stream_type(1)

Usage

stream-type [-err stdout] [-err stderr] [{-verbose | -v}] [{-quiet | -q}] in_file

Overview

Attempt to determine if an input stream is Transport Stream, Program Stream, or Elementary Stream, and if the latter, if it is H.262 or H.264 (i.e., MPEG-2 or MPEG-4/AVC respectively). The mechanisms used are fairly crude, assuming that:

data is byte aligned
for TS, the first byte in the file will be the start of a NAL unit, and PAT/PMT packets will be findable
for PS, the first packet starts immediately at the start of the file, and is a pack header
if the first 1000 packets could be H.262 *or* H.264, then the data is assumed to be H.264 (the program doesn't try to determine sensible sequences of H.262/H.264 packets, so this is a reasonable way of guessing)

It is quite possible that data which is not relevant will be misidentified

Files

in_file: is the file to analyse

Switches

-err stdout: Write error messages to standard output (the default)
-err stderr: Write error messages to standard error (Unix traditional)
-v, -verbose: Output more detailed information about how it is making its decision
-q, -quiet: Only output error messages

Return values

The program exit value is:

10: if it detects Transport Stream,
11: if it detects Program Stream,
12: if it detects Elementary Stream containing H.262 (MPEG-2),
14: if it detects Elementary Stream containing H.264 (MPEG-4/AVC),
5: if it looks like it might be PES,
9: if it really cannot decide, or
0: if some error occurred

History

Debian 13 (Trixie) to Debian 11 (Bullseye): the text shown here
Debian 10 (Buster) to Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)