Linux Sound and Video

I'm only interested in the user-level sound and video players. If you're interested in kernel support, you should look elsewhere. You might start with Alan Cox's page on The Linux Sound System.

Sound formats

CD audio

Success stories

Standard (8000Hz) .au files

cat sample.au >/dev/audio

Example: laugh_monkey_boy.au (15K)

Nonstandard sample-rate .au files

sox sample.au -r 8000 -t .au /dev/audio

Example: none

(I have some 8012Hz files, but you can't hear the difference when you cat them to /dev/audio. I've seen some that have very different sample rates, though.)

.mod files

mikmod sample.mod

Example: at_t.mod (379K)

Many examples at www.modarchive.com

.669 files

mikmod sample.669

Example: crystals.669 (27K) [from www.modarchive.com]

.s3m files

mikmod sample.s3m

Example: dreams2.s3m (108K)

.mtm files

mikmod sample.mtm

Example: k_progr.mtm (53K)

.xm files

mikmod sample.xm

Example: k_vortx3.xm (596K)

.mid or .midi files

playmidi -f sample.mid

Example: 5thsymp.mid (24K)

Numerous additional examples

Note: A few seem to play at the wrong speed. I'll try to get a solid example of this.

Note: On my Red Hat box, I have to manually `modprobe opl3` to get it to work.

For a full-featured graphical midi editor and player, check out Midi Mountain.

.mp3 files

I use mpg123.

This is the hottest format going, and is especially popular for encoding audio from CDs. You should have no problems finding a wealth of players, CD rippers, encoders.

.wav files

wavplay sample.wav

Example: bnsg.wav (631K)

.wav files

wavplay 0.2 reports "wrong length difference."

vplay works, but doesn't automatically recognize that it's recorded at a higher sample rate (try vplay -s 11000 to hear it about right).

Example: mchocola.wav (31K)

I've received an explanation of why wavplay 0.2 won't play it.

wavplay 1.0 and later play it perfectly!

.aiff files

sox -t .aiff sample.aiff -t .ul -r 8000 /dev/audio

(sox solution by Joseph W. DeVincentis)

I found this example at Disney's server.

Example: TSTease.aiff (969K)

RealAudio

You have to download their proprietary software

.voc files

vplay sample.voc

sox sample.voc -t .au /dev/audio

Example: buzzer.voc (10K)

Failures

Netcaster

This is a proprietary Microsoft format competing with Real Audio. I don't know of any players, and I doubt that they have released sufficient documentation to write one, not to mention that they probably used patented compression algorithms.

Unknown

Impulse Tracker

For information on this format, please visit the Official Impulse Tracker page. I'm told that mikmod will play these files, but I haven't verified it.

InternetWave

I hear that it's probably a similar situation to RealAudio.

Others?

I'll believe they really exist when I see examples. :)

Video formats

Success stories

.mpg MPEG-1 files without sound

mpeg_play sample.mpg

Example: legoshay.mpg (678K)

.mpg MPEG-1 files with sound

mtvp sample.mpg

.avi files (with or without sound)

xanim sample.avi

Example: legodrgn.avi (577K)

.mov files [QuickTime] (with sound)

xanim sample.mov (xanim 2.69.7.8)

Example: frugal.mov (1632K from Bill Nye the Science Guy)

.mov files [QuickTime] (with sound)

xanim 2.69.7.8 fails, but 2.70.3 with the two additional object libraries works.

Example: implosion.mov (1512K)

.flc (no sound)

xanim 2.70.3 plays most of them.

Example: spider.flc (230K)

.flc (no sound)

xanim 2.80.0 plays some that earlier versions failed on

Example: explode.flc (ftp source)

Failures

.vdo

I'm told that it's a real-time video format that requires proprietary software which is not currently available for Linux. Of course, I don't have an example, so it doesn't count.

.mov

QuickTime includes a number of encoding methods, only some of which are supported.

.avi

Like QuickTime, AVI files can use many different encoding methods, only some of which are supported under Linux.

Unknown

MPEG-2

I'm pretty sure that there are ways of playing these, but I haven't investigated it yet.

There must be more...

Software

Audio:

• sox
• MikMod
• wavplay
• playmidi
• MidiMountain
• vplay was in the Voxware (now OSS) snd-utils-* package, and was included with Slackware in 1995. [Where is it now?]

• XAnim
• mpegtv (commercial software)
• LiViD, the Linux Video Project

Mime Types

Some servers allow you to add types on a per-directory basis. I've done that for the sample files here. I have no idea what the correct types really are, but the most important thing is that they correctly identify as audio/* or video/*. You can then configure your browser to call a script for any audio or video format which will then call the appropriate helper based on the file extension.

So for my configuration, I've used our server's ability to add mime types. For audio, I use my own script installed as ~/bin/showaudio.