Convert MTS to WTV — Free Online Tool
Convert MTS camcorder footage (AVCHD with H.264 video and AC-3/AAC audio) to WTV, the Windows Media Center DVR format, directly in your browser. This conversion re-encodes the AVCHD stream into a WTV-compatible H.264/AAC package, making your Sony or Panasonic camcorder recordings playable and archivable within Windows Media Center ecosystems.
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FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
Drop your MTS file here
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Settings
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
MTS files use the MPEG-2 Transport Stream container with H.264 video and typically AC-3 or AAC audio, as produced by AVCHD camcorders. WTV (Windows Television) is a proprietary Microsoft container designed for broadcast DVR recordings. Because these containers are structurally different and WTV does not natively support AC-3 audio, FFmpeg must fully re-encode the output: the H.264 video stream is re-encoded using libx264 with a CRF of 23 (visually near-lossless for most footage), and the audio is transcoded to AAC at 128k bitrate. The result is a WTV file that Windows Media Center and compatible players can recognize as a recorded TV file, complete with metadata embedding support.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg multimedia processing engine. In this browser tool, it runs as FFmpeg.wasm compiled to WebAssembly, executing entirely in your browser without any server upload. |
-i input.mts
|
Specifies the input MTS file — an AVCHD MPEG-2 Transport Stream as produced by Sony or Panasonic camcorders, containing H.264 video and AC-3 or AAC audio. |
-c:v libx264
|
Re-encodes the video stream using the libx264 H.264 encoder. This is necessary because the AVCHD H.264 stream cannot be stream-copied directly into the ASF-based WTV container, and libx264 is one of only two video codecs WTV supports (the other, MJPEG, is impractical for camcorder footage). |
-c:a aac
|
Transcodes the audio to AAC using FFmpeg's native AAC encoder. This handles both AC-3 and AAC source audio from the MTS file, converting it to the AAC format that WTV supports and that is broadly compatible with Windows Media Center playback. |
-crf 23
|
Sets the Constant Rate Factor for libx264 to 23, which is the standard default for high-quality lossy H.264 encoding. For AVCHD camcorder footage, CRF 23 preserves strong visual fidelity while keeping file sizes manageable; lower values (e.g., 18) produce higher quality at larger sizes. |
-b:a 128k
|
Sets the AAC audio output bitrate to 128 kilobits per second. This is a widely accepted transparent quality level for stereo audio from camcorder recordings; increase to 192k or 256k if the source contains high-fidelity or multichannel audio that you want to preserve more accurately. |
output.wtv
|
Defines the output filename with the .wtv extension, which instructs FFmpeg to write an ASF-based Windows Television container. The WTV format signals to Windows Media Center and compatible players that this file is a DVR recording, enabling proper metadata handling and library integration. |
Common Use Cases
- Archiving Sony or Panasonic AVCHD camcorder recordings into a Windows Media Center library so they appear alongside recorded TV content for easy family viewing on a home theater PC.
- Organizing vacation or event footage shot on an AVCHD camcorder into Windows Vista/7 Media Center's DVR catalog, enabling thumbnail previews and metadata tagging within the WTV ecosystem.
- Converting MTS clips from a camcorder into WTV format for playback on an older Windows Media Center extender device such as an Xbox 360 configured as a Media Center client.
- Preparing camcorder footage in WTV format for import into video editing or management workflows that specifically target Microsoft's broadcast recording pipeline.
- Batch-converting a library of MTS recordings from a Panasonic AG or Sony HDR camcorder into WTV for long-term archival on a Windows-based NAS or media server running Windows Media Center.
- Re-packaging AVCHD travel footage as WTV files to leverage Windows Media Center's metadata embedding capabilities, allowing episode-style titling and descriptions to be attached to personal video content.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, there is some quality loss because the H.264 video stream from the AVCHD container must be fully re-encoded rather than simply copied — WTV's structure and metadata requirements prevent a direct stream copy. The default CRF value of 23 used by libx264 produces high visual quality that is nearly indistinguishable from the source for typical camcorder footage. Audio is also transcoded from AC-3 or AAC to AAC at 128k, which is transparent for most content. If you need higher fidelity, lower the CRF value (e.g., to 18) in the FFmpeg command.
WTV files are primarily designed for Windows Media Center, which was included in Windows Vista and Windows 7. Windows Media Player on Windows 7 can open WTV files directly. On Windows 10 and 11, where Media Center was removed, you will need a third-party player such as VLC or Kodi, or you can convert the WTV to a more universal format. The file produced by this tool is a standards-compliant WTV container and will work with any application that supports the format.
While both MTS and WTV can carry H.264 video, the MTS MPEG-2 Transport Stream uses a different packetization and timestamping model than the WTV container, which is based on Microsoft's Advanced Systems Format (ASF). FFmpeg cannot reliably stream-copy H.264 from an AVCHD MTS into ASF-based WTV without re-encoding due to structural incompatibilities in how timing and indexing are stored. Re-encoding with libx264 at CRF 23 is the safe and correct approach for this conversion.
Basic metadata such as recording timestamps embedded in the MTS file may be partially carried over during conversion, but AVCHD-specific metadata (camera model, GPS coordinates, scene information stored in the MTS wrapper) will generally not be preserved in the WTV output. WTV supports its own metadata schema oriented toward broadcast TV recordings (series, episode, channel info), which doesn't map directly to camcorder metadata. If metadata preservation is critical, consider documenting it separately before conversion.
To improve video quality, lower the CRF value in the command — for example, replace '-crf 23' with '-crf 18' for noticeably sharper output at the cost of a larger file. To increase audio fidelity, raise the bitrate by replacing '-b:a 128k' with '-b:a 192k' or '-b:a 256k'. The full adjusted command would look like: ffmpeg -i input.mts -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 18 -b:a 192k output.wtv. CRF values range from 0 (lossless) to 51 (lowest quality); 18–23 is the recommended range for high-quality camcorder archival.
Yes. On Windows, you can use a simple batch script: 'for %f in (*.mts) 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 *.mts; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 23 -b:a 128k "${f%.mts}.wtv"; done'. The browser-based tool processes one file at a time, so for bulk conversions of large MTS archives the desktop FFmpeg command is the more practical option.
Technical Notes
The MTS-to-WTV conversion is a full transcode operation, not a remux. MTS files produced by AVCHD camcorders (Sony HDR, Panasonic AG/HC series) typically contain H.264 video in a MPEG-2 Transport Stream with either AC-3 Dolby Digital audio or AAC audio. The WTV container is built on Microsoft's ASF (Advanced Systems Format) and was designed specifically for Windows Media Center DVR recordings, meaning its internal structure, indexing, and metadata schema differ fundamentally from the AVCHD transport stream. libx264 is the correct video encoder choice here, as WTV's codec support is limited to H.264 and MJPEG — the latter being unsuitable for full-length camcorder footage due to extreme file sizes. Multiple audio tracks present in the source MTS file can be mapped manually using FFmpeg's '-map' flag if needed, since WTV does support multiple audio tracks. Subtitles embedded in MTS (such as closed captions) can also be passed through using subtitle mapping flags, though this requires manual command customization beyond the default. File sizes for WTV output will typically be comparable to or slightly larger than the source MTS at CRF 23, since AVCHD already uses aggressive H.264 encoding; lowering CRF will increase file size meaningfully. Note that the browser-based tool handles files up to 1GB using FFmpeg.wasm entirely client-side — no data is uploaded to any server.