MTV to HRZ Converter

Convert ray-traced MTV images to HRZ format online

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Simple Workflow

Converting MTV to HRZ is straightforward — upload, select the output format, and download. The clean interface guides you through each step.

Privacy Protected

Uploaded MTV data is erased immediately after conversion. HRZ results are purged within 24 hours — your content stays confidential.

Rapid Conversion

Get your HRZ output quickly. The optimized conversion pipeline processes MTV data at high speed — no long waits involved.

How to convert MTV to HRZ

1

Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.

2

Choose hrz or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)

3

Let the file convert and you can download your hrz file right afterwards

About formats

MTV is a simple raster image format created by Mark T. VandeWettering for the MTV Ray Tracer, a ray tracing program released in 1988 as one of the early publicly available ray tracers distributed through Usenet. The format stores 24-bit RGB images with a minimal text header followed by raw pixel data. The header consists of a single line containing the image width and height as ASCII integers, followed immediately by the pixel data where each pixel occupies three bytes (red, green, blue) arranged in row-major order from top-left to bottom-right. The MTV Ray Tracer itself was significant in the history of computer graphics — distributed freely via the comp.graphics Usenet newsgroup, it introduced many programmers and students to the principles of ray tracing: ray-object intersection, reflection, refraction, shadows, and recursive shading. The MTV format was the program's native output, and its simplicity made it easy for users to write custom viewers and converters on whatever platform they had access to — a practical necessity in the fragmented Unix workstation landscape of the late 1980s. One advantage is extreme implementation simplicity: the format can be read in a handful of lines of code in any programming language, with no libraries, no compression algorithms, and no metadata parsing required — just read two integers and then read width x height x 3 bytes of pixel data. The format's historical significance in the computer graphics community provides another dimension — MTV files from early ray tracing experiments represent primary artifacts from the era when ray tracing transitioned from academic research to accessible software. MTV files are supported by ImageMagick and various legacy graphics tools.
Initial release: 1988
HRZ is a simple raster image format associated with slow-scan television (SSTV), a method of transmitting still images over radio frequencies used by amateur radio operators since the late 1950s when Copthorne Macdonald pioneered the technology. HRZ files store images at a fixed resolution of 256x240 pixels in raw RGB format, with each pixel represented as three bytes (red, green, blue) at 8 bits per channel, producing uncompressed files of exactly 184,320 bytes. The format has no header, no metadata, and no compression — the file is simply a sequential dump of raw pixel data in row-major order. This extreme simplicity reflects the format's origins in the amateur radio community, where SSTV images are transmitted as audio tones encoding luminance and chrominance values over narrow-bandwidth HF (shortwave) radio channels. The fixed 256x240 resolution corresponds to common SSTV transmission modes, and HRZ files serve as the digital capture or storage medium for received SSTV transmissions. One advantage is the format's zero-overhead structure: with no parsing, decompression, or metadata processing required, HRZ files can be read by any program capable of reading raw pixel data with known dimensions — a single function call in virtually any programming language. The format's connection to amateur radio SSTV culture is another notable aspect: HRZ files document a unique form of image communication where operators transmit photographs over thousands of miles using nothing but radio waves and audio encoding, a practice that continues today alongside digital modes. HRZ files can be opened by ImageMagick, GIMP, and specialized SSTV software.
Developer: SSTV Community
Initial release: 1985

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert MTV to HRZ?

MTV requires niche software to open. Converting to HRZ lets you share and view your ray-traced renders on virtually any platform.

What programs open HRZ?

Most image viewers and editors handle HRZ — Photoshop, GIMP, IrfanView, and built-in viewers on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Will my image lose quality?

Quality depends on the target format. HRZ low-resolution output preserves data within its format constraints — no unnecessary degradation occurs.

Is the conversion instant?

Near-instant for typical images — the cloud-based processing handles MTV to HRZ conversion quickly. Very large data may take a moment.

What platforms are supported?

The converter works on any device with a browser — Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android. No platform-specific software needed.