WTV to M2TS Converter

How to Convert WTV to M2TS Online

1. Upload Your WTV File: Drag and drop or click "Add Files" to select WTV recordings from your Recorded TV library (default path \Users\Public\Recorded TV\ on Windows 7 / 8.1). Batch upload supports a full season folder — each file converts in parallel.
2. Pick Quality Preset or Bitrate Mode: Default is the "Very High (Recommended)" Quality Preset, which keeps near-source quality for Blu-ray-grade M2TS output. Switch to Specific file size to cap output at an exact MB value (useful when you need to fit episodes onto BD-R 25 GB or BD-R DL 50 GB), Constant Bitrate for predictable disc authoring, Variable Bitrate for smaller files at the same quality, or Constant Quality to fine-tune with a CRF slider (18 = visually lossless, 23 = default, 28 = noticeably smaller). The Blu-ray spec caps video at 40 Mbit/s and combined A/V at 48 Mbit/s — keep CBR/VBR ceilings below 40 Mbit/s for player compatibility.
3. Resize or Trim if Needed (Optional): Under Video resolution, keep original (most WTV recordings are 720×480 SD or 1920×1080 HD over-the-air ATSC), pick a Preset Resolution (2160p / 1440p / 1080p / 720p / 480p), scale by Resolution Percentage, or enter custom Width × Height. Under Trim, pick Time Range and enter start time + duration in seconds or HH:MM:SS.sss — handy for stripping the commercial breaks Windows Media Center captured around the show.
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, then drop the.m2ts into the BDMV\STREAM\ folder of your Blu-ray authoring project (tsMuxeR, multiAVCHD, DVDFab Creator) or play directly in VLC, MPC-HC, PotPlayer, or any modern Blu-ray player.

Why Convert WTV to M2TS?

WTV (Windows Recorded TV Show) is the proprietary container Microsoft introduced with Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 for Vista and shipped through every Windows 7 Media Center edition. It replaced the older DVR-MS format and stores MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 video plus MPEG-1 Layer II or Dolby Digital AC-3 audio. Windows Media Center was confirmed end-of-life at Microsoft's 2015 Build conference and is stripped during any upgrade to Windows 10 — so WTV files are now stranded on a format whose only first-party reader is a deprecated, unsupported app. M2TS (BDAV MPEG-2 Transport Stream) is the container Blu-ray Disc Audio/Video recording uses for both BDAV (rewritable, real-time capture) and BDMV (pre-authored movie) discs. Common reasons to make this conversion:

• Blu-ray authoring from your TV archive — Drop the.m2ts files directly into the BDMV\STREAM\ directory of a BDMV project, or burn them to BD-R/BD-RE in BDAV layout. Set-top Blu-ray players read both layouts; WTV plays on neither.
• Escape the Windows Media Center dependency — Once you've upgraded a recording PC to Windows 10 or 11, the WTV files become orphaned unless you keep an unsupported workaround installed. Re-wrapping to M2TS gives you a container playable on VLC, MPC-HC, PotPlayer, Plex, Kodi, and every Blu-ray hardware player.
• Editing in NLEs that choke on WTV — DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, Vegas Pro, and Avid Media Composer all accept M2TS natively. WTV requires either DirectShow filters or a separate decode pass; most modern editors dropped that toolchain after 2015.
• Lossless remux when codecs already match — A WTV recorded from ATSC over-the-air or an unencrypted cable channel typically contains MPEG-2 video and AC-3 audio, both of which are mandatory Blu-ray codecs. The conversion is a container swap with zero re-encode and zero quality loss (the same -c copy operation ffmpeg performs).
• Stream over the network — Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby all index M2TS but treat WTV as an unsupported wrapper that needs server-side transcoding on every play. Pre-converting to M2TS means direct-play instead of on-the-fly transcode, freeing your server's CPU.
• Long-term archive — The Blu-ray spec is published, ratified by the BDA, and supported by hundreds of millions of shipped players. WTV depends on a discontinued application from a single vendor. M2TS is the safer 20-year archive bet.

WTV vs M2TS at a Glance

Codec Choice Quick Guide for M2TS Output

Quality and Bitrate Mode Quick Guide

If you also need to trim out commercials before authoring, see Trim M2TS. To shrink the output before burning, follow up with Compress M2TS. For camcorder-style AVCHD output instead of BDAV, use WTV to AVCHD.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I lose quality converting WTV to M2TS?

If your WTV was recorded from ATSC over-the-air TV or an unencrypted cable channel, it almost certainly contains MPEG-2 video and AC-3 audio — both mandatory Blu-ray codecs. The conversion is then a pure container remux: the existing streams move into the M2TS wrapper unchanged, with zero re-encode and zero quality loss (the same -c copy operation ffmpeg performs). If your source is MPEG-4 or you want H.264 output for a smaller file, set Constant Quality and use CRF 18-20 to stay visually lossless.

Why can't Windows Media Center open my old WTV files anymore?

Microsoft discontinued Windows Media Center at its 2015 Build conference and Windows 10 actively removes the app during any upgrade from Windows 7 or 8.1 Pro. Microsoft also stopped shipping the broadcast TV stack that decodes the encrypted variants of WTV. Unofficial reinstallers exist for Windows 10/11 but they're community-maintained, unsigned, and break with feature updates. Converting your library to M2TS once retires that dependency for good — the files play in VLC, MPC-HC, Plex, Kodi, and any hardware Blu-ray player from this point forward.

My WTV is copy-protected — will the conversion work?

Probably not. Windows Media Center reads the CGMS-A copy-protection flag the broadcaster sets, and if it's marked "copy-once" or "copy-never" (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, encrypted CableCARD content), the WTV file is encrypted and locked to the recording PC. XConvert can't decrypt DRM-protected WTV, and neither can any other converter without breaking the law in many jurisdictions. Recordings from clear ATSC over-the-air channels and most basic-tier cable convert without issue because the broadcaster left the flag at "copy-freely."

Will the M2TS file burn directly to a Blu-ray disc?

Almost — you need a Blu-ray authoring step in between to add the BDMV folder structure (BDMV\STREAM\, BDMV\PLAYLIST\, BDMV\CLIPINF\, index.bdmv, MovieObject.bdmv). Drop your converted.m2ts files into tsMuxeR, multiAVCHD, DVDFab Creator, or BDAuthor and they'll generate the disc structure for you. For a simpler BDAV (record-style) layout, ImgBurn can write the file straight to a BD-R/BD-RE with no menu. The conversion here gets you to the spec-compliant stream — disc authoring is the next step.

What bitrate should I target for Blu-ray-compliant M2TS?

The Blu-ray spec caps standard (1080p) video at 40 Mbit/s and combined audio + video at 48 Mbit/s; UHD BD raises video to 128 Mbit/s for 4K. Real-world commercial Blu-rays average 25-35 Mbit/s for 1080p H.264. For WTV sources captured at ATSC's 19.4 Mbit/s, keeping the same bitrate after remux is fine. If you re-encode to H.264 for size savings, 8-12 Mbit/s with VBR produces near-source quality for 1080p; for 720p WTV, 4-6 Mbit/s is plenty. Set a hard 40 Mbit/s ceiling on Constraint Quality mode to stay spec-compliant.

Why is my converted M2TS not playing on my Blu-ray player?

Three usual culprits. First, codec — set-top Blu-ray players only decode MPEG-2, H.264/AVC, or VC-1 (HEVC requires a UHD BD player). If your WTV held an exotic MPEG-4 ASP variant, re-encode to H.264. Second, audio — some older players reject anything except AC-3, DTS, or LPCM; convert MPEG-1 Layer II audio to AC-3 if your player chokes. Third, the file needs the BDMV folder wrapper before burning; a bare.m2ts on a data BD-R won't autoplay on a hardware player even though VLC will read it. Author with tsMuxeR or similar first.

Can I keep the WTV's program metadata (show title, episode, air date)?

Partial. WTV stores rich metadata — title, episode, channel, air date, EPG description — in a proprietary header that M2TS doesn't have a slot for. M2TS itself only carries program-stream-level identifiers (PIDs, service descriptors). XConvert preserves the audio/video content and any standard MPEG-2 PSI tables; it can't migrate the human-readable show name. If you need that data, export the EPG separately from WMC's Recorded TV library before converting — Plex and Jellyfin can rematch the file to TheTVDB / TMDB after import by filename.

How big will the M2TS file be compared to the WTV?

If you remux without re-encoding (matching codecs), the M2TS is the same size as the WTV ± a few percent — the BDAV header adds 4 bytes per 188-byte packet, about 2% overhead. A 1-hour 1080i ATSC capture at 19.4 Mbit/s is around 8.5 GB as WTV and 8.7 GB as M2TS. Re-encoding to H.264 at 10 Mbit/s VBR roughly halves it; H.265 (for UHD BD only) gets you to about a third. Use Specific file size mode if you need to fit a specific number of episodes onto a 25 GB or 50 GB blank.

What's the difference between M2TS and MTS — should I pick one?

They're the same BDAV transport stream; the extension differs by where the file lives. On a Blu-ray disc or in a BDMV folder, files are named .m2ts. AVCHD camcorders (Sony, Panasonic, Canon HD camcorders since 2006) write the same stream to the SD card with the .mts extension. Some software treats them as separate format names but they're byte-identical. If your downstream tool specifically expects MTS, use WTV to MTS instead; otherwise M2TS is the more widely accepted extension for Blu-ray authoring projects.