diff --git a/libavformat/wav.c b/libavformat/wav.c
index 0f04456445..2b215c4b2b 100644
--- a/libavformat/wav.c
+++ b/libavformat/wav.c
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ int put_wav_header(ByteIOContext *pb, AVCodecContext *enc)
     int bps, blkalign, bytespersec;
     int hdrsize = 18;
 
-    if(!enc->codec_tag)
+    if(!enc->codec_tag || enc->codec_tag > 0xffff)
        enc->codec_tag = codec_get_tag(codec_wav_tags, enc->codec_id);
     if(!enc->codec_tag)
         return -1;