Convert WTV to AVI — Free Online Converter

WTV (Windows TV) is the recording format created by Windows Media Center's TV tuner feature, capturing broadcast television with MPEG-2 or H.264 video, AC3 or AAC audio, and EPG metadata (program title, description, channel, recording time, ratings). WTV uses an NTFS-like internal container supporting multiple streams. AVI (Audio Video Interleave) is Microsoft's original multimedia container from 1992, still widely used for its universal compatibility and simple interleaved stream structure.

Windows Media Center shipped from Windows Vista through Windows 8.1 and was killed off in Windows 10. The WTV files it created are now orphaned — unplayable on modern Windows without third-party software, and completely inaccessible on macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.

Converting WTV to AVI moves TV recordings from an obsolete, proprietary container into a universally recognized video format. AVI has near-perfect compatibility across every operating system, media player, and video editing application — from VLC to Windows Media Player to legacy hardware players. This makes it an excellent choice for archiving TV recordings that need maximum accessibility.

AVI's simplicity also makes it valuable for video editing workflows. Unlike WTV's complex NTFS-like structure, AVI files can be opened, trimmed, and re-encoded by virtually any video editor without compatibility issues, making it a practical working format for post-processing TV recordings.