What is the TP file format?
.tp files are MPEG-2 Transport Stream recordings produced by SnapStream's Beyond TV personal video recorder software for Windows. Popular in the mid-2000s, Beyond TV used the .tp extension as a proprietary rename of the standard MPEG-2 TS format - the binary structure is byte-for-byte identical.
The underlying format follows ISO/IEC 13818-1: a continuous stream of fixed 188-byte packets, each opening with sync byte 0x47. Packets carry PID-identified payloads including PAT/PMT program tables, video PES streams (MPEG-2 or H.264), audio PES streams, and EIT metadata. Any player or tool that handles .ts opens .tp without conversion - a simple file rename also works.
Recordings range from 200 MB to 10 GB depending on length and bitrate. SnapStream Beyond TV has been discontinued. VideoReDo TVSuite, the primary Windows tool for editing .tp files, ceased development with build 6.62.6.833 in August 2024. Modern PVR software such as MythTV and Plex records to .ts or MKV instead. Players including VLC, mpv, and FFmpeg open .tp files natively.
Security & safety
RISK: LOWTP files are video media data and do not execute. Risk is low - the main concern is maliciously crafted streams triggering decoder bugs, so keep VLC/MPV updated. Files from unofficial sources or peer-to-peer downloads should be scanned as any video file.
Format details
in a nutshell- TeleText Presentation file - Some legacy European teletext systems used .tp for presentation/page data - unrelated to video.
Programs that open TP files
Windows7 apps
VLC media player
Open-source Open the .tp directly in VLC - it auto-detects TS content regardless of extension. 
FFmpeg
Open-source Fast lossless remux: 'ffmpeg -i recording.tp -c copy out.mp4' (no re-encode when codecs are already MP4-compatible). 
VideoReDo TVSuite
Paid Open the .tp for frame-accurate TS editing and commercial removal. Note: development ended 2024; licensing server may not remain online indefinitely. 
macOS2 apps
Linux2 apps
Technical details
deep spec| Underlying standard | MPEG-2 Transport Stream (ISO/IEC 13818-1) - byte-identical to standard .ts files |
| MIME type | video/mp2t |
| Sync byte | 0x47 at offset 0, repeating every 188 bytes throughout the stream |
| Packet size | Fixed 188 bytes per packet (standard MPEG-2 TS) |
| Byte order | Big-endian (per ISO/IEC 13818-1 specification) |
| Video codecs carried | MPEG-2 Video or H.264 (AVC), depending on broadcast or recording source |
| Audio codecs carried | MPEG-1/2 Audio (MP2), AC-3 (Dolby Digital), AAC |
| In-stream metadata | PAT, PMT, EIT program tables embedded as dedicated TS packets by PID |
| Packet integrity | 3-bit continuity counter per PID for packet-drop detection; no file-level checksum |
| Typical file size | 200 MB - 10 GB (approximately 1 GB per hour at typical DVB bitrates) |
| Origin application | SnapStream Beyond TV PVR for Windows (mid-2000s, discontinued) |
| Interoperability | Any .ts-capable player or transcoder opens .tp natively without conversion or reconfiguration |
| Maximum resolution | Up to 1920×1080 (HD) per the MPEG-2 or H.264 stream content |
| Released | mid-2000s (SnapStream Beyond TV 3.x, using standard MPEG-2 TS) |
| Latest version | MPEG-2 Systems ISO/IEC 13818-1 (unchanged; SnapStream Beyond TV discontinued ~2010s) |
| Open standard | Yes · royalty-free |
| Specification | en.wikipedia.org |
TP conversions
Community Q&A
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