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Need help?WTV to M4R: A Ringtone from Your Windows Media Center Recordings
WTV is the recorded-TV format of Windows Media Center, introduced with TV Pack 2008 for Windows Vista and used through Windows 7 and 8; Media Center was dropped in Windows 10. If you still have an archive of .wtv captures, it probably holds sounds worth keeping: a commentator's goal call, a quiz-show sting, a theme tune you have not heard in years. This page extracts the broadcast soundtrack, drops the MPEG-2 or H.264 video, and re-encodes the part you choose as AAC in an .m4r file, the iPhone's ringtone format. M4R is the same AAC-in-MPEG-4 file as M4A, with the extension iOS treats as a tone.
Apple says ringtones can be up to 30 seconds long, so an hour-long recording becomes a half-minute clip, and Trim is how you choose it.
How to Convert WTV to M4R
- Upload Your WTV File: Drag the
.wtvonto the page or click "+ Add Files"; several recordings can be queued. Copy-protected recordings will not convert. - Set Trim to the Moment: Turn Trim on, then set a Start time and a Duration of 30 seconds or less, in seconds or
HH:MM:SS.sss. Find the timestamp in your player first, because many recordings start with some padding before the programme. - Choose Bitrate and Channels: Pick Constant Bitrate (8 to 384 kbps), Custom Bitrate, one of five Variable Bitrate bands (20k-32k up to 96k-112k) or Specific file size; Quality Preset is the hands-off mode. Audio Codec is AAC. HD broadcasts often carry 5.1 Dolby Digital, so set Audio Channel to Stereo for those.
- Convert and Download: Click Convert and save the
.m4r. Your recording is uploaded over HTTPS, processed on our servers and deleted automatically after a few hours. No sign-up, no watermark.
WTV vs M4R
| Property | WTV (source) | M4R (output) |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Microsoft, Windows Media Center | Apple's ringtone extension for MPEG-4 audio |
| Video | MPEG-2 or H.264, as broadcast | None |
| Audio | MPEG-1 Layer II or Dolby Digital AC-3, sometimes 5.1 | AAC-LC, stereo or mono |
| Extras | Programme-guide metadata, captions, copy-protection flags | None |
| Size | Gigabytes per hour | About 720 KB for 30 seconds at 192 kbps |
| Plays on | Media Center (gone since Windows 10), VLC and some other players | iPhone ringtone; any AAC player |
Picking Settings for Broadcast Audio
| Clip | Source audio | Suggested settings | 30-second size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commentary or a quote | Stereo MP2 or AC-3 | 96 kbps, Mono | about 360 KB |
| Theme tune | Stereo MP2 or AC-3 | 160 kbps, Stereo | about 600 KB |
| News jingle or sting | Stereo MP2 or AC-3 | 128 kbps, Stereo | about 480 KB |
| HD film or concert | AC-3 5.1 | 192 kbps, Audio Channel Stereo | about 720 KB |
Sizes follow bitrate × seconds ÷ 8 = kilobytes. Broadcast audio is already lossy, so encoding far above the source rate buys nothing; matching it keeps the second generation inaudible on a phone.
Finding the Moment in a Long Recording
Recordings are long and the moment you want is a few seconds of them, so it is worth locating it precisely before you upload. Open the .wtv in VLC or another player that still reads it, pause on the sound, and note the time shown. Enter that as the Trim Start time, with a little lead of half a second, and a Duration of 30 or less.
Commercial breaks are a common trap: a recording's timeline includes the adverts, so a timestamp taken from a guide listing or a broadcaster's website will not match. Sports commentary and quiz-show stings tend to be short and punchy, so a Duration of 5-10 seconds is often better than a full 30. Many broadcasters also apply loudness rules to their output, so clips taken from the same channel tend to come out at a similar, moderate level.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why won't my WTV recording convert?
Most likely it is copy-protected. Media Center honoured broadcast copy-protection flags, and protected recordings are encrypted so that only the machine that recorded them can play them. No converter can decode them, while unprotected recordings extract normally. Apple's GarageBand route on iPhone also needs audio that is not DRM-protected.
How long can the ringtone be?
Apple's support page says ringtones can be up to 30 seconds long, and GarageBand for iPhone uses 30 seconds as its export maximum. Older guides mention 40 seconds from the iTunes era; that figure is not in Apple's current documentation.
Does any of the programme information carry over?
No. Title, episode and guide data stay in the WTV; the M4R contains only audio. To keep a whole programme as audio rather than a tone, use WTV to M4A.
How do I set the tone on my iPhone?
Connect the iPhone to a Mac and drag the .m4r onto it in the Finder sidebar (macOS Catalina or later), or use iTunes on Windows; it then shows up in Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone. For a single caller, go to Contacts > the person > Edit > Ringtone. Or save the file to Files, import it into GarageBand on the iPhone and use Share > Ringtone.
I have older .dvr-ms recordings too. Which page handles them?
DVR-MS was the Media Center format before WTV. DVR to M4R covers those recordings and explains what to do about the extension.
What about an Android ringtone?
Android uses MP3 or OGG, not M4R. Use WTV to MP3 with the same Trim.
Is my recording kept?
No. It is uploaded over TLS, processed on our servers and deleted automatically after a few hours, and it is never shared or made public. Recordings are large, and the whole file uploads even though only 30 seconds are encoded, so the upload is the slow part.