AV1 to WTV Converter
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Supports: AV1, MP4, MKV, WEBM
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Need help?AV1 to WTV Converter
WTV — Windows Television, the "Recorded TV Show" container — is the file Windows Media Center wrote when it recorded from a tuner card, and it is one of the few video formats with a firm end date attached to it. AV1 sits at the other extreme: an openly published, royalty-free codec from the Alliance for Open Media whose 1.0.0 bitstream specification appeared in 2018. This page converts one into the other for the narrow case where something in your workflow still consumes .wtv, and documents exactly what the output contains so you are not guessing.
AV1 Format at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Standard | AV1 Bitstream & Decoding Process Specification, version 1.0.0 |
| Published | 2018, by the Alliance for Open Media |
| Type | Video codec, not a container |
| Usual wrapper | Matroska, WebM, or MP4 — .av1 files are normally Matroska underneath |
| Audio | None of its own; the wrapper carries Opus or AAC alongside it |
| Licensing | Royalty-free, openly published |
| Native browser playback | Chrome 70+, Firefox 67+, Opera 57+; Safari 17+ partial, per caniuse |
| Best for | Streaming, web delivery, and archival masters where size matters |
WTV Format at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Standard | Proprietary Microsoft container, no public specification |
| Introduced | With the Windows 7 generation of Windows Media Center, replacing DVR-MS |
| Typical payload as recorded | MPEG-2 video with AC-3 or MPEG audio, straight off a broadcast stream |
| Extra baggage | Recording metadata, and on protected broadcasts a copy-protection flag |
| Written by this tool as | H.264 video with an AAC audio track in the WTV wrapper |
| Status | Media Center was not carried forward to Windows 10 (2015); no modern Windows ships a player |
| Practical players today | VLC opens most .wtv files; Windows itself does not |
| Best for | Feeding a still-running Windows 7 or 8 Media Center library, and very little else |
What This Converter Actually Writes
There is no Video Codec or Audio Codec dropdown on this page, and that is deliberate rather than an omission — the WTV target exposes no codec choice at all. The encode produces H.264 video with AAC audio inside the WTV wrapper. That differs from what Media Center itself recorded, which was normally the broadcast's own MPEG-2 and AC-3 streams captured with minimal processing; FFmpeg's WTV muxer still treats MPEG-2 and AC-3 as its own defaults when no codec is specified. In practice H.264 in a WTV wrapper opens in VLC and in the software that reads Media Center archives, but a Media Center install expecting a broadcast-shaped recording is the one place it may balk.
Everything else about the output is under your control: File Compression offers Quality Preset (set to "Very High (Recommended)"), Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate, Constant Quality, Constraint Quality, and Specific file size; Video resolution offers Keep original alongside presets, a percentage, and an exact Width x Height; and Trim converts the whole clip until you switch it from Unchanged to a Time Range.
How to Convert AV1 to WTV
- Upload Your AV1 File: Drag and drop the file onto the page or click "+ Add Files". Several clips can be queued and converted with identical settings.
- Set the File Compression Mode: Under Advanced Options, keep Quality Preset on "Very High (Recommended)" for the closest match to the source, or switch to Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate, Constant Quality, Constraint Quality, or Specific file size when output size is the constraint.
- Adjust Video Resolution or Trim: Choose Keep original under Video resolution to preserve the source frame size, or a Preset Resolution or exact Width x Height to downscale; switch Trim from Unchanged to a Time Range to export just a segment.
- Convert and Download: Click Convert and download the
.wtv. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically a few hours later. No sign-up, no watermark.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is a .wtv file?
It is the container Windows Media Center used for recorded television: video, audio, and a block of recording metadata such as channel, programme title, and broadcast time. It replaced the older DVR-MS format in the Windows 7 era. Because Microsoft never published a specification, support outside Microsoft's own software came from reverse engineering, which is why the format's playback story is so thin today.
Can anything still play a WTV file?
Not on a stock modern Windows install — Media Center did not make the jump to Windows 10, so there is no bundled player on Windows 10 or 11. VLC opens most .wtv files across platforms, and a few home-theatre projects that grew out of the Media Center ecosystem still read them. For ordinary playback, converting to MP4 is far less work than keeping a legacy player alive.
Which codecs does the WTV file from this page contain?
H.264 video with an AAC audio track. We verified the behaviour against the same FFmpeg muxer this pipeline uses: encoding H.264 and AAC into the WTV muxer produces a file that ffprobe reports as an h264 video stream plus an aac audio stream. That is not what a tuner card would have written, but it is what the converter produces and what VLC will happily decode.
Why is there no codec dropdown on this page?
Because the WTV target does not offer one. Pages such as AV1 to MKV expose Video Codec and Audio Codec lists because those containers accept many combinations; WTV is handled as a fixed pairing instead. If you need control over the codec, convert to a container that exposes it rather than fighting this one.
Is this a remux or a re-encode?
A re-encode, always. The AV1 video is decoded and re-compressed as H.264, which is a lossy step — AV1 needs less bitrate than H.264 for the same picture, so expect either a larger file or slightly softer detail. Keeping Quality Preset high limits the damage, and starting from the original master rather than an already-converted copy matters more than any single setting.
Does the WTV output keep my AV1 file's audio?
If the source has an audio track, yes; it is decoded and re-encoded to AAC in the output. Most files named .av1 are AV1 video inside a Matroska wrapper — xconvert's own AV1 converter writes exactly that, with an AAC track — so audio normally survives. A bare AV1 elementary stream codes video only, and a silent source produces a silent result.
Will the converted file import into a Media Center library?
Sometimes, and it depends on the installation. Media Center expected recordings shaped like a captured broadcast, which is to say MPEG-2 video with AC-3 or MPEG audio and its own metadata block. An H.264-in-WTV file plays in VLC without complaint, but a fussy Media Center build may list it without playing it. Test with one short clip before converting an entire archive.
Is WTV the same thing as DVR-MS?
No, though they serve the same purpose. DVR-MS was the earlier Windows Media Center recording format built on ASF; WTV is the newer container that replaced it. Files of both types tend to appear in the same old recordings folder, and neither has a native player on current Windows.
Should I convert to MP4 instead?
For nearly every purpose, yes. AV1 to MP4 gives you a file that plays on phones, browsers, smart TVs, and editors, with hardware decoding almost everywhere. WTV only makes sense when a specific legacy application is the destination — otherwise it is a compatibility step backwards with no upside.
How long do you keep my uploaded file?
Uploads and converted results are deleted automatically a few hours after the job finishes. Transfers use an encrypted connection, processing happens on our servers, and nothing is shared, published, or watermarked. No account is needed.