Image to WTV Converter

Image to WTV Converter

This tool takes a still image — a JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, a camera RAW file, and around three dozen more — renders it to a single video frame, and wraps that frame inside a WTV (Windows Recorded TV Show) container for a duration you choose. The result is a short, silent clip, not a moving video. WTV is a legacy Microsoft format tied to Windows Media Center, so for almost everyone an Image to MP4 clip is the better choice — pick WTV only when a Windows 7/8.1 Media Center library or an HTPC tool specifically expects it.

WTV Format at a Glance

What This Converter Actually Produces

How to Convert Image to WTV

1. Upload Your Image File: Drag and drop your photo onto the page or click "+ Add Files" to browse from your computer — JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, TIFF, BMP, GIF, AVIF, PSD, or RAW camera files. You can queue several images at once.
2. Set Merge Strategy and Duration: Open Advanced Options. Use Merge strategy to pick "Merge images" (one WTV from every upload) or "Video per image" (a separate WTV per file), then set Image Duration — how long each still shows, from 1/60s per frame up to 10 seconds per frame, with 5 seconds as the default.
3. Pick Quality, Background, and Resolution (Optional): Choose a Quality Preset (Very High is recommended), set a Background Color (default white) to fill any letterbox bars when the photo's shape doesn't match the output, and pick a resolution preset or enter Width x Height. The Video Codec under Advanced Options defaults to H.264.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why would I convert an image to WTV instead of MP4?

For almost no one, honestly. WTV is a legacy Windows Media Center format, and Media Center was removed from Windows at the Windows 10 launch in July 2015. The only real reason to pick WTV is to drop a title card, channel slate, or filler image into an existing Windows 7 or 8.1 Media Center "Recorded TV" library so it sorts and plays alongside genuine recordings. If the clip just needs to play somewhere normal — a phone, browser, smart TV, or modern PC — use Image to MP4 instead.

Is the WTV a moving video or a slideshow?

Neither, for a single image. The output is one rendered photo held motionless for the duration you set — no panning, zooming, animation, or audio. Upload several photos with "Merge images" and they play back-to-back like a basic slideshow, but each is still a static frame shown for its set time, with no transitions or crossfades between them.

Will the WTV file have TV guide metadata like a real recording?

No. WTV's extended metadata — channel, program title, episode description, original air date, parental rating — is written by Media Center's recording pipeline when it pulls electronic-program-guide data from a tuner. A file converted from an image carries only generic title and duration fields. It will play in Media Center and sit next to recorded TV, but it won't show a synopsis or guide row.

Which codec does the WTV use, and is there any audio?

The video track defaults to H.264 (you can switch it under Advanced Options; WTV natively also carries MPEG-2 and MPEG-4). There is no audio track at all — a still image has no sound, so nothing is encoded regardless of the codec you pick. If you need a soundtrack, convert here first, then add music in a video editor like Shotcut or DaVinci Resolve.

Can I play the WTV file outside Windows Media Center?

Yes, with the right player. VLC plays WTV on Windows, macOS, and Linux; MPC-HC and Windows Media Player on Windows 7 and later can open them too. The one thing third-party players can't do is decode WTV files tagged with broadcast copy protection — but a file built from your own image carries no such flag, so it opens anywhere VLC runs.

Will I lose RAW editing latitude if my input is a camera RAW file?

Yes. A RAW file stores unprocessed sensor data, which is what lets you recover highlights, shadows, and white balance later. To put the photo into video the converter must render it first — demosaicing the sensor data and baking the current exposure, white balance, and tone into ordinary 8-bit frames. Once that frame is inside the WTV the latitude is gone. Keep your original RAW if you may still want to edit it.

How big is the resulting WTV file?

A motionless frame compresses heavily because every "frame" of the clip is identical, so the codec encodes the repetition almost for free. In our testing, a 5-second WTV made from a single 12-megapixel JPG at Very High quality with the default H.264 codec came out to roughly one to two megabytes — far smaller than a moving clip of the same length. Shorten the duration if you need it even smaller.

Can I convert WTV back to a normal format later?

Yes — and that's the far more common direction now that Media Center is retired. Convert WTV to MP4 pulls a recording out of the WMC silo into a format that plays everywhere. If you only ever wanted a viewable picture rather than a video, convert to a still image with Image to JPG instead.

What happens to my uploaded file after conversion?

Your image is sent over an encrypted connection, rendered and packaged into WTV on our servers, then deleted automatically a few hours after conversion. There is no sign-up, no watermark, and your files are never shared or made public.