Add Video Mime Type for 3gp Video on Apache Server
If your content distribution strategies involve using your existing company http web server as a platform to deliver multi media content to mobile devices you may need to add the 3gp mime type to your server’s MIME configuration files.
I discovered that one of the servers I’m beginning to use to distribute 3gp video content to mobile devices was lacking this MIME type line when some Smartphones and PDA’s using a Windows Mobile Platform weren’t recognizing the 3gp video content as video and were displaying it as text.
To fix, for Apache servers, this can usually be accomplished by adding the following line
video/3gpp 3gp
to your mime.types file in your conf folder. On some configurations mime types may be listed in the httpd.conf file and would need this line
AddType video/3gpp .3gp
If you are in a hosted environment and don’t have access to these configuration files you may also add the above directive to a .htaccess file placed in the directory you are serving your 3gp files from. Some hosted environments will allow this.
Some devices appear to be smart enough to recognize the video content correctly without this mime type configuration, but others appear to have needed it.
And while on the subject of serving content to mobile devices and MIME types, to be on the safe side, you may want make sure your server has these mime types configured correctly as well.
AddType text/x-pcs-gcd .gcd
AddType text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor .jad
AddType application/java-archive .jar
AddType text/x-hdml .hdml
AddType text/vnd.wap.wml .wml
AddType text/vnd.wap.wmlscript .wmls
AddType image/vnd.wap.wbmp .wbmp
AddType audio/x-midi .mid
AddType audio/vnd.qcelp .qcp
AddType image/png .png
Many of these MIME types will already be configured correctly, but some of the more obscure file types listed may not - such as the qcp and gcd file types needed for such things as distributing ringtones and wallpaper to some mobile devices.
To stay up to date on MIME types, the Internet Assigned Names Authority maintains the official listing of registered MIME Media Types.
Update: If you’re working on delivering 3gp to mobile devices, be sure and read about the mobile carriers and devices we tested in the post Delivering 3GP and MP3 Content with SMS Text Messaging.
Content Developer Comments
Comment on Open Source SMS Text Messaging Application by MattHi, David; Great and helpful site. I was hoping that you could provide a little more help in the form pointing me in the right directions. I have sms content that I believe people will be willing to pay for, per sms. Ideally, they would send a request via sms, and they would then receive my content via sms. They would pay for it, and I would get a cut, per sms. Do you know of any services that can help me with this (I imagine they will take a cut, or include advertising)? Not ideal, but if that doesn't work, is there a service that will set up my content to be delivered once a person subscribes, and pays a monthly fee? I am new to the sms business and technology side of things, but have killer content to get into the hands of users, and need help with how. Thanks so much for any and all suggestions, Best, Matt Comment on Open Source SMS Text Messaging Application by Anu
Hello Ian, I am working on an SMS emergency alert application for my school and we are looking into using Clickatell. How happy have you been with their service? Any complaints? Would you recommend them? Do School's Out and CampusWire both use Clickatell? I am trying to grasp the whole setup and I am wondering why should one use these when they can directly sign up with Clickatell? Could you clarify that for me? Thanks, Anu BTW, great post DC. Comment on How To Get Your Own SMS Common Short Code by George
Paying for your own shortcode is not the only way to reap the benefits of this fabulous way to communicate with your customers on the mobile networks. Several companies that have shortcodes will lease you the use of their shortcode. By using unique keywords to differentiate your message from potentially thousands of others using the same shortcode, you can achieve the same results at a fraction of the cost. i.e. texting "AUDI" to a shortcode might get you an instant text message, coupon or contest entry from your local Audi dealer, while texting JBARG to the same shortcode might get you a text message good for a free appetizer at Joes Bar and Grill. No jumping through hoops and no steep learning curves. Cheers! George note: comment edited by admin comment feed...