How to Play Mobile Device Videos on Your Computer

Question: I emailed myself a video I took from my blackberry curve. When i try to play the video on my computer it says it can't find the file extension. What is the deal?

Answer: The deal is that you need a program installed on your computer that can play the video file, or a program that can convert it to a common video format like Quicktime or Windows Media.

Video Players

Most computers come with some form of a video player, such as Windows Media Player that plays video files with a .wmv extension. You can also get the Quicktime video player for free from Apple that plays .mp4 video files.

However, videos that are recorded from a mobile device will usually have a different file extension, such as .3GP for movies recorded on Motorola RAZR phones. These videos won't play in Quicktime or Windows Media.

You'll need a video player designed to read the video format that your specific mobile device uses, or better yet - one that can play a wide range of video formats so that you'll still be in luck if you switch phones in the future.

Rather then look for a universal video file player, look for a video file converter. Not only will you get the ability to view all kinds of video files, but you'll be able to convert them to be viewable on other devices or other computer systems like a Macintosh. Two for the price of one.

Video Converters

Here we recommend Aimersoft Video Converter Ultimate that supports literally any video format. From .3GP cell phone videos, to iPhone videos, Blackberry videos, AVI, WMV, MP4, etc.

Aimersoft Video Converter can play videos recorded on your Blackberry on your computer, and will also let you convert those videos to HD-quality formats that will play in Quicktime, Windows Media.

There are two Aimersoft features I use often. The first is a huge time saver - the ability to batch convert several videos in one shot. Just add the videos to the list, select the output format (iPhone 3G in the example shown above) and away you go. You can even combine all of the videos into a single video.

The second feature I like is the ability to take still shots of the video and save them in a variety of image file formats.