MPEG-TS (MPEG transport stream) is the container designed for delivery over unreliable, real-time channels — terrestrial and satellite broadcast, IPTV, and HLS segments. It chops everything into small fixed 188-byte packets and multiplexes audio, video, and timing into one stream that can be tuned into mid-flow and degrades gracefully when packets are lost. Each elementary stream carries PTS/DTS timestamps, and the program clock reference (PCR) gives the decoder the master clock to interpret them. Its robustness is why it survived from digital TV into streaming, though the move to CMAF and fragmented MP4 is gradually replacing TS for on-demand and low-latency HLS.
