Video to WAV — Lossless Audio Extraction
Extract WAV from Video — Every Format, Every Sample, Zero Compromise
You have a video file and you need the cleanest possible audio from it. Maybe you are a video editor pulling dialogue for separate audio work. Maybe you are a music producer who spotted a sound worth sampling. Maybe you are preparing evidence for a legal case and need an unmodified audio track. Whatever the reason, this video to WAV converter gives you uncompressed PCM audio from any video format you throw at it. MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, WEBM, FLV, WMV — it does not matter. The converter reads the video, lifts the audio stream, and writes it to a standard WAV file that every audio tool on the planet can open. No lossy re-encoding, no quality shortcuts. Your original sample rate and bit depth stay intact. You get the audio exactly as it existed inside the video, just without the video around it.
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Who Needs to Convert Video to WAV
WAV is the starting point for serious audio work. It is the format you reach for when you cannot afford to lose a single detail from the original recording. Here are the people who convert video to WAV regularly and why they do it.
Video Editors Separating Audio for Post-Production
When you are working on a film project, a documentary, or even a YouTube video, you often need to edit the audio track independently. Pull dialogue, ambient sound, or room tone out of your footage as WAV, clean it up in your DAW, apply noise reduction and EQ, then sync it back to your timeline. Starting from uncompressed WAV means every edit you make works with full-quality audio instead of fighting compression artifacts.
Forensic, Legal, and Transcription Professionals
Courts and compliance teams need audio evidence that has not been re-encoded or altered. When you extract WAV from video, you get the rawest possible version of the audio track — no generational loss from an extra compression step. The resulting WAV file can be authenticated, timestamped, and submitted as evidence with confidence that the extraction process introduced zero modifications.
Music Producers Sampling from Video Sources
Found a perfect vocal snippet in a concert video? A drum fill in a live performance clip? A texture in a field recording? Convert the video to WAV first, then bring the uncompressed audio into Ableton, FL Studio, Logic, or whatever you work in. WAV gives you the headroom to pitch-shift, time-stretch, layer, and process without compounding artifacts from a lossy source file.
What Makes This Video to WAV Converter Different
Most converters default to MP3 and treat WAV as an afterthought. This tool was built from the ground up for people who specifically need uncompressed audio from their video files.
Accepts Every Major Video Format
MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, WEBM, FLV, WMV — bring whatever you have. Screen recordings from OBS, iPhone footage, GoPro clips, security camera exports, old camcorder files. If it is a video file with an audio track inside, this video to WAV converter will read it. You do not need to figure out containers and codecs first.
Uncompressed PCM WAV Output
The output is standard PCM WAV — the format that every audio application on earth can open without plugins, codecs, or compatibility workarounds. Pro Tools, Audacity, Logic Pro, Reaper, Adobe Audition, even Windows Sound Recorder. When you turn video into WAV with this tool, the file just works everywhere.
Preserves the Original Sample Rate
Your video contains audio recorded at a specific sample rate — usually 44.1kHz for music-oriented content or 48kHz for video production. This converter keeps whatever the source contains. No unnecessary resampling to some default value. A 48kHz source gives you a 48kHz WAV. A 44.1kHz source gives you a 44.1kHz WAV. What went in is what comes out.
Ideal Starting Point for Audio Cleanup and Mastering
Planning to run noise reduction, de-essing, compression, or EQ? You want to start from uncompressed audio so those processes work on real signal data, not on compression artifacts. Extracting WAV from video gives you that clean canvas. Apply your processing chain, then export to whatever final format you need.
Legal and Forensic Ready
Need unmodified audio extraction for evidence, compliance review, or formal transcription? The video to WAV conversion path introduces no lossy encoding step. The audio stream is decoded from the video container and written directly to PCM WAV. This is as close to the original audio as you can get without accessing the raw recording device.
Extract, Edit Separately, Then Sync Back
Video editors know this workflow: extract the audio, do detailed work in a proper audio editor, then drop the processed track back onto your video timeline. Converting video to WAV is the first step. Because WAV is frame-accurate and sample-precise, syncing cleaned audio back to your video project is straightforward — no drift, no timing issues.
How to Convert Video to WAV
Three steps to extract uncompressed audio from any video file. Works whether you have a single clip or a whole folder of footage.
Drop Your Video Files In
Open the converter and drag your video files onto the page. MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, WEBM, FLV, WMV — any format works. You can add one file at a time or load a batch of clips if you need to extract WAV from multiple videos.
Select WAV as Output
Choose WAV from the format menu. Since WAV is uncompressed, there is no bitrate knob to fiddle with. The converter will match the sample rate of the original video audio track automatically. Pick the format and you are done.
Download Your WAV Files
Hit convert. The audio track is extracted and written to a .wav file in seconds. Save it to your project folder, import it straight into your DAW, or archive it. Converting multiple videos? Grab everything as a single ZIP.
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Video to WAV — Frequently Asked Questions
Why should I extract WAV from video instead of MP3?
WAV is uncompressed audio. When you convert video to WAV, you get a byte-for-byte faithful copy of the audio stream with no additional quality loss. MP3 throws away audio data to make the file smaller. If you plan to edit the audio in any way — noise reduction, EQ, mixing, mastering — starting from WAV gives your tools clean signal to work with instead of compression artifacts. You can always convert the finished WAV to MP3 later for distribution, but you cannot go backwards and recover detail that MP3 already removed.
Will the WAV match the sample rate of the original video's audio track?
Yes. The video to WAV converter preserves whatever sample rate the source video contains. Most video recorded on phones and consumer cameras uses 44.1kHz or 48kHz. Professional video production typically uses 48kHz. The converter does not resample — if your video has 48kHz audio, your WAV will be 48kHz. If it has 44.1kHz, the WAV matches that. No unnecessary conversion happens in between.
Can I extract WAV from a video and then edit it in Audacity?
That is one of the most common workflows for this tool. Convert your video to WAV, then open the .wav file directly in Audacity. From there you can apply noise reduction, trim silence, normalize levels, add effects, or do whatever editing you need. Audacity reads WAV natively with no import plugins required. When you are finished editing, you can export from Audacity in any format — WAV to keep it lossless, or MP3 for a smaller file.
How big will the WAV file be from a 1-hour video?
Uncompressed stereo WAV at 48kHz and 16-bit depth runs about 10 MB per minute. So a 1-hour video produces roughly 600 MB of WAV audio. That is significantly larger than a compressed format like MP3 (which would be around 90 MB for the same hour at 192 kbps), but it is still much smaller than the original video file. If storage is tight, convert video to WAV for editing, do your work, then export your final version as a smaller format.
My video has background music and speech — can I separate them after extraction?
The video to WAV converter extracts the combined audio track exactly as it exists in the video. If music and speech are mixed together in the original recording, they will be mixed together in the WAV. However, having uncompressed WAV is the best starting point for source separation tools like iZotope RX, Adobe Podcast, or open-source tools like Demucs. These work significantly better on uncompressed audio than on MP3 because there are no compression artifacts interfering with the separation algorithms.
Is WAV extraction from video truly lossless?
The extraction itself introduces zero additional loss. However, the audio inside most video files was already compressed using a codec like AAC or Opus. The converter decodes that compressed audio and writes the result as uncompressed PCM WAV. The WAV is a perfect representation of the decoded audio — no further quality is lost during extraction. Think of it this way: you get back exactly what the video's audio codec would have played, captured in an uncompressed format ready for editing.
Can I use the extracted WAV as evidence in a legal proceeding?
WAV is widely accepted in legal and forensic contexts because it is an uncompressed format with no lossy encoding step that could alter the content. When you extract WAV from video, the audio is decoded and written directly to PCM without modification. That said, admissibility depends on your jurisdiction and chain-of-custody procedures. The format itself is as clean as you can get from a video source file, but consult your legal team about documentation and handling requirements for your specific case.
Video to WAV vs Video to FLAC — which should I choose?
Both are lossless and preserve identical audio quality. The difference is practical. WAV is uncompressed and universally supported — every audio editor, every DAW, every operating system handles it without plugins. FLAC uses lossless compression, so files are 50-60% the size of WAV, but not every tool supports FLAC natively. Choose WAV if you are going to edit the audio immediately or need maximum compatibility. Choose FLAC if you are archiving and storage space matters more than instant editability.
I need to extract audio from a webinar recording for a podcast — WAV or MP3?
Extract as WAV first, then publish as MP3. Here is why: webinar recordings usually need cleanup — removing dead air, balancing volume levels between speakers, cutting intros and outros. Every one of those edits works better on uncompressed WAV. Once your episode is polished and ready, export the final version as MP3 at 128 kbps (plenty for speech) for distribution. This way you do all your editing on the highest quality source and only compress once at the very end.
What is the maximum video file size this converter can handle?
There is no hard file-size cap. The converter runs in your browser, so the limit depends on your device's available memory. Modern laptops and desktops with 8 GB of RAM or more handle even multi-gigabyte video files without issue. On phones and tablets, very large files may be slower or limited by the device's available memory. For most users converting video to WAV, even hour-long HD recordings process smoothly.