Some of you may have noticed that the DVR-MS files of Windows Media Centre in XP and Vista is gone in Windows 7, and has been replaced by the WTV file format instead.
I discovered this when trying to edit some TV to keep using my favourite tools for the job, DVR Edit and DVR2WMV. I went to open the recorded TV file in DVR Edit to find it couldn’t do so.
Fortunately, Microsoft have already included a fix for us. Simply right clicking on the WTV file will present an option to convert it to a DVR-MS file (see picture).
Unfortunately, the downside is that you have to do this one file at a time. Selecting a group of WTV files won’t give you this option.
I’m certain, though I’ve not tried it yet, that the new version of Movie maker will let you edit WTV files as is. Personally though I’ve always preferred DVR Edit and DVR2WMV. The good news on that score is that, though DVR2WMV never worked properly in Windows Vista, the compatibility issues have been sorted out for Windows 7, so the software once again works the way it should.
DVR Edit and DVR2WMV are available free to download from websites such as www.thegreenbutton.com.
