---
name: "gmerlin_play"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "gmerlin"
version: "1.2.0~dfsg+1-6.1+b3"
release: "Debian 11 (Bullseye)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/gmerlin_play"
---

# gmerlin\_play(1)

Commandline Multimedia player

## NAME

gmerlin\_player - Commandline Multimedia player

## SYNOPSIS

**gmerlin\_player** *\[options\]* *gml...*

## DESCRIPTION

Commandline Multimedia player

## OPTIONS

- **-oa** *\<audio\_output\_options\>*

  Set audio output options

**p**=option\[{suboptions}\]

Supported options: oa\_alsa oa\_pulse oa\_oss oa\_esd

Default: oa\_alsa

Audio output plugin

**Suboptions for p=oa\_alsa**

**card**=\<string\>

Supported strings: default hw:0,0 hw:0,4

Default: default

Card

**surround40**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Enable 4.0 Surround

Use the surround 4.0 (aka quadrophonic) device

**surround41**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Enable 4.1 Surround

Use the surround 4.1 device

**surround50**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Enable 5.0 Surround

Use the surround 5.0 device

**surround51**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Enable 5.1 Surround

Use the surround 5.1 device

**user\_device**=\<string\>

User device

Enter a custom device to use for playback. Leave empty to use the settings above

**buffer\_time**=\<number\> (10..10000, default: 1000)

Buffer time

Set the buffer time (in milliseconds). Larger values improve playback performance on slow systems under load. Smaller values decrease the latency of the volume control.

**Suboptions for p=oa\_oss**

**multichannel\_mode**=\<string\>

Supported strings: none multidev creative

Default: none

Multichannel Mode

**device**=\<string\> (Default: /dev/dsp)

Device

**use\_rear\_device**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Use Rear Device

**rear\_device**=\<string\> (Default: /dev/dsp1)

Rear Device

**use\_center\_lfe\_device**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Use Center/LFE Device

**center\_lfe\_device**=\<string\> (Default: /dev/dsp2)

Center/LFE Device

**Suboptions for p=oa\_esd**

**esd\_host**=\<string\>

Host (empty: local)

- **-ov** *\<video\_output\_options\>*

  Set video output options

**p**=option\[{suboptions}\]

Supported options: ov\_x11 ov\_v4l2

Default: ov\_x11

Video output plugin

**Suboptions for p=ov\_x11**

**auto\_resize**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Auto resize window

**disable\_xscreensaver\_normal**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Disable Screensaver for normal playback

**disable\_xscreensaver\_fullscreen**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Disable Screensaver for fullscreen playback

**force\_hw\_scale**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Force hardware scaling

Use hardware scaling even if it involves more CPU intensive pixelformat conversions

**background\_color**=\<r\>,\<g\>,\<b\> (default: 0.000,0.000,0.000)

\<r\>, \<g\> and \<b\> are in the range 0.0..1.0

Background color

Specify the background color for videos with alpha channel. This is only used by the OpenGL driver.

**scale\_mode**=\<string\>

Supported strings: auto nearest bilinear quadratic cubic\_bspline cubic\_mitchell cubic\_catmull sinc\_lanczos

Default: auto

Scale mode

Choose scaling method. Auto means to choose based on the conversion quality. Nearest is fastest, Sinc with Lanczos window is slowest.

**scale\_order**=\<number\> (4..1000, default: 4)

Scale order

Order for sinc scaling

**scale\_quality**=\<number\> (1..5, default: 2)

Scale quality

Scale quality

**Suboptions for p=ov\_v4l2**

**device**=option\[{suboptions}\]

Supported options: /dev/video0

Default: /dev/video0

V4L2 Device

**force\_rw**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Force write

Don't use memory mapping

**w**=\<string\>

Window ID

- **-i** *\<input\_plugin\>*

  Set and configure input plugin

**p**=option\[{suboptions}\]

Supported options: i\_cdaudio i\_avdec i\_vcd i\_dvd i\_singlepic\_stills i\_lqt i\_edl i\_singlepic i\_mikmod

Default: i\_cdaudio

input plugin

**Suboptions for p=i\_cdaudio**

**trackname\_template**=\<string\> (Default: %p - %t)

Trackname template

Template for track name generation from metadata %p:    Artist %a:    Album %g:    Genre %t:    Track name %\<d\>n: Track number (d = number of digits, 1-9) %y:    Year %c:    Comment

**use\_cdtext**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Use CD-Text

Try to get CD metadata from CD-Text

**use\_local**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Use locally saved metadata

Whenever we obtain CD metadata from the internet, we save them into $HOME/.gmerlin/cdaudio\_metadata. If you got wrong metadata for a CD, disabling this option will retrieve the metadata again and overwrite the saved data.

**use\_musicbrainz**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Use Musicbrainz

**musicbrainz\_host**=\<string\> (Default: mm.musicbrainz.org)

Server

**musicbrainz\_port**=\<number\> (1..65535, default: 80)

Port

**musicbrainz\_proxy\_host**=\<string\>

Proxy

Proxy server (leave empty for direct connection)

**musicbrainz\_proxy\_port**=\<number\> (1..65535, default: 80)

Proxy port

Proxy port

**use\_cddb**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Use Cddb

**cddb\_host**=\<string\> (Default: freedb.org)

Server

**cddb\_port**=\<number\> (1..65535, default: 80)

Port

**cddb\_path**=\<string\> (Default: /~cddb/cddb.cgi)

Path

**cddb\_proxy\_host**=\<string\>

Proxy

Proxy server (leave empty for direct connection)

**cddb\_proxy\_port**=\<number\> (1..65535, default: 80)

Proxy port

Proxy port

**cddb\_proxy\_user**=\<string\>

Proxy username

User name for proxy (leave empty for poxies, which don't require authentication)

**cddb\_proxy\_pass**=\<string\>

Proxy password

Password for proxy

**cddb\_timeout**=\<number\> (0..1000, default: 10)

Timeout

Timeout (in seconds) for connections to the CDDB server

**cdparanoia\_speed**=\<string\>

Supported strings: Auto 4 8 16 32

Default: Auto

Speed

**cdparanoia\_max\_retries**=\<number\> (0..200, default: 20)

Maximum retries

Maximum number of retries, 0 = infinite

**cdparanoia\_disable\_paranoia**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Disable paranoia

Disable all data verification and correction features.

**cdparanoia\_disable\_extra\_paranoia**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Disable extra paranoia

Disables intra-read data verification; only overlap checking atread boundaries is performed. It can wedge if errors  occur  in the attempted overlap area. Not recommended.

**Suboptions for p=i\_avdec**

**audio\_dynrange**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Dynamic range control

Enable dynamic range control for codecs, which support this (currently only A52 and DTS).

**pp**=\<number\> (0.00..1.00, default: 0.20)

Postprocessing level

Set postprocessing (to remove compression artifacts). 0 means no postprocessing, 1 means maximum postprocessing.

**shrink**=\<number\> (0..3, default: 0)

Shrink factor

This enables downscaling of images while decoding. Currently only supported for JPEG-2000.

**vdpau**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Use vdpau

Use VDPAU

**connect\_timeout**=\<number\> (0..2000000, default: 5000)

Connect timeout (milliseconds)

**read\_timeout**=\<number\> (0..2000000, default: 5000)

Read timeout (milliseconds)

**network\_buffer\_size**=\<number\> (1..1000, default: 32)

Network buffer size (kB)

**network\_bandwidth**=\<string\>

Supported strings: 14400 19200 28800 33600 34400 57600 115200 262200 393200 524300 1500000 10500000

Default: 524300

Bandwidth

**http\_shoutcast\_metadata**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Enable shoutcast title streaming

**http\_use\_proxy**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Use proxy

**http\_proxy\_host**=\<string\>

Proxy host

**http\_proxy\_port**=\<number\> (1..65535, default: 80)

Proxy port

**http\_proxy\_auth**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Proxy needs authentication

**http\_proxy\_user**=\<string\>

Proxy username

**http\_proxy\_pass**=\<string\>

Proxy password

**rtp\_try\_tcp**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Try RTP over TCP

Use this if your filewall blocks all UDP traffic. Not all servers support TCP

**rtp\_port\_base**=\<number\> (0..65530, default: 0)

Port base for RTP

Port base for RTP over UDP. Values of 1024 or smaller enable random ports (recommended for RTSP aware firewalls). Values larger than 1024 define the base port. 2 consecutive ports are used for each A/V stream, these must be accessible through the firewall. Odd values are rounded to the next even value.

**ftp\_anonymous**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Login as anonymous

**ftp\_anonymous\_password**=\<string\> (Default: gates@nanosoft.com)

Anonymous ftp password

**seek\_subtitles**=\<string\>

Supported strings: never video always

Default: never

Seek external subtitles

If the input is a regular file, gmerlin\_avdecoder can scan the directory for matching subtitle files. For a file movie.mpg, possible subtitle files are e.g. movie\_english.srt, movie\_german.srt. The rule is, that the first part of the filename of the subtitle file must be equal to the movie filename up to the extension. Furthermore, the subtitle filename must have an extension supported by any of the subtitle readers. Subtitle seeking can be disabled, enabled for video files or enabled for all files.

**default\_subtitle\_encoding**=\<string\> (Default: LATIN1)

Default subtitle encoding

This sets the default encoding for text subtitles,when the original encoding is unknown. It must be a character set namerecognized by iconv. Type 'iconv -l' at the commandline for a list of supported encodings.

**sample\_accuracy**=\<string\>

Supported strings: never always when\_necessary

Default: never

Sample accurate

Try sample accurate seeking. For most formats, this is not necessary, since normal seeking works fine. Some formats are only seekable in sample accurate mode. Choose "When necessary" to enable seeking for most formats with the smallest overhead.

**cache\_time**=\<number\> (default: 500)

Cache time (milliseconds)

If building an index takes longer than the specified time, it will be cached.

**cache\_size**=\<number\> (default: 20)

Cache size (Megabytes)

Set the maximum total size of the cache directory.

**threads**=\<number\> (1..1024, default: 1)

Number of decoding threads

Set the number of threads used by Video codecs

**dv\_datetime**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Export date and time as timecodes for DV

**Suboptions for p=i\_dvd**

**audio\_dynrange**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Dynamic range control

Enable dynamic range control for codecs, which support this (currently only A52 and DTS).

**Suboptions for p=i\_singlepic\_stills**

**display\_time**={\[\[HH:\]MM:\]SS} (default: 0:00)

Seconds can be fractional (i.e. with decimal point) Display time

Time to pass until the next track will be selected. 0 means infinite.

**Suboptions for p=i\_lqt**

**ac**={option\[{suboptions}\]\[:option\[{suboptions}\]...\]}

Supported options: ima4 rawaudio twos ulaw sowt alaw in24 in32 fl32 fl64  lpcm vorbis vorbis\_qt ffmpeg\_mp3 ffmpeg\_mp2 ffmpeg\_ac3 ffmpeg\_qdm2  ffmpeg\_alac ffmpeg\_adpcm\_ms ffmpeg\_ima\_adpcm\_wav faad2

Audio Codecs

Sort and configure audio codecs

**vc**={option\[{suboptions}\]\[:option\[{suboptions}\]...\]}

Supported options: raw v308 v408 v410 yuv2 yuv4 yv12 2vuy v210 rtjpeg  jpeg mjpa png ffmpeg\_mpg1 ffmpeg\_mpg4 ffmpeg\_msmpeg4v1  ffmpeg\_msmpeg4v2 ffmpeg\_msmpeg4v3 ffmpeg\_msmpeg4v3\_wmp ffmpeg\_h263\_dec  ffmpeg\_h263 ffmpeg\_h264 ffmpeg\_i263 ffmpeg\_svq1 ffmpeg\_svq3  ffmpeg\_mjpg ffmpeg\_mjpegb ffmpeg\_TGA ffmpeg\_TIFF ffmpeg\_8BPS  ffmpeg\_indeo ffmpeg\_rpza ffmpeg\_smc ffmpeg\_cinepak ffmpeg\_cyuv  ffmpeg\_rle ffmpeg\_wrle ffmpeg\_dv ffmpeg\_dvcpro ffmpeg\_dv50  ffmpeg\_dvcprohd ffmpeg\_ffvhuff ffmpeg\_ffv1 ffmpeg\_dnxhd ffmpeg\_imx  schroedinger yuvs

Video Codecs

Sort and configure video codecs

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_mpg1**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_mpg4**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_msmpeg4v1**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_msmpeg4v2**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_msmpeg4v3**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_msmpeg4v3\_wmp**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_h263\_dec**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_h263**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_h264**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_i263**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_svq1**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_svq3**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_mjpg**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_indeo**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_cinepak**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_cyuv**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_dv**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_dvcpro**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_dv50**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_dvcprohd**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_ffvhuff**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_ffv1**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_dnxhd**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for ffmpeg\_imx**

**ff\_flag\_gray**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Grayscale mode

**Suboptions for p=i\_singlepic**

**timescale**=\<number\> (1..100000, default: 25)

Timescale

**frame\_duration**=\<number\> (1..100000, default: 1)

Frame duration

**Suboptions for p=i\_mikmod**

**output**=\<string\>

Supported strings: mono8 stereo8 mono16 stereo16

Default: stereo16

Output format

**mixing\_frequency**=\<number\> (4000..60000, default: 44100)

Samplerate

**hidden**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Look for hidden patterns in module

**sur**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Use surround mixing

**fade**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Force volume fade at the end of module

**interpol**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Use interpolate mixing

- **-aud** *\<audio\_options\>*

  Set audio processing options

**sampleformat**=\<string\>

Supported strings: none 8 16 32 f d

Default: none

Force sampleformat

Force a sampleformat to be used for processing. None means to take the input format.

**q**=\<number\> (1..5, default: 2)

Conversion Quality

Set the conversion quality for format conversions. Lower quality means more speed. Values above 3 enable slow high quality calculations.

**dither\_mode**=\<string\>

Supported strings: auto none rect tri shaped

Default: auto

Dither mode

Dither mode. Auto means to use the quality level. Subsequent options are ordered by increasing quality (i.e. decreasing speed).

**fixed\_samplerate**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Fixed samplerate

If disabled, the output samplerate is taken from the source. If enabled, the samplerate you specify below us used.

**samplerate**=\<number\> (8000..192000, default: 44100)

Samplerate

Samplerate

**resample\_mode**=\<string\>

Supported strings: auto zoh linear sinc\_fast sinc\_medium sinc\_best

Default: auto

Resample mode

Resample mode. Auto means to use the quality level. Subsequent options are ordered by increasing quality (i.e. decreasing speed).

**fixed\_channel\_setup**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Fixed channel setup

If disabled, the output channel configuration is taken from the source. If enabled, the setup you specify below us used.

**num\_front\_channels**=\<number\> (1..5, default: 2)

Front channels

**num\_rear\_channels**=\<number\> (0..3, default: 0)

Rear channels

**num\_lfe\_channels**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

LFE

**front\_to\_rear**=\<string\>

Supported strings: mute copy diff

Default: copy

Front to rear mode

Mix mode when the output format has rear channels, but the source doesn't.

**stereo\_to\_mono**=\<string\>

Supported strings: left right mix

Default: mix

Stereo to mono mode

Mix mode when downmixing Stereo to Mono.

- **-vid** *\<video\_options\>*

  Set video processing options

**q**=\<number\> (1..5, default: 2)

Conversion Quality

Set the conversion quality for format conversions. Lower quality means more speed. Values above 3 enable slow high quality calculations.

**alpha\_mode**=\<string\>

Supported strings: ignore blend\_color

Default: ignore

Alpha mode

This option is used if the source has an alpha (=transparency) channel, but the output supports no transparency. Either, the transparency is ignored, or the background color you specify below is blended in.

**background\_color**=\<r\>,\<g\>,\<b\> (default: 0.000,0.000,0.000)

\<r\>, \<g\> and \<b\> are in the range 0.0..1.0

Background color

Background color to use, when alpha mode above is "Blend background color".

**sm**=\[1\|0\] (default: 0)

Resample chroma

Always perform chroma resampling if chroma subsampling factors or chroma placements are different. Usually, this is only done for qualities above 3.

**still\_framerate**=\<number\> (1.00..100.00, default: 10.00)

Still image framerate

Set framerate with which still images will be redisplayed periodically

**threads**=\<number\> (1..1024, default: 1)

Number of threads

Threads to launch for processing operations. Changing this requires program restart

- **-inopt** *\<input\_options\>*

  Set generic input options

**still\_framerate**=\<number\> (0..100, default: 10)

Still image repitition rate

When showing still images, gmerlin repeats them periodically to make realtime filter tweaking work.

**sync\_offset**=\<number\> (-1000..1000, default: 0)

Sync offset \[ms\]

Use this for playing buggy files, which have a constant offset between audio and video. Use positive values if the video is ahead of audio

- **-osd** *\<osd\_options\>*

  Set OSD options

**enable\_osd**=\[1\|0\] (default: 1)

Enable OSD

**font\_size**=\<number\> (12.00..100.00, default: 30.00)

Size

Specify fontsize for OSD. The value you enter, is for an image width of 640. For other widths, the value will be scaled

**color**=\<r\>,\<g\>,\<b\>,\<a\> (default: 1.000,1.000,1.000,1.000)

\<r\>, \<g\>, \<b\> and \<a\> are in the range 0.0..1.0

Foreground color

**border\_color**=\<r\>,\<g\>,\<b\> (default: 0.000,0.000,0.000)

\<r\>, \<g\> and \<b\> are in the range 0.0..1.0

Border color

**border\_width**=\<number\> (0.00..10.00, default: 2.00)

Border width

**justify\_h**=\<string\>

Supported strings: center left right

Default: center

Horizontal justify

**justify\_v**=\<string\>

Supported strings: center top bottom

Default: center

Vertical justify

**border\_left**=\<number\> (0..65535, default: 10)

Left border

Distance from the left text border to the image border

**border\_right**=\<number\> (0..65535, default: 10)

Right border

Distance from the right text border to the image border

**border\_top**=\<number\> (0..65535, default: 10)

Top border

Distance from the top text border to the image border

**border\_bottom**=\<number\> (0..65535, default: 10)

Bottom border

Distance from the bottom text border to the image border

**duration**=\<number\> (0..10000, default: 2000)

Duration (milliseconds)

- **-nt**

  Disable time display

- **-vol** *\<volume\>*

  Set volume in dB (max: 0.0)

- **-v** *level*

  Set verbosity level (0..4)

- **-tracks** *\<track\_spec\>*

  \<track\_spec\> can be a ranges mixed with comma separated tracks

## GENERIC OPTIONS

The following generic options are available for all gmerlin applications

- **-help**

  Print this help message and exit

- **-help-man**

  Print this help message as a manual page and exit

- **-help-texi**

  Print this help message in texinfo format and exit

- **-version**

  Print version info and exit

## FILES

**~/.gmerlin/plugins.xml**

Cache of the plugin registry (shared by all applicatons)

**~/.gmerlin/generic/config.xml**

Default plugin parameters are read from there. Use gmerlin\_plugincfg to change them.