Free online DVR-MS to OGG converter

What the DVR-MS format is

DVR-MS, short for Microsoft Digital Video Recording, is an audio-video container created primarily by Windows Media Center for recorded television. It is based on Microsoft's ASF container and commonly carries MPEG-2 video with MPEG-1 Layer II, AC-3, or related audio streams. You may encounter it in recordings made by Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows Vista Media Center, or Windows 7 Media Center; later Media Center versions generally used WTV instead.

A DVR-MS file can contain copy-protection information. Protected recordings may be playable only on the original Windows Media Center installation and cannot be converted unless the protection permits playback and decoding.

What the OGG format is

OGG is a multimedia container, not a single audio codec. For this conversion, the usual choice is Vorbis, specified with FFmpeg as libvorbis; Opus can also be stored in an Ogg container. Vorbis OGG files provide lossy compression, broad support in open-source audio software, and smaller sizes than uncompressed PCM or many original broadcast streams.

Choose OGG when the destination application supports Vorbis or Opus and you need an audio-only file for editing, playback, tagging, or archiving. Do not use it when the receiving device requires MP3, AAC, or the original DVR-MS recording.

How to convert DVR-MS to OGG

Using FFmpeg

FFmpeg is the most controllable desktop option. Install a current FFmpeg build, open a terminal in the folder containing the recording, and run:

ffmpeg -i input.dvr-ms -map 0:a:0 -vn -c:a libvorbis -q:a 5 output.ogg

This selects the first audio stream, discards video, and encodes Vorbis at quality level 5. Replace input.dvr-ms and output.ogg with the actual filenames. Use quotes around filenames containing spaces:

ffmpeg -i "Recorded program.dvr-ms" -map 0:a:0 -vn -c:a libvorbis -q:a 5 "Recorded program.ogg"

To inspect available streams before converting, run:

ffprobe -hide_banner input.dvr-ms

If the recording has several audio tracks, change -map 0:a:0 to -map 0:a:1 or another listed audio-stream index. To encode Ogg Opus instead of Vorbis, use:

ffmpeg -i input.dvr-ms -map 0:a:0 -vn -c:a libopus -b:a 128k output.ogg

For a graphical workflow, open the file in a desktop application that uses FFmpeg internally, select only the audio stream, choose Export or Convert, set the output container to OGG and the codec to Vorbis, then start the conversion. The exact menu names depend on the application and its installed codecs.

Using the built-in online converter

You can convert the file on the 101convert.com website for free without installing software. Uploading is appropriate only for recordings that do not contain private material or copy-protection restrictions, and large DVR-MS files may take longer to upload than to process locally.

Quality, compatibility, and limitations

• Conversion to Vorbis or Opus is lossy. It cannot restore detail already lost in the television broadcast, and repeated lossy encoding can reduce quality. If the source audio is already compressed, use a moderate setting such as -q:a 5 rather than very low quality.
• FFmpeg must decode the source audio. A file with unsupported encryption, damaged indexes, or an unusual codec may fail even when Windows Media Center can play it.
• OGG is audio-only in the command above. Use a video-capable output format instead if retaining the recorded television picture is necessary.
• Some older players recognize the .ogg extension only for Vorbis and do not support Ogg Opus. Vorbis is the safer choice for legacy compatibility.
• Check the converted file by playing it from start to finish. Broadcast recordings can contain multiple language tracks, silence, discontinuities, or timestamp errors that affect stream selection and duration.