Convert WTV to VOC — Free Online Tool
Convert WTV recorded TV files to VOC audio format, extracting the audio stream and encoding it as uncompressed 8-bit PCM — the native format of Creative Labs' Sound Blaster cards. This tool strips the video and broadcast metadata from Windows Media Center recordings, delivering a raw audio file compatible with DOS-era games, retro sound tools, and vintage multimedia applications.
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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Free — no uploads, no signups. Your files never leave your browser.
Settings
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 produced by Windows Media Center typically contain H.264 video, AAC or MP3 audio, broadcast metadata, and sometimes multiple audio tracks and subtitles. During this conversion, FFmpeg discards the video stream entirely and ignores any subtitle or chapter data (VOC supports none of these). The selected audio track is decoded from its compressed format (usually AAC) and re-encoded as unsigned 8-bit PCM at its original sample rate — the classic VOC codec. The result is a flat, headerless-style audio container in the VOC format, with no compression and no quality-dependent encoding parameters, since VOC with pcm_u8 is inherently lossless at the 8-bit depth level.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg tool — in this browser-based tool, it runs as a WebAssembly (FFmpeg.wasm) instance entirely within your browser; when run locally on your desktop, it calls your installed FFmpeg binary. |
-i input.wtv
|
Specifies the input file as a WTV (Windows Television) recording — a container format used by Windows Media Center that typically holds H.264 video, AAC audio, and embedded broadcast metadata. |
-c:a pcm_u8
|
Instructs FFmpeg to encode the output audio using unsigned 8-bit PCM — the native codec of Creative Labs VOC files. This fully decodes the compressed AAC audio from the WTV source and re-writes it as raw, uncompressed 8-bit samples suitable for Sound Blaster playback. |
output.voc
|
Defines the output file with a .voc extension, which signals FFmpeg to use the VOC muxer. The VOC container is a simple audio-only format and will receive only the converted PCM audio stream; all video, subtitle, and metadata content from the WTV file is automatically excluded. |
Common Use Cases
- Extracting the audio from a recorded TV broadcast to use as a sound effect or audio clip in a DOS game modification or retro demoscene project
- Preparing spoken-word or music segments from a Windows Media Center recording for playback on vintage Sound Blaster hardware or period-accurate DOS emulators like DOSBox
- Converting a WTV recording of a retro TV broadcast or archival program into a format compatible with classic Creative Labs multimedia authoring tools
- Stripping a recorded TV soundtrack down to raw PCM for use in embedded or microcontroller audio projects that expect simple unsigned 8-bit audio data
- Creating audio samples from broadcast recordings for use in tracker music software (e.g., ScreamTracker, FastTracker) that imports VOC files as instrument samples
- Archiving the audio component of a Windows Media Center recording in an uncompressed, widely understood legacy format for long-term retro computing preservation
Frequently Asked Questions
The conversion involves two stages: first, decoding the compressed audio from the WTV file (typically AAC), and second, encoding it as unsigned 8-bit PCM into the VOC container. The decoding step is lossless in practice, but the re-encoding to 8-bit PCM inherently reduces dynamic range compared to the original — 8-bit audio has only 256 amplitude levels versus the thousands in modern formats. For voice recordings or low-fidelity source material this is often acceptable, but you will notice reduced clarity compared to the original broadcast, especially for music.
VOC files using the pcm_u8 codec store raw, uncompressed 8-bit audio with no adjustable quality parameter — there is no bitrate or CRF setting to tune. The output quality is fixed entirely by the bit depth (8-bit) and the sample rate inherited from the source. Unlike the AAC audio inside the WTV file, which was encoded with a configurable bitrate, PCM encoding is deterministic and parameter-free.
By default, FFmpeg selects the first audio stream in the WTV file, which is typically the primary language track. WTV files from Windows Media Center do support multiple audio tracks, but the VOC format cannot contain more than one audio track. If you need a specific secondary track, you would need to modify the FFmpeg command to add '-map 0:a:1' (for the second audio stream) before the output filename to explicitly select it.
Yes — VOC files also support 16-bit signed little-endian PCM (pcm_s16le), which preserves significantly more audio fidelity than 8-bit. To use it, change the command to 'ffmpeg -i input.wtv -c:a pcm_s16le output.voc'. This is recommended if you need better audio quality and your target application (such as DOSBox or a modern retro tool) supports 16-bit VOC files. Note that classic Sound Blaster hardware and some original DOS software only supported 8-bit VOC playback.
All of it is discarded. WTV files embed rich DVR metadata including program title, channel information, air time, and EPG data, and can also contain subtitle/closed-caption streams. The VOC format has no mechanism to store any of this — it is a bare audio container designed for Sound Blaster playback with no metadata fields. If preserving this information matters, consider extracting it separately before conversion.
The exact command shown on this page — 'ffmpeg -i input.wtv -c:a pcm_u8 output.voc' — runs identically on your desktop if you have FFmpeg installed. Replace 'input.wtv' with the full path to your file, for example: 'ffmpeg -i "C:\Recordings\MyShow.wtv" -c:a pcm_u8 output.voc' on Windows. This is especially useful for large WTV recordings from Windows Media Center, which can easily exceed 1GB for HD broadcasts, since the browser-based tool is limited to files up to 1GB.
Technical Notes
WTV is a container format proprietary to Windows Vista and later versions of Windows Media Center, typically wrapping H.264 video and AAC audio with embedded DVR metadata including Electronic Program Guide (EPG) data. VOC, by contrast, is one of the earliest PC audio formats, developed by Creative Labs in the early 1990s to support their Sound Blaster ISA cards. The pcm_u8 codec used in this conversion stores audio as unsigned 8-bit integers, meaning sample values range from 0 to 255 with 128 representing silence — a quirk that distinguishes it from the signed PCM used in WAV and most modern formats. Because the WTV source audio is almost certainly AAC encoded at a sample rate of 44.1kHz or 48kHz, FFmpeg will decode it fully before writing raw PCM into the VOC container, preserving the original sample rate. No video codec is involved in the output since VOC is a purely audio format. One known limitation is that if the WTV file contains Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio — which can occur with certain cable or satellite recordings — FFmpeg will still decode and convert it correctly, but the resulting 8-bit VOC output will sound noticeably compressed compared to the original surround mix.