Convert HEVC to WTV — Free Online Tool
Convert HEVC/H.265 video files to WTV (Windows Television) format, re-encoding the video stream from H.265 to H.264 using libx264 — the codec expected by Windows Media Center's WTV container. This is especially useful for making high-efficiency HEVC recordings compatible with Windows DVR software and legacy Media Center playback systems.
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FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
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Note: Browser-based encoding uses approximate quality targets. For precise CRF compression, copy the FFmpeg command above and run it on your desktop.
Estimated output:
Conversion Complete!
DownloadHow It Works
HEVC (H.265) and WTV are fundamentally incompatible at the codec level — the WTV container, designed around Windows Vista Media Center's broadcast recording pipeline, does not support H.265 video. This means the conversion cannot simply remux the stream; instead, the video must be fully re-encoded from libx265 (H.265) to libx264 (H.264), which is the codec WTV natively expects. Simultaneously, if the source HEVC file carries audio, it is encoded to AAC at 128k bitrate to match WTV's preferred audio format. The result is a WTV file with H.264 video and AAC audio that Windows Media Center and compatible DVR tools can read and index correctly. Because H.265 typically stores the same visual quality at roughly half the bitrate of H.264, the output WTV file will generally be larger than the source HEVC file at equivalent visual quality.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg binary. In this browser tool, FFmpeg runs entirely via WebAssembly (FFmpeg.wasm) inside your browser — no data is sent to a server. The same command can be run on a desktop FFmpeg installation for files over 1GB. |
-i input.hevc
|
Specifies the input file, an HEVC/H.265 bitstream or container. FFmpeg reads the H.265 video stream (and any audio) from this file to begin the transcode pipeline. |
-c:v libx264
|
Re-encodes the video stream using the libx264 encoder, converting it from H.265 to H.264. This is required because the WTV container and Windows Media Center do not support H.265 video; H.264 is the expected video codec for WTV playback compatibility. |
-c:a aac
|
Encodes the audio stream to AAC, the default and most compatible audio codec for the WTV container. AAC is natively supported by Windows Media Center and is well-suited to WTV's broadcast DVR use case. |
-crf 23
|
Sets the H.264 Constant Rate Factor to 23, which is libx264's default and represents a good balance between visual quality and file size. Because the source was compressed H.265, this re-encode at CRF 23 will produce a visually high-quality H.264 stream, though the output file will be larger than the HEVC source. |
-b:a 128k
|
Sets the AAC audio bitrate to 128 kilobits per second, which is the standard target for good-quality stereo AAC audio in broadcast and DVR contexts. This is sufficient for dialogue and music in typical recorded TV content stored in WTV. |
output.wtv
|
Specifies the output file with the .wtv extension, instructing FFmpeg to mux the H.264 video and AAC audio into a WTV container — the format used by Windows Vista/7 Media Center for storing and indexing recorded TV content. |
Common Use Cases
- Re-importing HEVC-encoded recordings from a modern IP camera or NVR into Windows Media Center for DVR-style playback and library organization
- Converting H.265 video captured by a drone or action camera into WTV so it can be opened and managed within Windows Vista/7 Media Center without codec pack installations
- Wrapping H.265 content in WTV format to embed broadcast-style metadata (channel, program title, air time) recognized by Windows Media Center's EPG system
- Preparing HEVC source footage for editing in older Windows-based video software that supports WTV as a timeline import format but lacks an H.265 decoder
- Converting archived HEVC recordings to WTV so they can be served by a Windows Home Server running Windows Media Center Extender for playback on Xbox 360 or compatible devices
- Batch-converting a library of H.265 video files to WTV as part of a legacy media archival workflow where the WTV container's metadata embedding is required for cataloguing
Frequently Asked Questions
H.265 achieves better compression than H.264, so re-encoding to H.264 at a comparable quality level (CRF 23 in this command) naturally requires more data to represent the same visual content. The default CRF 23 for the H.264 output targets a general-purpose quality level, not an exact bitrate match to the source. If file size is a concern, you can raise the CRF value (e.g., to 28) in the FFmpeg command to reduce output size, though this trades some visual quality.
WTV was designed by Microsoft for Windows Vista Media Center in the mid-2000s, long before H.265 existed, and its documented codec support centers on MPEG-2 and H.264. In practice, Windows Media Center and most WTV-aware tools will not decode or index H.265 streams inside a WTV container. Full re-encoding from H.265 to H.264 (as this tool does) is the correct approach to ensure broad compatibility.
Yes, but it will be transcoded rather than copied. The tool encodes audio to AAC at 128k bitrate, which is WTV's default and most compatible audio format. If the source HEVC file has no audio track (which is common for raw HEVC bitstream files), the output WTV will simply contain no audio stream. For most spoken-word or music content, 128k AAC is transparent enough for home video use.
Yes. The -crf 23 flag controls H.264 quality on a scale from 0 (lossless) to 51 (worst quality). Lower values produce better quality and larger files; higher values produce smaller files with more compression artifacts. For archival use, a CRF between 18 and 20 is considered visually near-lossless. For smaller files where some quality loss is acceptable, try CRF 28. You can edit the displayed command and run it locally in a terminal without any file size limits.
On Windows, you can use a for loop in Command Prompt: `for %f in (*.hevc) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 23 -b:a 128k "%~nf.wtv"`. On macOS or Linux, use: `for f in *.hevc; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 23 -b:a 128k "${f%.hevc}.wtv"; done`. This browser-based tool processes one file at a time and is best suited for individual files under 1GB; for bulk conversions the desktop FFmpeg command is the recommended approach.
No. HEVC source files rarely carry subtitle tracks to begin with, and this conversion command does not map any subtitle streams to the output. WTV does support subtitles at the container level, but they are not passed through here. Additionally, WTV does not support chapter markers, so any chapter metadata present in the source will be lost. If subtitle preservation is critical, you would need to add a -c:s copy or subtitle-encoding flag and confirm the WTV muxer accepts the subtitle format.
Technical Notes
The WTV container's lineage as a broadcast DVR format means it was optimized for MPEG-2 and H.264 video with AC-3 or AAC audio — codecs common in over-the-air and cable digital broadcasts of the mid-2000s. Converting from HEVC introduces a generational codec downgrade: H.264 at CRF 23 is a high-quality encode, but it will produce a noticeably larger file than the H.265 source at equivalent perceptual quality. The libx264 encoder used here is the most widely supported H.264 implementation and produces output compatible with all known WTV-reading software. HDR metadata present in HDR10 or Dolby Vision HEVC sources is not preserved during this conversion — the H.264 codec in the WTV output is SDR only, and tone-mapping is not applied by default, which may result in washed-out colors if the source was HDR. For HDR content, consider adding FFmpeg tone-mapping filters (-vf zscale,tonemap) before running this conversion. The WTV container does support multiple audio tracks, but this command only maps a single audio stream; if your HEVC source has multiple audio tracks and you want them all preserved, add -map 0:a to the command. Metadata such as broadcaster, program title, and episode information — which WTV can embed for Media Center indexing — is not automatically populated from HEVC source metadata and would need to be added separately.