3GP and 3G2

Last updated
3GP
Filename extension
.3gp, .3gpp
Internet media type
video/3gpp, audio/3gpp
Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) public.3gpp
Developed by 3GPP
Initial release4 April 2003;21 years ago (2003-04-04) [1]
Latest release
17.0.0 [1]
7 April 2022;2 years ago (2022-04-07)
Type of format Container format
Container for audio, video, text
Extended from MPEG-4 Part 12
Open format?Yes
Free format?No
3G2
Filename extension
.3g2, .3gp2, .3gpp2
Internet media type
video/3gpp2, audio/3gpp2
Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) public.3gpp2
Developed by 3GPP2
Initial releaseJanuary 2004;20 years ago (2004-01) [2]
Latest release
C.S0050-B v1.0 [2]
September 2024;2 months ago (2024-09)
Type of format Container format
Container for audio, video, text
Extended from MPEG-4 Part 12
Open format?Yes
Free format?yes

3GP (3GPP file format) is a multimedia container format defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for 3G UMTS multimedia services.

Contents

3G2 (3GPP2 file format) is a multimedia container format defined by the 3GPP2 for 5G CDMA2000 multimedia services. It is very similar to the 3GP file format but consumes less space & bandwidth, and has some extensions and limitations in comparison to 3GP.

Specifications

3GP is defined in the ETSI 3GPP technical specification. [1] 3GP is a required file format for video and associated speech/audio media types and timed text in ETSI 3GPP technical specifications for IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS) and Transparent end-to-end Packet-switched Streaming Service (PSS). [3] [4] [5] [6]

3G2 is defined in the 3GPP2 technical specification. [2]

Technical details

Relations between ISO Base Media File Format, MP4 File Format, 3GPP file format and 3GPP2 file format. Based on the 3GPP2 technical specification published on 18 May 2007. Relations between ISO MP4 3GPP and 3GPP2 file format.svg
Relations between ISO Base Media File Format, MP4 File Format, 3GPP file format and 3GPP2 file format. Based on the 3GPP2 technical specification published on 18 May 2007.

The 3GP and 3G2 file formats are both structurally based on the ISO base media file format defined in ISO/IEC 14496-12 – MPEG-4 Part 12, [8] [9] [10] but older versions of the 3GP file format did not use some of its features. [7] 3GP and 3G2 are container formats similar to MPEG-4 Part 14 (MP4), which is also based on MPEG-4 Part 12. The 3GP and 3G2 file format were designed to decrease storage and bandwidth requirements to accommodate mobile phones. They are good for lower end smartphones for faster streaming & download.

3GP and 3G2 are similar standards, but with some differences:

Some cell phones use the .mp4 extension for 3GP video.

3GP

The 3GP file format stores video streams as MPEG-4 Part 2, H.263, or MPEG-4 Part 10 (AVC/H.264), and audio streams as AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AMR-WB+, AAC-LC, HE-AAC v1 or Enhanced aacPlus (HE-AAC v2). 3GPP allowed use of AMR and H.263 codecs in the ISO base media file format (MPEG-4 Part 12), because 3GPP specified the usage of the Sample Entry and template fields in the ISO base media file format as well as defining new boxes to which codecs refer. These extensions were registered by the registration authority for code-points in ISO base media file format ("MP4 Family" files). [11] [12]

For the storage of MPEG-4 media specific information in 3GP files, the 3GP specification refers to MP4 and the AVC file format, which are also based on the ISO base media file format. The MP4 and the AVC file format specifications described usage of MPEG-4 content in the ISO base media file format. [8]

A 3GP file is always big-endian, storing and transferring the most significant bytes first. [ citation needed ]

3G2

The 3G2 file format can store the same video streams and most of the audio streams used in the 2007 3GP file format. In addition, 3G2 stores audio streams as EVRC, EVRC-B, EVRC-WB, 13K (QCELP), SMV or VMR-WB, which was specified by 3GPP2 for use in ISO base media file format. [12] The 3G2 specification also defined some enhancements to 3GPP Timed Text. 3G2 file format does not store Enhanced aacPlus (HE-AAC v2) and AMR-WB+ audio streams. [7] For the storage of MPEG-4 media (AAC audio, MPEG-4 Part 2 video, MPEG-4 Part 10 – H.264/AVC) in 3G2 files, the 3G2 specification refers to the MP4 file format and the AVC file format specification, which described usage of this content in the ISO base media file format. For the storage of H.263 and AMR content 3G2 specification refers to the 3GP file format specification. [7]

Device support

Software support

When transferred to a computer, 3GP movies can be viewed on Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS, and the various Linux-based operating systems; on the former two with Windows Media Player [13] and Apple QuickTime [14] respectively (their built-in media players), and on all three with VLC media player. [15] Programs such as Media Player Classic, K-Multimedia Player, Totem, RealPlayer, MPlayer, and GOM Player can also be used.

3GP and 3G2 files can be encoded and decoded with open source software FFmpeg. [16] Media tags can be read and written on Linux, macOS and Windows using the open source AtomicParsley command-line utility. [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

H.263 is a video compression standard originally designed as a low-bit-rate compressed format for videotelephony. It was standardized by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) in a project ending in 1995/1996. It is a member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T.

Helix DNA was a project to produce computer software that can play audio and video media in various formats and aid in creating such media. It was intended as a largely free and open-source digital media framework compatible with numerous operating systems and processors and it was started by RealNetworks, which contributed much of the code. The Helix Community was an open collaborative effort to develop and extend the Helix DNA platform. The Helix Project has been discontinued.

Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is an audio coding standard for lossy digital audio compression. It was designed to be the successor of the MP3 format and generally achieves higher sound quality than MP3 at the same bit rate.

MPEG-4 Part 3 or MPEG-4 Audio is the third part of the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 international standard developed by Moving Picture Experts Group. It specifies audio coding methods. The first version of ISO/IEC 14496-3 was published in 1999.

Nero Digital is a brand name applied to a suite of MPEG-4-compatible video and audio compression codecs developed by Nero AG of Germany and Ateme of France. The audio codecs are integrated into the Nero Digital Audio+ audio encoding tool for Microsoft Windows, and the audio & video codecs are integrated into Nero's Recode DVD ripping software.

The Adaptive Multi-Rateaudio codec is an audio compression format optimized for speech coding. AMR is a multi-rate narrowband speech codec that encodes narrowband (200–3400 Hz) signals at variable bit rates ranging from 4.75 to 12.2 kbit/s with toll quality speech starting at 7.4 kbit/s.

Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband (AMR-WB) is a patented wideband speech audio coding standard developed based on Adaptive Multi-Rate encoding, using a similar methodology to algebraic code-excited linear prediction (ACELP). AMR-WB provides improved speech quality due to a wider speech bandwidth of 50–7000 Hz compared to narrowband speech coders which in general are optimized for POTS wireline quality of 300–3400 Hz. AMR-WB was developed by Nokia and VoiceAge and it was first specified by 3GPP.

Extended Adaptive Multi-Rate – Wideband (AMR-WB+) is an audio codec that extends AMR-WB. It adds support for stereo signals and higher sampling rates. Another main improvement is the use of transform coding additionally to ACELP. This greatly improves the generic audio coding. Automatic switching between transform coding and ACELP provides both good speech and audio quality with moderate bit rates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding</span> Audio codec

High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding (HE-AAC) is an audio coding format for lossy data compression of digital audio defined as an MPEG-4 Audio profile in ISO/IEC 14496–3. It is an extension of Low Complexity AAC (AAC-LC) optimized for low-bitrate applications such as streaming audio. The usage profile HE-AAC v1 uses spectral band replication (SBR) to enhance the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) compression efficiency in the frequency domain. The usage profile HE-AAC v2 couples SBR with Parametric Stereo (PS) to further enhance the compression efficiency of stereo signals.

MPEG-4 Part 17, or MPEG-4 Timed Text (MP4TT), or MPEG-4 Streaming text format is the text-based subtitle format for MPEG-4, published as ISO/IEC 14496-17 in 2006. It was developed in response to the need for a generic method for coding of text as one of the multimedia components within audiovisual presentations.

These tables compare features of multimedia container formats, most often used for storing or streaming digital video or digital audio content. To see which multimedia players support which container format, look at comparison of media players.

Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver digital video content over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player version 6 and newer. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There are two different Flash Video file formats: FLV and F4V. The audio and video data within FLV files are encoded in the same way as SWF files. The F4V file format is based on the ISO base media file format, starting with Flash Player 9 update 3. Both formats are supported in Adobe Flash Player and developed by Adobe Systems. FLV was originally developed by Macromedia. In the early 2000s, Flash Video was the de facto standard for web-based streaming video. Users include Hulu, VEVO, Yahoo! Video, metacafe, Reuters.com, and many other news providers.

QuickTime File Format (QTFF) is a computer file format used natively by the QuickTime framework.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KMPlayer</span> Freeware media player for Microsoft Windows

K-Multimedia Player is an Adware-supported media player for Windows, android and iOS that can play most current audio and video formats, including VCD, DVD, AVI, MP4, MPG, DAT, OGM, VOB, MKV, Ogg, OGM, 3GP, MPEG-1/2/4, AAC, WMA 7/8, WMV, RealMedia, FLV, and QuickTime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MP4 file format</span> Digital format for storing video and audio

MPEG-4 Part 14, or MP4, is a digital multimedia container format most commonly used to store video and audio, but it can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images. Like most modern container formats, it allows streaming over the Internet. The only filename extension for MPEG-4 Part 14 files as defined by the specification is .mp4. MPEG-4 Part 14 is a standard specified as a part of MPEG-4.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GPAC Project on Advanced Content</span>

GPAC Project on Advanced Content is an open-source multimedia framework focused on modularity and standards compliance. GPAC was created as an implementation of the MPEG-4 Systems standard written in ANSI C and later extended in Streaming Media. GPAC provides tools to process, inspect, package, stream, media playback and interact with media content. Such content can be any combination of audio, video, subtitles, metadata, encrypted media, rendering and ECMAScript.

The ISO base media file format (ISOBMFF) is a container file format that defines a general structure for files that contain time-based multimedia data such as video and audio. It is standardized in ISO/IEC 14496-12, a.k.a. MPEG-4 Part 12, and was formerly also published as ISO/IEC 15444-12, a.k.a. JPEG 2000 Part 12.

The Helix Universal Media Server was a product developed by RealNetworks and originates from the first streaming media server originally developed by Progressive Networks in 1994. It supported a variety of streaming media delivery transports including MPEG-DASH RTMP (flash), RTSP (standard), HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), Microsoft Silverlight and HTTP Progressive Download enabling mobile phone OS and PC OS media client delivery.

References

  1. 1 2 3 ETSI 3GPP 3GPP TS 26.244; Transparent end-to-end packet switched streaming service (PSS); 3GPP file format (3GP) Retrieved on 2009-06-02.
  2. 1 2 3 "3GPP2 C.S0050, 3GPP2 File Formats for Multimedia Services, File Format for Multimedia Services for cdma2000". 3GPP2. 2003. Retrieved 2009-06-12.
  3. ↑ ETSI (2009-04) ETSI TS 126 234 V8.2.0 (2009-04); 3GPP TS 26.234; Transparent end-to-end Packet-switched Streaming Service (PSS); Protocols and codecs Page 58. Retrieved on 2009-06-02.
  4. ↑ ETSI (2009-01) ETSI TS 126 140 V8.0.0 (2009-01); 3GPP TS 26.140; Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS); Media formats and codes Page 11. Retrieved on 2009-06-02.
  5. ↑ "ETSI TS 126 346 V8.3.0 (2009-06); 3GPP TS 26.346; Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS); Protocols and codecs". ETSI. June 2009. p. 85. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
  6. ↑ ETSI (2009-01) ETSI TS 126 141 V8.0.0 (2009-01); 3GPP TS 26.141; IP Multimedia System (IMS) Messaging and Presence; Media formats and codecs Page 10. Retrieved on 2009-06-02.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "3GPP2 C.S0050-B Version 1.0, 3GPP2 File Formats for Multimedia Services" (PDF). 3GPP2. 18 May 2007. pp. 67, 68. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-12.
  8. 1 2 "3GPP TS 26.244; Transparent end-to-end packet switched streaming service (PSS); 3GPP file format (3GP)" (PDF). ETSI 3GPP. 2008-12-11. p. 9. Retrieved 2009-05-30.
  9. ↑ "ISO Base Media File Format white paper – Proposal". April 2006. Archived from the original on 2008-07-14. Retrieved 2009-12-26.
  10. ↑ "ISO Base Media File Format white paper – Proposal". Chiariglione. October 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-26.
  11. ↑ "ISO/IEC 14496-12:2008, Information technology -- Coding of audio-visual objects -- Part 12: ISO base media file format" (PDF). International Organization for Standardization. 2008. p. 95. Retrieved 2009-05-30.
  12. 1 2 "Registered types – Codecs". Registration authority for code-points in "MP4 Family" files – mp4ra.org. 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-04-19. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
  13. ↑ "File types supported by Windows Media Player". Microsoft. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  14. ↑ "What's New in QuickTime 6.3 + 3GPP". Apple, Inc. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  15. ↑ "VLC Media Player features". VLC. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  16. ↑ "FFmpeg, General Documentation, Supported File Formats and Codecs". FFmpeg. Retrieved 2009-06-11.
  17. ↑ "AtomicParseley". Wez Furlong. Retrieved 2024-06-24.


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