP files compliant with the Third Generation Partnership Project specifications. WMA (wmav2) operates at a fixed bitrate rather than using variable bitrate by default in FFmpeg, so unlike CRF-based video encoding, audio quality here is governed entirely by the -b:a parameter. The WMA container (.wma) is essentially an ASF (Advanced Systems Format) container carrying the Windows Media Audio stream, which is why WMA files are sometimes labelled as ASF internally. One notable limitation: WMA does not support multi-channel audio beyond stereo in the wmav2 codec without switching to WMA Pro; if the 3GPP source contains surround audio (unusual but possible), it will be downmixed to stereo. DRM can be applied to WMA files post-conversion but is not added by FFmpeg itself. Files over 1GB can be processed using the FFmpeg command directly on your desktop, as noted by the displayed command.