Add your WMV file
Drop one or more .wmv files onto the converter above, or browse for them. They load into browser memory only — nothing is uploaded, so there is no size-based pricing and no server queue.
WMV to WMA
Pulling the soundtrack out of a .wmv video into .wma audio keeps what you can hear and drops the picture entirely. Free, private, and validated — the file never leaves your browser.
Private for supported formats — processed in your browser
Runs on your deviceConvert supported files
Drop WMV files here
Batch files can each use a different output. Nothing uploads for local conversions.
Working inputs include camera RAW, browser-local audio/video, PDF, CBZ/CBR comics, office documents, ebooks, markup, 3D models, structured text, images, and archives.About converting Windows Media video to Windows Media audio
Pulling the soundtrack out of a .wmv video into .wma audio keeps what you can hear and drops the picture entirely. A .wmv file contains Windows Media Video, Microsoft's proprietary codec family, almost always wrapped in an ASF container. The extension was everywhere on Windows XP-era PCs, from downloaded clips to Movie Maker exports, but it has faded as MP4 became universal.
A .wma file contains Windows Media Audio, Microsoft's proprietary compressed format, wrapped in the same ASF container as WMV video. It shipped with every copy of Windows for a decade, so ripped CDs and store purchases from that era survive as .wma libraries. For this route the practical draw is respectable quality at mid bitrates for its era and still opens on any Windows PC without extra software — balanced against proprietary and effectively abandoned, which is worth knowing before you commit a large batch.
Why convert WMV to WMA?
The usual reason to take .wma audio out of a .wmv file is that only the sound matters — a talk, interview, song, or podcast segment. Keeping the video stream would waste storage, and a dedicated audio file is easier to trim, tag, and play. On the source side, effectively abandoned by Microsoft itself; on the target side, the payoff is respectable quality at mid bitrates for its era, which is exactly what you want for converting old ripped-CD libraries to MP3 or FLAC.
WMV vs WMA at a glance
| Aspect | Windows Media video (.wmv) | Windows Media audio (.wma) |
|---|---|---|
| Format type | Container — quality depends on the codecs and settings inside | Lossy — discards detail it judges invisible to shrink files |
| How it stores data | aSF container carrying WMV1, WMV2, or WMV3 (VC-1) video, typically with WMA audio | the standard codec is a lossy transform coder supporting up to 48 kHz stereo |
| Strongest at | playing old Movie Maker projects and family archives | converting old ripped-CD libraries to MP3 or FLAC |
| Weak spot | effectively abandoned by Microsoft itself | proprietary and effectively abandoned |
| Metadata | aSF content-description attributes hold title, author, copyright, and rating fields, plus extended attributes used by Windows Media Player libraries | aSF attributes mirror ID3 basics such as title, artist, album, and artwork, and Windows Media Player wrote extended library fields on top |
Pick WMA as the output
Select .wma in the output menu next to each file. The menu only offers targets this engine can genuinely produce, so if WMA is selectable, the route is real and validated.
Convert on your device
Press Convert. A WebAssembly FFmpeg build demuxes the audio track and re-encodes it locally; the video stream is simply discarded.
Verify and download
Each result is signature-checked before the download unlocks, so a failed encode can never masquerade as a valid WMA file. Outputs keep the original filename with the .wma extension.
WMV to WMA questions, answered
Will converting WMV to WMA lose quality?
Since wmv is container-oriented and wma is lossy-oriented, the conversion preserves the source content exactly as stored; no additional compression pass is applied beyond what .wma itself requires.
Is it private to convert WMV files here?
Yes — the .wmv file is processed inside your browser tab and never uploaded. A WebAssembly FFmpeg build demuxes the audio track and re-encodes it locally; the video stream is simply discarded. Close the tab and the file is gone from memory.
Where will the WMA file work?
Windows continues to play .wma through its bundled apps, but macOS, iOS, Android, and all web browsers lack native support. Files protected by Windows Media DRM will not play anywhere now that their license servers are gone.
Will the WMA file be bigger or smaller than my WMV?
Much smaller — the video stream is usually 80–95% of a .wmv file's weight, and it is discarded entirely. The remaining audio is re-encoded at the bitrate implied by your quality setting.
What happens to the metadata in my WMV file?
This converter strips container metadata deliberately (the FFmpeg command runs with metadata mapping disabled) so exported files do not leak recording details. In the source, aSF content-description attributes hold title, author, copyright, and rating fields, plus extended attributes used by Windows Media Player libraries; none of it is transmitted anywhere because the file never leaves your browser.