Something I found out today when I decided to make a quick edit to a video taken on my cellphone: Newer GSM cell phones and devices (such as my now-dated Android G1) now tend to save video in 3GP format. This shiny new multimedia format may have many advantages, but it is not widely supported yet on mainstream desktop software, and also may encapsulate certain codecs that are not free to use. This includes the AMR audio codec, which is patent-encumbered and cannot be freely distributed. Since this is what Android and many others use in their 3GP video output, it has become a common issue.
So, apparently there are people under the impression that you can only read and edit these videos using proprietary software such as Quicktime Pro, sketchy shareware or dodgy apps from questionable code houses. For just making the very occasional simple edit to a cheesy cellphone video, it’s a lot to ask.
Fortunately, there is a good alternative. All you need little command-line mojo and some patience.