ICO to WMV Converter

Convert ICO to WMV Online

WMV is Microsoft's Windows Media Video format: a Windows Media codec wrapped in an ASF container and given a .wmv extension. An ICO is a static Windows icon, so converting one produces a silent, motionless clip that holds the icon on screen for a duration you set. People reach for this when something in a Windows-only workflow — an older PowerPoint deck, a legacy Windows Media Player playlist, an upload form that accepts nothing else — insists on .wmv. This page explains exactly what comes out and which of the two available codecs to pick.

WMV and ASF at a Glance

WMV 1 vs WMV 2

How to Convert ICO to WMV

1. Upload Your ICO File: Drag the icon onto the page or click "+ Add Files" to browse for it. Several icons can be queued and converted with one set of settings.
2. Set Duration and Merge Strategy: The Duration dropdown holds the still on screen for anything from a single frame up to 10 seconds per frame, with 5 seconds per frame preselected. Merge strategy starts on "Merge images", chaining a batch into one clip; switch it to "Video per image" for one WMV per icon.
3. Choose Video Resolution, Background Color and Video Codec: Video resolution starts on "Keep original", so a 48 px icon yields a 48-pixel-tall clip — pick Preset Resolutions or Fixed Resolutions to scale up. Background Color (White by default, with Black and a range of other named colours available) fills transparent pixels and any bars, and Video Codec offers WMV 2 by default with WMV 1 as the fallback.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert and save the .wmv. Files upload over an encrypted connection, are processed on our servers, and are deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark.

What the Output Actually Looks Like

Every ICO-to-WMV result shares three properties, and all three follow from converting a single still picture into a moving-picture format.

• Silent. A .wmv normally pairs a Windows Media Video codec with WMA audio, but an icon has no sound, so no audio stream is written and the Audio Codec control is hidden on this page entirely.
• Static. ICO stores no frame timing. Our pipeline encodes still-image sources at one frame per second with B-frames disabled, so a 5-second Duration writes five identical frames. Raising the Duration lengthens the clip; it never adds motion.
• Small, unless you intervene. A single image inside an ICO is at most 256x256, and often 16, 32 or 48 pixels square. That is far below any normal video frame, so Video resolution is the setting that decides whether the WMV looks crisp at its native size or soft at a scaled-up one.

On size control: neither WMV 1 nor WMV 2 has a constant-quality mode, so the File Compression section's Quality Preset has less influence here than it would on an H.264 target. If you need to hold the file under a specific size, the Constraint Quality mode's Max bitrate field is the direct lever — a still frame compresses so well that even a low ceiling looks identical.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my ICO-to-WMV clip silent?

Because there is nothing to encode. WMV files usually carry a WMA audio stream alongside the video, but a still icon has no audio, so the converter writes a video-only ASF file and does not offer an Audio Codec choice on this page. That is the correct result, not a failed conversion.

WMV 1 or WMV 2 — which should I choose?

WMV 2 (Windows Media Video 8) is the default and the right answer almost always: it is the standard codec inside a modern .wmv file and is more efficient than its predecessor. Drop to WMV 1 (Windows Media Video 7) only if a specific legacy decoder refuses the newer stream. Neither offers a constant-quality factor; both are rate-controlled by bitrate.

Is a .wmv file the same thing as an .asf file?

Structurally, yes — both are ASF containers. The extension signals expected content rather than a different format: .wmv for Windows Media Video, .wma for Windows Media Audio, .asf as the generic name. Renaming between them does not change a single byte of the file, though some players key their behaviour off the extension.

Which image inside a multi-size ICO gets used?

The first entry in the icon's internal directory, which is not necessarily the biggest. Icon editors choose that order themselves, so a file containing 16, 48 and 256 px versions might decode as any of the three. If a specific size matters, convert it to PNG first and feed the PNG in instead.

Why does my icon look blocky when I set 720p or 1080p?

Because it is being enlarged enormously. A 32x32 icon stretched to 1920x1080 is scaled roughly sixtyfold, and upscaling cannot add detail the file never held. Upload a single-size icon at the largest resolution you have (a multi-size ICO is decoded from its first entry, often the smallest), keep Video resolution as close to native as your target allows, or pad the icon onto a larger frame with the Background Color instead of stretching it.

What fills the space around a square icon in a widescreen frame?

The Background Color, which defaults to White, with Black and a range of other named colours available. The same colour is composited behind any transparent pixels in the icon, because no video format can carry an alpha channel. Set it to match your icon's own background if you want the bars to disappear visually.

Should I be using WMV at all, or MP4?

MP4 for almost every purpose. WMV playback outside Windows is patchy, no browser decodes it natively, and Windows Media Video 8 is markedly less efficient than H.264. Choose WMV only when a Windows-specific tool demands it; otherwise ICO to MP4 produces a file that plays on phones, browsers, editors and TVs.

What happens to my uploaded file?

It travels over an encrypted connection, is processed on our servers, and is deleted automatically after a few hours. There is no sign-up, no watermark, and files are never shared or made public. If a video turns out not to be what you needed, ICO to PNG keeps the icon as a lossless image with its transparency intact.