Avidemux cannot open raw MPEG streams. Instead, it can open indexed MPEG streams. The index is a text file containing navigation information. It is needed to allow frame accuracy.

When you open an MPEG file, you will be asked to create the index file. If the selected file looks like foo1.xxx, Avidemux will try to append foo2.xxx, foo3.xxx It is done automatically but the file must have a name like *[0-9].xxx.

Avidemux can handle one (and only one) audio stream from an MPEG file at a time. From 2.2 and on, all audio tracks are available (using Audio→Main Track), you can change audio track at any time.

Of course, you will need the audio decoder to play the selected track back (MAD for MP2, a52dec for AC3 and libdca for DTS).

Both MPEG PS & TS will be considered perfect, i.e. there will be no correction for dropped or damaged packets.

All timestamp information will be ignored.

It means that if your captured stream is not perfect, you will have async problems. In that case, better first to run ProjectX on the stream to make it perfect.

As for MPEG streams, a NuppelVideo file has no internal index.

Avidemux will rebuild it automatically upon loading (that could take some minutes).

Avidemux will try to maintain audio/video sync, but it could cause a “plop” from time to time. From personal experience, it is rather good (I tried with a 8 hours long nuppel_gatos file without problems).

If you used the menu (and not the command line) you will be asked to save an index upon loading. If you say yes and save it, loading this index will load the same nuv file but very quickly.

For MythTV users with a WinTV PVR x50 or similar cards, the nuv files are in fact plain MPEG files, see above.

Avidemux can also open a stream of uncompressed BMP files (RGB) or a set of JPEG files or a set of PNG files.

Their name must follow the pattern xx0000.bmp, xx00001.bmp (that is, m letters + n digits + .bmp). Change .bmp to .jpg if it is JPEG.

The latest version of Avidemux can usually decode the WMV/ASF containers, there are occasionally some files that still have problems with opening or playing. If you have that problem, then you can try to place the WMV contents into an AVI container.

To create this container, you can use the MEncoder in copy mode, e.g.:

mencoder [wmv file] -oac copy -ovc copy -cache 8192 -ofps 100.0 -o [avi file]

Currently, you must also forcefully set the framerate of the output file to 100.0 frames per second (fps), otherwise you will experience large amounts of frame dropping when you come to edit your actual video footage as WMV/ASF is variable fps video.

After you have created your output file, you can load it into Avidemux for editing.