Convert WTV to HEVC — Free Online Tool
Convert WTV recordings from Windows Media Center into HEVC/H.265 video files, dramatically reducing file size while preserving visual quality. This tool re-encodes the video stream using libx265, making archived TV recordings far more storage-efficient without requiring any software installation.
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 typically contain H.264 or MJPEG video alongside AAC or MP3 audio, wrapped in Microsoft's proprietary broadcast recording container that also stores DVR metadata like program titles and air times. Converting to HEVC involves a full video re-encode using the libx265 encoder, which applies the H.265 compression algorithm to produce a raw HEVC bitstream (.hevc). Because the HEVC output format is a raw video stream with no container, audio tracks are dropped entirely during this conversion — only the video content is preserved. The re-encoding process analyzes and recompresses every video frame, so conversion takes longer than a simple remux but the resulting file can be roughly 40–50% smaller than an equivalent H.264 encode at the same perceived quality.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg tool, which handles demuxing the WTV container, decoding the source video stream, and driving the libx265 encoder to produce the HEVC output. |
-i input.wtv
|
Specifies the input WTV file — the Windows Media Center recording container that FFmpeg will demux to extract the video (and audio) streams for processing. |
-c:v libx265
|
Selects the libx265 encoder for the video stream, which re-encodes the WTV's source video (typically H.264 or MPEG-2) using the H.265/HEVC compression algorithm for significantly improved efficiency. |
-crf 28
|
Sets the Constant Rate Factor to 28, which is libx265's default quality target. This produces a file roughly 40–50% smaller than an equivalent H.264 encode while maintaining acceptable visual quality for broadcast TV content. |
-x265-params log-level=error
|
Passes the log-level=error parameter directly to the libx265 encoder, suppressing the per-frame encoding statistics that libx265 normally prints to the console — keeping the FFmpeg output readable without affecting the encoded video. |
output.hevc
|
Specifies the output file as a raw HEVC Annex B bitstream. This format contains only the re-encoded video stream from the WTV recording — no audio, no metadata, and no container structure. |
Common Use Cases
- Archiving a large library of Windows Media Center TV recordings to free up hard drive space, leveraging HEVC's superior compression to store more episodes in the same footprint
- Extracting a clean video-only HEVC stream from a WTV recording to use as source material for a video editing project that works natively with H.265
- Preparing recorded TV content for playback on a modern smart TV or media player that supports HEVC but struggles with the proprietary WTV container
- Transcoding high-bitrate WTV broadcasts captured from HD channels into a leaner HEVC file suitable for storage on a NAS or portable drive
- Previewing the FFmpeg libx265 command needed to batch-convert an entire WTV recording library from the command line on a desktop machine with files larger than 1GB
Frequently Asked Questions
No — the .hevc output format is a raw video bitstream and does not support audio tracks, chapters, or subtitle streams. Only the video content from your WTV recording is preserved. If you need to retain the original AAC or MP3 audio alongside the HEVC video, consider outputting to a container like MKV or MP4 instead, which can hold H.265 video with audio.
H.265 typically achieves around 40–50% better compression than H.264 at equivalent visual quality, so a WTV file encoded with H.264 video could roughly halve in size after re-encoding to HEVC at the default CRF 28. However, WTV files recorded from MPEG-2 broadcast streams may see different results since the source codec is less efficient than H.264 to begin with. Actual savings depend heavily on the content's motion complexity and the original bitrate.
CRF (Constant Rate Factor) 28 is libx265's default quality level and represents a good balance between file size and visual quality for most content. Lower values like CRF 18 produce higher quality at larger file sizes, while higher values like CRF 35 compress more aggressively with more visible quality loss. For TV recordings — especially those already compressed by the broadcast signal — CRF 23–28 is generally appropriate, though sports or high-motion content may benefit from a lower CRF to avoid blocking artifacts.
None. The .hevc raw bitstream format has no container structure and therefore cannot store any metadata. All WTV-specific DVR metadata including program name, episode information, channel details, and broadcast timestamps will be lost during this conversion. If preserving metadata matters, you would need to output to a container format like MKV and use FFmpeg's metadata mapping flags.
Replace the '28' in '-crf 28' with your desired value — the scale runs from 0 (lossless) to 51 (lowest quality), with lower numbers meaning higher quality and larger files. For example, using '-crf 18' will produce a near-visually-lossless result suitable for archival, while '-crf 35' will aggressively compress the recording to the smallest practical size. A useful starting point for TV content is CRF 23–26 if the default CRF 28 looks too soft on fast-motion scenes.
Yes — on Windows you can run a for loop in Command Prompt: 'for %f in (*.wtv) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:v libx265 -crf 28 -x265-params log-level=error "%~nf.hevc"'. On Linux or macOS, use: 'for f in *.wtv; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v libx265 -crf 28 -x265-params log-level=error "${f%.wtv}.hevc"; done'. This is particularly useful for large WTV libraries that exceed the browser tool's 1GB per-file limit.
Technical Notes
WTV is a Microsoft-proprietary container built around the Advanced Systems Format (ASF) structure, and FFmpeg's demuxer handles the format well but may occasionally encounter recordings from certain tuner cards with non-standard stream packaging. The video track in a WTV file is most commonly H.264 (recorded by the Windows Media Center H.264 encoder) but older recordings may contain MPEG-2 video — libx265 can re-encode from either source. The output .hevc file is a raw Annex B bitstream with no container overhead, meaning it carries no timing information beyond what is embedded in the stream itself, which can cause seek imprecision in some players. The '-x265-params log-level=error' flag suppresses libx265's verbose per-frame encoding statistics in the FFmpeg console output without affecting the encoded video in any way. Audio tracks — including any secondary language tracks present in the WTV file — are silently dropped because the raw HEVC format has no mechanism to carry audio. Subtitle streams embedded in the WTV recording are also not carried over. If the source WTV recording was captured from a high-definition broadcast at 1080i, libx265 will encode the interlaced frames as-is; adding '-vf yadif' before the output filename in the FFmpeg command will deinterlace the video for a cleaner progressive output.