Demultiplexer (media file)

A demultiplexer for digital media files, or media demultiplexer, also called a file splitter by laymen or consumer software providers, is software that demultiplexes individual elementary streams of a media file, e.g., audio, video, or subtitles and sends them to their respective decoders for actual decoding.¹ Media demultiplexers are not decoders themselves, but are format container handlers that separate media streams from a (container) file and supply them to their respective audio, video, or subtitles decoders.²

• Microsoft AVI splitter - Part of Microsoft Windows.³⁴⁵
• Haali Media Splitter - demultiplexes MP4 (MPEG-4), M2TS (MPEG transport stream) and MKV (Matroska) files.⁶
• FLV Splitter - demultiplexes Flash video files.⁷
• Gabest splitter (part of Media Player Classic) - demultiplexes e.g. 3GP, MP4
• LAV Splitter - part of the LAV Filters project (open source DirectShow media splitter and decoders).⁸
• libavformat (part of the FFmpeg project) - demultiplexes many formats e.g. 3GP, ASF, AVI, FLV, SWF, M2TS, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPG, NSV, NUT, Ogg, RM, AIFF, AU, WAV, etc.⁹
  • e.g. used in MPlayer and GOM Player
• libvlc (part of VideoLAN project and VLC Media Player) - demultiplexes many formats e.g. MPEG transport stream, MPEG program stream, MP4, MOV, 3GP, Ogg, OGM, ASF, WMV, WMA, MKV, FLV, etc.¹⁰
• Nero Splitter
• Ogg DirectShow Filters¹¹ - demultiplexes Ogg container
• tsMuxeR, using the Demux output option
• MP4Box, command line MP4 multiplexer/demultiplexer with GUIs like My MP4Box

Playback difficulties (such as no playback, no audio, or no video) may result from several or legacy file splitters for a particular file format being installed on an operating system. This causes decoder-to-file-splitter mismatch resulting in playback failure on media players.