MyMediaTools

Convert WTV to 3GPP — Free Online Tool

Convert WTV recorded TV files from Windows Media Center into 3GPP format optimized for mobile playback. This tool re-encodes the video to H.264 and audio to AAC within a 3GP container, making large broadcast recordings accessible on older smartphones and 3G-compatible devices.

FFmpeg Command

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Estimated output:

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How It Works

WTV files produced by Windows Vista/7 Media Center typically contain H.264 or MPEG-2 video alongside AC-3 or AAC audio, wrapped in a proprietary Microsoft container with DVR metadata. Converting to 3GPP requires a full re-encode: the video is transcoded to H.264 using libx264 (which is already the most common codec in WTV recordings, but must be repackaged and conformed to 3GPP's stricter profile requirements), and the audio is encoded to AAC at 64k — a low bitrate suited to mobile streaming constraints. The -movflags +faststart flag reorganizes the output file so its metadata atom sits at the beginning, enabling progressive playback before the full file is downloaded. DVR-specific metadata, subtitle tracks, and any secondary audio tracks present in the WTV source are dropped, as the 3GP container does not support them.

What Each Flag Does

Flag What it does
ffmpeg Invokes the FFmpeg application, which handles all demuxing, decoding, encoding, and remuxing for this WTV-to-3GP conversion pipeline.
-i input.wtv Specifies the input Windows Television file produced by Windows Media Center. FFmpeg's WTV demuxer reads the proprietary container and extracts video, audio, and any embedded broadcast metadata streams.
-c:v libx264 Encodes the output video stream using the libx264 H.264 encoder, which is the standard video codec for 3GP files and provides broad compatibility with mobile devices and 3G-capable players.
-c:a aac Encodes the output audio using AAC, the required audio codec for 3GP containers. This replaces whatever audio codec was used in the WTV source (commonly AC-3 or existing AAC from a broadcast stream) with a fresh AAC encode tuned to the specified bitrate.
-crf 23 Sets the Constant Rate Factor for the H.264 encode to 23, the standard default quality level. For broadcast TV content being downconverted to mobile, this balances visual fidelity against a compact file size appropriate for 3GP delivery.
-b:a 64k Targets an audio bitrate of 64 kilobits per second for the AAC stream, which is the conventional ceiling for 3GP audio designed around 3G network constraints. This is lower than typical broadcast audio bitrates but keeps the 3GP file small and streamable.
-movflags +faststart Rewrites the 3GP output file after encoding so the moov metadata atom is placed at the beginning of the file rather than the end. This is essential for progressive playback on mobile devices, allowing the file to start playing before it is fully downloaded.
output.3gp The destination filename with a .3gp extension, which signals FFmpeg to use the 3GPP muxer and produce a container conforming to the Third Generation Partnership Project multimedia standard for mobile devices.

Common Use Cases

  • Transferring a recorded TV episode from a Windows Media Center PC to an older Android or feature phone that only supports 3GP playback
  • Shrinking a large WTV broadcast recording for offline viewing on a mobile device with limited storage, taking advantage of 3GP's low-bitrate audio encoding
  • Sharing a short clip from a recorded TV program with someone on a legacy mobile device or 3G network where bandwidth is constrained
  • Archiving news or sports segments recorded via Windows Media Center in a compact, universally mobile-readable format before the source PC is decommissioned
  • Preparing recorded TV content for upload to older media platforms or embedded players that specifically require 3GP container input

Frequently Asked Questions

No. The 3GP container format does not support subtitle or caption tracks, so any closed-caption or DVB subtitle data embedded in your WTV file will be stripped during conversion. If preserving subtitles is important, consider converting to MP4 or MKV instead, both of which support subtitle tracks.
Only the first (default) audio track will be carried into the 3GP output. The 3GP container does not support multiple audio tracks, so secondary language tracks or descriptive audio tracks embedded by the broadcaster will be discarded. If you need a specific non-default track, you would need to modify the FFmpeg command to explicitly select it with the -map flag before running the conversion.
64k AAC is the 3GP format's conventional default because the container was designed for 3G mobile networks where bandwidth is severely limited. For speech-heavy content like news broadcasts or talk shows recorded from TV, 64k AAC is generally intelligible. For music-heavy content such as concerts or dramas with complex soundtracks, you may notice audible compression artifacts. You can raise the bitrate to 96k or 128k in the tool's settings or by changing the -b:a value in the FFmpeg command.
Significantly smaller. WTV files from Windows Media Center can be several gigabytes for an hour of HD content. The 3GP output will be much smaller due to the constrained audio bitrate (64k vs. the original's 192k+ AC-3 or AAC) and because libx264 at CRF 23 is efficient for the resolutions typical of broadcast recordings. Expect the 3GP file to be roughly one-quarter to one-half the size of the WTV source, depending on the original broadcast resolution and bitrate.
Video quality is controlled by the -crf flag. The default value of 23 is a balanced middle ground — lower values (e.g., 18) produce higher quality at larger file sizes, while higher values (e.g., 28) produce smaller files with more visible compression. For a recorded TV broadcast being downconverted to a mobile format, values between 23 and 28 are usually sufficient. Edit the command directly, changing -crf 23 to your preferred value before running it locally with FFmpeg.
Yes, but you'll need to run the command locally on your desktop rather than in the browser tool, since the browser processes one file at a time. On Windows, you can use a simple batch script looping over WTV files: for %f in (*.wtv) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 23 -b:a 64k -movflags +faststart "%~nf.3gp". On Linux or macOS, use a for loop in bash. The browser tool's displayed command gives you the exact parameters to replicate consistently across a whole folder of recordings.

Technical Notes

WTV is a container format exclusive to Windows Vista and Windows 7 Media Center, and support for it in FFmpeg relies on its wtv demuxer, which handles the proprietary DVR-MS-adjacent structure including broadcast metadata such as channel name, air time, and program description. None of this DVR metadata is carried into the 3GP output because the 3GP container has no equivalent metadata fields for broadcast attribution. The libx264 encoder used here must produce H.264 output conforming to a Baseline or Main profile for maximum 3GP device compatibility — FFmpeg's default profile for libx264 targeting 3GP is generally appropriate, but very old 3G handsets may require an explicit -profile:v baseline flag added to the command. The -movflags +faststart flag is essential for any 3GP file intended for streaming or progressive download, as it moves the moov atom to the file head via a two-pass write. Note that if your WTV source was recorded from an MPEG-2 broadcast (common in DVB or ATSC recordings through Media Center), the video must be fully transcoded from MPEG-2 to H.264 — this is more CPU-intensive than a codec-copy operation and will take longer for hour-long recordings. The browser-based tool handles files up to 1GB; for full-length HD WTV recordings that often exceed this, the displayed FFmpeg command is provided so you can run the identical conversion locally without any file size limitation.

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