What Is an M2TS File?

This is a container format often used for Blu-ray movies

By
Tim Fisher
Photo of Tim Fisher, Lifewire GM and Writer
Tim Fisher
Senior Vice President & Group General Manager, Tech & Sustainability
  • Emporia State University
Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the SVP and General Manager of Lifewire.
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Updated on January 11, 2023

What to Know

  • M2TS files are BDAV (Blu-ray Disc Audio-Video) MPEG-2 Transport Stream video files.
  • Open one with VLC, SMPlayer, 5KPLayer, Splash, and other popular media player applications.
  • Convert from M2TS to MP4, MKV, MOV, AVI, etc., with MiniTool Video Converter or another free file converter tool.

This article explains what M2TS files are, how to open them on your computer, and how to save them to a more recognizable format like MP4 or MKV.

What Is an M2TS File?

If you've ever ripped a Blu-ray movie, you may have seen files with the M2TS (MPEG-2 Transport Stream) file extension. These are Blu-ray BDAV (Blu-ray Disc Audio-Video) videos.

How to Play an M2TS File

M2TS files can be opened with VLC, Potplayer, SMPlayer, 5KPlayer, Splash, and other popular media player applications. All those players are available for Windows, but VLC also works for playing M2TS videos on Linux and macOS.

If the media player you're using isn't opening the file, change the extension to MTS. Some software might only recognize the file if it uses the shorter extension, or vice versa.

As a standard, Blu-ray players should be able to play M2TS files natively. Select gaming consoles may support the format as well, without having to convert the file first.

How to Convert an M2TS File

The best way to convert an M2TS file to MP4, MKV, MOV, AVI, and other formats, is with a free file converter tool. This list of Free Video Converter Programs and Online Services includes several programs that support this format.

If the video converter you use can only do M2TS to MP4 conversions, for example, but you want the video to be in some other format, convert to MP4 using that app, and then use an MP4 converter to save the file to the final format you're interested in.

For example, to burn an M2TS file to a DVD, combine two programs: Use iWisoft Free Video Converter to save to a format like MOV, then open that file in Freemake Video Converter to burn it to a DVD.

Convert Files is an online M2TS converter that converts files to MPEG, M4V, ASF, WMV, etc. Since Convert Files is a website, you must upload the video online before you can convert it, then you can download it to your computer. This process may take a while, so bigger M2TS videos are best converted using an offline converter tool.

Still Can't Open It?

Some file extensions look like they read M2TS when they're really a little different. Even if they're spelled similarly, the formats might not be related, and that's probably why you can't open the file with one of the M2TS players above.

For example, the M2 file extension doesn't have anything to do with M2TS video files. M2 files are either model objects used with the World of Warcraft game, or PC-98 game music files. Neither are related to M2TS files and therefore don't open with the programs mentioned above.

M2T files are very close in spelling to M2TS files and are video files, in the HDV Video file format. However, M2T files are commonly used as the HD video recording format for cameras, not Blu-rays.

If your file doesn't open with the programs from above, double-check the file extension to ensure that it says .M2TS. If it doesn't, research the file extension you see to learn more about the format and which programs are able to open it.

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