diff --git a/DOCS/man/vo.rst b/DOCS/man/vo.rst
index 039411a40c..9575948eea 100644
--- a/DOCS/man/vo.rst
+++ b/DOCS/man/vo.rst
@@ -390,7 +390,7 @@ Available video output drivers are:
 ``tct``
     Color Unicode art video output driver that works on a text console.
     Depends on support of true color by modern terminals to display the images
-    at full color range.
+    at full color range. On Windows it requires an ansi terminal such as mintty.
 
     ``--vo-tct-algo=<algo>``
         Select how to write the pixels to the terminal.
@@ -402,6 +402,10 @@ Available video output drivers are:
             Uses spaces. Causes vertical resolution to drop twofolds, but in
             theory works in more places.
 
+    ``--vo-tct-width=<width>``  ``--vo-tct-height=<height>``
+        Assume the terminal has the specified character width and/or height.
+        These default to 80x25 if the terminal size cannot be determined.
+
 ``image``
     Output each frame into an image file in the current directory. Each file
     takes the frame number padded with leading zeros as name.
diff --git a/video/out/vo.c b/video/out/vo.c
index 142f549aa0..46908d2d59 100644
--- a/video/out/vo.c
+++ b/video/out/vo.c
@@ -90,9 +90,7 @@ const struct vo_driver *const video_out_drivers[] =
     &video_out_null,
     // should not be auto-selected
     &video_out_image,
-#if HAVE_POSIX
     &video_out_tct,
-#endif
 #if HAVE_CACA
     &video_out_caca,
 #endif
diff --git a/video/out/vo_tct.c b/video/out/vo_tct.c
index 22354c5283..c72a66e940 100644
--- a/video/out/vo_tct.c
+++ b/video/out/vo_tct.c
@@ -17,7 +17,12 @@
 
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
+#include <config.h>
+
+#if HAVE_POSIX
 #include <sys/ioctl.h>
+#endif
+
 #include <libswscale/swscale.h>
 
 #include "options/m_config.h"
@@ -38,9 +43,13 @@
 #define ESC_GOTOXY "\e[%d;%df"
 #define ESC_COLOR_BACKGROUND "\e[48;2;%d;%d;%dm"
 #define ESC_COLOR_FOREGROUND "\e[38;2;%d;%d;%dm"
+#define DEFAULT_WIDTH 80
+#define DEFAULT_HEIGHT 25
 
 struct vo_tct_opts {
     int algo;
+    int width;   // 0 -> default
+    int height;  // 0 -> default
 };
 
 #define OPT_BASE_STRUCT struct vo_tct_opts
@@ -49,6 +58,8 @@ static const struct m_sub_options vo_tct_conf = {
         OPT_CHOICE("vo-tct-algo", algo, 0,
                    ({"plain", ALGO_PLAIN},
                     {"half-blocks", ALGO_HALF_BLOCKS})),
+        OPT_INT("vo-tct-width", width, 0),
+        OPT_INT("vo-tct-height", height, 0),
         {0}
     },
     .defaults = &(const struct vo_tct_opts) {
@@ -113,21 +124,36 @@ static void write_half_blocks(
             unsigned char r_down = *row_down++;
             printf(ESC_COLOR_BACKGROUND, r_up, g_up, b_up);
             printf(ESC_COLOR_FOREGROUND, r_down, g_down, b_down);
-            printf("▄");
+            printf("\xe2\x96\x84");  // UTF8 bytes of U+2584 (lower half block)
         }
         printf(ESC_CLEAR_COLORS);
     }
     printf("\n");
 }
 
+static void get_win_size(struct vo *vo, int *out_width, int *out_height) {
+    struct priv *p = vo->priv;
+#if HAVE_POSIX
+    struct winsize winsize;
+    ioctl(STDOUT_FILENO, TIOCGWINSZ, &winsize);
+    *out_width = winsize.ws_col;
+    *out_height = winsize.ws_row;
+#else
+    *out_width = DEFAULT_WIDTH;
+    *out_height = DEFAULT_HEIGHT;
+#endif
+
+    if (p->opts->width > 0)
+        *out_width = p->opts->width;
+    if (p->opts->height > 0)
+        *out_height = p->opts->height;
+}
+
 static int reconfig(struct vo *vo, struct mp_image_params *params)
 {
     struct priv *p = vo->priv;
 
-    struct winsize winsize;
-    ioctl(STDOUT_FILENO, TIOCGWINSZ, &winsize);
-    vo->dwidth = winsize.ws_col;
-    vo->dheight = winsize.ws_row;
+    get_win_size(vo, &vo->dwidth, &vo->dheight);
 
     struct mp_osd_res osd;
     vo_get_src_dst_rects(vo, &p->src, &p->dst, &osd);
diff --git a/wscript_build.py b/wscript_build.py
index e05bbe8d11..ceea5be6f4 100644
--- a/wscript_build.py
+++ b/wscript_build.py
@@ -375,7 +375,7 @@ def build(ctx):
         ( "video/out/vo_opengl.c",               "gl" ),
         ( "video/out/vo_opengl_cb.c",            "gl" ),
         ( "video/out/vo_sdl.c",                  "sdl2" ),
-        ( "video/out/vo_tct.c",                  "posix" ),
+        ( "video/out/vo_tct.c" ),
         ( "video/out/vo_vaapi.c",                "vaapi-x11" ),
         ( "video/out/vo_vdpau.c",                "vdpau" ),
         ( "video/out/vo_wayland.c",              "wayland" ),