Information, tips and instructions on File Extension 3GP

File Container Formats

ISO Format - Optical disk storage format from International Standards Organization

This format is similar to 3GP. But the main goal of the ISO format is to store image (exact copy) of CD or DVD disk in a single file rather than just a collection of media items as in case of 3GP file.

This format is very useful when you need to copy all information on your CD or DVD disk to the hard drive or other media thus reducing the potential impact of losing it. Another great usage of ISO image is distributing a copy of disk to someone over the network without need to deliver the disk physically.

Note that copying CD or DVD disk to ISO file or different disk could be a violation of copyright law in some cases. So please read copyright agreement carefully before doing this with software products or DVD movies.

BIN/CUE Media Format

In some way this format is very similar to ISO but at the same time it is very different. Instead of storing CD/DVD disk information file by file it stores it by physical sector. This allows perfect replication of disk content no matter what is stored there. BIN/CUE format is especially useful when cloning operating system boot disk or some other disk formats where information is not represented by files.

DAA File Format

DAA stands for Direct Access Archive. This is a proprietory file format developed by PowerISO computing for disk image files. The positive side of this format is that it supports compression, password protection and splitting file into multiple volumes. The negative side is that since this format is proprietory to PowerISO computing popular software packages does not support it.

MDF File Format

MDF format is also used to store disk images. It is used by Alcohol 120% optical disk authoring program. Alcohol 120% is a very popular application in certain online communities since it allows to bypass many copy protection mechanisms (except hardware ones).