TS to WMV Converter

How to Convert TS to WMV Online

1. Upload Your TS File: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to select one or more .ts Transport Stream recordings — DVR captures, IPTV dumps, ATSC/DVB broadcast saves, or HDHomeRun grabs. Batch conversion is supported, and files are processed on our servers and deleted automatically after a few hours with no sign-up required.
2. Pick Video Codec and Quality Preset: Under Advanced Options, the Video Codec defaults to WMV 2 — the codec Windows Media Player and PowerPoint expect inside a .wmv container. Choose WMV 1 only for legacy Windows XP-era playback. Audio Codec defaults to WMA v2. Set File Compression mode (Quality Preset, Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate, Constant Quality, Specific file size, or Constraint Quality). The Quality Preset defaults to Very High (Recommended); drop to High or Medium to shrink the file.
3. Resize, Trim, or Set Background (Optional): Under Video resolution, pick a preset (480p / 720p / 1080p / 1440p / 2160p), enter a custom Width × Height, or scale by Resolution Percentage. Under Trim, choose Time Range to keep only a selected start and duration — useful for cutting out broadcast preamble or ad breaks captured in the TS dump.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Files are processed server-side and the WMV result is delivered to your browser — no watermark, no account required, no installation. For batches, each file converts with the same settings.

Why Convert TS to WMV?

TS (MPEG-2 Transport Stream, ISO/IEC 13818-1) is a broadcast container — it's what ATSC, DVB, and IPTV systems push over the air or down the wire, and it's what DVRs and tuner cards like HDHomeRun, Hauppauge WinTV, and TVHeadend write to disk. WMV (Windows Media Video) is Microsoft's container — a .wmv file wraps an ASF stream with WMV 7/8/9 video and WMA audio, and it's the format Windows Media Player, PowerPoint, and Windows-native editing tools handle without a codec pack. Converting TS to WMV bridges the broadcast world to the Windows desktop world.

• PowerPoint embedding — PowerPoint on Windows reliably plays .wmv and .mp4 files inserted with Insert → Video. TS files often fail to embed or refuse to play during a deck because PowerPoint relies on installed DirectShow codecs, and the TS demuxer isn't always available.
• Windows Media Player playback — Microsoft's documented native formats include .wmv, .asf, .avi, .mp4, and .m2ts, but not plain .ts. Converting to WMV gives you a file Windows opens with a double-click instead of throwing a missing-codec error.
• Legacy Windows editing pipelines — Windows Movie Maker, the old Windows Live editor, and corporate-Windows video tools accept WMV input and export. If your workflow is locked into a 2010s-era Windows toolchain, WMV is the lingua franca.
• Smaller files than raw MPEG-2 TS — TS recordings often run 6-12 Mbps for 1080p MPEG-2 broadcast content. Re-encoding to WMV 9 (the VC-1 / SMPTE 421M generation) typically cuts the bitrate by half at similar perceived quality, saving meaningful disk space on long DVR archives.
• Internal Windows-shop sharing — SharePoint, Outlook attachments on corporate Exchange, and Windows file shares are all friendlier to .wmv than .ts, which Windows Explorer doesn't preview by default.
• Archival from cut-the-cord recordings — Channels DVR, Plex DVR, NextPVR, and MediaPortal all default to writing .ts. Once you've trimmed commercials, converting to WMV gives you a stable archive Windows can play forever without depending on a third-party demuxer.

TS vs WMV — Format Comparison

WMV Codec Quick Guide

For non-Windows targets, WMV is rarely the right output — convert to MP4 (H.264 + AAC) or MKV instead. For other source formats heading to WMV, see MP4 to WMV, MKV to WMV, MOV to WMV, or AVI to WMV.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why won't my TS file play in Windows Media Player?

Microsoft's supported file types list covers .wmv, .avi, .mpg, .mp4, .m4v, .3gp, and .m2ts, but does not include plain .ts natively. A TS file is an MPEG-2 Transport Stream optimized for broadcast and DVR scenarios, and Windows Media Player relies on installed DirectShow demuxers/decoders to open it — many systems don't have those by default. Converting to WMV produces a file Windows opens out of the box.

Will PowerPoint reliably embed the WMV after conversion?

Yes — PowerPoint on Windows treats .wmv as a first-class video format for Insert → Video, and slides with embedded WMV travel well between Windows machines. If you're sharing the deck with macOS PowerPoint users as well, consider exporting to MP4 instead via TS to MP4, since macOS PowerPoint doesn't ship with a WMV decoder.

Should I pick WMV 1 or WMV 2 as the video codec?

WMV 2 — it's the default for a reason. WMV 2 (WMV 8) is supported across every modern Windows Media Player release and across Office for Windows. WMV 1 (WMV 7) exists only for compatibility with pre-2002 Microsoft playback stacks. The xconvert default of WMV 2 with WMA v2 audio matches what nearly every Windows tool expects inside a .wmv container.

How do I trim out commercials or broadcast preamble before converting?

In Advanced Options, open Trim and switch from Unchanged to Time Range. Set the Start (where you want the WMV to begin) and Duration (how many seconds to keep). For multi-cut editing — e.g., removing several ad breaks — convert the cleaned segments and then merge them, or use Video Cutter for a single-purpose trim step before this conversion.

What bitrate or quality preset should I target for 1080p TS recordings?

For broadcast-captured 1080p content, the Quality Preset → Very High default (or Variable Bitrate targeting roughly 3-5 Mbps) reproduces the source faithfully while shrinking the file. ATSC and DVB-T 1080i broadcasts typically encode at 12-19 Mbps MPEG-2; WMV 9 / VC-1 reaches comparable visual quality at roughly half that bitrate, so a 4-6 GB hour-long TS often lands around 1.5-2.5 GB as a WMV.

Can I batch-convert a folder of nightly DVR captures?

Yes — drop the entire batch onto the uploader and the same conversion settings apply to every file. The default preset is a good starting point for an unattended bulk pass. If your DVR writes individual .ts files per recording (Channels, Plex DVR, NextPVR, MediaPortal all do), you can queue them in one go.

Does WMV preserve the original audio track from a broadcast TS?

The audio is re-encoded — TS broadcasts ship MPEG-2 audio (MP2) or AC-3 (Dolby Digital), and WMV containers conventionally use WMA. The default WMA v2 at standard bitrates is transparent for stereo speech and music in practice. If your TS has a 5.1 AC-3 surround track and you need surround preserved, WMV is not the best target — use TS to MKV or TS to MP4 where AC-3 passthrough is supported in the container.

Why is the WMV smaller than the original TS even at "Very High"?

TS files are typically broadcast MPEG-2 with overhead for error correction, PSIP tables, EPG data, and 188-byte packetization — none of which a finished file needs. WMV 9 / VC-1 is also a generation newer than MPEG-2 and reaches similar perceived quality at roughly half the bitrate. Combined, you'll routinely see WMV outputs that are 40-60% the size of the source TS without a visible quality loss.

Is the conversion lossless?

No — TS to WMV always transcodes because the container, video codec, and audio codec all change (MPEG-2 → WMV, MP2/AC-3 → WMA). Pick the Very High quality preset for the closest match to the source. If you need a lossless intermediate for further editing, choose TS to MKV with stream copy where supported instead.