wtv Converter

Convertr.org is the best WTV converter you can find on the Internet! Fast & Secure, we pride ourselves in our ability to offer the best conversion speed with almost any file size and format.

  • From Device
  • From Dropbox
  • From Google Drive
  • From URL

Or drop files here. Max files size 1GB.

Selected Files

Set All To:
Select Format...
Convert All To...
Convert ➔

In Conversion

Conversion Options

What is the WTV format?

The Windows Recorded TV Show format is a multimedia file container developed by Microsoft. It's used to store TV content recorded with Windows Media Center. It was released in 2008, and has .wtv as its filename extension.

What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of the WTV Format?

The WTV format was once an excellent format to record TV broadcastings. That's because the format had its advantages:

Advantages

  • The WTV files have better quality than its predecessor, DVR.
  • WTV files are smaller. The format uses more advanced compression technology than DVR.
  • WTV is more compatible with higher resolutions.
  • WTV supports digital rights management, which can prevent piracy.
  • But it showed the following drawbacks:

Disadvantages

  • Since WTV uses lossy compression, the quality is lower than initially.
  • WVT is proprietary software, so only Windows devices support the format natively.
  • Protected WTV content can't be played outside the computer that recorded it.

WTV Format FAQs

Is WTV a good video format

WTV is a better format to record TV content than DVR, its predecessor. It handles higher resolutions better, and files are smaller. So if you still use Windows 8 and you'd like to record some TV shows, then, yes, the format does the job. But it's not good for other uses.

Does Windows 10 open WTV files?

Since Microsoft discontinued Windows Media Center, there is no way to open WTV files natively on Windows 10. Although it is a Microsoft format, not even Windows Media Player supports it.

But if you insist on watching old TV recordings, you can install another media player that supports WTV. Kodi and VLC are the best options for that; both are free and open-source software. You should be able to open WTV files once you install one of those two.

Why convert WTV files?

WTV files were officially only compatible with Windows Media Center. That was the only software capable of creating and opening this kind of file. Since Microsoft discontinued the program on Windows 10, there is no official way to play WTV videos anymore.

You could use a third-party media player to open WTV files, but sometimes it doesn't work. So the best solution to doesn't lose all your WTV recordings is to convert them to other formats.

How does the WTV format work?

The WTV format is a multimedia container, informally known as wrappers. That means WTV is not the video or the audio but stores it.

WTV embeds digital audio and video data in a single file. That way, it makes audiovisual playback possible. It doesn't work differently than other containers, like MP4 or MKV.

WTV stores content in the following formats:

  • MPEG-2 (Video).
  • MPEG-4 (Video).
  • MPEG-1 Layer II (Audio).
  • Dolby Digital AC-3 (Audio).