How to Convert MP4 to WAV Without Losing Quality?

Read time: 9 minutes

MP4 and WAV are two very popular file formats used by many. MP4 can contain video and audio formats, but sometimes you need the audio track extracted to a standalone format for a podcast, ringtone, transcription, music editing, sampling, etc. WAV is an uncompressed audio file format developed by Microsoft and IBM in 1991 that stores any kind of high-quality audio data. Here, we will discuss how to convert an MP4 file to WAV format with the easiest ways. But before proceeding further, let’s discuss what MP4 and WAV file formats are in detail.

What is a MP4 File?

Also known as MPEG-4, MP4 is a digital multimedia container format. It is a very popular file format to save audio, subtitles, still images, and of course, videos. It is supported and played by most of the popular media players. Talking about devices it can be played on, it is supported by a wide range of devices and operating systems. To open and play this file on your system, you just need to double click on the file. If you have a compatible media player available on your system, the video will play by itself.

What is a WAV File?

Waveform Audio file format, known as WAV or WAVE format, is an audio file format. This format was developed by IBM and Microsoft to save data in chunks. This RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format) is the main format used on Microsoft Windows System for raw and unprocessed audio.

Read Also: Free Methods to Convert MP4 to MP3

Why Do Users Need to Convert MP4 to WAV? Top Reasons

There are several reasons why someone might need to convert MP4 to WAV:

Preserves lossless audio quality.
Perfect for professional audio editing.
Extract audio for video files.
Ideal for transcription accuracy.
No codec issues on any devices.
Supports high sample rate editing.
Archive important audio permanently.
Improve audio restoration and cleanup.
Use audio for sampling purposes.

How to Convert MP4 to WAV? (Bulk & High Quality)

If you have lots of MP4 video files (hundreds or thousands of them) that you need to process regularly, and you care about the quality of the resulting files, you should look for a dedicated audio or video converter tool such as Kernel Video Converter.

It is an outstanding video conversion tool that can convert a wide range of video formats like MP4, MOV, MPEG, MKV, AVI, ASF, WMV, FLV, DivX, MJPEG, M4V, 3G2, TS, 3GP, AVCHD, DVR, etc. With it, you have the privilege of converting unlimited video files without any limitation to the size and the number of files in a single batch. Here, we are going to mention the process to convert MP4 to WAV files with the tool. Download the tool from the website, install it properly on your system, and follow the below-mentioned steps:

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Run the tool on your system, and on the home screen of the tool, click on the add (+) icon to upload multiple MP4 videos.
Click on the Next button to proceed.
Now, select Popular Output WAV as the final file format; click on the Convert Now button to proceed.
At this stage, provide a destination to the converted file; it can be anywhere on your system or an external drive. Once you have provided a destination, click OK.
As you proceed, the tool will start the conversion process, and you will get to see the live progress on your screen, one by one. Moreover you can keep the progress summary by clicking on Save report to CSV.

So, this is how you convert a video file with the software in a few easy steps. You can run this tool on any Windows OS platform without any issue. If you are a bit skeptical, you can try the demo version of the tool and can save up to 15 seconds of the converted video for free.

How to Convert MP4 to WAV with Free Methods?

Here are some free manual methods which you can use to convert MP4 to WAV files. Choose the method that suits your requirements and follow the steps carefully:

Method 1. Try Online Conversion Websites

There are plenty of online conversion websites available on the internet. With these websites, one can convert MP4 to WAV files. All you need to do is look for the best site to perform the conversion and select your MP4 files as per the interface of the website. Choose the file format you want to convert your file into and finally proceed with conversion by clicking on the execution button. Wait for the conversion process to finish successfully and download the file at the end of the process.

Method 2. Try VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is one of the most popular multimedia players among users. You can use it to convert MP4 to WAV for free. But, VLC does not have WAV, you will need to create a profile first. Here is the detailed procedure to do it:

Open VLC Media Player and click on Media >Convert/Save.
Click on the Add button and upload all the MP4 videos you want to convert, then click Convert/Save.
Click on the Create a new profile button
Enter Profile Name, then under Encapsulation, select WAV.
Now, go to Audio codec and enable Audio. Then select WAV using the drop-down list next to Codec and click Create.
Moving ahead, select the profile you created using the drop-down list next to Profile.
Then, click on the Browse button and provide a saving location, then finally click Start.
VLC will shortly convert and save all the MP4 videos as WAV at the provided location.

Method 3. Using FFmpeg Commands

FFmpeg is a free, open-source command line available to record, stream, convert, and modify audio or video files. Here are the commands you can use to convert MP4 to WAV:

Basic Command:

Download and install FFmpeg.
Then open the Command Prompt and run the following command:

ffmpeg -i inputvideo.mp4 output.wav

Command breakdown:

-i inputvideo.mp4: Specify your MP4 video path.
output.wav: Specify the name of the output file.

Read Also: Convert MP4 to AVI Videos File

Ending Note

In this blog, we discussed one can convert MP4 to WAV files using online converter tools, VLC Media Player, FFmpeg command line, and a dedicated video converter tool. For a few files, free manual methods are ideal. But if you have bulk files you can use a specialized converter software.