HDS ViewStation System Administrator's Guide

A Hypertext Document


HDSperx HDSplay Audio Client Manual Page

This page describes the ViewStation's HDSplay Audio client manual page.

HDS Play Audio Client Manual Page

NAME
hdsplay - play audio file on HDS ViewStation

SYNOPSIS
hdsplay [ -V ] [ -v # ] [ -m # ] [ -d dev ] [ -b # ] [ -s # ] [ -c # ] [ -e ULAW|ALAW|LINEAR ] [ -p # ] [ -r ] [ file... ]

DESCRIPTION
hdsplay will play audio files on an HDS ViewStation. The files can be in standard Sun/Next format or can be raw binary digital audio files. For raw data files, the data format and sampling rate can be specified as command line options. If no filenames are specified, the standard input is used.

The hdsplay program is run locally by the ViewStation. Any input files specified as arguments should be ViewStation paths using the ViewStation's Remote Hosts Setup configuration. See the EXAMPLES section below.

Note that TFTP is generally not a fast enough protocol to transfer sound files with a high sample rate. Instead, use NFS or FTP for files with high sampling rates.

The hdsplay program can only be used on ViewStations equipped with the optional HDS MultiMedia Audio Card.

OPTIONS
-V Verbose.
Print informational messages to the standard error.

-v vol
Set the output volume to vol before playing begins. vol is an integer value between 0 and 100, inclusive. If this argument is not specified, the output volume remains at the level most recently set by any process.

-m vol
Set the monitor volume to vol before playing begins. vol is an integer value between 0 and 100, inclusive. Changes to the monitor volume will persist after the `hdsplay' program has exited.

-d dev
Specify an alternate audio device to which output should be directed. If the -d option is not specified, /dev/audio is the default audio device.

-b size
Specify the blocksize for file reads and device writes, in kilobytes. The default value is 64.

-s rate
Specify the date sampling rate, in samples per second. The rate is usually determined from the input file header, so this option is only needed for raw input data. The default value is 8000. Other acceptable values are: 5512, 6615, 9600, 11025, 16000, 18900, 22050, 27428, 32000, 33075, 37800, 44100, and 48000.

-e encoding
Specify the data sample encoding type. The encoding is usually determined from the input file header, so this option is only needed for raw input data. The default value is ULAW. Other acceptable values are ALAW and LINEAR.

-c channels
Specify the number of interleaved channels. The number of channels is usually determined from the input file header, so this option is only needed for raw input data. Acceptable values are 1 for mono and 2 for stereo. The default value is 1.

-p precision
Specify the sample precision for each channel, measured in bits. The precision is usually determined from the input file header, so this option is only needed for raw input data. Acceptable values are 8 and 16 bits. The default is 8 bits. A 16 bit precision can only be used for LINEAR encodings and 16 bit data must be in most- significant-byte-first order.

-r
Treat files as raw input data. No attempt will be made to read a file header.

-?
Help. Print a command line usage message.

EXAMPLES
To play a sound file from a host computer, the following commands can be issued in the host's shell:

example% rsh fxhost hdsplay - < file.au

example% rsh fxhost hdsplay -r -s 44100 -p 16 -e linear -c 2 - < cdquality.raw

example% rsh fxhost hdsplay /myhost/sounds/demo.au


From a ViewStation `HDS Console' shell:
hds% hdsplay /mysun/usr/demo/SOUND/sounds/spacemusic.au

SEE ALSO
hdsaudio(1)

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