TS to HEIF Converter

How to Convert TS to HEIF Online

1. Upload Your TS File: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to load .ts recordings — DVR captures, ATSC/DVB broadcast dumps, IPTV streams, or camcorder splits. Batch upload is supported; each file is processed independently.
2. Pick Frame Selection: Choose Specific Frame and enter the timestamp in seconds (e.g., 12.5 for the 12.5-second mark), or pick Multiple Screenshots to extract a HEIF every N seconds across the whole clip. Both modes write standards-compliant HEIF (HEVC-encoded) files.
3. Tune Quality and Resolution (Optional): Set Quality Preset (default Very High — also available: Highest, High, Medium, Low) or switch to Target file size (%) / Specific file size in MB. Pick a Preset Resolution from 144p up to 4320p (8K), scale by percentage, or enter custom width/height while keeping aspect ratio.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert". Files process server-side, then download individually or as a ZIP. No sign-up, no watermark, no email gating.

Why Convert TS to HEIF?

A .ts file (MPEG Transport Stream, ISO/IEC 13818-1) is a broadcast-grade container designed for satellite, terrestrial, and IPTV delivery — but you rarely want to keep an hour-long stream when all you need is a clean still frame. HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format, ISO/IEC 23008-12, standardised in 2015) stores that frame at roughly half the size of an equivalent-quality JPEG by reusing the HEVC video codec for still-image compression. For people who already record in .ts, converting to HEIF is the most space-efficient way to archive specific moments. Typical use cases:

• DVR thumbnail and bookmark images — Tools like TVHeadend, Plex DVR, and MythTV record live TV as .ts. Extracting a HEIF at a chosen timestamp gives you a poster image for your media library at a fraction of the size of a PNG screenshot.
• CCTV and IP-camera evidence stills — Many security recorders save NVR exports as MPEG-TS. Pulling a HEIF still of the relevant frame is small enough to email or attach to a police report without a 200 MB video.
• Broadcast QC and compliance — Engineers checking ATSC or DVB captures for logo placement, lower-third timing, or PSIP captioning need a still image — a HEIF preserves more colour detail than JPEG when the source is 10-bit HDR content.
• Sports and news clip stills — A .ts dump from an OTA tuner card converted to a HEIF still slots straight into Keynote, Pages, and Apple Photos on macOS 10.13+, iOS 11+, and Windows 11 22H2+ (which gained native HEIF support out of the box).
• 8K and HDR archival frames — HEIF supports up to 16-bit colour and BT.2020 wide gamut, which JPEG cannot represent — useful when your TS source is a 4K HDR stream and you want the still to preserve the highlights.
• iPhone and iPad workflow — HEIF is the default iPhone photo format since iOS 11 (2017). Stills exported from .ts recordings will preview, scrub, and share through iMessage and AirDrop without any conversion step on the receiving device.

Need a video output instead of a still? Use TS to MP4 or TS to MP3 for audio extraction. For more familiar still formats from the same source, see TS to JPG or TS to PNG.

TS vs HEIF — Format Comparison

Quality Preset and Resolution Guide

Defaults on the xconvert tool are Quality: Very High, Resolution: Keep original. Use this table to pick the right balance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert TS to HEIF instead of JPG or PNG?

HEIF stores a single still at roughly half the bytes of an equivalent-quality JPEG and supports 10-bit colour, HDR metadata, and transparency — none of which JPEG can do. PNG is lossless but unbounded in size (a 4K PNG can easily exceed 10 MB; the same scene as HEIF is usually under 1 MB). If you specifically need cross-browser web display today, JPG remains safer because Safari is currently the only browser with native HEIF support. For Apple-ecosystem workflows or storage-constrained archives, HEIF wins.

Will the HEIF preserve 10-bit HDR colour from my TS source?

Yes, when the source TS carries 10-bit HEVC (common in modern ATSC 3.0, DVB-T2, and 4K satellite captures) and you keep Quality Preset at Highest or Very High. HEIF's HEVC profile supports 10-bit and 12-bit colour as well as BT.2020 wide-gamut metadata. JPG conversions would clip that to 8-bit and sRGB — a real loss if you're capturing HDR broadcasts.

What's the difference between HEIF and HEIC?

HEIC is HEIF with HEVC encoding — it's the specific subset Apple ships on iPhones and Macs, and the .heic extension is mandated by the HEIF standard for HEVC-encoded files. HEIF is the broader container that can also carry AV1 (then called AVIF, .avif), AVC, JPEG, or VVC. xconvert outputs standards-compliant HEIF using HEVC, so the file will open everywhere HEIC opens — and you can rename it .heic if a tool insists on that extension.

Why do I only get a single frame, not a video?

HEIF is primarily a still-image container. The converter extracts the frame you pick (Specific Frame at a timestamp) or a sequence of frames (Multiple Screenshots every N seconds), each saved as its own HEIF. HEIF does support image sequences and animations technically, but most viewers — including macOS Preview and Windows Photos — only show the first frame. For true video output, use TS to MP4 instead.

What devices and apps can open HEIF files?

Native support: macOS High Sierra (10.13) and later, iOS 11 and later, iPadOS, Android 10+ (HEIC) or Android 8+ (HEIF), Windows 11 22H2 and later out of the box, and Windows 10 with the free HEIF Image Extension. Among browsers, only Safari 17+ renders them in <img> tags. Cross-platform image editors: Adobe Photoshop 2022+, Affinity Photo, GIMP 2.10.2+ via plugin, ImageMagick, and IrfanView. If a recipient can't open HEIF, the safest fallback is to also export a JPG.

Can I extract a specific scene by timestamp rather than a frame number?

Yes — the Specific Frame option takes seconds (decimal allowed). Enter 30 for the frame at 30 seconds, 90.5 for the frame at 1 minute 30.5 seconds, or 3600 for the one-hour mark. The converter seeks to the nearest decodable frame; with .ts sources from broadcast, that's typically every 0.5-2 seconds depending on the GOP length the broadcaster used.

Does my .ts file's bitrate or codec affect the HEIF output?

The video codec (MPEG-2 vs H.264 vs H.265) affects only how the source frame is decoded; the HEIF encode is an independent step. A high-bitrate H.265 TS will give you the cleanest possible source frame, but even an old MPEG-2 broadcast capture (typical of pre-2010 ATSC recordings) will produce a clean HEIF — limited by the source's resolution and quantisation, not by the HEIF encoder.

Is anything uploaded to your servers?

TS files are larger than browsers can comfortably decode for frame extraction, so this conversion uses xconvert's server-backed pipeline. Files are deleted after your session ends, no account is required, and there are no watermarks, file-count limits, or Pro-tier gates on the converter.