Extract Audio from WMV to WMA — Free Online Tool
Extract the audio track from a WMV video file and save it as a WMA audio file — keeping the native wmav2 codec intact without unnecessary re-encoding. Since both WMV and WMA are Microsoft formats sharing the same underlying ASF container architecture and wmav2 codec, this extraction is a clean, efficient operation ideal for Windows Media workflows.
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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
WMV files use the Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container, which bundles video and audio streams together — typically with wmav2 as the audio codec. WMA files are essentially ASF containers carrying only audio streams, also defaulting to wmav2. During this conversion, FFmpeg discards the video stream entirely using the -vn flag and writes the wmav2 audio stream to a new WMA container. Because both formats natively support wmav2, the audio is re-encoded at the specified bitrate (128k by default) rather than stream-copied, but the codec family stays consistent throughout. The result is a standalone WMA audio file that retains the tonal characteristics of the original WMV audio without introducing cross-codec quality degradation.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg program, the open-source multimedia processing engine that powers this conversion both in the browser via WebAssembly and on the desktop via the command line. |
-i input.wmv
|
Specifies the input WMV file. FFmpeg reads the ASF container, identifying the wmav2 audio stream and the video stream that will be discarded during extraction. |
-vn
|
Stands for 'video none' — explicitly disables video output so that no video stream is written to the WMA file. This is essential because WMA is an audio-only format and cannot carry video data. |
-c:a wmav2
|
Sets the audio codec to wmav2 (Windows Media Audio version 2), which is the standard and most compatible codec for WMA files and matches the codec most commonly used in the source WMV audio stream. |
-b:a 128k
|
Sets the audio bitrate to 128 kilobits per second for the wmav2 encoder. This is the default mid-range quality setting — sufficient for speech and general audio, though increasing to 192k or 256k is recommended for music from higher-quality WMV sources. |
output.wma
|
Specifies the output filename with the .wma extension, signaling FFmpeg to write an ASF container carrying only the re-encoded wmav2 audio stream — the standard structure for a Windows Media Audio file. |
Common Use Cases
- Strip the audio commentary track from a recorded Windows Media Player presentation or webinar to distribute as a standalone WMA podcast or audio guide
- Extract background music or a voiceover from a WMV promotional video to reuse the audio in a Windows Media-based digital signage or streaming system
- Pull the audio from a WMV screen recording tutorial so it can be edited or transcribed independently without processing the full video file
- Convert archived WMV broadcast recordings into WMA audio files for compact storage and playback on legacy Windows Media Player devices or Windows Phone hardware
- Extract a music performance recorded as a WMV file into WMA format for distribution on platforms that accept Windows Media Audio for streaming or DRM-protected content delivery
- Separate audio from WMV training videos to create audio-only study materials compatible with corporate intranet media libraries built around the Windows Media ecosystem
Frequently Asked Questions
There is some quality consideration here because the audio is re-encoded rather than stream-copied, even though both the source and destination use the wmav2 codec. The default 128k bitrate is a reasonable mid-range setting for wmav2 and will produce transparent audio for speech and acceptable quality for music. If the original WMV's audio was encoded at a higher bitrate, setting -b:a 192k or 256k in the command will preserve more of the original fidelity. You cannot recover quality that was already lost during the original WMV encoding, since WMV audio is lossy to begin with.
Stream copying (using -c:a copy) is technically possible since both formats use the wmav2 codec and ASF container structure, and you can add -c:a copy to the FFmpeg command to attempt it. However, this tool re-encodes by default to ensure compatibility and correct container framing in the output WMA file. If you run the command locally and want a lossless extraction with no re-encoding, replace -c:a wmav2 -b:a 128k with -c:a copy in the command.
WMA does support Microsoft's DRM system, and WMV also has DRM capabilities — however, this tool cannot extract audio from DRM-protected WMV files. If a WMV file is DRM-protected, FFmpeg will be unable to read the encrypted streams and the conversion will fail. The output WMA file produced by this tool will not have any DRM applied to it, making it freely playable on any compatible device.
Both WMV and WMA use the ASF container format, which supports metadata tags in a compatible way. FFmpeg generally transfers metadata from the source file to the output during conversion, so tags embedded in the WMV file — such as title, author, or copyright fields — should appear in the resulting WMA file. However, any metadata fields specific to the video context (such as video-related tags) may not have direct equivalents in an audio-only WMA file and could be dropped.
The audio bitrate is controlled by the -b:a flag in the command. The default is 128k, which suits speech and general audio well. To increase quality for music or high-fidelity content, change it to -b:a 192k or -b:a 256k. The wmav2 codec supports bitrates up to 320k. Simply replace 128k in the command with your desired value before running it locally: ffmpeg -i input.wmv -vn -c:a wmav2 -b:a 256k output.wma.
The command as shown processes one file at a time, but on a desktop you can wrap it in a shell loop to batch process. On Windows Command Prompt, use: for %f in (*.wmv) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -vn -c:a wmav2 -b:a 128k "%~nf.wma". On Linux or macOS bash, use: for f in *.wmv; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -vn -c:a wmav2 -b:a 128k "${f%.wmv}.wma"; done. The browser-based tool processes files individually, so the desktop FFmpeg command is the practical choice for bulk conversions.
Technical Notes
WMV and WMA are both built on Microsoft's Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container, which makes this extraction particularly clean from a format-compatibility standpoint. The wmav2 codec — short for Windows Media Audio version 2 — is the default audio codec for both formats and has been the standard since Windows Media Player 7. It is a lossy transform codec similar in design to AAC, using modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) encoding. The -vn flag ensures the video stream is completely ignored and not written to the output, keeping the WMA file audio-only as the format requires. WMA does not support multiple audio tracks (unlike WMV, which can carry multiple audio streams), so if the source WMV contains multiple audio tracks, FFmpeg will default to extracting only the first detected audio stream — use -map 0:a:1 before the output filename to select a specific track. The wmav1 codec is an older alternative supported by WMA but is generally inferior to wmav2 at equivalent bitrates and should only be used if targeting very old Windows Media Player versions. DRM-protected WMV files cannot be processed by FFmpeg regardless of the output format.