# AUDIO\_TS folder **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 27, 2008, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio_ts-folder/457891 "2008-07-27T01:23:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2008, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio_ts-folder/457891/1 "2008-07-27T01:23:49Z")
Anyone who has examined a standard DVD on their computer has noticed that it generally has two folders, VIDEO\_TS and AUDIO\_TS. Anyone who has investigated further has noticed that VIDEO\_TS is where all the action is. Contrary to my first assumption — that the soundtrack was saved as a separate fileset, which _would_ make it convenient for movies where you get to pick what language you’re gonna listen to or whether to listen to the voice-over commentary, etc — all the audio is right there in the files that are in VIDEO\_TS. What the heck is the AUDIO\_TS folder for? It’s always freaking _empty_. Is it a hanger-on from an earlier era when it was actually _used_ for something? Some movie DVDs don’t even have an AUDIO\_TS folder! Why do the rest? ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio_ts-folder/457891/2 "2008-07-27T01:31:01Z")
It only has one purpose—it’s where all the action goes in the (I believe now-defunct) audio DVD format. It was supposed to be a super hi-fidelity format for discriminating audiophiles. I was working for the third-largest record distributor in the United States when it was rolled out, and it went absolutely nowhere. As far as I know, it’s deader than the dodo bird now. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2008, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio_ts-folder/457891/3 "2008-07-27T01:33:08Z")
The AUDIO\_TS folder is intended to be used for audio DVDs. The format never really took off, but the AUDIO\_TS folder remains as a holdover. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio_ts-folder/457891/4 "2008-07-27T01:38:35Z")
Thanks for asking this, **AHunter**. I’ve always wondered about this. Never even thought that it might be a remnant of good ol’ audio DVDs, but that makes perfect sense. So do we even need to create the AUDIO\_TS folder when making a video DVD? Or is it always okay to make just a VIDEO\_TS folder these days? (I have a lot of DVD images on my external hard drive, and sometimes those AUDIO\_TS folders are a pain when moving around directories at the command prompt, since they come first alphabetically and that means an extra tab to get the VIDEO\_TS directory to appear.) ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2008, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio_ts-folder/457891/5 "2008-07-27T01:42:53Z")
[QUOTE=chorpler] So do we even need to create the AUDIO\_TS folder when making a video DVD? [/QUOTE] Nope. I never bother to create an AUDIO\_TS folder when authoring DVDs. Some authoring software makes it automatically, so I just let it. But, it’s not needed for a video DVD so you can certainly omit it.