Install tsduck with Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix, winget

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• tsanalyze
• tsbitrate
• tscharset
• tscmp
• tsconfig
• tscrc32
• tsdate
• tsdebug
• tsdsmcc
• tsdump
• tsecmg
• tseit
• tsemmg
• tsfclean
• tsfixcc
• tsflute
• tsftrunc
• tsfuzz
• tsgenecm
• tshides
• tslatencymonitor
• tslsdvb
• tsnip
• tsp
• tspacketize
• tspcap
• tspcontrol
• tspsi
• tsresync
• tsscan
• tssmartcard
• tsstuff

Project history

TSDuck's README calls it a reference framework for MPEG transport streams and describes a modular C++ toolkit built from command-line tools, plugins, and a reusable library. The project copyright range, 2005-2026, and the long official changelog show a mature broadcast-engineering codebase rather than a recent CLI wrapper.

The toolkit's design is deliberately Unix-like: many small utilities and plugins each do one job, and the `tsp` transport stream processor chains plugins to analyze or transform live and recorded streams. The developer guide describes most tools and plugins as wrappers around a shared TSDuck library, which is also usable from third-party C++ programs.

The official changelog records a major public 3.x-era expansion from at least 2017 onward: table compilation and character-set support in 2017, HLS, SCTE 35, SimulCrypt helpers, and hardware support in 2018-2019, JSON output and language bindings around 2020-2021, BSD ports in 2023, fuzzing in 2024, InfluxDB/Grafana metrics and secure control interfaces in 2025, and DSM-CC and newer analyzer commands in 2026.

Adoption history

The README documents multiple official installation channels: Homebrew on macOS, winget on Windows, FreeBSD Ports, and prebuilt packages for several Linux distributions and architectures. The input metadata also records Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix, and winget package-manager identifiers, showing unusually broad package coverage for a specialized broadcast tool.

TSDuck's adoption is concentrated in digital TV engineering rather than general software development. Its official usage list covers DVB, ATSC, ISDB, ASI, IP multicast, HLS, SRT, RIST, SCTE 35, MPE, EPG/EIT generation, CAS head-end emulation, tuner/modulator hardware, and monitoring pipelines, which explains why package users value convenient binaries despite the niche domain.

How it is used

TSDuck is used from the shell to acquire, inspect, modify, generate, and route MPEG transport streams. The README highlights `tsp` as the central processor: users connect an input, one or more processing plugins, and an output to form repeatable lab or production pipelines.

The command set includes analyzers such as `tsanalyze`, `tsdump`, `tspsi`, `tstables`, `tspcap`, and `tsbitrate`; generators and converters such as `tspacketize`, `tstabcomp`, and `tsxml`; stream-control tools such as `tspcontrol` and `tsswitch`; and specialized utilities for DVB, ATSC, ISDB, SCTE 35, SimulCrypt, tuner hardware, and network captures.

For developers, the official docs describe a C++ library, Python and Java bindings, a developer guide, and a programming reference. That makes TSDuck both a command-line toolkit and an embeddable MPEG-TS implementation.

Why package nerds care

TSDuck is a package-nerd standout because it brings a deep broadcast-engineering toolbox into ordinary package managers. A single formula installs dozens of domain-specific commands that would otherwise require specialized vendor tools or hand-built C++ software.

Its changelog is also valuable package-manager evidence: it records ABI/toolchain shifts, new OS support, layout changes for libraries, plugins, and shared files, and new binary-distribution surfaces. Those are exactly the details packagers care about when keeping media infrastructure tools reproducible.

Timeline

• 2005: Project copyright range begins, according to the official README.
• 2017: Changelog records TSDuck 3.2 with Windows development environment packaging and Linux development packages.
• 2018: Changelog records additions including `tsversion`, Teletext/SCTE 35 tooling, MPE plugins, SimulCrypt helpers, and portable Windows packages.
• 2020: Changelog records JSON output formats and `tsversion` release checks against GitHub.
• 2021: Changelog records Java bindings and additional stream-processing plugins including pcap, memory, RIST, and `tspcap`.
• 2023: Changelog records ports to FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and DragonFlyBSD.
• 2024: Changelog records `tsfuzz` and plugin `fuzz` for transport-stream corruption testing.
• 2025: Changelog records InfluxDB/Grafana metrics, secure control APIs, and the TSCore/TSDuck library split for third-party developers.
• 2026: Changelog records DSM-CC extraction tooling and version 3.45 release notes.

Related projects

• The official README places TSDuck in the MPEG/DVB/ATSC/ISDB tooling ecosystem and lists hardware and protocol integrations including Dektec, HiDes, AstroMeta/VATek, ASI, UDP multicast, HLS, SRT, RIST, SCTE 35, and DVB SimulCrypt.

Sources

• https://github.com/tsduck/tsduck#readme
• https://tsduck.io/changelog/
• https://tsduck.io/docs/tsduck-dev.html
• https://tsduck.io/docs/tsduck.html
• source_facts.package-manager