Reference

WTV / DVR-MS

WTV (and its predecessor DVR-MS) is the recorded-TV format used by Windows Media Center. These files hold broadcast video and audio plus metadata, and are large because they store TV recordings, often at full broadcast quality.

Files & formatsWindows

WTV / DVR-MS

Also known as: WTV file, DVR-MS, Windows Media Center recording, Windows TV recording

Windows Media Center recorded-TV format
WTV replaced the older DVR-MS format
Large files; convert to MP4 for compatibility

Recorded TV on Windows

When Windows Media Center recorded live TV, it saved the result as DVR-MS (older) or WTV (newer). The container holds the MPEG-2 video stream and audio along with program guide metadata.

Because they are full TV recordings, WTV files can be very large and quickly fill a drive used as a DVR.

Playing and converting WTV

Windows Media Center and some Windows players open WTV directly, but support is limited on modern systems since Media Center was discontinued. Tools can convert WTV to MP4 for broad compatibility and smaller files.

Converting also strips DVR-only quirks, making recordings easier to archive or watch elsewhere.

Related terms

Keep reading the reference.

Files & formatsMPEG (.mpg)MPEG (.mpg/.mpeg) refers to early video formats from the Moving Picture Experts Group — chiefly MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. MPEG-2 powered DVDs and digital TV; the .mpg files you find today are usually older, larger clips by modern standards.General Files & formatsMP4MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14) is the most common video container format. The .mp4 file holds video, audio, and subtitle streams together, but does not itself define quality — the codec inside (usually H.264 or HEVC) decides how large and how compressed the video is.General Files & formatsContainer formatA container format is the file wrapper that packages compressed video, audio, subtitles, and metadata into one file — for example MP4, MOV, or MKV. It defines how the parts are stored together, not how they are compressed; the codec inside does that.General

Act on it

Guides and tools for this topic.

Compress and resize video