Convert WTV to 3GP — Free Online Tool
Convert Windows Media Center WTV recordings to 3GP format, re-encoding the broadcast video and audio streams using H.264 and AAC codecs optimized for mobile playback. This is ideal for making DVR recordings from Windows Vista/7 Media Center accessible on older 3G-era phones and low-bandwidth mobile devices.
to
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
WTV files from Windows Media Center contain broadcast-quality video (often MPEG-2 or H.264) and multi-channel audio captured from digital TV tuners, wrapped in a proprietary Microsoft container with EPG metadata and multiple audio tracks. During this conversion, FFmpeg re-encodes the video stream to H.264 using libx264 with CRF 23, compresses the audio down to a single AAC track at 64k bitrate — discarding any secondary audio tracks and embedded broadcast metadata — and wraps the result in a 3GP container. A special scaling filter ensures the output resolution has dimensions divisible by 2, which is required for H.264 encoding in the 3GP container. The result is a dramatically smaller file tuned for constrained mobile storage and streaming.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg command-line tool, which is the underlying engine performing the WTV-to-3GP conversion. In this browser tool, it runs as FFmpeg.wasm compiled to WebAssembly, so no software installation is needed. |
-i input.wtv
|
Specifies the input file — your Windows Media Center recording in WTV format. FFmpeg reads and demuxes the proprietary Microsoft container, separating the broadcast video, audio, and metadata streams for processing. |
-c:v libx264
|
Re-encodes the video stream using the libx264 H.264 encoder, which is the standard video codec supported by the 3GP container. The broadcast video from the WTV file (which may have been MPEG-2 or H.264 at high bitrate) is fully transcoded to produce a compact H.264 stream suitable for mobile playback. |
-c:a aac
|
Encodes the audio to AAC using FFmpeg's built-in AAC encoder, which is the standard audio codec for 3GP files. The broadcast audio from the WTV file — which may have been multi-channel AC-3 or high-bitrate AAC — is downmixed and re-encoded at a low mobile-friendly bitrate. |
-crf 23
|
Sets the Constant Rate Factor for H.264 video quality at 23, the default balance between file size and visual quality. For small 3GP screens this is generally acceptable, but you can raise this value (e.g., 30–35) to produce an even smaller file at the cost of visible compression artifacts in the broadcast footage. |
-b:a 64k
|
Caps the AAC audio bitrate at 64 kilobits per second, consistent with 3GP's design for low-bandwidth mobile transmission. This is a significant reduction from typical broadcast audio quality and is best suited for speech-heavy content like news; music in TV recordings will sound noticeably compressed. |
-vf scale=trunc(iw/2)*2:trunc(ih/2)*2
|
Applies a video filter that rounds the output width and height down to the nearest even numbers. This is required because libx264 inside the 3GP container cannot encode video with odd pixel dimensions, and WTV broadcast recordings sometimes have non-standard resolutions that would otherwise cause the conversion to fail with a dimension error. |
output.3gp
|
Defines the output filename and tells FFmpeg to wrap the encoded H.264 video and AAC audio into a 3GP container, the mobile multimedia format standardized for 3G phones with small screens and limited storage. |
Common Use Cases
- Transfer a Windows Media Center DVR recording of a TV show to an older 3G mobile phone that only supports 3GP playback
- Shrink a large WTV broadcast recording for sharing over a slow mobile data connection where bandwidth is severely limited
- Archive a Windows Vista/7 Media Center recording in a more universally playable mobile format after decommissioning the Media Center PC
- Convert a WTV news or sports broadcast recording to 3GP for playback on a feature phone or embedded device with limited codec support
- Reduce the file size of a multi-hour WTV recording to fit on a low-capacity microSD card used in a basic mobile device
- Prepare a short WTV clip recorded from live TV for submission to a mobile video platform or messaging app that requires 3GP format
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The 3GP container has no support for the rich EPG (Electronic Program Guide) metadata that WTV embeds, including channel name, program title, episode description, broadcast timestamps, and ratings information. All of this metadata is discarded during conversion. If preserving that information matters, consider extracting it from the WTV file using a tool like MCEBuddy before converting.
No. The 3GP container does not support multiple audio tracks, so only the first (default) audio track from the WTV file will be retained. If you need the secondary language track instead, you can add '-map 0:a:1' to the FFmpeg command before the output filename to explicitly select the second audio stream.
3GP was designed for 3G mobile networks with very limited bandwidth and small storage capacities, so low bitrates are a core design principle of the format. At 64k AAC, speech and typical TV audio remains intelligible, but music and high-fidelity content will sound noticeably compressed compared to the broadcast source. If audio quality is a priority, you can raise the bitrate by changing '-b:a 64k' to '-b:a 96k' or '-b:a 128k' in the command, though this increases file size.
Significantly smaller — WTV files from Windows Media Center are often recorded at broadcast quality, ranging from 2 to 8 GB per hour depending on the channel and tuner. A 3GP output at CRF 23 with 64k audio will typically reduce a one-hour recording to somewhere between 200 MB and 600 MB, depending on the resolution and motion complexity of the original content. Fast-moving sports footage will be larger than a static news broadcast at the same CRF setting.
This video filter ensures that both the width and height of the output video are divisible by 2, which is a strict requirement of the H.264 encoder (libx264) used inside the 3GP container. WTV broadcast recordings sometimes have odd-pixel resolutions due to anamorphic or non-standard broadcast dimensions. Without this filter, FFmpeg would throw an error like 'width not divisible by 2'. The formula rounds each dimension down to the nearest even number without significantly cropping the picture.
Adjust the '-crf 23' value: higher numbers produce smaller files with lower quality (e.g., '-crf 35' for a much smaller file), while lower numbers produce larger files with better quality (e.g., '-crf 18' for near-transparent quality). For a heavily compressed 3GP file intended for a basic phone over a slow connection, a CRF of 30–35 is often a practical choice. Keep in mind that 3GP screens are typically small, so high CRF values are less visually damaging than they would be for desktop playback.
Technical Notes
WTV is a proprietary Microsoft container introduced in Windows Vista Media Center, and it stores broadcast recordings with full MPEG-2 or H.264 video, AC-3 or AAC audio, closed captions, multiple language tracks, and extensive EPG metadata. None of this broadcast richness survives conversion to 3GP. The 3GP format, standardized by 3GPP for UMTS mobile networks, is intentionally constrained: it supports only one audio track, no subtitles or closed captions, no chapter markers, and minimal metadata. The video re-encoding from broadcast resolution (often 1280x720 or 1920x1080) down to 3GP's typical playback resolutions is lossy and irreversible. The CRF 23 default is a reasonable middle ground but results in far lower quality than the broadcast source. One important limitation: if your WTV file was recorded with copy-protection flags (CableCARD recordings), FFmpeg may be unable to decode it at all, as those recordings are DRM-protected. Over-the-air (antenna) and some cable recordings without encryption will convert without issue.