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 on Twitter
contentdevelopr: Functionality and Form: an Interview with the GALAXY Note’s Designers http://t.co/2BEmNC8r (via @androidandme) #galaxynoteTweet sent 09:19 AM on 02/03/2012. contentdevelopr: RT @alanweinkrantz: A New Breed of Builders and Makers Converge on Geekdom, Texas http://t.co/WKGpxC5N
Tweet sent 10:21 AM on 11/07/2011. contentdevelopr: Stream or Die: Nice story by @MireyaVillareal about San Antonio based @NewTekInc - http://t.co/rvdaEVq #TriCaster #NewTek (via @News4WOAI)
Tweet sent 09:57 AM on 08/24/2011. contentdevelopr: RT @Geomedia: Geomedia artist @prof_kenisky continues his behind the scenes look at organizing and networking at SIGGRAPH! http://t.co/o ...
Tweet sent 07:52 AM on 08/23/2011. contentdevelopr: Open Source Software At The Department Of Defense: http://twit.tv/floss160
Tweet sent 08:30 AM on 04/15/2011. contentdevelopr: RT @WSJAE: Museum Evokes the Future of Filmmaking http://on.wsj.com/fJ9taF
Tweet sent 08:08 AM on 01/13/2011. contentdevelopr: RT @GoogleWebmaster: Best practices for running multiple sites http://bit.ly/cmg9ae
Tweet sent 08:43 AM on 11/02/2010. contentdevelopr: Liked "The Revenge Of Editorials": Archived podcast from @SXSW Interactive about content curation and craftsmanship. www.sxsw.com/node/4864
Tweet sent 10:04 AM on 05/24/2010. follow content developer on twitter...