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Need help?How to Convert Images to TS Video Online
- Upload Your Images: Click "+ Add Files" or drag and drop JPG, PNG, HEIC, WEBP, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PSD, or any of the 36 supported formats — including camera RAW (CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, DNG, ORF, RAF, RW2, PEF, X3F). Batch upload is supported, so you can build a slideshow from a whole shoot in one pass.
- Pick a Merge Strategy: Choose "Merge images" to assemble every photo into a single MPEG-TS stream, or "Video per image" to emit one .ts file per source image (useful when you need individual HLS-ready segments).
- Set Duration, Resolution, and Background Color (Optional): "Duration" controls how long each image holds — defaults to 5 seconds per frame, and goes from 1/60s (single-frame at 60fps) up to 10s. Use "Fixed Resolutions" or "Preset Resolutions" to pick 4K UHD, 1440p, 1080p, 720p, or social presets like 1080×1920 portrait; "Width (Keep aspect ratio)" preserves your input ratio. "Background Color" (default White) fills letterbox bars when an image's aspect ratio doesn't match the canvas.
- Set Quality and Convert: "Quality Preset" defaults to "Very High (Recommended)" with H.264 encoding. Click "Convert" and download your .ts file. No sign-up, no watermark.
Why Convert Images to TS?
MPEG-TS (MPEG-2 Transport Stream, ISO/IEC 13818-1) is a 188-byte packetized container designed for environments where bytes can be lost or the stream must be joinable mid-flight — terrestrial DVB and ATSC broadcast, satellite, IPTV, and HLS adaptive streaming over HTTP. Converting an image set straight to .ts produces a video that broadcast equipment, set-top boxes, and HLS packagers can ingest without remuxing.
If you just want a slideshow video file for YouTube, social, or email, convert images to MP4 instead — MP4 is smaller on disk and more universally accepted by consumer apps. Pick TS specifically when:
- HLS segment generation — you're building a manifest where each .ts segment must contain a single MPEG-2 program with a Program Association Table and Program Map Table per RFC 8216. Per-image .ts output gives you pre-segmented input for your packager.
- Digital signage and IPTV playlists — many signage players and IPTV middleware platforms accept .ts files but struggle with MP4's
moovatom needing the whole file before playback. TS plays from any packet boundary. - Concatenation without remuxing — TS streams concatenate cleanly with simple byte-level append (after PCR/PTS adjustment), so a "title card .ts + main video .ts + outro .ts" workflow is faster than re-encoding MP4.
- Broadcast and OTA testing — DVB-T, DVB-S, and ATSC test signals are typically loaded as TS; image-based test patterns and station IDs are common as TS slates.
- AVCHD-style camera ingest — some prosumer camcorders and security DVRs record .ts/.m2ts natively, and an image-to-TS slate matches their bitrate and packet structure for clean editing.
TS vs MP4 vs MKV — Container Comparison
| Property | MPEG-TS (.ts) | MP4 (.mp4) | Matroska (.mkv) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | ISO/IEC 13818-1 (1995) | ISO/IEC 14496-14 | Open spec (matroska.org) |
| Packet structure | Fixed 188-byte packets | Hierarchical atoms/boxes | EBML elements |
| Joinable mid-stream | Yes (any 188-byte boundary) | No (needs moov atom) |
Limited (cluster boundaries) |
| Loss-tolerant | Yes (designed for broadcast) | No | No |
| Common video codecs | H.264, H.265, MPEG-2 | H.264, H.265, AV1 | H.264, H.265, AV1, VP9 |
| Common audio codecs | AAC, AC-3, MP2 | AAC, AC-3 | Almost any |
| Primary use | Broadcast, HLS, IPTV | File delivery, streaming | Archival, ripping |
| File size overhead | Highest (header per 188B) | Low | Low |
Duration and Resolution Quick Guide
| Setting | Picks for slideshow | Picks for HLS segment | Picks for broadcast slate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration per image | 3-5s | 2-6s (match target segment length) | 5-10s |
| Resolution | 1920×1080 | 1280×720 or 1920×1080 | 1920×1080 (HD broadcast) |
| Background color | Black or White | Black | Black |
| Merge strategy | Merge images | Video per image | Merge images |
Frequently Asked Questions
What video codec does the output .ts file use?
H.264 (AVC) at the "Very High" quality preset by default. The TS container itself is codec-agnostic per ISO/IEC 13818-1 and supports H.264, H.265 (HEVC), MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-1, and others — but H.264 is the right pick for almost every modern workflow because it's the codec mandated by HLS for TS segments and is universally hardware-decoded.
Why is there no audio track?
Source images contain no audio, so the converter doesn't fabricate a silent track. If your downstream player or broadcast server requires an audio PID, mux a silent AAC track in afterwards with a tool like FFmpeg, or convert the .ts and a separate audio file together with a video editor.
Can I use the output as HLS .ts segments directly?
For pre-segmented HLS, use "Video per image" so each .ts file becomes one segment, and pick a resolution and duration matching your manifest's EXT-X-TARGETDURATION (typically 2-6 seconds per Apple's HLS authoring guidance). You'll still need an HLS packager to write the .m3u8 playlist, set the EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE, and align timestamps — xconvert produces the segments, not the playlist.
Why is my .ts file larger than an equivalent MP4?
MPEG-TS adds a 4-byte header to every 188-byte packet for synchronization and PID metadata, plus periodic Program Association and Program Map Tables. That overhead is roughly 2-3% versus MP4's nearly-flat overhead. The tradeoff buys you packet-level error recovery and the ability to join the stream from any packet boundary — exactly what broadcast and HLS need.
What aspect ratios and resolutions should I pick for broadcast?
For ATSC (North America) and DVB (Europe) HD broadcast, use 1920×1080 at 16:9 — the converter exposes this as "Fixed Resolutions → 1920×1080". For SD legacy systems use 720×480 (NTSC) or 720×576 (PAL). For HLS adaptive streaming, generate multiple renditions: 1920×1080, 1280×720, and 854×480 are typical rungs.
Does it preserve image quality, or does H.264 compress my photos?
H.264 is lossy, so a 24-megapixel RAW will be downsampled to your chosen output resolution and re-encoded with quantization. The "Very High (Recommended)" preset produces visually transparent output for typical viewing, but if you need pixel-perfect frames pick "Constant Quality" mode. For lossless still-frame archival, TS is the wrong container — use a TIFF or PNG sequence instead.
How does this differ from converting images to MP4 then remuxing to TS?
Direct image-to-TS skips the intermediate MP4 file and the second muxing pass — fewer rounding errors on PTS/DTS timestamps, no moov atom to write and rewrite, and a single re-encode. If you already have an MP4 you're happy with, MP4 to TS is the faster path; if you're starting from images, going straight to .ts is cleaner.
Can I convert .ts back to MP4 later?
Yes — TS to MP4 does the inverse. Both containers commonly carry H.264, so the picture survives the round trip at visually lossless quality, though the video is re-encoded rather than copied.
What input formats are supported?
JPG/JPEG, PNG, HEIC/HEIF, WEBP, GIF (first frame), BMP, TIFF, ICO, JFIF, PPM, PSD, EPS, XCF, AVIF, ODD, ODG, PUB, plus camera RAW formats: 3FR (Hasselblad), ARW (Sony), CR2/CR3 (Canon), CRW, DCR, DNG (Adobe/Leica/Pentax), ERF, MOS, MRW, NEF (Nikon), ORF (Olympus), PEF (Pentax), RAF (Fujifilm), RW2 (Panasonic), and X3F (Sigma). 36 formats total per the converter's accepted-extensions list.