Trim WTV — Free Online Tool
Trim a WTV (Windows Television) recorded TV file to a specific clip using stream copying — no re-encoding required. This tool preserves your original H.264 video and AAC audio streams intact, extracting only the segment you need from a Windows Media Center DVR recording.
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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
WTV trimming works by seeking to your specified start point and copying the raw video (typically H.264/libx264) and audio (typically AAC) streams directly into a new WTV container — a process called stream copy. Because no re-encoding takes place, the output retains identical quality to the original broadcast recording and processes very quickly regardless of file size. The WTV container, introduced by Windows Vista Media Center, stores DVR metadata, multiple audio tracks, and subtitle streams alongside the video; stream copying preserves all of these. One caveat is that the trim points must land on a keyframe for clean cuts — if your start time falls between keyframes, FFmpeg will snap to the nearest preceding keyframe, which may result in a trim a second or two earlier than specified.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg binary — the open-source multimedia processing engine that powers this tool via its WebAssembly (FFmpeg.wasm) build running entirely in your browser. |
-i input.wtv
|
Specifies the input file as a WTV (Windows Television) recording. FFmpeg detects the ASF-based WTV container and identifies the contained streams, typically H.264 video and AAC audio from a Windows Media Center DVR capture. |
-ss 00:00:00
|
Sets the trim start position to the beginning of the file. Placed before -i, this uses fast keyframe-level seeking into the WTV file rather than decoding every frame up to this point, which is critical for large broadcast recordings that can span several gigabytes. |
-to 00:00:10
|
Sets the trim end point to 10 seconds into the WTV recording. The output clip will span from the -ss start time to this timestamp. This is an absolute timestamp, not a duration — to use a duration instead, replace -to with -t (e.g., -t 00:01:30 for a 90-second clip). |
-c copy
|
Instructs FFmpeg to stream-copy all detected tracks — the H.264 video, AAC audio, any secondary audio tracks, and subtitle streams — directly from the input WTV into the output WTV without re-encoding. This makes trimming near-instantaneous and preserves the original broadcast recording quality exactly. |
output.wtv
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Specifies the output file as a new WTV container. FFmpeg writes the copied streams into this file using the same ASF-based WTV structure as the input, ensuring the trimmed clip is fully compatible with Windows Media Player and other WTV-aware applications. |
Common Use Cases
- Extract a specific news segment or sports highlight from a full Windows Media Center DVR recording without transcoding
- Cut out commercials from the beginning or end of a recorded TV show stored in WTV format
- Clip a short scene from a recorded broadcast to archive or share while keeping the original WTV container for continued playback in Windows Media Player
- Trim a long overnight WTV recording (e.g., a music channel or infomercial block) down to just the content you actually want to keep
- Create a shorter preview clip of a recorded TV program to verify the recording quality before committing to long-term storage
- Isolate a specific interview or segment from a recorded talk show stored as a WTV file for use in a video editing project
Frequently Asked Questions
No — because this tool uses stream copy (-c copy), the H.264 video and AAC audio streams from your WTV recording are copied byte-for-byte into the output file with zero re-encoding. There is no generational quality loss. The only quality consideration is that the trim start point snaps to the nearest preceding keyframe, which is inherent to how compressed video works and not a limitation of this tool.
Yes. WTV files can carry DVR metadata (program title, channel, broadcast time), embedded subtitles, and multiple audio tracks (for example, SAP or secondary language tracks). Because -c copy is used, all streams present in the source file within the trimmed time range are passed through to the output WTV file without modification. You do not need to manually specify audio or subtitle stream handling.
WTV files contain H.264 video, which is keyframe-based. When stream copying, FFmpeg can only begin a segment at an existing keyframe — it cannot split compressed data mid-frame. If your -ss start time falls between keyframes (which are typically placed every 2–5 seconds in broadcast recordings), FFmpeg snaps back to the last keyframe before that point. To get a frame-accurate cut, you would need to re-encode the video, which this tool avoids to preserve quality and speed.
Yes. The output file is a valid WTV container, so it will play in Windows Media Player and any application that supports the WTV format. The trimmed file retains the same container structure and codec streams as the original, so existing WTV-compatible software will recognize and play it without issues. Note that WTV playback on non-Windows platforms may require third-party software like VLC or Kodi.
Modify the -ss and -to values in the command. -ss sets the start time and -to sets the end time, both in HH:MM:SS format (or you can use seconds, e.g., 90.5). For example, to extract from 5 minutes in to 12 minutes 30 seconds, use: ffmpeg -i input.wtv -ss 00:05:00 -to 00:12:30 -c copy output.wtv. Note that placing -ss before -i (as shown) uses fast keyframe seeking, which is efficient for large WTV files that can be several gigabytes.
The command as shown processes one file at a time, but you can batch process on your desktop using a shell loop. On Windows Command Prompt, you can use: for %f in (*.wtv) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -ss 00:00:00 -to 00:00:10 -c copy "trimmed_%f". On Linux or macOS with bash, use: for f in *.wtv; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -ss 00:00:00 -to 00:00:10 -c copy "trimmed_$f"; done. For files over 1GB, running FFmpeg locally is recommended since the browser tool supports up to 1GB.
Technical Notes
WTV (Windows Television) is a proprietary container format developed by Microsoft for Windows Vista Media Center and carried forward through Windows 7 and later. It is structurally based on the Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container and typically encodes video as H.264 (libx264) and audio as AAC, reflecting the digital broadcast standards used by OTA, cable, and satellite tuners. The format supports multiple audio tracks (useful for bilingual broadcasts), embedded subtitles (often carried as DVB or CEA-608/708 caption streams), and rich DVR metadata such as program name, channel, and scheduled recording times. When trimming with -c copy, all of this metadata and stream structure is preserved in the output. One known limitation is that WTV has limited cross-platform support outside of Windows — tools like VLC and Kodi can read WTV, but not all editors natively support writing to it. If you need the trimmed clip for broad compatibility, consider converting to MP4 instead. Also note that WTV files from encrypted cable or satellite recordings (CableCARD) may be DRM-protected and unprocessable by FFmpeg regardless of the tool used.