Demultiplexer

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What Does Demultiplexer Mean?

A demultiplexer (often abbreviated as a demuxer or dmux) is a software or hardware tool that creates two or more streams of data from a single-stream input. A demultiplexer performs the inverse function of a multiplexer, which essentially consolidates numerous data streams into one single stream of information or media.

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Techopedia Explains Demultiplexer

Demultiplexers take transmissions and divide them into their designated components. They perform the inverse function of multiplexers. Generally speaking, multiplexers are devices or programs that consolidate multiple inputs into a single output. For example, if a video file needs stereo audio added to it, it can be multiplexed (muxed) with the right and left audio channels. Inversely, if audio needs to be extracted from a video file, demultiplexing (demuxing) the source file would output separate audio and video files.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.