Convert WTV to FLAC — Free Online Converter
Convert Windows TV (.wtv) to Free Lossless Audio Codec (.flac) online for free. Fast, secure video conversion with no watermarks or registration....
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How to Convert
Upload your .wtv file by dragging it into the upload area or clicking to browse.
Choose your output settings. The default settings work great for most files.
Click Convert and download your .flac file when it's ready.
About WTV to FLAC Conversion
WTV (Windows TV) recordings from Windows Media Center store broadcast television with MPEG-2 or H.264 video and AC3 (Dolby Digital) or AAC audio, plus EPG metadata including the program title, episode description, channel name, and recording time. The format was Microsoft's replacement for DVR-MS, using an NTFS-like internal structure for efficient real-time recording. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is the open-source standard for lossless audio compression, achieving 50-60% compression while preserving bit-perfect audio quality.
With Windows Media Center defunct since Windows 10, WTV files are stranded in personal archives. For recordings where the audio content is the primary value — live concerts, musical performances, radio simulcasts, classical music broadcasts — extracting to FLAC preserves every bit of the original broadcast audio.
Why Convert WTV to FLAC?
Extracting audio from WTV to FLAC captures the full decoded broadcast audio quality in an open, widely supported lossless format. Unlike lossy extraction to MP3 or AAC, FLAC introduces zero additional quality loss beyond what the original broadcast compression (AC3/AAC) already imposed. This makes FLAC ideal for archiving audio from recordings that may be irreplaceable.
FLAC is supported by virtually every media player except Apple's native apps (which prefer ALAC). It integrates with music servers, audiophile playback chains, and audio editing tools, making it the go-to choice for preserving broadcast audio outside the Apple ecosystem.
Common Use Cases
- Archiving live concert broadcasts from WTV recordings in lossless quality for audiophile music collections
- Extracting classical music and jazz performances from PBS/BBC recordings with zero additional quality degradation
- Preserving radio simulcast audio from TV recordings in a permanent, lossless archival format
- Creating lossless masters from TV audio to serve as sources for subsequent encoding to multiple lossy formats
- Extracting high-fidelity spoken-word content from educational TV recordings for institutional audio archives
How It Works
FFmpeg reads the WTV container, discards the video stream, and decodes the audio track (AC3 at 192-384 kbps or AAC at 128-256 kbps). The decoded PCM audio is then encoded to FLAC with configurable compression level (0-8, default 5). Output is typically 16-bit at 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz, depending on the broadcast source's native sample rate. Multi-channel 5.1 AC3 is downmixed to stereo by default. EPG metadata is discarded.
Quality & Performance
FLAC output represents the exact decoded quality of the broadcast audio — lossless compression means zero additional loss. The quality ceiling is determined by the WTV source: AC3 at 384 kbps or AAC at 256 kbps from HD broadcasts sounds quite good; AC3 at 192 kbps from SD broadcasts is serviceable. FLAC faithfully preserves whatever the broadcast provided, making it the best choice when you want to avoid any further degradation.
Device Compatibility
| Device | WTV | FLAC |
|---|---|---|
| Windows PC | Partial | Partial |
| macOS | Partial | Partial |
| iPhone/iPad | Partial | Partial |
| Android | Partial | Native |
| Linux | Partial | Native |
| Web Browser | No | No |
Recommended Settings by Platform
YouTube
Resolution: 1920x1080
Bitrate: 8-12 Mbps
H.264 recommended for fast processing
Resolution: 1080x1080
Bitrate: 3.5 Mbps
Square or 9:16 for Reels
TikTok
Resolution: 1080x1920
Bitrate: 4 Mbps
9:16 vertical, under 60s ideal
Twitter/X
Resolution: 1280x720
Bitrate: 5 Mbps
Under 140s, 512MB max
Resolution: 960x540
Bitrate: 2 Mbps
16MB limit for standard, 64MB for document
Discord
Resolution: 1280x720
Bitrate: 4 Mbps
8MB free, 50MB Nitro
Tips for Best Results
- 1Use FLAC compression level 5 for the best balance — levels above 6 provide minimal size savings with significantly slower encoding
- 2Preserve 48 kHz sample rate if the broadcast was at 48 kHz — resampling to 44.1 kHz is unnecessary and technically lossy
- 3Request multi-channel FLAC output if you have a 5.1 surround playback setup and the WTV contains Dolby Digital audio
- 4Use FLAC as a lossless master and encode to MP3/AAC/OGG from it for different devices — avoid encoding from WTV multiple times
- 5Tag the output FLAC files with program name, channel, and date to preserve the context that WTV EPG metadata would have provided
WTV to FLAC extraction delivers lossless audio preservation from Windows Media Center TV recordings, capturing the full decoded broadcast quality in an open, universally supported archival format.