Converting WTV files

Martin Brinkmann
Jan 18, 2009
Software, Windows, Windows software
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18

WTV is the default recording format in Windows Media Center if the TV Pack has been installed and it is also the default recording format in Windows 7 Beta. Microsoft has announced plans to switch from the previously used dvr-ms format to the new wtv format. A few commercial applications can convert wtv files to common video formats like avi or mpeg. There are unfortunately not many free video converters that can convert wtv files.

The only working way at the moment is to convert the wtv video to dvr-ms and from there to another format. That's not really practicable but it probably is only a matter of time until additional video converters add support for the wtv format. The command line tool ToDvrms can convert wtv files to the dvr-ms format.

The easiest way to convert the wtv files is by placing the todvrms.exe converter in the same folder as the wtv file to be converted. The command is the following:

todvrms.exe c:\test.wtv c:\test.dvr-ms

This will convert the test.wtv file to the dvr-ms format. The developer provides access to another tool that can be used to convert dvr-ms videos to another video format. The software DVRMSToolbox comes with a graphical user interface and can be used to convert the dvr-ms videos.

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Comments

  1. daveclark966 said on May 25, 2020 at 8:31 am
    Reply

    As the professional Video Converter, iDealshare VideoGo is also an ideal WTV converter which has both Windows and Mac version and can fast and directly compress and convert WTV to almost all kinds of video and audio formats to successfully play or edit WTV files anywhere

  2. Tony said on May 19, 2020 at 8:40 am
    Reply

    I use Avdshare Video Converter to convert WTV files to MP4, WMV, AVI, MOV, MPG etc.
    It also helps to convert video to WTV.
    It has both Mac and Windows

  3. healthyemily said on October 18, 2011 at 10:08 am
    Reply

    Just google search

    How to Convert WTV to AVI, MP4, MKV, WMV, MPG and MOV?

    you will find a powerful program as well as a step by step solution

  4. Andrew Maisey said on April 16, 2010 at 4:01 pm
    Reply

    Also same across this post… http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/Convert-a-recorded-TV-file-wtv-to-an-older-format which looks very helpful. Although it would likely entail a double conversion to get it away from a Microaoft format!

  5. Andrew Maisey said on April 16, 2010 at 3:58 pm
    Reply

    Windows Live http://download.live.com/ has the free MovieMaker tool which can help you convert your video. Hopefully the superb AVS Media Toolset will support this new format also (http://www.avsmedia.com/AVS-Video-Tools.aspx).

  6. nonW00t said on February 3, 2010 at 1:02 am
    Reply

    This is fine but how to remove damn copy protection on recordings?!!!

  7. kevin said on November 27, 2009 at 6:47 pm
    Reply
  8. Paul Bruce said on October 9, 2009 at 4:55 am
    Reply

    I don’t know if this will help you, but I ran into the same problems. I wrote a utility to automate the built-in wtvconverter.exe program. You can check it out at:

    http://wtvwatcher.codeplex.com/

  9. WTV converter to DVD said on June 17, 2009 at 9:44 pm
    Reply

    VSO software has released a freeware with a GUI to convert .WTV files to dvr-ms or directly to DVD. You can find it in their forum.

  10. koray said on May 17, 2009 at 12:55 am
    Reply

    on Windows7 RC1 there is a right click command says “Convert to .dvr-ms Format”

  11. Anonymous said on April 17, 2009 at 2:49 am
    Reply

    Windows 7, starting from 7041 build has an integrated WTV -> DVR-MS conversion. Just Right click on .WTV file in explorer and select “Convert to .dvr-ms”.

  12. Fred said on February 27, 2009 at 4:41 am
    Reply

    try WTV to MPEG Converter 1.4 it works on windows 7.

    1. Fredy said on October 23, 2009 at 7:34 pm
      Reply

      to conver wtv files to dvr-ms get wtv converter, here is the website
      http://forums.vso-software.fr/convert-wtv-to-dvd-new-mce-windows-7-video-format-t9479.html
      please say thanks if this worked for you.

  13. David Kopf said on January 25, 2009 at 6:33 pm
    Reply

    Didn’t work for me on windows7 beta. Copied recorded .wtv program to c:test.wtv, then

    c:>todvrms.exe c:test.wtv c:test.dvr-ms

    terminated quickly with

    “Object reference not set to an instance of an object”

    1. Fredy said on November 27, 2009 at 9:37 pm
      Reply

      With windows 7 retail , just right click on the wtv file and click where it says convert to dvr-ms. If you have the RC edition the program should work just fine, just try using the program as administrator, see if this helps.

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