Basic question on MPEG-2 multiplexing

[nharikrishna]

A very basic questin.

I have .m2v & .ac3 files which are a result of MPEG-2 DVD encoding done by Adobe Media Encoder.

If I want to poduce an MPEG file out of these (for archival or authoring purposes), I understand I need to 'Multimplex' them.

The questions are...

a. Does multiplexing involve any encoding or quality loss?
b. What are the best free tool available for MPEG-2 multiplexing?

I could not get Adobe Media Encoder to produce just MPEG files. It always produces m2v & ac3 files.

regards

[yoda313]

Multiplexing does not change quality it just packages them into a convienient single file.

Try avstodvd and set to mpeg output if you don't want to make a full authored dvd yet. Edit - if you want to go old school you could use tmpengc plus 2.5 and go to mpeg tools - multiplexing and do it there - set to mpeg2 and walla all done. - tmpengc plus is not freeware but it does have a trial offer.

[El Heggunte]

b. What are the best free tool available for MPEG-2 multiplexing?

IMHO — mplex.exe

[AlanHK]

Does multiplexing involve any encoding or quality loss?
b. What are the best free tool available for MPEG-2 multiplexing?

a) no

b) try eg free version of Muxman
If you get GfD and use the video and audio files to author a DVD, it will produce an mpeg file in the temp folder it uses while making the VOB files.
GfD includes a command line multiplexer, mplex.exe. You can use that directly to just make a mpeg if you like:
command line example:

"P:\GUI4dvdauthor\mplex.exe" -M -f 8 -o "q:\Temp\406.mpg" "s:\406.m2v" "s:\406.ac3"

(From the batchrun0.bat that GfD makes; you can just run that and not make the entire DVD fileset)

[filmboss80]

Just mux them: https://www.videohelp.com/tools/ImagoMPEG-Muxer

[PuzZLeR]

If you have lots of these files now, and will in the future, it may be painful muxing one at a time. If you need to save time on this, I can recommend TMPGEnc MPEG Editor because it's got a batch muxing feature and is fast with many files at the same time (and of course lossless).

It's payware but may be worth it if you edit and output lots of these streams.

[AlanHK]

Or you can write a batch file to mux a whole folder at once with mplex.

[nharikrishna]

All, thanks a lot for the replies.

After exploring, I just realised, Adobe Media Encoder does have the facility to multiplex. It is just under the tab "Multiplexer', and it has options of "DVD" & "None". If I select "DVD", it is actualy producing .MPG file as opposed to m2v and ac3 files. So multiplexing is happening right after it encodes to MPEG-2 DVD.

After muxing, the final file size of the .mpg is 'slightly' higher than m2v & ac3 combined.

However I made a note of all mux tools you recommended, will consider using them when required.

Regards