Cut TS

How to Cut TS Files Online

1. Upload Your TS File: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to select a .ts (MPEG-2 Transport Stream) recording from your computer. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared. Batch input is supported, so several IPTV captures or HLS segments can be queued in one session.
2. Set Time Range, Start Time, and Duration: Under "Trim" choose "Time Range" and enter Start Time + Duration. Plain seconds (45.250) and HH:MM:SS.sss formats both work with millisecond precision. Cuts here are frame-accurate: the stream is decoded and the kept range re-encoded, so your cut starts exactly at your mark — unlike stream-copy tools, which can only land on a GOP boundary (often 0.5-2 s away on broadcast captures).
3. Pick Video Codec, Audio Codec, and Quality Preset (Optional): Default keeps the source codec (commonly H.264 or MPEG-2 video with AAC, AC-3, or MP2 audio). Switch Video Codec to H.264 or H.265 if the cut is destined for the web, or keep MPEG-2 + AC-3 to preserve ATSC/DVB broadcast compatibility. Adjust Quality Preset (Highest → Lowest), Target File Size % (1-100), Constant Quality (CRF), or Constant/Variable Bitrate. Use Video resolution to keep the original or downscale to 1080p, 720p, 480p, or a custom WxH.
4. Cut and Download: Click "Cut". The trimmed segment is processed on our servers and the output downloads directly — no watermark, no sign-up, no third-party upload.

Why Cut TS Files?

The MPEG Transport Stream container (.ts) was standardized as ISO/IEC 13818-1 in July 1995 as the systems layer of MPEG-2, and remains the workhorse format for digital broadcast and streaming. ATSC over-the-air TV, DVB satellite/cable, IPTV, ARIB ISDB, and Apple's original HLS implementation (introduced 2009 and now codified in RFC 8216) all push video as 188-byte TS packets. "Cutting" a TS file means extracting a sub-range — often to keep a highlight from a recorded broadcast, isolate one segment from a downloaded HLS playlist, or split a long IPTV capture into shareable clips.

• Trim recorded TV broadcasts — DVB-T/T2, ATSC, and ISDB-T receivers (TVHeadend, MythTV, Plex DVR, Tablo, HDHomeRun) save direct off-air captures as .ts. Cut a 30-minute episode out of a 4-hour evening block, or remove commercials before re-encoding.
• Extract clips from HLS / m3u8 streams — HLS playlists chain together a sequence of .ts segments, typically 2-10 seconds each (per Apple's HLS Authoring Specification). Joined .ts downloads from yt-dlp or browser HLS captures often run an hour or more — cutting lets you isolate the moment you actually need.
• Carve IPTV captures into shareable pieces — IPTV recordings (Tvheadend, ffmpeg udp:// captures, Tivimate exports) land as multi-gigabyte transport streams. Trim a 90-second highlight that fits Discord (10 MB free / 50 MB Nitro Basic / 500 MB Nitro), Slack (1 GB free), or X's 2 minute 20 second free-tier video cap.
• Pull a segment out of a Blu-ray / AVCHD source — Blu-ray BDAV (.m2ts) and AVCHD camcorder (.mts) files are TS variants with extra 4-byte timestamps. Once renamed to .ts or re-multiplexed, scenes can be cut here before re-authoring or sharing.
• Prepare clips for re-encoding to MP4 — Cut first, transcode second is faster than transcoding the whole source. Pair this with TS to MP4 to deliver a web-friendly H.264+AAC MP4 of just the part you need.
• Edit raw camera transport-stream dumps — Some professional cameras (Panasonic AG-HPX, Sony XDCAM EX in legacy modes) and screen-capture rigs write MPEG-TS directly for resilience to dropouts. Trim the lead-in and tail before bringing footage into DaVinci Resolve or Premiere.

TS vs M2TS vs MP4 — Format Comparison

Property	TS (MPEG-TS)	M2TS / MTS	MP4
Spec	ISO/IEC 13818-1 (MPEG-2 Systems, 1995)	Blu-ray BDAV / AVCHD extension of TS	ISO/IEC 14496-14 (MPEG-4 Part 14)
Packet size	188 bytes (sync byte 0x47 + 4-byte header + payload)	192 bytes (TS packet + 4-byte timecode/copyright tag)	Variable; box/atom structure (moov + mdat)
Designed for	Broadcast, lossy transmission, error resilience	Blu-ray (BDAV) and AVCHD camcorders	File storage and progressive download
Typical sources	ATSC/DVB/ISDB TV, IPTV, HLS segments, PVR captures	Blu-ray discs, Sony/Panasonic/Canon camcorders	Web video, social uploads, screen recordings
Typical video codec	MPEG-2, H.264, H.265	H.264 (AVCHD), H.265 (some 4K camcorders)	H.264, H.265, AV1
Typical audio codec	MP2, AC-3, AAC, E-AC-3	AC-3, LPCM, DTS	AAC, ALAC, AC-3
Random access	Yes — every 188-byte packet self-syncs	Same as TS plus timestamps	Requires index (moov atom)
Native browser play	Limited (no native HTML5)	No	Universal
Best for trimming	Resilient seek; keyframes GOP-aligned	Same as TS	Indexed (moov) for precise seeking

If your end goal is the web, set Video Codec to H.264 and Audio Codec to AAC during the cut, or chain through TS to MP4 for a single-purpose pipeline. Apple's HLS spec added fragmented-MP4 segment support at WWDC 2016, so the broadcast/streaming world has gradually been migrating off .ts toward fMP4/CMAF — but the existing catalog of TS files (and most off-air recorders) remains enormous.

Frame-Accurate Cutting on Transport Streams — The GOP Problem

TS files carry MPEG video as a sequence of I-frames (self-contained keyframes), P-frames, and B-frames grouped into a GOP (Group of Pictures). A cut can only start cleanly on an I-frame without decoding — which is why stream-copy cutters snap away from your mark. XConvert instead decodes the stream and re-encodes the kept range at the visually-lossless default preset, so every cut is frame-accurate.

Mode	Output Start	Quality	Speed	When To Use
Stream-copy (other tools)	Snaps to nearest preceding I-frame (commonly 0.5-2 s before your timestamp on broadcasts, 2-5 s on long-GOP HLS)	No recompression, but the start point is off your mark	Very fast	Not how this page cuts — some desktop cutters work this way
Re-encode (how XConvert cuts)	Frame-accurate to your chosen timestamp	One visually-lossless-preset pass — visually indistinguishable at the defaults	CPU work proportional to clip length	Every cut on this page, including subtitle cues, ad-break removal, 0.3 s blooper trims

ATSC broadcast captures typically use a 0.5 s GOP (every 15 frames at 29.97 fps), DVB-T runs about 1 s, and HLS segments are 2-10 s with at least one I-frame per segment. Because XConvert re-encodes the kept range, you don't have to care where those I-frames fall — the cut starts on the exact frame you request.

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly is a.ts file and why do I have one?

.ts is the MPEG-2 Transport Stream container — a sequence of 188-byte packets each starting with a 0x47 sync byte. The format was designed for broadcast (one-way, lossy channels), so every packet is independently parseable and the decoder can resync after dropouts. You usually end up with TS files from over-the-air or satellite/cable PVRs (TVHeadend, MythTV, Plex DVR, HDHomeRun, Tablo), from IPTV captures, from HLS playlists (each .m3u8 references a chain of .ts segments), or from screen recorders that prefer TS for resilience.

Will cutting reduce TS file quality?

The cut is re-encoded: XConvert decodes the selected range and re-encodes it at the visually-lossless default quality preset. That is one lossy generation on paper, but at the default settings it is visually indistinguishable from the source — and it is what makes the cut frame-accurate. Raise the Quality Preset or use the Constant Quality (CRF) control if you want to push the output even closer to the source.

Why does my cut start a second or two before the time I entered?

With XConvert it shouldn't — cuts here are re-encoded, so the output starts at exactly the timestamp you typed. The snap-back you're describing is how stream-copy cutters behave: transport streams can only resume cleanly on an I-frame, and I-frames in broadcast TS are typically spaced 0.5-2 seconds apart (HLS segments stretch this to 2-10 seconds), so those tools rewind to the nearest preceding I-frame — a requested 00:03:17 cut ends up starting at 00:03:15.50.

Can I cut a .ts from a downloaded HLS / m3u8 playlist?

Yes — once your downloader (yt-dlp, ffmpeg, browser HLS extension) has concatenated the segments into a single .ts, drop it here and set Start Time + Duration normally. Segment boundaries don't limit precision here: the cut is re-encoded, so it starts at exactly the Start Time you enter rather than snapping to the nearest segment or I-frame boundary.

What's the difference between .ts, .m2ts, and .mts?

All three carry MPEG-2 Transport Stream packets. Plain .ts is the raw 188-byte packet format used by broadcast and HLS. .m2ts is the Blu-ray BDAV variant — same 188-byte payload prefixed with a 4-byte timecode, for 192-byte packets total. .mts is the AVCHD camcorder variant of M2TS, identical structure but written by Sony/Panasonic/Canon consumer camcorders. Cut M2TS at Cut M2TS and AVCHD MTS at Cut MTS — both use the same UI as this page.

Does this tool accept TS files captured from IPTV streams?

Yes. IPTV captures (Tvheadend, ffmpeg udp:// recordings, Tivimate exports, HDHomeRun PRIME for unencrypted channels) save directly as MPEG-TS and are accepted here as-is. Note that some operator streams are CAS-encrypted before they hit the wire; encrypted TS payloads won't decode regardless of the cutter you use.

My TS file plays in VLC but the cut won't play on Mac/iPhone — why?

Native HTML5 video and Apple's QuickTime layer don't ship a TS demuxer for general playback (HLS is the exception, but only when streamed through a proper .m3u8). Convert the cut to MP4 by running it through TS to MP4 — set Video Codec to H.264 and Audio Codec to AAC (that pass re-encodes the streams into MP4-legal codecs) and the output will play on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and any social-platform upload tool.

Can I cut multiple segments from one TS file?

Each cut produces one output. Re-run the cut once per segment, varying Start Time and Duration — batch the runs in a single session and they process sequentially. To stitch the resulting clips back into one continuous file, drop them into the Video Cutter workflow or a video-merge tool. There's no "multi-range" export in a single pass on this page.

What's the maximum TS file size I can cut?

Cuts run on our servers, so the practical ceiling depends on upload size and connection speed and the source bitrate. Multi-GB ATSC/DVB recordings (typically 6-19 Mbps for HD, so roughly 2-9 GB per hour) cut fine on our servers regardless of device; on mobile the main limit is upload speed, so smaller clips upload faster. There is no hard server-side cap. For very large captures, Trim TS offers the same workflow under a different name with identical limits.