Different methods of extracting h264 from an mkv?

[tezmo]

Hey peeps,

I should very much like to take an mkv file, extract the component h264 and ac3 streams, and remux into an mpeg2ts for viewing on the playstation3. This topic has been done to death, I am sure.

The above can be performed quite adequately by tsMuxeR. My problem is that I should like to do *everything* on my NAS, which uses the ARM platform for which there is no build of tsMuxeR. Hence the tools at my disposal are all open source - the likes of ffmpeg, mkvextract etc etc.

My question is as follows. I can extract my h264 stream in one of two ways, using (for example):

mkvextract tracks sample.mkv 1:video.h264 2:audio.h264

or I can use tsmuxer, with meta file (for example):

MUXOPT --no-pcr-on-video-pid --new-audio-pes --demux --vbr --vbv-len=500
V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC, "Z:\temp\sample.mkv", fps=23.976, track=1, lang=eng
A_AC3, "Z:\temp\sample.mkv", track=2, lang=und

The tsMuxer options are all set to perform a bare minimum of manipulation: the profile level is not changed, picture timing info is not written, and SPS/PSS is not inserted.

comparing both cases, the audio file produced is always identical, whilst the video from tsMuxeR is always slightly bigger (by a few kb).

If I remux (using ffmpeg) the audio and mkvextract'ed video, I get a file that does not work on my ps3.

If I remux (using ffmpeg) the audio and tsMuxeR extracted video, the file works on the ps3 just dandy.

My question is: what is tsMuxeR doing differently when extracting the h264 stream, and how can I recreate it with mkvextract (or similar!) on my ARM box? Thank you all

[tezmo]

no ideas, anybody?