Group29.com - What did you expect? - Moto RAZR part III: How do I create and upload video files for my Moto RAZR?

The Motorola RAZR V3 uses the 3GP file format for videos. If you try to upload other video types, you will get an error “Server does not support this operation”. Other new cell phones, like those from Nokia, also use this format.

When you download videos created by the RAZR, they will be in this format. 3GP can be played on Windows PCs by freeware applications like Media Player Classic or MPlayer. Other players like Apple QuickTime, RealPlayer, VLC Player, Xine or Zoom Player will also work. Windows media player needs a plugin.

There are a number of applications that can convert MPEG, QuickTime, Windows Media and AVI files to 3GP format. The video format captured by the RAZR is 176 x 144, so when converting a frame size close to that ratio looks best. See Moto RAZR Part I for instructions on copying files to your RAZR.

3GP conversion for cell phones
Finding a freeware 3GP converter is difficult at this stage. There are a number of shareware applications that are useful however. I chose the Xilisoft 3GP converter and was able to turn some WMV and MOV files into 176x144 3GP files. Note that the shareware version of the Xilisoft Video converter limits you to 2 minutes total. Two minutes is a long time and can use 500 to 1000 K of precious memory on your phone.

The Xilisoft 3GP Video Converter allows users to convert almost all popular video formats MPEG1/2/4, WMV, MP4, 3GP, MOV, RM, DV, YUV, H264 to 3GP file. It also converts 3GP video file to popular video formats such as 3GP to AVI, 3GP to MPEG. The 3GP Video Converter supports convert audio-only 3GP file to MP3, WAV, and vice versa.

Acala 3GP Movies Free is able to convert divx, xvid, avi, mpg, mpeg, vob, vcd, svcd to mobile phone 3gp movie files, with fast speed and high quality.

Nokia Multimedia converter is for Nokia phones, but creates the same 3GP files usable for Motorola RAZR phones. See How to install and use Nokia Multimedia converter 2.0. It is an application for converting different types of multimedia files ( AVI, WAW, MPEG, and MP3) into 3GPP/ AMR or 3GPP/ WR AMR. The 3GPP format video can be played on a PC via the Nokia PC Suite, or more likely, on your Nokia mobile phone: including the Nokia 6230, Nokia n-Gage, Nokia n-Gage QD, Nokia 3650, Nokia 6600, and Nokia 7610. The .3GP (or also known as 3GPP format), is part of the MP4 Video encoding standard that is the replacement for the older MPEG2 standard.

Total Video Convert is another tool for video conversion which supports reading, playing many video and audio formats and converting them to popular video formats. It converts all kinds of videos to mobile videos or audios (mp4, 3gp, xvid, divx mpeg4 avi, amr audio) which are used by cellphone, PDA, PSP, iPod

Convert FLV to movies for use on your Moto
The RIVA FLV encoder works well and it is free. Behind the scenes it uses the ffmpeg command line utility. However, ffmpeg is a program that really needs a GUI front end and RIVA FLV is one of many. I converted some FLV files to MOV files and WMV files. RIVA FLV does not convert to 3GP without a recompiled version of ffmpeg.exe. This is not a trivial exercise, despite the fact that there are many different sets of instructions on just exactly how to get the codecs from 3GP and compile with mingw.

But using RIVA FLV in conjunction with the programs listed above will accomplish the feat of getting Flash video files (like those on YouTube) onto your Moto.

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