Convert TS to WAV Online
Extract audio from MPEG-TS TV recordings and DVR to lossless WAV, free, in your browser.
.ts, .mts · up to 100 MB
What it's for
TS to WAV: digital TV and radio audio to lossless
DVB/IPTV to PCM
Decodes MPEG-2, AC-3, AAC, and PCM from MPEG-TS streams to WAV with no additional loss.
TV/radio transcription
WAV ready for Whisper, Azure Speech, or Google Cloud STT to transcribe recorded programs.
Broadcast archival
48 kHz PCM WAV as permanent archival format per IASA broadcast audio standards.
100% private
Recordings processed in your browser with FFmpeg.wasm. They never leave your device.
How it works
Three steps, no hassle
Upload your TS file
Drag or select your .ts or .m2ts. DVR recordings, IPTV streams, DVB-T/DVB-S captures. Up to 500 MB.
Audio stream extraction
FFmpeg demultiplexes the MPEG-TS container, detects the audio PID (MPEG-2, AC-3, AAC, or PCM), and decodes to lossless PCM. No server uploads.
Download the WAV
Audio ready for transcription, DAW editing, forensic analysis, or permanent lossless archival.
FAQ
Got questions?
The MPEG-TS container (MPEG Transport Stream, specified in ISO/IEC 13818-1) is the standard format for digital television broadcasting worldwide. Audio streams may be encoded in several codecs depending on the broadcast standard: MPEG-2 Audio Layer II (MP2) is the historical standard in DVB-T Europe (defined in ETSI EN 300 401) and remains mandatory at many European broadcasters for compatibility with legacy receivers; AC-3 (Dolby Digital, ATSC A/52) is the standard in ATSC broadcasting in the US, Canada, and Mexico, also used in Blu-ray; AAC in AAC-LC, HE-AAC, and HE-AAC v2 variants is the standard in modern DVB, ISDB-T (Japan/Brazil/Argentina), and many IPTV platforms; uncompressed PCM at 48 kHz/16-bit is used in some high-quality broadcast channels and studio recordings. When converting to WAV, FFmpeg automatically detects the codec and decodes to PCM.
DVR recordings from devices such as TiVo, Sky+, Humax, Topfield, or any hard-disk receiver save TV programs in MPEG-TS format. IPTV recordings via apps like VLC, OBS Studio, or IPTV middleware also produce TS files. Key use cases for extracting WAV audio include: transcribing recorded TV or radio programs (news, debates, documentaries); extracting soundtrack or background music from programs for multimedia projects; recovering sports commentary or event narration for subtitling; archiving historical radio broadcasts retransmitted via DVB; preparing audio for forensic analysis in media fact-checking contexts.
TS-to-WAV conversion introduces no additional loss beyond what already existed in the original audio codec of the stream. If the TS contains MP2 or AC-3 (lossy codecs): the resulting WAV is the exact PCM decoding of the compressed stream, with no additional degradation. If the TS contains AAC: the WAV is the PCM decoded from the AAC bitstream without re-encoding. If the TS contains PCM: the WAV is a bit-perfect copy. WAV quality is determined by the bitrate and codec of the original stream: HD TV broadcasters typically use AC-3 at 384–640 kbps or AAC at 128–320 kbps, providing very good audio quality for transcription and analysis.
Digital TV MPEG-TS streams can contain multiple audio PIDs: the main audio in the primary broadcast language, additional language tracks (dubbing), audio description tracks for visually impaired viewers, and sometimes director commentary or effects-only tracks. By default, FFmpeg selects the first audio stream (typically the main language) for conversion to WAV. If you need to extract a specific track, the recommended workflow is to first analyze the file with ffprobe to identify available audio PIDs and their language metadata, then use FFmpeg with the -map 0:a:N parameter (where N is the desired stream index) on the command line. Convertir.ai extracts the primary audio track automatically.
Digital terrestrial radio broadcasters (DAB/DAB+ in Europe, HD Radio in the US) and radio stations that relay their signal via digital TV channels (DVB-T, DVB-S, IPTV) can be recorded as MPEG-TS streams using DVB-USB receivers (such as RTL-SDR with GNU Radio or SDR# software, or more specific receivers like the Hauppauge WinTV) or via IPTV services. Extracting the WAV audio from these recordings enables: transcribing radio programs with Whisper, Azure Speech-to-Text, or Google Cloud STT to create searchable text archives; creating podcasts from recorded radio programs; archiving historical radio broadcasts in lossless WAV for digital preservation per IASA standards.
The workflow to subtitle a DVR sports recording using WAV extracted from the TS is: 1) Upload the .ts to Convertir.ai and download the PCM WAV (typically 48 kHz/16-bit for HD recordings); 2) Upload the WAV to the OpenAI Whisper API (large-v3 model, which offers the best WER for sports Spanish and English) or to Azure Cognitive Services Speech with the sports-specific model; 3) The result is a transcription in JSON format with word-level timestamps; 4) Convert the Whisper JSON to SRT or VTT using tools like whisper-timestamped or stable-whisper; 5) Import the SRT into your video editor (Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro) and align with the original video. The PCM WAV quality extracted from TS is sufficient for Whisper large-v3 to achieve WER below 8% for sports commentary, even with stadium crowd noise.
Convert TS to WAV: extract audio from MPEG-TS TV recordings to lossless
The MPEG Transport Stream format (MPEG-TS, specified in ISO/IEC 13818-1 / ITU-T H.222.0) was originally developed by the MPEG group in the early 1990s for transmitting digital audio and video over error-prone channels such as satellite and cable. Unlike the MPEG Program Stream (PS, used in DVD), the Transport Stream is designed to be robust against transmission errors by dividing content into fixed 188-byte packets, each identified by a 13-bit PID (Packet Identifier). This architecture allows multiplexing multiple programs (TV channels) in a single physical stream — fundamental to digital terrestrial television (DVB-T, ATSC), satellite (DVB-S), cable (DVB-C), and IPTV platforms. Every modern DVR, from Sky+ in the UK to TiVo in the US, to Humax, Topfield, or Dreambox receivers widely used in Europe, stores recordings in MPEG-TS format with extensions .ts, .m2ts, .mts, or .rec.
Extracting audio from MPEG-TS recordings to PCM WAV is especially relevant in three domains: media production, broadcast archival, and media forensic analysis. In media production, journalists and producers who record TV and radio programs for analysis or repurposing need audio in a standard working format. Dubbing and subtitling studios working with broadcast material frequently receive TS files from broadcasters and need to extract audio for processing in their DAWs (Pro Tools, Nuendo, Logic Pro). In archival, cultural institutions such as national radio and television archives (RTVE in Spain, RAI in Italy, INA in France) preserve audiovisual heritage in MPEG-TS as an intermediate storage format, with PCM WAV as the high-quality working derivative. Per IASA TC-06 guidelines (Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects, 2nd Edition 2009), 48 kHz/24-bit PCM WAV is the recommended format for broadcast audio preservation.
Convertir.ai performs the TS-to-WAV conversion entirely in the browser using FFmpeg.wasm. The technical process involves: parsing the MPEG-TS container by reading 188-byte packets and analyzing the program information tables (PAT — Program Association Table, PMT — Program Map Table) to identify available audio PIDs and their codec types (stream_type in the PMT: 0x03=MPEG Audio, 0x81=AC-3/Dolby Digital, 0x0F=AAC); demultiplexing the selected audio PID to extract the Elementary Stream (ES); decoding the ES using the corresponding decoder in libavcodec (MPEG Audio Layer II via libavcodec internal, AC-3 via integrated liba52, AAC-LC/HE-AAC via native AAC decoder); converting the decoded audio to signed 16-bit PCM at the original stream sample rate (48 kHz for most HD TV recordings, 44.1 kHz for some digital radio broadcasts); encapsulating in the RIFF WAVE container with fmt and data chunks. HD TV recordings with AC-3 5.1 surround are downmixed to stereo WAV by default, preserving the full broadcast audio intelligibility for transcription and analysis workflows.