audioplay(1) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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AUDIOPLAY(1)            NetBSD General Commands Manual            AUDIOPLAY(1)


NAME

     audioplay -- play audio files


SYNOPSIS

     audioplay [-hinqV] [-B buffersize] [-b balance] [-d device] [-p port]
               [-v volume] [-f [-c channels] [-e encoding] [-P precision]
               [-s sample-rate]] [files ...]


DESCRIPTION

     The audioplay program copies the named audio files, or the standard input
     if no files are named, to the audio device.  The special name ``-'' is
     assumed to mean the standard input.  The input files must contain a valid
     audio header, and the encoding must be understood by the underlying
     driver.


OPTIONS

     The following options are available:

     -B      Set the write block size to buffersize.  The default value is the
             play.buffer_size of the audio device.

     -b      Set the balance to balance.  This value must be between 0 and 63.

     -c      When combined with the -f option, sets the number of channels to
             its argument.

     -d      Set the audio device to be device.  The default is /dev/sound.

     -e      When combined with the -f option, sets the encoding to its argu-
             ment.  Possible values are mulaw, ulaw, alaw, slinear, linear,
             ulinear, adpcm, ADPCM, slinear_le, linear_le, ulinear_le,
             slinear_be, linear_be, ulinear_be, mpeg_l1_stream,
             mpeg_l1_packets, mpeg_l1_system, mpeg_l2_stream, mpeg_l2_packets,
             and mpeg_l2_system.

     -f      Force playing, even if the format is unknown.  The -f flag can be
             used in addition with the -c, -e, -P, and -s flags to change the
             number of channels, encoding, precision, and sample rate.

     -h      Print a help message.

     -i      If the audio device cannot be opened, exit now rather than wait
             for it.

     -n      Do not write audio data, only parse files for sanity.

     -P      When combined with the -f option, sets the precision to its argu-
             ment.  This value must be either 4, 8, 16, 24 or 32.

     -p      Set the output port to port.  The valid values of port are
             ``speaker'', ``headphone'' and ``line''.

     -q      Be quiet.

     -s      When combined with the -f option, sets the sample rate to its
             argument.  This value must be a valid value for the audio device
             or an error will be returned.

     -V      Be verbose.

     -v      Set the volume (gain) to volume.  This value must be between 0
             and 255.


ENVIRONMENT

     AUDIOCTLDEVICE  the audio control device to be used.

     AUDIODEVICE     the audio device to be used.


EXAMPLES

     Play a raw dump taken from an audio CD ROM:

           audioplay -f -c 2 -P 16 -s 44100 -e slinear_le filename

     The audioctl(1) program can be used to show the available supported
     encodings:

           audioctl encodings


NOTES

     audioplay can be used to play Sun/NeXT audio files, and also RIFF WAVE
     audio files.  audioplay can be configured in a web browser as the program
     to use when playing audio files.

     In addition to the audio driver encodings list in the EXAMPLES section,
     audioplay supports playing IEEE floating point data in RIFF WAVE audio
     files (with one caveat that the floating point size must be native).  In
     this case audioplay converts the floating point data into signed linear
     samples before they are passed to the chosen audio device.


ERRORS

     If the audio device or the control device can not be opened, an error is
     returned.

     If an invalid parameter is specified, an error is returned.  The set of
     valid values for any audio parameter is specified by the hardware driver.


SEE ALSO

     audioctl(1), audiorecord(1), audio(4)


HISTORY

     The audioplay program was first seen in SunOS 5.  The NetBSD audioplay
     was first made available in NetBSD 1.4.  Support for RIFF WAVE recording
     was introduced in NetBSD 1.6.  Support for RIFF WAVE IEEE floating point
     data was introduced in NetBSD 10.0.


AUTHORS

     The audioplay program was written by Matthew R. Green <mrg@eterna23.net>.

NetBSD 9.4                       March 3, 2024                      NetBSD 9.4