WMV to WTV Converter

How to Convert WMV to WTV Online

1. Upload Your WMV File: Drag and drop or click "Add Files" to select WMV clips from your computer — old Windows Movie Maker exports, screen captures, webcam recordings, or archived family footage. Batch is supported; drop in a whole folder and each file converts in parallel.
2. Pick Quality Preset or Bitrate Mode: Default is the "Very High (Recommended)" Quality Preset, which keeps the output visually close to the source. Switch to Specific file size to cap output at an exact MB value (useful when an external drive or DVD has a hard ceiling), Constant Bitrate for predictable size across a recorded-TV-style library, Variable Bitrate for better quality at the same average size, or Constant Quality to fine-tune the CRF directly.
3. Resize or Trim if Needed (Optional): Under Video resolution, keep original, pick a Preset Resolution (2160p / 1440p / 1080p / 720p / 576p / 480p / 360p), scale by Resolution Percentage, or enter custom Width x Height. Under Trim, choose Time Range and enter a start time + duration in seconds or HH:MM:SS.sss format to cut intros, ads, or trailing dead air before re-encoding.
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. Download individually or as a ZIP.

Why Convert WMV to WTV?

WMV (Windows Media Video) is Microsoft's ASF-based codec/container family, used heavily through the 2000s for screen recordings, corporate training videos, and Windows Movie Maker exports. WTV (Windows Recorded TV Show) is the container Microsoft introduced with the Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 and shipped in every Media Center edition of Windows 7 — it stores MPEG-2 video with MPEG-1 Layer II or Dolby Digital AC-3 audio, plus broadcast metadata (program title, episode info, EPG data, closed captions). Converting WMV into WTV is the practical way to fold legacy WMV clips into a Media Center recorded-TV library so they show up alongside DVR captures with proper artwork and metadata. Typical reasons:

• Folding home video into a Recorded TV library — Old camcorder or Movie Maker WMVs imported as WTV appear in the Media Center "Recorded TV" guide alongside actual DVR recordings, with poster art and synopsis fields editable.
• Migrating away from WMV before retiring a Windows 7 Media Center box — Many archives still sit on Media Center HTPCs; consolidating into a single.wtv-based library makes it easier to back up to an external drive or NAS in one pass.
• Network playback to Xbox 360 / Xbox One extenders — Media Center Extenders streamed.wtv natively over the home network. Converting WMVs to WTV puts them in the same playable pile.
• Editing in tools that prefer the broadcast container — Utilities like VideoReDo and MCEBuddy read WTV directly for ad-trim or audio-sync work; some refuse WMV input or require an extra demux step.
• Preserving chapter / metadata structure — WTV stores EPG-style metadata fields (title, episode, channel, broadcast date) that WMV's ASF tags don't expose. Re-saving as WTV lets you author that metadata once and have it persist across Media Center, Kodi, and MediaPortal.
• Cross-tool interop with MediaPortal / Kodi — MediaPortal 2's SlimTV component imports.wtv/.dvr-ms recordings with channel and start/end-time metadata extracted automatically; WMV doesn't get the same treatment.

If you only want to go the other way for general playback, see WTV to MP4 or WTV to WMV. To shrink an existing WMV before re-wrapping, use Compress WMV.

WMV vs WTV at a Glance

Quality and Bitrate Mode Quick Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Windows 10 or Windows 11 play the WTV file after conversion?

Not natively. Windows Media Center was removed in Windows 10, so neither Windows 10 nor Windows 11 ships with built-in WTV playback. VLC opens.wtv files directly without extra codecs, and MediaPortal 2 / SlimTV imports them with metadata. If you need to play the file on a modern Windows machine without third-party software, convert WMV to MP4 instead via WMV to MP4.

Does WTV need MPEG-2 video specifically, or will any codec work?

Microsoft's Stream Buffer Engine documentation describes WTV as built around MPEG-2 video with MPEG-1 Layer II or AC-3 audio, captured at up to 30 Mbps. In practice the WTV container can also hold MPEG-4 / H.264 streams that Media Center recorded from certain digital tuners, but Media Center playback and library tools were tuned for the MPEG-2 + AC-3 combination. For widest Media Center / extender compatibility, accept the default codec choice on conversion.

What's the difference between WTV and DVR-MS?

DVR-MS was the original Windows XP Media Center Edition format. WTV replaced it starting with the Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 on Vista and shipped as the default on Windows 7 Media Center. Both store MPEG-2 video and MPEG-1 Layer II audio, but WTV added richer metadata, better timeshift handling via the Stream Buffer Engine, and digital cable / OTA DRM support. Windows 7 included a built-in converter (right-click.wtv -> "Convert to.dvr-ms Format", or \Windows\ehome\WTVConverter.exe for batch) for tools that only accept the older format.

Why is my WTV file larger than the WMV I started with?

WMV 9 / VC-1 is more modern and bit-efficient than the MPEG-2 codec WTV typically wraps. Re-encoding to MPEG-2 at visually-equivalent quality often increases file size 30-80%. To keep the result closer to the original size, pick Specific file size and target the WMV's original size, or use Constant Quality with a higher CRF value. Expect some growth — it's the cost of using a broadcast-era codec in a Media Center-compatible container.

Will the conversion preserve subtitles, chapters, or closed captions?

WTV is designed to carry CEA-608/708 closed captions from broadcast TV, but standard WMV files almost never include caption tracks — they typically have only ASF content-descriptor metadata. The converter writes a clean WTV container with the picture and audio intact; if your WMV had no captions to begin with, none will appear in the output. Chapters are similarly source-dependent; most WMV exports from Movie Maker don't carry chapter markers.

Can I batch convert a folder of WMVs to WTV at once?

Yes. Upload as many WMV files as you want — there's no quantity cap. Apply the same Quality Preset and resolution settings across the batch, or set per-file options. Each file converts in parallel on our servers and downloads as individual.wtv files or a single ZIP. Useful when consolidating an old Movie Maker archive into a single Recorded TV library.

How do I trim ads or dead air before converting?

Under Trim, pick Time Range and enter a start time + duration in seconds (e.g., 12.5 for 12.5 seconds) or HH:MM:SS.sss format (00:01:30.500). Trimming runs before encoding, so cutting a 90-minute WMV down to the 22-minute episode body skips re-encoding the rest entirely and produces a much smaller WTV. For more granular splits, use Video Cutter first and then convert each segment.

Is the WTV file protected by DRM?

Only if the source was. Microsoft's documentation notes that WTV copy protection is set per recording based on the broadcaster's CGMS-A flag — meaning DRM-protected playback was tied to the specific Media Center PC that recorded the stream. WTV files created by re-wrapping your own WMV content do not carry that flag and play freely on any Media Center / VLC / MediaPortal install.

Can I convert WTV back to WMV later?

Yes — see WTV to WMV for the reverse direction. The round-trip won't be lossless (you'll re-encode MPEG-2 back to a WMV codec), so keep your original WMV files if you need a master copy.