Hello,
I've just bought a small Freeview TV which has USB PVR function, so you can record onto a flash drive. The file format of the recorded programmes is MPEG2-TS, with suffix .ts , which I've never heard of before. Having Googled a bit, I understand the TS stands for "Transport stream".

I'm just wondering whether these .ts files have any sort of time limit to them? I'm aware there are certain formats that delete themselves automatically if you haven't watched them after a certain time (e.g. files downloaded from BBC iPlayer). Is this the case with TS files, or am I confusing two completely different things here? Sorry to ask what is probably a very dumb question; it's just that I'd kick myself if I recorded something and then found it had spontaneously combusted by the time I got around to watching it!

Many thanks in advance if anyone can advise. Apologies for the duplicate post in two forums, but I wasn't quite sure whether this belongs here or in Freeview recording so am posting in both.

It should be covered in the manual but the mpeg-2 ts files you have are just recordings of the raw broadcast stream and if not copy protected or time-limited should also be copyable and playable on say a PC, with free programs such as VLC Player.

If not copy-protected or copy-limited (e.g. some HD progs) you should be fine to do what you like with say BBC and ITV recordings for as long as you like - unless the manual says otherwise. There is usually a menu indicator if recorded programs cannot be copied or are otherwise restricted.

Thanks for the reply d'@ve, I appreciate it. The recordings are only SD (the TV doesn't have an HD tuner) so hopefully that means there are no timescale issues if it takes me a while to get around to watching them! Thanks again.

One thing you have to watch out for however with these TV PVR functions is that very often the recordings are "locked" so that they only play back on the actual TV that recorded them. Even an identical one of the same make/model won't play them.

It should not prevent you watching them any time you like on the TV. It is just that you won't be able to plug the drive into a PC or a friend's TV to watch them if they are device locked. Which is fine if the TV is working but could be a bit of a bummer if it disappears in a cloud of smoke one day and has to be replaced. You then have a bunch of recordings you can't do anything with!

Oh and I won't mention that legally you can't copy them or keep them in a library for repeated viewing...