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Need help?How to Convert SWF to WTV Online
- Upload Your SWF File: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to select your Flash SWF animations. Batch upload is supported.
- Pick Video Codec and Quality Preset: The default codec is H.264 (xconvert wraps it in the WTV container) with AAC audio. Switch to MPEG-2 if you need to match the codec Windows Media Center natively records in. For the Quality Preset, "Very High" is the default — drop to "High" or "Medium" if you want a smaller file.
- Set Resolution and Trim (Optional): Pick a Preset Resolution (240p through 4320p, with 768p as default) or scale by Resolution Percentage. Use Trim to grab a specific Start + Duration from a longer video.
- Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and download the WTV file. 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.
Why Convert SWF to WTV?
SWF (Small Web Format) is Adobe's defunct Flash container — vector graphics, animation, video, and ActionScript bytecode all bundled together. Adobe ended Flash Player support on December 31, 2020 and started blocking SWF content from running on January 12, 2021. WTV (Windows Recorded TV Show) is the recording container Microsoft introduced with Windows 7 Media Center in 2009, replacing the older DVR-MS format. Converting SWF to WTV is mostly about getting Flash content into a Media Center "Recorded TV" library on legacy Windows 7 setups.
- Play Flash animations through Windows Media Center — Media Center won't open.swf, but it indexes any.wtv in
\Users\Public\Recorded TV\and plays it alongside actual TV recordings. - Preserve Flash video after browser EOL — Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari 14+ all stripped SWF support by early 2021. Converting the video inside a SWF to WTV keeps it playing in Media Center. Games and vector animations have no video inside to convert — play those in Ruffle.
- Add Flash cartoons to an HTPC library — older Home Theater PC builds running Windows 7 with a TV tuner card still use WTV as the native recording format; matching the container avoids re-indexing.
- Archive teaching content built in Adobe Animate/Flash — early-2000s e-learning modules shipped as SWF; converting to a Microsoft-native container makes them indexable by Windows Media Player and Windows file metadata.
- Migrate off Flash before final OS upgrade — Windows 10 (October 2015) dropped Media Center entirely, and Windows 10 itself reached end of support on October 14, 2025. Converting SWF files now gives you a video the next OS can still open.
- Need a different target? SWF to MP4 is far more portable for modern devices, and SWF to WMV gives you a smaller Microsoft-native file without the recorded-TV metadata.
SWF vs WTV — Format Comparison
| Property | SWF | WTV |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Small Web Format (Shockwave Flash) | Windows Recorded TV Show |
| Owner | Adobe (originally Macromedia / FutureWave) | Microsoft |
| Type | Vector animation + bytecode container | Digital video recording container |
| Video codec | Flash Video (FLV / VP6 / H.263 variants) or vector tags | MPEG-2 natively; H.264 is broadly accepted in the container |
| Audio codec | MP3, ADPCM, Nellymoser, Speex | MPEG-1 Layer II or Dolby Digital AC-3 |
| Resolution | Vector — scales without pixelation | Fixed pixel grid (typically 720p or 1080i broadcast) |
| Introduced | 1996 (FutureSplash); ActionScript added in 2000 | 2009 with Windows 7 Media Center |
| Status | Adobe EOL Dec 31, 2020; blocked Jan 12, 2021 | Media Center removed in Windows 10 (May 2015 announcement) |
| Typical use | Web animations, browser games, e-learning | Recorded broadcast TV on Windows 7 HTPCs |
| DRM support | No | Yes — broadcast flag honored |
Codec Choice — H.264 vs MPEG-2 in WTV
| Codec | When to pick | Tradeoff |
|---|---|---|
| H.264 (default) | Modern PCs, smaller files, sharper output at the same bitrate | Not the format Media Center records in natively — third-party players handle it fine, but the original Media Center indexer expects MPEG-2 |
| MPEG-2 | Matching the format Media Center itself uses for live TV captures | ~2x the bitrate for similar quality; older but universally supported in WTV |
| MPEG-4 | Middle ground for older hardware decoders | Less common than H.264 today; pick H.264 unless you have a specific reason |
For audio, AAC is the default in xconvert's WTV pipeline; switch to AC-3 if you're trying to mirror an actual Media Center recording byte-for-byte.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why convert SWF to WTV instead of MP4?
MP4 is the better choice for almost any modern use case. WTV makes sense only when you specifically want the file to slot into a Windows 7 Media Center "Recorded TV" library, or when an HTPC tool only indexes.wtv. If neither applies, use SWF to MP4 instead.
Will the conversion preserve ActionScript interactivity?
No. SWF is part container, part runtime — ActionScript code, button clicks, and timeline scripts only run inside Flash Player, which Adobe killed on December 31, 2020. Only the video stream inside the SWF is converted. Buttons, quizzes, and game logic are not carried over.
What happens with vector graphics during conversion?
Nothing — they are not converted. Only the video stream embedded in the SWF becomes WTV; vector shapes, text and tweens drawn by Flash are not part of it. A SWF that is only vector art can't be converted, and we tell you right after upload. To view one, use Ruffle.
Why does my converted WTV file have black bars or weird edges?
Flash video often has an unusual aspect ratio (e.g. 550x400 from older Animate templates), and a Preset Resolution with a different shape adds bars to fill the frame. Keep the original size, or pick a preset that matches the SWF's native aspect ratio.
Can Windows Media Center on Windows 10 or 11 open these files?
Not officially. Microsoft removed Windows Media Center entirely starting with Windows 10 in 2015, and there's no Microsoft-supported way to bring it back. WTV files themselves still play in third-party tools (VLC opens them, ffmpeg parses them), but the "Recorded TV" experience is Windows 7 only. There are community efforts to revive Media Center on newer Windows, but none are official.
Why is the WTV file so much larger than my SWF?
Because the formats store completely different things. The video inside a SWF was usually compressed hard for 2000s-era connections; WTV's MPEG-style video spends far more bits per second, so a small SWF can easily become a 20-50 MB WTV depending on the resolution and codec you chose in Step 2. Lower the Quality Preset or pick a smaller Resolution to shrink the output.
How do I trim a long SWF before converting?
Use the Trim controls in Advanced Options. Set Start (in seconds) and Duration to grab a clip from the middle of a long video. A 60-second SWF can be sliced to "Start 10s, Duration 20s" to extract just one scene. For more control over multi-segment cuts, the dedicated Video Cutter tool handles WTV output too.
Will the audio survive the conversion?
Yes, but it's re-encoded. SWF stores audio as MP3, ADPCM, Speex, or Nellymoser frames embedded in the timeline. The conversion pipeline decodes those, then re-encodes to AAC (default) or AC-3 for the WTV container. Quality is preserved at default bitrate (≥128 kbps); pick a higher Audio Bitrate in Advanced Options if the SWF used uncompressed PCM.
Are there file size limits?
Free uploads are limited to 400 MB per file (1 GB on Basic, 4 GB on Pro) — typical SWF files are almost always under a few MB because the original Flash spec capped streaming sizes for the browser.