Mux Mpeg Video File With AAC Audio File

[criggs]

I thought this question would have a quick and simple answer. But, after googling for over an hour, I've satisfied myself that, for whatever reason, the answer is not readily available through a google search in a quick or easy fashion.

Here is what I believe to be my extraordinarily simple question.

I have an MPEG-2 video file, with a .mpeg file extension.

I have an AAC audio file, with a .flv extension.

I would like to know how to mux them together into one unrecoded unreprocesssed file, where neither the video nor audio has been taken down a generation or touched or tampered with in any way.

How do I do that? What software do I use?

There, you see? That's it, my very quick and brief question.

How is it possible I've been unable to find an answer on google?

Is what I am asking really that unreasonable or outlandish? I find it hard to believe that's the case.

For the sake of completeness, here are the complete stats for the two files, according to VLC's Codec info.

The video file:
Stream 0
Type: Video
Codec: MPEG-/2 Video (mpgv)
Resolution: 1280x720
Frame rate: 25
Decoded format: Planar 4:2:0 YUV

The audio file:
Stream 0
Type: Audio
Codec: MPEG AAC Audio (mp4a)
Channels: Stereo
Sample rate: 48000 Hz

There, you see? Now that isn't so hard, is it?

I really don't understand why I haven't been able to find an answer.

Thank you very much for any help!

[poisondeathray]

You can put it into a mkv container with mkvtoolnix

[KarMa]

MKV should have no problem muxing them together.

[Cornucopia]

I'd say mp4 would be a natural container for them.

Demux the flv (using ffmpeg or flv extract), then mux your video and raw audio with mp4box or yamb.

Scott

[criggs]

Thanks to all three of you for replying so quickly.

I just spent the better part of an hour reading the comments for the five pieces of software you all recommended.

As I understand it, mkvtoolnix takes care of everything, if all I need is a tool to mux my two files into a .mkv container.

On the other hand, the mp4 route will also involve first removing and refiling the raw audio info from the AAC file. No great objection to that on my part.

So I read the comments in this forum on those five aps.

Some of the comments on the four mp4 tools gave me pause. They spoke of lost MP4 thumbnails, of screwed-up Start Menu folders, etc. etc. So I'm thinking why bother if there are no reports of similar time-consuming and scary bugs using mkvtoolnix.

Is there anyone reading this thread who strongly feels differently? Is there a serious argument for muxing my two files to an mp4 file rather than an mkv file?

Here's another wrinkle that I'm thinking about: Even if mp4 is a desirable end-point, I already have the software to get to that end-point. What do I mean? Just this. I have XMedia Recode. So I could use mkvtoolnix to create the mkv container, then run that container through XMedia Recode and shift it to an mp4 container and I'm done.

Regarding mkvtoolnix, I see that there are two versions available for download, and one of them is labeled portable. I'm not familiar with this portable versus non-portable terminology. What's that about? I work on a Toshiba Satellite laptop with Windows 8. If I go with mkvtoolnix, which version do I need, the non-portable or portable?

In addition, of course, these are only three replies, though I very much appreciate all of them. Nevertheless, is there a third container someone out there might recommend instead of the mkv vs. mp4 choice? For example, is there good software out there to mux my two files to a .mpg file, or to a .flv file?

And a friend of mine just privately recommended yet another route: He recommended I mux to a .ts container. For that, he told me I needed two software aps, tsRemux to prepare the two files for muxing and then tsMuxer to perform the actual mux. What's your take on that third alternative?

I just want to make sure I've explored the top four or five options before I decide, because I tend to install aps rarely, maybe once every few months; I'm NOT an experimenter, by and large; I like to play for keeps.

Thanks again for any help!

[poisondeathray]

Thanks to all three of you for replying so quickly.

I just spent the better part of an hour reading the comments for the five pieces of software you all recommended.

As I understand it, mkvtoolnix takes care of everything, if all I need is a tool to mux my two files into a .mkv container.

On the other hand, the mp4 route will also involve first removing and refiling the raw audio info from the AAC file. No great objection to that on my part.

So I read the comments in this forum on those five aps.

Some of the comments on the four mp4 tools gave me pause. They spoke of lost MP4 thumbnails, of screwed-up Start Menu folders, etc. etc. So I'm thinking why bother if there are no reports of similar time-consuming and scary bugs using mkvtoolnix.

Is there anyone reading this thread who strongly feels differently? Is there a serious argument for muxing my two files to an mp4 file rather than an mkv file?

Here's another wrinkle that I'm thinking about: Even if mp4 is a desirable end-point, I already have the software to get to that end-point. What do I mean? Just this. I have XMedia Recode. So I could use mkvtoolnix to create the mkv container, then run that container through XMedia Recode and shift it to an mp4 container and I'm done.

Regarding mkvtoolnix, I see that there are two versions available for download, and one of them is labeled portable. I'm not familiar with this portable versus non-portable terminology. What's that about? I work on a Toshiba Satellite laptop with Windows 8. If I go with mkvtoolnix, which version do I need, the non-portable or portable?

In addition, of course, these are only three replies, though I very much appreciate all of them. Nevertheless, is there a third container someone out there might recommend instead of the mkv vs. mp4 choice? For example, is there good software out there to mux my two files to a .mpg file, or to a .flv file?

And a friend of mine just privately recommended yet another route: He recommended I mux to a .ts container. For that, he told me I needed two software aps, tsRemux to prepare the two files for muxing and then tsMuxer to perform the actual mux. What's your take on that third alternative?

I just want to make sure I've explored the top four or five options before I decide, because I tend to install aps rarely, maybe once every few months; I'm NOT an experimenter, by and large; I like to play for keeps.

Thanks again for any help!

In general, "portable" means non installed. It runs from a folder which can be located on a USB key or any drive. It doesn't mess with system registry

TS is fine, but the container overhead is about 5-7% larger. Not all applications are compatible with transport streams

MPEG2 is compatible in MP4 container...But it might not be compatible in the receiving application. It's not a standard combination. It won't play on Apple devices for example, without workarounds or hacks (MPEG2 in MKV won't either). The problem really is MPEG2.

So it depends on why you need this, what the background information, or what software or hardware you're planning on using it for are

You can do it in 1 step with ffmpeg commandline into either of the three containers.

[criggs]

In general, "portable" means non installed. It runs from a folder which can be located on a USB key or any drive. It doesn't mess with system registry.

Thanks for the explanation. So, if I understand you correctly, all I have to do is double-click the .exe file in this special folder and the program will run fine. I do not need to install it. This is helpful, as I understand it, because if I encounter problems and decide I don't want to use it any more, I can simply delete the folder, for there is no need to run the usual uninstall procedure. Do I have that right?

TS is fine, but the container overhead is about 5-7% larger.

Thanks for that tip. Not a big issue for me as I have plenty of space.

Not all applications are compatible with transport streams.

I assume, by transport streams, you are referring to .ts files. I'm guessing that that file extension, ts, stands for transport streams.

Regarding that aspect, I find that, in general, I get best results with .ts file playback with the GOM player and, second-best in some instances, the VLC player.

MPEG2 is compatible in MP4 container...But it might not be compatible in the receiving application. It's not a standard combination. It won't play on Apple devices for example, without workarounds or hacks (MPEG2 in MKV won't either). The problem really is MPEG2.

I use, as my playback application, primarily VLC, though sometimes GOM (GOM seems a bit better in seeking with .ts, .mpg and .mpeg files). In addition, I also have the VSO player, plus the usual assortment of Windows players (WMP, Winamp, Real Player, Quicktime).

So it depends on why you need this, what the background information, or what software or hardware you're planning on using it for are

Personal playback from my laptop, which I feed to my HD TV using the HDMI path. As for the software and hardware, see above.

You can do it in 1 step with ffmpeg commandline into either of the three containers.

Thanks for the suggestion. I took a look at the comments page. While this appears to be an incredibly powerful application, I'm not sure I'm ready for it. A command-line app is somewhat beyond me, at this point. I've been living with regular aps for the better part of two decades, and I might find the learning curve too steep for efficient operation.

[poisondeathray]

Yes, for portable , just double click the program. If you don't like it you can delete it, no need to uninstall. (But in mkvtoolnix there are several .exe 's. The newer GUI is "mkvtoolnix-gui.exe". The older style GUI is mmg.exe)

If it's for a laptop, it doesn't matter what container you choose. There will be no difference except the larger overhead in the transport stream

However, if you have interlaced MPEG2, some players will automatically deinterlace if it's in a transport stream, but not in MP4 or MKV - that might be good or bad depending on the situation or what your file contains. Eitherway, you should be able to set the behaviour to what you want in capable players

If it's just a one time deal, there's nothing wrong with using a couple programs and a few extra steps. Remuxing is very fast, maybe a few minutes to do everything

[criggs]

And a friend of mine just privately recommended yet another route: He recommended I mux to a .ts container. For that, he told me I needed two software aps, tsRemux to prepare the two files for muxing and then tsMuxer to perform the actual mux. What's your take on that third alternative?

I was also just told privately that I might not even need tsMuxer, that tsRemux can sometimes do it all for you.

However, looking at VideoHelp's tsRemux page, I note that the app is no longer in development, with the last version dated 2010. I suppose that shouldn't really be cause for concern. Or should it?

[poisondeathray]

Yes, tsmuxer should be able to do it if the streams are demuxed first (it probably won't be able to read AAC audio from FLV container)

[criggs]

Yes, for portable , just double click the program. If you don't like it you can delete it, no need to uninstall.

Thanks for confirming that.

The newer GUI is "mkvtoolnix-gui.exe".

Thanks for the tip. If I go this route, I'm sure that's all I'll need.

If it's for a laptop, it doesn't matter what container you choose.

I'm relieved to hear that; thanks.

If it's just a one time deal, there's nothing wrong with using a couple programs and a few extra steps.

Well, I'm trying to settle on a procedure that I'll need to use repeatedly in the coming months and, possibly, years. I have this source of audio/video files. They come in two flavors, flv files with lo-rez video and superb audio and hi-rez video with an audio problem. The hi-rez video files are being misdelivered with the audio track listed FIRST in the stream order as stream 0, and the video track listed second as stream 1, at least according to the VLC player's Codec window. When I play back the hi-rez file, there is distortion in the audio. If I demux the hi-rez file and isolate out the audio track, the audio is still bad; the act of mis-delivery in the stream order seems to PERMANENTLY damage the audio. Which is why I need to steal the audio from the lo-rez file. It's a real PITA.

The real solution, of course, would be to correct the mis-delivery of the high-rez files, but that seems to be an impossibility. If I could figure out how to change the delivery mechanism for the high-rez files, so that the video track would be stream 0 and the audio track would be stream 1, I suspect that would solve the problem, but I don't have the first clue how to do that.

I'm using RMC to download the high-rez files. There are other ways to download these files, e.g. VLC and Firefox's Download Helper. But those two methods are real-time as stream playback through the web, which is obviously very time-consuming, whereas RMC can download the files directly (except for this pesky stream order business, of course). And, of course, I freely confess that I'm not one hundred percent sure it's the weird stream order that's causing the audio distortion problem in the high-rez video files. I just know that when I download this stuff in real-time with VLC or Download Helper, the audio is fine and the stream order is normal, with the video as stream 0 and the audio as stream 1. Yes, I know, correlation does not prove causation, but it's all I have to go on.

Hope all of that made sense! It's a long way round to answering your question on whether this is a one-time deal: No, it isn't, I'm trying to standardize on the quickest possible procedure to deal with this headache on an ongoing basis. I don't care about how much space it uses, I don't care in which kind of container I end up, etc. etc.

Thanks again for the help!

[criggs]

Yes, tsmuxer should be able to do it if the streams are demuxed first (it probably won't be able to read AAC audio from FLV container)

If I go the .ts route, I'm getting indications that tsRemux may be all I need, and that I don't even need to bother with tsMuxer. On the other hand, tsMuxer seems to be a more widely trusted and used ap than tsRemux. Or am I all wet about that?

[poisondeathray]

I would use tsmuxer because it actually has been updated several times in the last 5 years

It seems more like RMC is causing the audio problems.

Did you try downloading with other programs? Maybe livestreamer or rtmpdump ? What/where are you downloading from ?