WTV to TAR Converter
Processing entirely on your device — large files may take a moment.
TAR preserves the exact file tree and permissions that Linux tooling expects. If your files are still in WTV format, this page is the shortcut: WTV is Windows Media Center's TV recording format — tuner captures with metadata, subtitles and multiple audio tracks inside.
This converter runs entirely in your browser using WebAssembly — your files never leave your device, nothing is uploaded, and there are no watermarks, sign-ups or queues. Drop in several files at once to convert them as a batch.
How to convert WTV to TAR
- 1
Select your files
Select your WTV file — it never leaves your device.
- 2
Convert instantly
The engine packs the file, byte for byte, into a TAR container — no re-encoding, no quality change.
- 3
Download results
Download the finished TAR archive.
About the WTV format
WTV is Windows Media Center's recording format — what a tuner card wrote when you scheduled a TV show. Inside sits the broadcast transport stream (MPEG-2 or H.264) plus title metadata, subtitle tracks and multiple audio languages, all wrapped in Microsoft's own container.
Media Center died with Windows 10, but the recordings live on: ffmpeg reads WTV natively, so converting to MP4 or MKV keeps the content playable on any device with the metadata you actually care about.
+Strengths
- ✓Complete tuner captures with subtitles
- ✓Multi-language audio preserved
- ✓ffmpeg decodes natively
!Limitations
- −DVR-MS (older) is a different format
- −Broadcast DRM variants exist
- −Copy-once flags block some captures
About the TAR format
TAR (tape archive) is Unix's fifty-year-old answer to bundling: it concatenates files with headers into a single stream, preserving POSIX permissions, ownership and symlinks — but compressing nothing. It is the container half of the classic .tar.gz pairing and the native format of Linux source trees and backups.
Being pure bundling, TAR pairs with a compressor: gzip (the classic), bzip2, zstd. Alone, a TAR is the same size as its contents. Windows 10+ ships bsdtar, so even Windows can unpack it now — permissions aside, where NTFS has no room to be faithful.
+Strengths
- ✓Preserves Unix permissions and symlinks
- ✓Streamable: works over pipes and tapes
- ✓The standard of Linux distribution and backup
!Limitations
- −No compression by itself
- −No built-in encryption
- −Permissions meaningless on Windows filesystems
Why convert WTV to TAR?
Converting makes sense where the strengths of TAR meet what WTV cannot give you. Preserves Unix permissions and symlinks Meanwhile DVR-MS (older) is a different format One pass through the converter above puts your file on the right side of that trade-off.
Frequently asked questions
Is this WTV to TAR converter really free?
Yes — completely free, with no sign-up, no watermark and no daily conversion limits. The site is supported by advertising.
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. The conversion runs entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly, so your files never leave your device — that is what makes it instant and private.
Does it work on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android?
Yes. Anything with a modern browser works: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. No software installation is required.
Is there a file size limit for WTV to TAR?
The only limit is your device's memory, since nothing is uploaded. Files up to a few hundred megabytes work fine on a modern desktop browser; very large files simply take a little longer.
Will the audio track be kept?
Yes. The audio is carried over and re-encoded to the standard audio codec of TAR, staying in sync with the video. If your WTV file has multiple audio tracks, the first one is used.
Why is video conversion slower than image conversion?
Every frame has to be decoded and re-encoded. This site runs that work on your own CPU via WebAssembly — nothing is uploaded, but a multi-minute video reasonably takes a few minutes. Images, by comparison, are single-frame jobs.