Convert WTV to VOB — Free Online Tool
Convert WTV recordings from Windows Media Center into VOB files encoded with MPEG-2 video and AC3 audio — the native format of DVD-Video discs. This is ideal for archiving broadcast TV recordings to physical DVD or for playback on standalone DVD players and home theater systems.
to
FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
Drop your WTV file here
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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 (libx264) video and AAC audio recorded by Windows Media Center from digital broadcasts. Converting to VOB requires full re-encoding of both streams: the H.264 video is decoded and re-encoded as MPEG-2 video, which is the mandatory video codec for DVD-Video compliance, and the AAC audio is transcoded to AC3 (Dolby Digital), the standard audio format for DVD. The output is wrapped in a VOB container with the explicit '-f vob' flag to ensure proper DVD-compliant stream multiplexing. Because both the video and audio codecs change entirely, this is a computationally intensive conversion — not a simple remux — and some quality loss is inherent in the transcoding process.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg transcoding engine. In the browser-based tool, this runs via FFmpeg.wasm (WebAssembly) entirely client-side; when run on the desktop, this calls your locally installed FFmpeg binary. |
-i input.wtv
|
Specifies the input WTV file — a Windows Media Center broadcast recording typically containing H.264 video and AAC audio. FFmpeg automatically detects and demuxes the proprietary WTV container to access these streams. |
-c:v mpeg2video
|
Re-encodes the video stream as MPEG-2, the mandatory video codec for DVD-Video. Since the source WTV video is H.264, this is a full decode-and-reencode operation — not a copy — which is required for the output to be DVD-compliant. |
-c:a ac3
|
Transcodes the audio stream from AAC (as found in WTV recordings) to AC3 (Dolby Digital), which is the standard audio format for DVD-Video and ensures compatibility with standalone DVD players and home theater receivers. |
-q:v 4
|
Sets the MPEG-2 video quality using a variable quantizer scale from 1 (highest quality, largest file) to 31 (lowest quality, smallest file). A value of 4 targets high visual quality suitable for broadcast TV source material recorded in WTV. |
-b:a 192k
|
Sets the AC3 audio bitrate to 192 kilobits per second. This is a standard DVD-compatible AC3 bitrate that balances audio fidelity with file size, well suited to stereo broadcast audio typical of WTV recordings. |
-f vob
|
Forces the output format to VOB (Video Object), applying DVD-Video-specific stream multiplexing. Without this flag, FFmpeg might not correctly structure the output as a DVD-compatible VOB file even with the correct video and audio codecs. |
output.vob
|
The name of the resulting VOB file. This file contains MPEG-2 video and AC3 audio in a DVD-Video-compatible container, ready for use with DVD authoring software or direct playback in media players that support VOB files. |
Common Use Cases
- Burning recorded TV shows from Windows Media Center to DVD so they can be played on a standalone DVD player connected to a television
- Archiving WTV recordings of broadcast events — sports, concerts, or news programs — onto physical DVD media for long-term storage without relying on a Windows PC
- Importing recorded TV content into DVD authoring software (such as DVD Architect or Nero Vision) that requires MPEG-2/AC3 VOB files as source material
- Sharing recorded television programs with family members who own DVD players but don't have access to a Windows Media Center PC
- Converting WTV recordings to a format compatible with older set-top boxes and media players that support DVD-Video discs but cannot decode H.264 or AAC streams
- Migrating a WTV-based DVR library to DVD disc format before decommissioning a Windows Vista or Windows 7 Media Center installation
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, some quality loss is unavoidable. The H.264 video in the WTV file is a highly efficient codec, and re-encoding it as MPEG-2 at the same visual quality requires a significantly higher bitrate. MPEG-2 is an older, less efficient codec than H.264. The default quality setting '-q:v 4' targets good quality, but if your source recording was already compressed, each successive re-encode introduces additional artifacts. Lower '-q:v' values (closer to 1) produce better quality at larger file sizes.
The VOB/DVD-Video format mandates specific audio codecs for broad compatibility, and AC3 (Dolby Digital) is the most universally supported of these. AAC is not a natively supported audio codec in the DVD-Video specification, meaning most standalone DVD players would fail to play the audio track if it were left as AAC. Transcoding to AC3 at 192k ensures compatibility with virtually all DVD players and home theater receivers.
The VOB file produced by this tool is a DVD-Video-compatible container, but burning it to a playable DVD disc requires additional steps. You need DVD authoring software (such as DVD Flick, DVDStyler, or Nero) to create the proper VIDEO_TS folder structure — including the IFO and BUP menu files — before burning. Dropping a raw VOB file onto a disc without authoring will not produce a disc that plays in a standard DVD player.
No. WTV files embed rich broadcast metadata — show titles, descriptions, channel information, and air dates — using Windows Media Center's proprietary metadata scheme. The VOB format does not have equivalent metadata fields for this type of information, so virtually all WTV-specific metadata will be lost during conversion. If preserving this information matters, consider noting it externally before converting.
The '-q:v 4' flag controls MPEG-2 video quality on a scale of 1 (best quality, largest file) to 31 (worst quality, smallest file). To increase quality for a cinematic source recording, try '-q:v 2' or '-q:v 3'. To reduce file size for a lower-resolution broadcast recording, try '-q:v 6' or '-q:v 8'. Similarly, you can raise audio quality by changing '-b:a 192k' to '-b:a 256k' or '-b:a 384k' for better-sounding AC3 output.
Yes. On Windows, you can use a simple batch script: 'for %f in (*.wtv) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:v mpeg2video -c:a ac3 -q:v 4 -b:a 192k -f vob "%~nf.vob"'. On Linux or macOS, use: 'for f in *.wtv; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v mpeg2video -c:a ac3 -q:v 4 -b:a 192k -f vob "${f%.wtv}.vob"; done'. This is particularly useful for migrating an entire Media Center library, and it's the recommended approach for files larger than 1GB since the browser tool has a 1GB file size limit.
Technical Notes
WTV is a Microsoft-proprietary container introduced with Windows Vista Media Center, typically storing H.264 video and AAC audio captured from digital cable or over-the-air broadcasts, along with extensive DVR metadata. VOB is the container format at the heart of DVD-Video, and it has strict codec requirements: video must be MPEG-2 (or MPEG-1), and audio must be AC3, LPCM, DTS, or MPEG audio — AAC is not permitted. This conversion therefore requires transcoding both streams in their entirety. The '-f vob' flag is essential because FFmpeg would not otherwise know to apply DVD-Video-specific stream multiplexing constraints to the output file. Note that WTV supports multiple audio tracks (e.g., SAP secondary audio from broadcast TV), but this tool processes the primary audio track by default; to retain a secondary track, the FFmpeg command would need explicit stream mapping with '-map' flags. Subtitle streams embedded in WTV (typically DVB or ATSC teletext-derived) are not carried over to VOB in this command, as DVD subtitles use a bitmap-based format (DVD subtitles/subpictures) that requires separate handling. File sizes for VOB output are typically larger than the source WTV file because MPEG-2 is less efficient than H.264 at equivalent quality levels.