Re: tsMuxeR - when to use it?
Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2020 2:14 am
It's "complicated". I certainly don't remember all the details, but in short, it lets you remux the existing streams into a MPEG-TS file, which is supported on anything that supports DLNA, since it's kind of the "core" format in the standard.
This means that it's very "light" (as compared to actually transcoding) while retaining the original quality. FFmpeg can do the same, at least in most cases, but there used to be some compatibility issues with FFmpeg's TS output (something with timestamps I think). This meant that some renderers would play it, while others wouldn't.
If this is still the case, I have no idea. FFmpeg might have raised the quality of their output in the meanwhile, or they might not. Because of this problem, UMS didn't use to use FFmpeg for remuxing, only for transcoding (where FFmpeg "created" the streams instead of copying them). For some reason, the problem with FFmpeg was only there when only muxing AFAIU. I know that this has changed on some of the most recent versions, but I have no idea if that means that FFmpeg is fixed or not.
So, in short, if you don't need/want to just remux when possible, as opposed to a full transcoding, or if you do, but the FFmpeg output works fine for your device(s), then you don't need tsMuxeR.
This means that it's very "light" (as compared to actually transcoding) while retaining the original quality. FFmpeg can do the same, at least in most cases, but there used to be some compatibility issues with FFmpeg's TS output (something with timestamps I think). This meant that some renderers would play it, while others wouldn't.
If this is still the case, I have no idea. FFmpeg might have raised the quality of their output in the meanwhile, or they might not. Because of this problem, UMS didn't use to use FFmpeg for remuxing, only for transcoding (where FFmpeg "created" the streams instead of copying them). For some reason, the problem with FFmpeg was only there when only muxing AFAIU. I know that this has changed on some of the most recent versions, but I have no idea if that means that FFmpeg is fixed or not.
So, in short, if you don't need/want to just remux when possible, as opposed to a full transcoding, or if you do, but the FFmpeg output works fine for your device(s), then you don't need tsMuxeR.