Viewing MPEGs on a Sony Bravia LCD TV

I recently bought a Sony Bravia TV that's got a USB socket on it.  I've also got a Satellite Receiver with USB, and I record programmes onto USB drives.  I then edit them on a PC, and create MPG files, which I can burn to DVD or play on any number of cheap Chinese USB media devices.  None of this process involves recoding, so does not lose any quality - the playback MPEG file is a bit for bit copy of the original broadcast.

I was disappointed to find that my Sony Bravia TV refuses to play these MPG files!

A few days worth of Googling find many other people annoyed at this, but no easy solutions.  I could recode the MPEG into a format the TV likes, but this loses quality.  I want to avoid re-encoding.

Looking at the specs that the Sony Bravia TV supports, I see that M2TS is supported. This is significant, as it's a container file format.  To put it simply, you can wrap M2TS around a standard MPEG file - no re-encoding!

I tried this, and it works!  You can quickly convert MPEG files into a format that will play on a Sony Bravia, with no loss in quality!



First, get yourself a copy of tsMuxeR. This is freeware software, and available from here : http://www.smlabs.net/tsmuxer_en.html (at time of writing, look on the right-hand side of the page, and click on Download tsMuxeR 1.10.6 (Windows).  The software is also available for Mac or Unix, but I've not tried these.

Unzip the file, and copy all the files somewhere useful. I made a folder in C:\Program Files\TSMUXER and put all the files in there.  I then made a shortcut to tsMuxeR GUI.

When you run this, you'll get a fairly simple screen with options on it.  Open an Explorer window, and find an MPEG you want to convert. Drag it across and drop it on the "input files" part of the tsMuxeR window.

Lower down, click the dot next to " m2TS muxing" in the Output section. Change the destination folder by clicking on the Browse button.  You can browse straight to your USB stick if you like, and save the file there.

Then click "Start Muxing". It will only take a few minutes, if that, and it's done!  Disconnect the USB stick, plug it into your Sony Bravia, and you'll be able to play your newly converted MPEG file with no loss in quality.

I hope this helps those frustrated that Sony Bravias are reluctant to play MPG files that play almost anywhere else.