What is a TS file?
TS — MPEG transport stream
What is it?
TS is the format of digital television: it's what your set-top box receives over the antenna, cable or satellite, and what your digital recorder saves to disk.
Its distinctive feature is that it was designed for a stream, not a file: the data is split into small, fixed-size packets, each of which can be decoded independently. Interference damages a few packets, not the entire broadcast.
History & origin
The transport stream was defined in the MPEG-2 standard in the mid-1990s for television broadcasting.
It found an unexpected second life with internet streaming: HLS, used by most video platforms, breaks videos down into a multitude of small TS segments.
Why it is useful
Remarkable resilience to transmission errors, and the ability to play a file even when it's incomplete.
It handles multiple programs, multiple audio tracks and teletext within a single stream.
Limits & drawbacks
The packet-based structure needlessly bloats a file meant for storage rather than broadcast.
It's poorly supported by editing software and consumer media players.
Practical tips
To keep a TV recording, convert it to MP4: you'll gain in both file size and compatibility.
Converting also lets you trim out the commercials and keep just the program.
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