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.

       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 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 seperator. 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),

                                                                                        PW-CAT(1)