Beginner’s Tutorial: Remuxing Blu-ray Rips with TSremux

TSremux vs. Other Remuxers: When to Choose ItTSremux is a specialized tool for working with MPEG-TS (Transport Stream) files, popular among users who handle digital TV captures, set-top box recordings, and certain types of Blu-ray or IPTV rips. It focuses on remuxing — extracting audio, video, and subtitle streams and repackaging them without re-encoding — which preserves quality and is much faster than transcoding. This article compares TSremux to other common remuxers, explains its strengths and limitations, and gives practical guidance on when to choose TSremux versus alternatives.

What is remuxing and why it matters

Remuxing means repackaging compressed audio/video streams from one container format into another without changing the underlying codecs. The main advantages are:

• Lossless quality preservation: no re-encoding artifacts.
• Speed: operations are mostly file copying and indexing.
• Flexibility: you can change container formats, add/remove or reorder streams, and fix stream mapping or timestamps.

Common input formats for remuxing include .ts (MPEG-TS), .m2ts (Blu-ray), .mkv (Matroska), and raw elementary streams. Popular remuxers include TSremux, tsMuxeR, ffmpeg, mkvtoolnix (mkvmerge), and specialized GUI frontends like eac3to (Windows) or BDInfo/front-ends. Each tool has trade-offs in supported features, speed, platform availability, and ease of use.

TSremux: core strengths

• Designed for MPEG-TS: TSremux excels at handling .ts and .m2ts containers, including variable PID setups and common quirks from broadcast/recording devices.
• Preserves streams exactly: no re-encoding; streams are passed through.
• Stream selection and ordering: supports selecting specific audio/subtitle tracks, reordering, and setting track metadata.
• Timestamp and PCR handling: offers tools to fix or rebuild timestamps, PAT/PMT tables, PCR issues and continuity counters often broken by capture devices.
• Lightweight and fast: minimal processing overhead means very quick operations.
• Scripting-friendly: suitable for batch operations in automated workflows.

Best for: users dealing primarily with broadcast captures, IPTV, satellite/cable recordings, or Blu-ray rips that are already in MPEG-TS family containers and require lossless repackage or repair.

Other remuxers: overview and where they shine

• ffmpeg

  • Versatile, cross-platform command-line tool that handles nearly any container/codec.
  • Can remux, transcode, extract streams, and perform complex filtering.
  • More heavyweight and has a steeper learning curve for advanced remux-only tasks.
  • Excellent when you need format conversion (e.g., .ts → .mkv) plus stream remapping or codec changes.

• tsMuxeR

  • Popular for Blu-ray and AVCHD remuxing (creating .m2ts and Blu-ray structures, or .iso images).
  • Good at muxing for Blu-ray playback compatibility and producing .ts/.m2ts outputs.
  • Often used when creating playable Blu-ray folders/ISOs or splitting/combining TS streams for BD-compatibility.

• mkvtoolnix / mkvmerge

  • The standard for creating and editing Matroska (.mkv) files.
  • Strong track metadata support, chapter handling, and subtitle attachment.
  • Ideal when target is .mkv and you need fine-grained control over tags, chapters, attachments, or complex track settings.

• eac3to (and frontends)

  • Windows-focused tool loved by many for Blu-ray/audio extraction and remuxing.
  • Powerful for handling DTS/TrueHD/AC3 manipulations and precise track operations.
  • Often used in rip workflows that require exact audio handling or conversion.

• Commercial GUI tools (e.g., VideoReDo, TSSmith)

  • Provide visual editing, cutting, and stream repair with user-friendly interfaces.
  • Useful if you need trimming, commercial removal, or a GUI for continuity/offset fixes.

Feature comparison (at-a-glance)

When to choose TSremux

Choose TSremux when one or more of the following apply:

• You primarily work with .ts, .m2ts, or other MPEG-TS family files from tuners, IPTV, or capture devices.
• The file has timestamp/PCR/continuity issues that need specialized TS-aware repair.
• You need a fast, lossless repack with precise control over PID mapping and stream order.
• You prefer a lightweight CLI tool suitable for batch processing in scripts or server workflows.
• You want to keep streams intact (no re-encoding) and avoid the complexity of ffmpeg filters.

Example scenarios:

• A recorded TV show in .ts with audio track mis-ordered and occasional PCR discontinuities: TSremux can remap tracks and rebuild timestamps quickly.
• Concatenating multiple recorded segments from a PVR that produced inconsistent continuity counters: TSremux can cleanly join and fix the stream.

When to pick another tool

Pick ffmpeg when:

• You need wide codec/container support or must transcode streams (e.g., change codecs, re-encode).
• You require advanced filtering (scaling, deinterlacing, subtitle burn-in).
• You want a single tool for both remuxing and more complex video/audio processing.

Pick tsMuxeR when:

• You’re authoring Blu-ray-compatible streams, creating Blu-ray folders or ISO images, or need AVCHD/BD restrictions respected.

Pick mkvmerge when:

• Your target is Matroska and you need rich tagging, chapter editing, attachments (fonts, codecs), or advanced MKV features.

Pick eac3to when:

• You need precise audio track extraction/conversion (DTS, TrueHD, multi-channel handling) as part of a Blu-ray rip workflow.

Practical tips and workflow examples

• TS-to-MKV, preserve streams and fix timestamps:
  • Use TSremux to extract and fix streams, then mkvmerge to create a final .mkv with tags/attachments if needed.
• Batch-fixing many recordings:
  • Script TSremux in a loop to remap/repair dozens of .ts files, then optionally run mkvmerge or ffmpeg for container conversion.
• Need to transcode one problematic audio track:
  • Use TSremux to extract streams, ffmpeg to transcode that single audio track, and mkvmerge to assemble the final .mkv.

Limitations and gotchas

• TSremux is specialized; it may lack conveniences for non-TS formats or advanced MKV features.
• Not all builds are equally cross-platform — check availability for your OS or use Wine on Linux/macOS if needed.
• GUI options and community support are smaller compared to ffmpeg or mkvtoolnix.
• Always test on a copy first — remuxing is fast but mistakes in track mapping can produce unusable outputs if automated without checks.

Conclusion

TSremux is a focused, efficient choice when working with MPEG-TS family files where lossless remuxing, PID/timestamp repair, and fast batch processing are priorities. For broader format support, advanced filtering, or Matroska-specific features, pair TSremux with tools like ffmpeg or mkvmerge, or choose those tools outright depending on the task. Use TSremux when you need a TS-aware, no-frills remuxer that keeps streams intact and fixes transport-stream-specific issues.