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),

                                                                                        PW-CAT(1)