I need an easier way of removing the audio track from MPEG2 files.

June 4, 2007 1:20 PM

Is there an easy way to remove the audio track from MPEG2 files?

I use a Sony HDD based camcorder that generates files w/ a .MPG extension. The files themselves are actually MPEG2 (not MPEG1) files. More often than not, I need to remove the audio track from these files. Currently, the only tool I have to do that is Pinnacle Studio 10 which is a bit of a beast of a program that takes a few steps and a re-encode of the file to get to audio-free MPEG2 files.

Does anyone know of a simpler tool that will do this? Preferably one that does not require a re-encode of the video files. Thanks for your input.

posted by nickerbocker to Technology (5 answers total)

I think what you're looking for is called a "demuxing" program. I've used one for the opposite process (extracting audio files that I wanted to have without video). You shouldn't need a reencode to do this. The name of the exact program I used escapes me, but I think this is a pretty common function in video editing programs.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 1:31 PM on June 4, 2007

Best answer: tmpgenc is a popular mpeg2 encoding app and has demuxing features under File > Mpeg Tools. Been a long while since I've played with it. I believe the trial is free but its like 30 dollars after.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:37 PM on June 4, 2007

Best answer: if you're comfortable with a command line, mencoder will do this quick and easy:

mencoder -noaudio -ovc copy <source> -o <target>
posted by jammer at 1:47 PM on June 4, 2007

As was mentioned, you want to de-multiplex the video file. There are many tools that will do this. Tmpgenc (mentioned by damn dirty ape) is trial-ware, but I think that the only thing that gets disabled if you don't pay is the MPEG-2 encoder. The muxer-demuxer will work without registering the program.

An amazing site with answers to nearly any video question is videohelp.com. They've got a database of video tools that lists several mux/de-mux programs. (Click on "Tools", then "Video De/Multiplexers". Many of these are avi or mpeg-4 tools, but there are a number of mpeg-2 ones you can try as well.

Note that in some situations, de-muxing a video file and then re-muxing the video and audio together again can result in synch issues. If you're going to be joining your video and audio back together again that's something to be aware of.
posted by scottnic at 2:28 PM on June 4, 2007

and if you want to extract the audio from another mpeg2 file:

mplayer -dumpaudio -dumpfile foo.aud foo.mpeg2
posted by joeblough at 2:57 PM on June 4, 2007