HLS to MP4 Converter
Paste an HLS (.m3u8) playlist URL and convert the stream into one MP4 file — free, no upload, no install, right in your browser.
Convert HLS to MP4 online — the short version
HLS is the delivery format of most modern web video; MP4 is the keeping format. Converting between them means fetching every segment the playlist lists and packing them into a single container — no re-encoding, no quality loss. The converter above does this entirely in your browser: paste the m3u8 URL, watch the segments arrive in parallel, and download one MP4 that plays anywhere. If you are looking for a plain download-focused workflow instead, the M3U8 downloader is the same engine with a downloader-first interface.
How HLS works: playlists, segments and variants
When you press play on an HLS stream, three things happen in quick succession. First, the player downloads the playlist — an m3u8 text file that declares each video chunk, its duration, and optionally the encryption or alternative-quality entries. Second, it measures your bandwidth and picks the matching variant from a master playlist if one is present. Third, it fetches segments — the actual .ts or fMP4 media chunks — a few seconds of video at a time, always staying a handful of chunks ahead of playback.
This architecture is why HLS conquered the web: every chunk is a plain HTTP resource that any CDN can cache, any firewall will pass, and any player can prioritize. It is also why saving an HLS video is not a simple “save file” operation — the video exists only as hundreds of pieces scattered across a CDN, described by a playlist that may expire within minutes.
A converter closes that gap. It replays exactly what a player would do — read the playlist, request every segment — but instead of playing the chunks, it joins them into one file. Do that locally in your browser and you never surrender the video to a third-party server: the segments travel from the stream's CDN straight to your device's memory.
Live streams vs. VOD: what can be converted
HLS powers two very different kinds of content, and it helps to know which one you are dealing with. A VOD stream (video on demand) has a fixed, complete playlist: every segment is listed, durations are known, and the file has an end. A live stream is a moving window: the playlist is rewritten every few seconds, old segments fall off the top, and new ones are added at the bottom as the event unfolds.
VOD playlists convert perfectly — paste, convert, done. Live streams become convertible the moment they end and the platform publishes a replay, which on most platforms is itself an HLS VOD playlist. That replay is exactly what convert live stream to MP4 means in practice: you are converting the completed recording of the broadcast, with every segment intact and in order. Recordings of live events — webinars, sports replays, church services, gaming VODs — are the most common conversion targets on this page.
Why convert HLS to MP4 at all?
Because the two formats answer different needs. HLS is optimized for distribution — adaptive quality, CDN caching, throttling control — while MP4 is optimized for possession: one file, universally playable, editable, archivable and offline. A stream you can only watch is a stream somebody else controls; the moment your lecture recording, your own broadcast replay or your purchased content becomes an MP4 on your disk, it survives link rot, platform deletions and expired CDN URLs.
Practical wins people convert for: offline playback on flights and commutes, dropping footage into video editors (which overwhelmingly want files, not playlists), burning through a course at 2x speed with full seeking, and long-term archiving of content you created yourself. In every case the conversion here is lossless remuxing — the MP4 contains exactly the bytes the stream delivered, which is why it remains crisp 1080p or 4K with untouched audio.
How to convert an HLS stream to MP4 in three steps
Copy the stream's m3u8 URL
On the page playing the video, open DevTools (F12) → Network → filter for m3u8, start playback, and copy the playlist request URL. Developer docs and platform APIs often expose it directly.
Paste it above and hit Convert to MP4
The tool parses the playlist (master or media), picks the best variant, and downloads all segments in parallel with automatic retries — progress updates live as each chunk lands.
Download the finished MP4
At 100%, click Download MP4. The file is a remuxed, Lossless container that plays in any player — phones, TVs, editors, game consoles.
Technical notes for developers
If you integrate or script against HLS sources, a few details matter. Master playlists (#EXT-X-STREAM-INF entries) carry per-variant bandwidth and resolution metadata — the converter resolves them and selects the top variant, so you can paste either playlist level. Session-bound URLs: many CDNs sign playlist and segment URLs with expiring tokens; copy the link and convert promptly, because a URL that worked an hour ago may already return 403. CORS: segments served from a different domain than the page need permissive cross-origin headers for a browser-based tool to read them; server-side proxies avoid this but reintroduce the upload step this tool exists to eliminate.
Encryption: playlists declaring #EXT-X-KEY:METHOD=AES-128 are detected before download begins and reported clearly — key material is only issued to authorized players, and attempting to strip DRM is both technically infeasible here and legally a different activity altogether. Everything else — VOD, event playlists, sliding-window replays, fMP4 CMAF segments, audio-only HLS — converts normally.
HLS to MP4: privacy and responsible use
The conversion runs 100% client-side: your browser fetches the playlist and segments directly from the source CDN, assembles the MP4 in memory, and saves it to your disk. No video data is uploaded to any server — we couldn't log, store or watch your conversions even if we wanted to. There is no queue and no file size cap; the practical limit is your device's memory.
Convert content you have the right to keep: your own uploads and broadcasts, public-domain and Creative Commons material, platform-sanctioned downloads, and content the rights holder has made available for saving. Respect copyright and each platform's terms of service — a converter is a neutral tool, and the use you put it to is what counts.
HLS to MP4 FAQ
Protocol questions, answered for humans.
What is HLS (HTTP Live Streaming)?
HLS stands for HTTP Live Streaming, a streaming protocol originally created by Apple and now supported natively by every major browser, mobile OS, smart TV and CDN. Instead of sending a video as one big file, HLS breaks it into a playlist (a text file called .m3u8) plus hundreds of small media segments — usually .ts chunks of two to six seconds each. The player downloads the playlist, then fetches the segments one after another as the video plays.
Two features made HLS the default delivery format of the web: adaptive bitrate (the playlist can describe the same video at several quality levels, and the player switches between them based on your network) and CDN friendliness (small cacheable chunks are cheap to distribute from edge servers close to the viewer). The trade-off: there is no single file to keep.
How do I convert HLS to MP4?
Paste the stream's .m3u8 playlist URL into the converter at the top of this page and click Convert to MP4. The tool downloads every segment the playlist references, in parallel, and remuxes them into one standards-compliant MP4 file — all inside your browser, with no upload and no re-encoding. You get the exact video bytes the stream contained, packed into the most portable container there is.
Can you convert a live stream to MP4 while it is airing?
A still-airing broadcast has an endless playlist — new segments are appended as the event continues, so the stream never “finishes”. The converter handles completed replays and VOD playlists: once a live stream has ended and the platform publishes a full replay (or a rolling window you can save), paste its m3u8 URL here and you'll get the whole event as one MP4. For capturing a broadcast in real time, a recording tool that saves the buffered stream while it plays is the right instrument.
Is converting HLS to MP4 lossless?
Yes. The video and audio inside an HLS stream are already encoded (typically H.264/AAC). Converting to MP4 here is a remux, not a re-encode: the segments are joined and repackaged into an MP4 container without touching the compressed streams inside. That makes it fast and mathematically lossless — the MP4 contains bit-identical video and audio to what the stream delivered.
Why does HLS use .ts segments and what is a master playlist?
The .ts (MPEG Transport Stream) format was designed for broadcast: it tolerates packet loss and can be joined mid-stream, which makes it ideal for a protocol where chunks arrive over ordinary HTTP. Newer HLS deployments increasingly use fMP4 (fragmented MP4) segments instead — the converter handles both.
A master playlist is the top-level m3u8 that doesn't contain segments at all — it lists one child playlist per quality variant (1080p, 720p, 480p…). If you paste a master playlist URL, the tool automatically selects the highest-quality variant and converts that. Media playlists (the child ones) reference the actual segments.
Does this work with DRM-protected HLS (FairPlay, Widevine)?
No — and no legitimate tool will. DRM-protected streams (Apple FairPlay, Google Widevine, Microsoft PlayReady) are encrypted with keys that are only released to licensed players after authenticating your right to watch. This converter detects encrypted playlists (AES-128 #EXT-X-KEY declarations) and tells you up front instead of producing a broken file. It is built for openly served HLS that you have the right to save.