AUDIO OUTPUT DRIVERS ==================== Audio output drivers are interfaces to different audio output facilities. The syntax is: ``--ao=`` Specify a priority list of audio output drivers to be used. If the list has a trailing ',', mpv will fall back on drivers not contained in the list. .. note:: See ``--ao=help`` for a list of compiled-in audio output drivers. The driver ``--ao=alsa`` is preferred. ``--ao=pulse`` is preferred on systems where PulseAudio is used. On BSD systems, ``--ao=oss`` or ``--ao=sndio`` may work (the latter being experimental). Available audio output drivers are: ``alsa`` (Linux only) ALSA audio output driver See `ALSA audio output options`_ for options specific to this AO. .. warning:: To get multichannel/surround audio, use ``--audio-channels=auto``. The default for this option is ``auto-safe``, which makes this audio otuput explicitly reject multichannel output, as there is no way to detect whether a certain channel layout is actually supported. You can also try `using the upmix plugin `_. This setup enables multichannel audio on the ``default`` device with automatic upmixing with shared access, so playing stereo and multichannel audio at the same time will work as expected. ``oss`` OSS audio output driver The following global options are supported by this audio output: ``--oss-mixer-device`` Sets the audio mixer device (default: ``/dev/mixer``). ``--oss-mixer-channel`` Sets the audio mixer channel (default: ``pcm``). Other valid values include **vol, pcm, line**. For a complete list of options look for ``SOUND_DEVICE_NAMES`` in ``/usr/include/linux/soundcard.h``. ``jack`` JACK (Jack Audio Connection Kit) audio output driver. The following global options are supported by this audio output: ``--jack-port=`` Connects to the ports with the given name (default: physical ports). ``--jack-name=`` Client name that is passed to JACK (default: ``mpv``). Useful if you want to have certain connections established automatically. ``--jack-autostart=`` Automatically start jackd if necessary (default: disabled). Note that this tends to be unreliable and will flood stdout with server messages. ``--jack-connect=`` Automatically create connections to output ports (default: enabled). When enabled, the maximum number of output channels will be limited to the number of available output ports. ``--jack-std-channel-layout=`` Select the standard channel layout (default: waveext). JACK itself has no notion of channel layouts (i.e. assigning which speaker a given channel is supposed to map to) - it just takes whatever the application outputs, and reroutes it to whatever the user defines. This means the user and the application are in charge of dealing with the channel layout. ``waveext`` uses WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE order, which, even though it was defined by Microsoft, is the standard on many systems. The value ``any`` makes JACK accept whatever comes from the audio filter chain, regardless of channel layout and without reordering. This mode is probably not very useful, other than for debugging or when used with fixed setups. ``coreaudio`` (Mac OS X only) Native Mac OS X audio output driver using AudioUnits and the CoreAudio sound server. Automatically redirects to ``coreaudio_exclusive`` when playing compressed formats. The following global options are supported by this audio output: ``--coreaudio-change-physical-format=`` Change the physical format to one similar to the requested audio format (default: no). This has the advantage that multichannel audio output will actually work. The disadvantage is that it will change the system-wide audio settings. This is equivalent to changing the ``Format`` setting in the ``Audio Devices`` dialog in the ``Audio MIDI Setup`` utility. Note that this does not affect the selected speaker setup. ``--coreaudio-spdif-hack=`` Try to pass through AC3/DTS data as PCM. This is useful for drivers which do not report AC3 support. It converts the AC3 data to float, and assumes the driver will do the inverse conversion, which means a typical A/V receiver will pick it up as compressed IEC framed AC3 stream, ignoring that it's marked as PCM. This disables normal AC3 passthrough (even if the device reports it as supported). Use with extreme care. ``coreaudio_exclusive`` (Mac OS X only) Native Mac OS X audio output driver using direct device access and exclusive mode (bypasses the sound server). ``openal`` Experimental OpenAL audio output driver .. note:: This driver is not very useful. Playing multi-channel audio with it is slow. ``pulse`` PulseAudio audio output driver The following global options are supported by this audio output: ``--pulse-host=`` Specify the host to use. An empty string uses a local connection, "localhost" uses network transfer (most likely not what you want). ``--pulse-buffer=<1-2000|native>`` Set the audio buffer size in milliseconds. A higher value buffers more data, and has a lower probability of buffer underruns. A smaller value makes the audio stream react faster, e.g. to playback speed changes. Default: 250. ``--pulse-latency-hacks=`` Enable hacks to workaround PulseAudio timing bugs (default: no). If enabled, mpv will do elaborate latency calculations on its own. If disabled, it will use PulseAudio automatically updated timing information. Disabling this might help with e.g. networked audio or some plugins, while enabling it might help in some unknown situations (it used to be required to get good behavior on old PulseAudio versions). If you have stuttering video when using pulse, try to enable this option. (Or try to update PulseAudio.) ``sdl`` SDL 1.2+ audio output driver. Should work on any platform supported by SDL 1.2, but may require the ``SDL_AUDIODRIVER`` environment variable to be set appropriately for your system. .. note:: This driver is for compatibility with extremely foreign environments, such as systems where none of the other drivers are available. The following global options are supported by this audio output: ``--sdl-buflen=`` Sets the audio buffer length in seconds. Is used only as a hint by the sound system. Playing a file with ``-v`` will show the requested and obtained exact buffer size. A value of 0 selects the sound system default. ``--sdl-bufcnt=`` Sets the number of extra audio buffers in mpv. Usually needs not be changed. ``null`` Produces no audio output but maintains video playback speed. You can use ``--ao=null --ao-null-untimed`` for benchmarking. The following global options are supported by this audio output: ``--ao-null-untimed`` Do not simulate timing of a perfect audio device. This means audio decoding will go as fast as possible, instead of timing it to the system clock. ``--ao-null-buffer`` Simulated buffer length in seconds. ``--ao-null-outburst`` Simulated chunk size in samples. ``--ao-null-speed`` Simulated audio playback speed as a multiplier. Usually, a real audio device will not go exactly as fast as the system clock. It will deviate just a little, and this option helps to simulate this. ``--ao-null-latency`` Simulated device latency. This is additional to EOF. ``--ao-null-broken-eof`` Simulate broken audio drivers, which always add the fixed device latency to the reported audio playback position. ``--ao-null-broken-delay`` Simulate broken audio drivers, which don't report latency correctly. ``--ao-null-channel-layouts`` If not empty, this is a ``,`` separated list of channel layouts the AO allows. This can be used to test channel layout selection. ``pcm`` Raw PCM/WAVE file writer audio output The following global options are supported by this audio output: ``--ao-pcm-waveheader=`` Include or do not include the WAVE header (default: included). When not included, raw PCM will be generated. ``--ao-pcm-file=`` Write the sound to ```` instead of the default ``audiodump.wav``. If ``no-waveheader`` is specified, the default is ``audiodump.pcm``. ``--ao-pcm-append=`` Append to the file, instead of overwriting it. Always use this with the ``no-waveheader`` option - with ``waveheader`` it's broken, because it will write a WAVE header every time the file is opened. ``rsound`` Audio output to an RSound daemon. Use ``--audio-device=rsound/`` to set the host name (with ```` replaced, without the ``< >``). .. note:: Completely useless, unless you intend to run RSound. Not to be confused with RoarAudio, which is something completely different. ``sndio`` Audio output to the OpenBSD sndio sound system .. note:: Experimental. There are known bugs and issues. (Note: only supports mono, stereo, 4.0, 5.1 and 7.1 channel layouts.) ``wasapi`` Audio output to the Windows Audio Session API.