1out123(1) General Commands Manual out123(1)
2
6 out123 - send raw PCM audio or a waveform pattern to an output device
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9 cat audio.raw | out123 [ options ]
10 out123 --wave-freq freq1[,freq2,...] [ options ]
12
14 out123 reads raw PCM data (in host byte order) from standard input and
15 plays it on the audio device specified by given options. Alterna‐
16 tively, it can generate periodic signals for playback itself.
17
19 out123 options may be either the traditional POSIX one letter options,
20 or the GNU style long options. POSIX style options start with a single
21 ``-'', while GNU long options start with ``--''. Option arguments (if
22 needed) follow separated by whitespace (not ``=''). Note that some
23 options can be absent from your installation when disabled in the build
24 process.
25 --name name
27 Set the name of this instance, possibly used in various places.
28 This sets the client name for JACK output.
29 -o module, --output module
31 Select audio output module. You can provide a comma-separated
32 list to use the first one that works.
33 --list-modules
35 List the available modules.
36 -a dev, --audiodevice dev
38 Specify the audio device to use. The default is system-depen‐
39 dent (usually /dev/audio or /dev/dsp). Use this option if you
40 have multiple audio devices and the default is not what you
41 want.
42 -s, --stdout
44 The audio samples are written to standard output, instead of
45 playing them through the audio device. The output format is the
46 same as the input ... so in this mode, out123 acts like the
47 standard tool cat. This shortcut is equivalent to ``-o raw -a
48 -''.
49 -O file, --outfile
51 Write raw output into a file (instead of simply redirecting
52 standard output to a file with the shell). This shortcut is
53 equivalent to ``-o raw -a file''.
54 -w file, --wav
56 Write output as WAV file file , or standard output if - is or
57 the empty string used as file name. You can also use --au and
58 --cdr for AU and CDR format, respectively. Note that WAV/AU
59 writing to non-seekable files or redirected stdout needs some
60 thought. The header is written with the first actual data. The
61 result of decoding nothing to WAV/AU is a file consisting just
62 of the header when it is seekable and really nothing when not
63 (not even a header). Correctly writing data with prophetic head‐
64 ers to stdout is no easy business. This shortcut is equivalent
65 to ``-o wav -a file''.
66 --au file
68 Write to file in SUN audio format. If - or the empty string is
69 used as the filename, the AU file is written to stdout. See
70 paragraph about WAV writing for header fun with non-seekable
71 streams. This shortcut is equivalent to ``-o au -a file''.
72 --cdr file
74 Write to file as a CDR (CD-ROM audio, more correctly CDDA for
75 Compact Disc Digital Audio). If - is or the empty string used
76 as the filename, the CDR file is written to stdout. This short‐
77 cut is equivalent to ``-o cdr -a file''.
78 -r rate, --rate rate
80 Set sample rate in Hz (default: 44100). If this does not match
81 the actual input sampling rate, you get changed pitch. Might be
82 intentional;-)
83 -c count, --channels count
85 Set channel count to given value.
86 -e enc, --encoding enc
88 Choose output sample encoding. Possible values look like f32
89 (32-bit floating point), s32 (32-bit signed integer), u32
90 (32-bit unsigned integer) and the variants with different num‐
91 bers of bits (s24, u24, s16, u16, s8, u8) and also special vari‐
92 ants like ulaw and alaw 8-bit. See the output of out123's
93 longhelp for actually available encodings. Default is s16.
94 -m, --mono
96 Set for single-channel audio (default is two channels, stereo).
97 --stereo
99 Select stereo output (2 channels, default).
100 --list-encodings
102 List known encoding short and long names to standard output.
103 --test-format
105 Check if given format is supported by given driver and device
106 (in command line before encountering this), silently returning 0
107 as exit value if it is the case.
108 --test-encodings
110 Print out the short names of encodings supported with the cur‐
111 rent setup.
112 --query-format
114 If the selected driver and device communicate some default
115 accepted format, print out a command line fragment for out123
116 setting that format, always in that order: --rate <r> --channels
117 <c> --encoding <e>
118 -o h, --headphones
120 Direct audio output to the headphone connector (some hardware
121 only; AIX, HP, SUN).
122 -o s, --speaker
124 Direct audio output to the speaker (some hardware only; AIX,
125 HP, SUN).
126 -o l, --lineout
128 Direct audio output to the line-out connector (some hardware
129 only; AIX, HP, SUN).
130 -b size, --buffer size
132 Use an audio output buffer of size Kbytes. This is useful to
133 bypass short periods of heavy system activity, which would nor‐
134 mally cause the audio output to be interrupted. You should
135 specify a buffer size of at least 1024 (i.e. 1 Mb, which equals
136 about 6 seconds of usual audio data) or more; less than about
137 300 does not make much sense. The default is 0, which turns
138 buffering off.
139 --preload fraction
141 Wait for the buffer to be filled to fraction before starting
142 playback (fraction between 0 and 1). You can tune this pre‐
143 buffering to either get sound faster to your ears or safer unin‐
144 terrupted web radio. Default is 0.2 (changed from 1 since ver‐
145 sion 1.23).
146 --devbuffer seconds
148 Set device buffer in seconds; <= 0 means default value. This is
149 the small buffer between the application and the audio backend,
150 possibly directly related to hardware buffers.
151 --timelimit samples
153 Set playback time limit in PCM samples if set to a value greater
154 than zero. out123 will stop reading from stdin or playing from
155 the generated wave table after reaching that number of samples.
156 --wave-freq frequencies
158 Set wave generator frequency or list of those with comma separa‐
159 tion for enabling a generated test signal instead of standard
160 input. Empty values repeat the previous one.
161 --wave-pat patterns
163 Set the waveform patterns of the generated waves as comma-sepa‐
164 rated list. Choices include sine, square, triangle, sawtooth,
165 gauss, pulse, and shot. Empty values repeat the previous one.
166 --wave-phase phases
168 Set waveform phase shift(s) as comma-separated list, negative
169 values inverting the pattern in time and empty value repeating
170 the previous.
171 --wave-limit samples
173 Set a custom soft limit on the wave table size. Small values
174 cause larger changes in actual frequencies to make whole periods
175 fit.
176 -t, --test
178 Test mode. The audio stream is read, but no output occurs.
179 -v, --verbose
181 Increase the verbosity level.
182 -q, --quiet
184 Quiet. Suppress diagnostic messages.
185 --aggressive
187 Tries to get higher priority
188 -T, --realtime
190 Tries to gain realtime priority. This option usually requires
191 root privileges to have any effect.
192 -?, --help
194 Shows short usage instructions.
195 --longhelp
197 Shows long usage instructions.
198 --version
200 Print the version string.
201
203 Maintainer:
204 Thomas Orgis <maintainer@mpg123.org>, <thomas@orgis.org>
205 Creator (ancestry of code inside mpg123):
207 Michael Hipp
208 Uses code or ideas from various people, see the AUTHORS file accompany‐
210 ing the source code.
211
213 out123 is licensed under the GNU Lesser/Library General Public License,
214 LGPL, version 2.1 .
215
217 http://www.mpg123.org
218 http://sourceforge.net/projects/mpg123
219 26 May 2016 out123(1)