---
name: "envy"
section: "4"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/envy"
---

# envy(4)

VIA Envy24 audio device

## NAME

**envy** – VIA Envy24 audio device

## SYNOPSIS

**envy\* at pci?** **audio\* at envy?** **midi\* at envy?**

## DESCRIPTION

The **envy** driver supports sound cards based on VIA Envy24 and Envy24HT PCI chips. The following sound cards are currently supported:

- Dynex DX-SC51

- ESI Julia

- M-Audio Delta 1010, 1010LT, 66 and 44

- M-Audio Audiophile 2496

- M-Audio Revolution 5.1

- M-Audio Audiophile 192k

- Terratec EWX 24/96

- VIA Tremor 5.1

### Mixer device

The chip features a digital mixer that routes and mixes the streams below as follows:

- inputs

  There are 8 streams corresponding to data received by the device from the codecs. They are labelled *line0* – *line7*.

- outputs

  There are 8 streams corresponding to data sent by the device to the codecs. They are labelled *line0* – *line7*. Each of them can be individually configured to use any of the external inputs or its corresponding playback stream as source. Additionally, outputs *line0* and *line1* can be configured to use *mon0* or *mon1* as sources.

- monitor

  There are 2 streams that can be configured to contain any linear superposition of any of the 10 playback and 10 external input streams. They are labelled *mon0* and *mon1*. From the mixer's point of view they are input streams, so they can be used as sources of output streams. This feature is specific to Envy24 based cards.

- playback

  There are 10 streams corresponding to samples transferred from the host to the device. They are labelled *play0* – *play9*. From the mixer's point of view they are input streams, so they are usable as sources of output streams.

- record

  There are 12 streams corresponding to samples transferred from the device to the host. They are not controllable by the mixer. Streams 0 to 7 are hardwired to external inputs *line0* – *line7* and streams 10 and 11 are hardwired to *mon0* and *mon1*.

### Playback and record data formats

Both playback and record use linear encoding. Samples are represented by 32-bit signed numbers in little endian order. Only the first 24 most significant bits are used. On Envy24-based cards, playback uses 10 channels and record uses 12 channels, while on Envy24HT-based cards the number of streams depend on the number of codecs physically present on the card.

## SEE ALSO

[audio(4)](/audio/4.md), [intro(4)](/intro/4.md), [midi(4)](/midi/4.md), [pci(4)](/pci/4.md)

## HISTORY

The **envy** driver first appeared in OpenBSD 4.3.

## BUGS

S/PDIF transmitter/receiver is not supported.

Ring buffer sizes are limited to 64kB, which can be limiting at high sample rates.