MyMediaTools

Convert WTV to MKV — Free Online Tool

Convert WTV (Windows Media Center recorded TV) files to MKV, preserving your broadcast recordings in a universally compatible open-standard container. This conversion re-encodes video using H.264 and audio using AAC, making your DVR recordings playable on virtually any modern device or media player.

FFmpeg Command

Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg

Free — no uploads, no signups. Your files never leave your browser.

Estimated output:

Conversion Complete!

Download

How It Works

WTV is a proprietary Microsoft container used by Windows Vista and Windows 7 Media Center to store digital broadcast recordings, typically containing MPEG-2 or H.264 video alongside AC-3 or AAC audio, plus broadcast metadata like program title and episode information. During this conversion, FFmpeg decodes the WTV container and re-encodes the video stream to H.264 using libx264 (CRF 23) and the audio to AAC at 128k bitrate, then wraps everything in an MKV container. Because WTV's internal codecs may not be natively supported in MKV, full re-encoding ensures compatibility rather than a simple remux. Subtitle tracks embedded in the WTV file can be carried over, and MKV's flexible structure also gains you chapter support that WTV lacks.

What Each Flag Does

Flag What it does
ffmpeg Invokes the FFmpeg tool, which handles all demuxing, decoding, re-encoding, and muxing steps needed to convert the proprietary WTV broadcast recording into a standard MKV file.
-i input.wtv Specifies the input Windows Television file recorded by Windows Media Center — FFmpeg uses its built-in WTV demuxer to parse the ASF-based container and extract the video, audio, and any subtitle or metadata streams inside.
-c:v libx264 Re-encodes the video stream using the libx264 H.264 encoder, which is universally supported by media players, smart TVs, and streaming devices — replacing whatever video codec was in the original broadcast recording (commonly MPEG-2 or H.264) with a standardized, broadly compatible output.
-c:a aac Re-encodes the audio stream to AAC, replacing broadcast audio formats like AC-3 (Dolby Digital) that may have been in the WTV recording. AAC is natively supported in MKV and plays back on all modern devices without additional audio decoder requirements.
-crf 23 Sets the Constant Rate Factor for the H.264 video encode to 23, the libx264 default, which delivers a good balance of visual quality and file size for broadcast TV content at both standard and high definition resolutions.
-b:a 128k Sets the AAC audio bitrate to 128 kilobits per second, which is sufficient for stereo broadcast audio. If the original WTV recording contains 5.1 surround sound from a digital broadcast, consider increasing this to 192k or 256k to preserve more audio fidelity.
output.mkv Defines the output file as an MKV (Matroska) container — an open-standard format that supports the H.264 video and AAC audio streams produced by this conversion, along with subtitles, multiple audio tracks, and chapters that WTV cannot provide.

Common Use Cases

  • Archiving old Windows Media Center TV recordings before migrating away from Windows 7 or Vista to a modern OS where WTV playback is unsupported
  • Playing recorded broadcast TV on a media server like Plex or Jellyfin, which handles MKV natively but may struggle with WTV files
  • Transferring DVR recordings to a smart TV, Roku, or Apple TV that supports MKV but cannot play WTV files
  • Editing a recorded TV show in video editing software such as DaVinci Resolve or Kdenlive, which accept MKV/H.264 but not WTV
  • Reducing long-term storage complexity by converting a library of proprietary WTV recordings into an open, future-proof container format
  • Sharing a recorded broadcast (such as a local news segment or sports event) with someone who does not have Windows Media Center installed

Frequently Asked Questions

WTV files embed rich broadcast metadata including program title, episode name, channel name, and air date recorded by Windows Media Center. FFmpeg will attempt to map compatible metadata fields into the MKV container's standard tags during conversion. However, some WTV-specific metadata fields like series recording rules or parental ratings have no MKV equivalent and will be dropped. The core descriptive tags (title, date) typically survive.
The conversion re-encodes the video using libx264 at CRF 23, which is a broadly accepted 'visually transparent' quality level for broadcast-resolution content. For standard-definition recordings, the quality difference will be imperceptible. For high-definition recordings captured at high bitrates, there may be a slight reduction in fine detail compared to the original broadcast stream. If you want to prioritize quality, you can lower the CRF value (e.g., CRF 18) in the FFmpeg command for a larger but higher-quality output file.
Yes — both WTV and MKV support multiple audio tracks, and MKV handles this particularly well as part of its flexible container design. FFmpeg will map all available audio streams from the WTV file into the MKV output by default when using this command. If your broadcast recording included a secondary language track or descriptive audio service, those tracks will be preserved in the output MKV.
Large WTV recordings from extended TV broadcasts are common and can easily exceed several gigabytes. The FFmpeg command displayed on this page — `ffmpeg -i input.wtv -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 23 -b:a 128k output.mkv` — can be run directly in your desktop terminal or command prompt with FFmpeg installed, with no file size limits. This is especially practical for batch-converting a large WTV archive from a retired Windows Media Center PC.
Yes — the `-crf 23` flag controls video quality on a scale where lower numbers mean higher quality and larger file sizes. For archival purposes, try `-crf 18` for near-lossless quality. For smaller files where some quality loss is acceptable, try `-crf 28` or `-crf 35`. Similarly, you can adjust audio bitrate by changing `-b:a 128k` to `192k` or `256k` for better audio fidelity, which is worthwhile if the original broadcast contained 5.1 surround audio.
WTV and MKV are fundamentally different container formats with incompatible structure, so simply renaming the file extension would produce a broken, unplayable file. WTV uses Microsoft's proprietary Advanced Systems Format (ASF) based structure, while MKV is based on the open EBML specification. FFmpeg must actually parse the WTV container, decode the streams, re-encode them into compatible codecs, and then write a properly structured MKV file — a renaming shortcut has no equivalent in video conversion.

Technical Notes

WTV files are built on Microsoft's ASF (Advanced Systems Format) container and most commonly contain MPEG-2 video or H.264 video alongside AC-3 (Dolby Digital) or AAC audio, depending on the broadcast source and tuner hardware. FFmpeg's WTV demuxer handles the format well but may occasionally struggle with copy-protected recordings captured by certain CableCARD tuners — these files may require decryption before conversion is possible. The output MKV container using libx264 and AAC is broadly compatible across all major platforms. One meaningful upgrade in this conversion is that MKV gains chapter support that WTV lacks, though chapters will not be automatically generated from broadcast segment markers. Subtitle data from digital broadcasts (such as CEA-608 or DVB subtitles embedded in the WTV stream) can be mapped into MKV's subtitle tracks; however, you may need to add `-c:s copy` or specify a subtitle codec depending on the subtitle format. File size after conversion will typically be smaller than the original WTV recording at CRF 23, as broadcast streams are often captured at relatively high bitrates for DVR reliability.

Related Tools

Convert WTV to 3G2 Convert WTV to AVI Convert WTV to WMV Convert Y4M to MKV Convert HEVC to MKV Convert RM to MKV Compress WTV Extract Audio WTV to MP3