How to play TS files

How to play TS files

This article explains how to play .TS files you will most likely have acquired from the web. TS files are MPEG-2 video files (TS == Transport Stream), recordings of television broadcasts (in high definition). This article will cover some of the options you have for playback of these type of files. 

What are TS files?

TS files are nowadays very wide spread on the Internet as (usually split) recordings from HDTV broadcasts. As an MPEG format, there are a variety of players and methods to play back TS files or to "convert" them to more compliant MPEG-2 files for authoring as DVD / HD DVD. MPEG-2 is the format used in the DVD-Video format and is also part of the HD DVD specification, although it has trouble competing with more compressible formats such as VC-1 and H.264. 

Easiest Solution

Download and install the VLC player. The VLC package already includes software to play MPEG-2 video content and supports opening and playing .TS files directly. 

You can get download

Click File and click the Open File option.

Now, click the Browse button next to the first white line at the top of the window with title "Open.." and navigate through your harddrive for the video you wish to watch and select it. After you have selected the video, click OK and VLC will start playing the video you chose. 

? VLC Playback Problems

If you have high definition (HD) video content in .TS format, there are some reasons why you would experience choppy playback with VLC media player. One reported issue is possible video problems when High Quality Audio Resampling is set in VLC's settings. 

To disable it, navigate to Settings --> Preferences in VLC. The Audio settings should be selected by default, however, you will have to select Advanced Settings in the lower right hand corner in order to see all the settings. Once you have done that, you will see that "High Quality Audio Resampling" is selected by default. This has been known to cause issues with playback particularly in older hardware, and at least with disabling it, it should take less processing power.