1PW-CAT(1) General Commands Manual PW-CAT(1)
2
6 pw-cat - Play and record media with PipeWire
7
9 pw-cat [options] [FILE | -]
10 pw-play [options] [FILE | -]
11 pw-record [options] [FILE | -]
12 pw-midiplay [options] [FILE | -]
13 pw-midirecord [options] [FILE | -]
14 pw-dsdplay [options] [FILE | -]
15
18 pw-cat is a simple tool for playing back or capturing raw or encoded
19 media files on a PipeWire server. It understands all audio file formats
20 supported by libsndfile for PCM capture and playback.
21 It understands standard MIDI files for playback and recording. This
23 tool will not render MIDI files, it will simply make the MIDI events
24 available to the graph. You need a MIDI renderer such as qsynth, timid‐
25 ity or a hardware MIDI rendered to hear the MIDI.
26 DSD playback is supported with the DSF file format. This tool will only
28 work with native DSD capable hardware and will produce an error when no
29 such hardware was found.
30 When the FILE is - input and output will be from STDIN and STDOUT re‐
32 spectively.
33
35 -h | --help
36 Show help.
37 --version
39 Show version information.
40 -v | --verbose
42 Verbose operation.
43 -R | --remote=NAME
45 The name the remote instance to connect to. If left unspecified,
46 a connection is made to the default PipeWire instance.
47 -p | --playback
49 Playback mode. Read data from the specified file, and play it
50 back. If the tool is called under the name pw-play or
51 pw-midiplay this is the default.
52 -r | --record
54 Recording mode. Capture data and write it to the specified file.
55 If the tool is called under the name pw-record or pw-midirecord
56 this is the default.
57 -m | --midi
59 MIDI mode. FILE is a MIDI file. If the tool is called under the
60 name pw-midiplay or pw-midirecord this is the default. Note
61 that this program will not render the MIDI events into audible
62 samples, it will simply provide the MIDI events in the graph.
63 You need a separate MIDI renderer such as qsynth, timidity or a
64 hardware renderer to hear the MIDI.
65 -d | --dsd
67 DSD mode. FILE is a DSF file. If the tool is called under the
68 name pw-dsdplay this is the default. Note that this program
69 will not render the DSD audio. You need a DSD capable device to
70 play DSD content or this program will exit with an error.
71 --media-type=VALUE
73 Set the media type property (default Audio/Midi depending on
74 mode). The media type is used by the session manager to select
75 a suitable target to link to.
76 --media-category=VALUE
78 Set the media category property (default Playback/Capture de‐
79 pending on mode). The media type is used by the session manager
80 to select a suitable target to link to.
81 --media-role=VALUE
83 Set the media role property (default Music). The media type is
84 used by the session manager to select a suitable target to link
85 to.
86 --target=VALUE
88 Set a node target (default auto). The value can be:
89 auto Automatically select (Default)
91 0 Don't try to link this node
93 <id> The object.serial or the node.name of a target node
95 --latency=VALUE[units]
97 Set the node latency (default 100ms)
98 The latency determines the minimum amount of time it takes for a
100 sample to travel from application to device (playback) and from
101 device to application (capture).
102 The latency determines the size of the buffers that the applica‐
104 tion will be able to fill. Lower latency means smaller buffers
105 but higher overhead. Higher latency means larger buffers and
106 lower overhead.
107 Units can be s for seconds, ms for milliseconds, us for mi‐
109 croseconds, ns for nanoseconds. If no units are given, the la‐
110 tency value is samples with the samplerate of the file.
111 -P | --properties=VALUE
113 Set extra stream properties as a JSON object.
114 -q | --quality=VALUE
116 Resampler quality. When the samplerate of the source or destina‐
117 tion file does not match the samplerate of the server, the data
118 will be resampled. Higher quality uses more CPU. Values between
119 0 and 15 are allowed, the default quality is 4.
120 --rate=VALUE
122 The sample rate, default 48000.
123 --channels=VALUE
125 The number of channels, default 2.
126 --channel-map=VALUE
128 The channelmap. Possible values include: mono, stereo, sur‐
129 round-21, quad, surround-22, surround-40, surround-31, sur‐
130 round-41, surround-50, surround-51, surround-51r, surround-70,
131 surround-71 or a comma separated list of channel names: FL, FR,
132 FC, LFE, SL, SR, FLC, FRC, RC, RL, RR, TC, TFL, TFC, TFR, TRL,
133 TRC, TRR, RLC, RRC, FLW, FRW, LFE2, FLH, FCH, FRH, TFLC, TFRC,
134 TSL, TSR, LLFR, RLFE, BC, BLC, BRC
135 --format=VALUE
137 The sample format to use. One of: u8, s8, s16 (default), s24,
138 s32, f32, f64.
139 --volume=VALUE
141 The stream volume, default 1.000. Depending on the locale you
142 have configured, "," or "." may be used as a decimal separator.
143 Check with locale command.
144
146 The PipeWire Developers <‐
147 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/issues>; PipeWire is
148 available from https://pipewire.org
149
151 PipeWire(1), pw-mon(1),
152 PW-CAT(1)