What is a TS File and How to Open It?

You might be confused when you first encounter a file with a .ts extension. If you want to know what a TS file is and how to open it, then don’t miss this article.

Most often, TS refers to MPEG-2 Transport Stream, which is a video container format used to transport and store audio, video, and other data. It was originally designed for satellite broadcasting, but has also been adapted for use in digital video cameras (using the .M2TS extension) and Blu-ray Discs (using the .MTS extension). Similar to TS is MPEG Program Stream (PS), commonly used in DVD videos.

Files with a .ts extension can also be TypeScript files, which contain codes written in the TypeScript programming language. Since this type of TS file is a text file, you can open it in any text editor or TypeScript editor such as Visual Studio Code or Atom.

If you received or downloaded a .ts video file, you can try opening it in your native media player. If it cannot be opened, you need to find a third-party TS player.

Whether you want to open TS videos on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad or Android, VLC is the video player app you should be looking for. You can associate the .ts format with VLC and then double-click on the TS file to start playing.

On Mac and Windows, you can also use MPEG Streamclip, a dedicated MPEG program that can open and play transport streams and other MPEG files.

Tip: Since TS files are MPEG-2 video files, you can try renaming the file extension to .mpg or .mpeg and then play the renamed file in a media player. In many cases, this trick will work because most media players support MPG/MPEG even if they don't support TS.

If you still can't open the TS file or want to edit it, you can try converting the TS video format or downloading a codec pack.

You can convert your TS files using one of the following video converters:

• WonderFox Free HD Video Converter Factory
• Freemake Video Converter
• HandBrake
• VLC
• CloudConvert.com

Tip: MP4 is the universal video format supported by most players and devices. Nevertheless, you can convert TS to other formats accepted by your target device.

Codec packs usually contain a wide range of codecs for most video playback, including TS.

On Windows, you can start with the K-lite codec pack, which is a free program that can help you play most mainstream movie files as well as some rare formats. You can easily find the K-lite website and download your preferred version. But please note that during the installation process, it will ask you to install MPC-HC (a media player), if you don't need this additional software, you can choose to install it only for Windows Media Player.

No, TS is not the same as MP4. Although both are video container formats, they hold different video streams and are designed for different purposes. TS is commonly used in broadcast systems such as DVB and IPTV, while MP4 is widely used for video recording, editing and sharing.

In Python, files with a .ts extension are TypeScript programming language files.

Yes. VLC has video conversion features that can help you convert various videos from one format to another. You can use it to convert TS files to MP4 format for free. Learn more in this article: Convert TS to MP4 in VLC.