joined ts video has 3-second delay if jumping to different time

[cpliu]

I have tried TSsplitter, VLC (using raw instead of re-encode), batch, and they all join the files fine. There is no problem playing from beginning to end, but a long delay (~ 3 second) if you skip to a different time on the timeline. It probably has to wait for it to reach the next keyframe. But, if I play withm3u8 file (playlist of all ts files) with VLC, you can jump to different time without delay. In VLC, you can convert it to MP4 which takes a long time and the file size is 20% bigger than all ts files together. I prefer not to re-encode but would like to have the smooth playback when skipping to different frames.

Is there software to do that without re-encoding?

Thanks,

[Bernix]

Do you mean join multiple *.ts files? You can use for this MKVtoolnix. In VLC there is in settings fast skip, so it start plays on nearest keyframe, which is useful, but if you have a 20 sec interval, it can take some time to recalculate from keyframe to position you choose. So yes, it is most probably what you mentioned. Mkvtoolnix can merge almost anything that has same resolution, audio and video codec and fps. But not sure if understand properly.

Berni

[cpliu]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I meant to join multiple .ts files to MP4. I tried MKVToolnix and it worked. I opened the first ts and append the rest to the first. It generate MKV file that when playing in MPC-HC there is no wait when clicking a different time of the video.
More questions:
I checked the properties, it's still H264. I don't usually use MKV. I renamed it to MP4 and it still plays. Is it OK to do that?
The size of the joined video is smaller than the total size of the TS files. How is it possible?

Thanks,

[sneaker]

I checked the properties, it's still H264. I don't usually use MKV. I renamed it to MP4 and it still plays. Is it OK to do that?

Don't do it. MKV is MKV and MP4 is MP4. Changing the extension will only lead to confusion later on.

The size of the joined video is smaller than the total size of the TS files. How is it possible?

MKV container has less overhead than TS. TS is designed for broadcast where the viewer must be able to start playing anywhere in the file without having the beginning of it. So a lot of information must be repeated.

TS also doesn't have an index while MKV does. That's why seeking is fast in MKV and slow or inaccurate in TS.

[cpliu]

Thanks for the helpful info.

[jagabo]

Since you have a good MKV file: use https://www.videohelp.com/software/MkvToMp4 to remux to MP4.

[Bernix]

The size is smaller, because *ts (transport stream container) is by nature bigger then mkv, it contains many more information so therefore is bigger. MP4 should be bit bigger than MKV also when you use MkvToMp4 as jagabo correctly suggested you.

Edit: didn't noticed sneakers second part of answer, so you have it twice

Bernix