$re = '/\b\d\d:\d\d:\d\d\K,(?=\d\d\d\b)/m';
$str = '00:01:17,000';
$subst = ".";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php