NAME

       pw-cat - Play and record media with PipeWire

SYNOPSIS

       pw-cat [options] [FILE | -]

       pw-play [options] [FILE | -]

       pw-record [options] [FILE | -]

       pw-midiplay [options] [FILE | -]

       pw-midirecord [options] [FILE | -]

       pw-dsdplay [options] [FILE | -]

DESCRIPTION

       pw-cat is a simple tool for playing back or capturing raw or encoded media files on a
       PipeWire server. It understands all audio file formats supported by libsndfile for PCM
       capture and playback. When capturing PCM, the filename extension is used to guess the file
       format with the WAV file format as the default.

       It understands standard MIDI files for playback and recording. This tool will not render
       MIDI files, it will simply make the MIDI events available to the graph. You need a MIDI
       renderer such as qsynth, timidity or a hardware MIDI rendered to hear the MIDI.

       DSD playback is supported with the DSF file format. This tool will only work with native
       DSD capable hardware and will produce an error when no such hardware was found.

       When the FILE is - input and output will be raw data from STDIN and STDOUT respectively.

OPTIONS

       -h | --help
           Show help.

       --version
           Show version information.

       -v | --verbose
           Verbose operation.

       -R | --remote=NAME
           The name the remote instance to connect to. If left unspecified, a connection is made
           to the default PipeWire instance.

       -p | --playback
           Playback mode. Read data from the specified file, and play it back. If the tool is
           called under the name pw-play or pw-midiplay this is the default.

       -r | --record
           Recording mode. Capture data and write it to the specified file. If the tool is called
           under the name pw-record or pw-midirecord this is the default.

       -m | --midi
           MIDI mode. FILE is a MIDI file. If the tool is called under the name pw-midiplay or
           pw-midirecord this is the default. Note that this program will not render the MIDI
           events into audible samples, it will simply provide the MIDI events in the graph. You
           need a separate MIDI renderer such as qsynth, timidity or a hardware renderer to hear
           the MIDI.

       -d | --dsd
           DSD mode. FILE is a DSF file. If the tool is called under the name pw-dsdplay this is
           the default. Note that this program will not render the DSD audio. You need a DSD
           capable device to play DSD content or this program will exit with an error.

       --media-type=VALUE
           Set the media type property (default Audio/Midi depending on mode). The media type is
           used by the session manager to select a suitable target to link to.

       --media-category=VALUE
           Set the media category property (default Playback/Capture depending on mode). The
           media type is used by the session manager to select a suitable target to link to.

       --media-role=VALUE
           Set the media role property (default Music). The media type is used by the session
           manager to select a suitable target to link to.

       --target=VALUE
           Set a node target (default auto). The value can be:

           • auto: Automatically select (Default)

           • 0: Don't try to link this node

           • <id>: The object.serial or the node.name of a target node

       --latency=VALUE[units]
           Set the node latency (default 100ms)

           The latency determines the minimum amount of time it takes for a sample to travel from
           application to device (playback) and from device to application (capture).

           The latency determines the size of the buffers that the application will be able to
           fill. Lower latency means smaller buffers but higher overhead. Higher latency means
           larger buffers and lower overhead.

           Units can be s for seconds, ms for milliseconds, us for microseconds, ns for
           nanoseconds. If no units are given, the latency value is samples with the samplerate
           of the file.

       -P | --properties=VALUE
           Set extra stream properties as a JSON object.

       -q | --quality=VALUE
           Resampler quality. When the samplerate of the source or destination file does not
           match the samplerate of the server, the data will be resampled. Higher quality uses
           more CPU. Values between 0 and 15 are allowed, the default quality is 4.

       --rate=VALUE
           The sample rate, default 48000.

       --channels=VALUE
           The number of channels, default 2.

       --channel-map=VALUE
           The channelmap. Possible values include: mono, stereo, surround-21, quad, surround-22,
           surround-40, surround-31, surround-41, surround-50, surround-51, surround-51r,
           surround-70, surround-71 or a comma separated list of channel names: FL, FR, FC, LFE,
           SL, SR, FLC, FRC, RC, RL, RR, TC, TFL, TFC, TFR, TRL, TRC, TRR, RLC, RRC, FLW, FRW,
           LFE2, FLH, FCH, FRH, TFLC, TFRC, TSL, TSR, LLFR, RLFE, BC, BLC, BRC

       --format=VALUE
           The sample format to use. One of: u8, s8, s16 (default), s24, s32, f32, f64.

       --volume=VALUE
           The stream volume, default 1.000. Depending on the locale you have configured, ',' or
           '.' may be used as a decimal separator. Check with locale command.

AUTHORS

       The PipeWire Developers <https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/issues>;
       PipeWire is available from <https://pipewire.org>

SEE ALSO

       pipewire(1), pw-mon(1),