X3F to WTV Converter

How to Convert X3F to WTV Online

1. Upload Your X3F Files: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to load Sigma Foveon RAW captures from your SD9/SD14/SD15/SD1, DP Merrill, dp Quattro, or sd Quattro. Batch upload is supported — drop in an entire shoot at once.
2. Pick Merge Strategy and Image Duration: Choose Merge images to stitch every X3F into one continuous WTV slideshow, or Video per image to emit a separate WTV per RAW. Set Image Duration (default 5 seconds per frame; options 1/24, 1/30, 1/60 second up to 10 seconds) to control how long each Foveon frame holds on screen.
3. Set Background Color, Quality Preset, and Resolution (Optional): Pick a Background Color (default White; the named colors) for letterbox bars when aspect ratios don't match the output, choose a Quality Preset (Lowest / Low / Medium / High / Very High / Highest — Very High is recommended for archival MPEG-2), and lock a Video resolution preset (Keep original, 720p, 1080p, 1440p, 2160p, or a custom Width×Height with aspect-ratio lock).
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and grab your .wtv file. processing runs on our servers — no sign-up, no watermark, no Sigma Photo Pro required to demosaic Foveon RAW first.

Why Convert X3F to WTV?

X3F is Sigma's proprietary Foveon RAW container — three vertically stacked photodiodes per pixel location capturing red, green, and blue at depth rather than via a Bayer mosaic. WTV (Windows Recorded TV Show) is the container Windows Media Center wrote DVR captures to starting with the Vista TV Pack 2008 and standard in all Windows 7 Media Center editions, carrying MPEG-2 video with MPEG-1 Layer II or Dolby Digital AC-3 audio at capture rates up to 30 Mbps. Converting X3F → WTV gives you a Foveon slideshow that plays natively on legacy HTPC setups still running Media Center.

• Display Foveon shoots on a Windows 7 HTPC — Media Center reads WTV from \Users\Public\Recorded TV\ by default; drop a converted slideshow there and it shows up alongside recorded broadcasts in the TV library.
• Archive a dp Quattro or SD Merrill session for offline review — Sigma discontinued all Foveon cameras as of 2025 and Lightroom never supported Merrill or Quattro X3F natively, so a self-contained WTV preview means you can revisit a shoot without installing Sigma Photo Pro.
• Feed a Windows-based digital signage rig — many older retail-signage players standardized on Media Center and consume WTV directly without a re-mux.
• Pair with a TV tuner timeline — broadcast recordings on the same machine sit in .wtv; mixing photographic slideshows in the same container keeps a single library workflow.
• Hand off to a Windows-only client who can't install third-party RAW tools — WTV plays in Windows Media Player on Windows 7, or via VLC on Windows 10/11 after Microsoft retired Media Center in May 2015.
• Build a kiosk loop from Foveon stills — set Merge images + 5 seconds per frame, pick a black background, and the output is a single hands-off WTV ready for autoplay.

Need other Foveon outputs first? Convert X3F to JPG for sharing, or X3F to TIFF for print and further editing. For a more universal video container, try X3F to MP4 or X3F to WMV — both play on modern Windows without Media Center.

X3F vs WTV — Source and Container at a Glance

Quality Preset Cheat Sheet — Picking the Right MPEG-2 Setting

Numbers below are typical encoder behaviour for the MPEG-2 stream xconvert writes into the WTV container at 1080p, 25–30 fps slideshow output.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert Foveon X3F to WTV at all — isn't MP4 more universal?

WTV is the container Windows Media Center expects, so if you're feeding a Windows 7 HTPC or any legacy Media Center library, WTV slots in beside recorded TV without any re-import. For everything else (modern Windows, macOS, Linux, mobile, web) MP4 is the right call — try X3F to MP4 if your target isn't a Media Center machine.

Will WTV files play on Windows 10 or Windows 11?

Not natively. Microsoft announced in May 2015 that Windows Media Center would not ship with Windows 10, and the upgrader removes WMC during install. On Windows 10/11 you'll need VLC (which plays the underlying MPEG-2 stream) or convert WTV to MP4/MKV for everything else. The decoder is gone, not the file format itself.

Does this converter demosaic Foveon RAW correctly without Sigma Photo Pro?

The converter handles X3F decoding server-side, so you don't need SPP installed locally. That said, Foveon's three-layer sensor isn't a standard Bayer mosaic, so colours from SD9 through SD15 era cameras can differ slightly from SPP's own rendering. For maximum fidelity from a Merrill or Quattro, decode in SPP first, export TIFF, then build the slideshow from those — but for quick previews the inline pipeline is fine.

What's the difference between Merge images and Video per image?

Merge images treats every uploaded X3F as a single timeline frame and writes one WTV file — useful for slideshow kiosks or a single deliverable. Video per image emits one WTV file per RAW (each running for whatever Image Duration you picked) — useful when you want individually addressable clips or per-image WTVs that a tuner-style playlist can shuffle.

Can I include audio (a music bed) with the slideshow?

This pipeline writes silent video by default — Image to Video doesn't accept an audio upload alongside the stills. If you need a soundtrack, generate the silent WTV here, then mux in an AC-3 or MP2 audio track with ffmpeg or HandBrake; both audio codecs are inside the WTV spec.

Why is my 1-second-per-frame WTV so much bigger than a 5-second one?

WTV/MPEG-2 keyframes happen on a fixed cadence regardless of how long each Foveon image is "held," so a 1/30-second-per-frame slideshow generates 30× more distinct video frames per second of runtime — even though the visual content is identical. Bumping Image Duration up to 3–5 seconds per frame slashes file size dramatically while still looking like a slideshow.

Does WTV support 4K (2160p) output for high-resolution Foveon files?

Technically the resolution preset allows it, but WTV was designed around ATSC broadcast resolutions (480i/p, 720p, 1080i/p). Real-world Media Center playback above 1080p is unreliable; stick to 1080p for the slideshow and use X3F to MP4 with H.265 if you need genuine 4K preview from a Merrill (46 MP equivalent) or Quattro (39 MP equivalent) RAW.

Will my X3F EXIF (lens, aperture, ISO, Sigma camera body) survive into the WTV?

No — WTV stores broadcast metadata (channel, programme guide entries, copy-protection flags via CGMS-A), not photographic EXIF. If you need to preserve shot data, keep the original X3F and convert from that master whenever you need another output.

Can I round-trip the resulting WTV back to DVR-MS?

Yes — Windows 7 ships WTVConverter.exe in \Windows\ehome\ (or right-click → "Convert to.dvr-ms Format" in Explorer). The reverse path is one-click. There's no equivalent on Windows 10/11 without restoring Media Center via community-maintained installers.