GMERLIN_PLAY(1)

📦
version 2.0.0~svn6298 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu questing

🌸 NAME 🌸

gmerlin_play — the Gmerlin commandline player, aka GMERLIN_PLAY(1), section 1 of the User Manuals 💖 she's an icon, she's a legend, and she plays your media straight from the terminal.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

gmerlin_play [options] gml...

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Commandline mediaplayer. Periodt. 🎀 That's the whole thing — she takes your files (gml...) and she plays them, no window chrome, no drama, just vibes and frames.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -ip plugin?opt1=val&opt2=val .. — use a specific input plugin, with options, for opening media sources. Bestie, if you wanna know what's available, hit -list-input to see all the plugins, and -list-plugin-parameters <plugin> to see every option a plugin supports. 👑
  • -aud param1=val1[&param2=val2...] — set audio processing options. Here's the whole menu, no skips:
    • q=<number> (1..5, default: 2) — Conversion Quality. Sets the conversion quality for format conversions. Lower quality means more speed. Values above 3 enable slow high quality calculations. 🐌✨
    • dm=<string> — Dither mode. Supported strings: auto none rect tri shaped. Default: auto. Dither mode. auto means to use the quality level. Subsequent options are ordered by increasing quality (i.e. decreasing speed).
    • sm=<string> — Resample mode. Supported strings: auto zoh linear sinc_fast sinc_medium sinc_best. Default: auto. 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. (yep, "us" — that's literally what the original says, I don't make the rules)
    • 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> — Front to rear mode. Supported strings: mute copy diff. Default: copy. Mix mode when the output format has rear channels, but the source doesn't.
    • stereo_to_mono=<string> — Stereo to mono mode. Supported strings: left right mix. Default: mix. Mix mode when downmixing Stereo to Mono.
  • -vid param1=val1[&param2=val2...] — set video processing options. The full lineup:
    • q=<number> (1..5, default: 2) — Conversion Quality. Sets the conversion quality for format conversions. Lower quality means more speed. Values above 3 enable slow high quality calculations. 🔥
    • alpha_mode=<string> — Alpha mode. Supported strings: ignore blend_color. Default: ignore. 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) — Background color. <r>, <g> and <b> are in the range 0.0..1.0. Background color to use, when alpha mode above is "Blend background color".
    • rc=[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.
    • skip=[1|0] (default: 1) — Skip frames. Skip frames to keep A/V sync.
    • threads=<number> (1..1024, default: 1) — Number of threads. Threads to launch for processing operations. Changing this requires program restart. 🙈
  • -oa plugin[?param1=val1[&param2=val2...]] — set the audio output plugin. Use -list-oa to list available plugins, and -list-plugin-parameters <plugin> to list all supported options.
  • -ov plugin[?param1=val1[&param2=val2...]] — set the video output plugin. Use -list-ov to list available plugins, and -list-plugin-parameters <plugin> to list all supported options.
  • -fa plugin[?param1=val1[&param2=val2...]] — add an audio filter with options to the chain. This option can be given multiple times. Use -list-fa to list available plugins, and -list-plugin-parameters <plugin> to list all supported options. Stack 'em, bestie 🧚
  • -fv plugin[?param1=val1[&param2=val2...]] — add a video filter with options to the chain. This option can be given multiple times. Use -list-fv to list available plugins, and -list-plugin-parameters <plugin> to list all supported options.
  • -inopt param1=val1[&param2=val2...] — 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. (yes, "repitition" — leaving that exactly as she wrote it 💀)
    • 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 param1=val1[&param2=val2...] — set OSD options. Big list, here we go:
    • enable_osd=[1|0] (default: 1) — Enable OSD.
    • mode=<string> — Mode. Supported strings: simple box outline. Default: box.
    • fontname=<string> (Default: Sans Bold 20) — Font.
    • color=<r>,<g>,<b>,<a> (default: 1.000,1.000,1.000,1.000) — Foreground color. <r>, <g>, <b> and <a> are in the range 0.0..1.0.
    • border_color=<r>,<g>,<b> (default: 0.000,0.000,0.000) — Border color. <r>, <g> and <b> are in the range 0.0..1.0.
    • border_width=<number> (0.00..10.00, default: 0.00) — Border width.
    • justify_h=<string> — Horizontal justify. Supported strings: center left right. Default: center.
    • justify_v=<string> — Vertical justify. Supported strings: center top bottom. Default: center.
    • 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.
    • box_color=<r>,<g>,<b>,<a> (default: 0.200,0.200,0.200,0.700) — Box color. <r>, <g>, <b> and <a> are in the range 0.0..1.0.
    • box_radius=<number> (0..20, default: 10) — Box corner radius.
    • box_padding=<number> (0..20, default: 10) — Box padding.
    • duration=<number> (0..10000, default: 2000) — Duration (milliseconds).
  • -nt — disable time display. 🙅♀️
  • -nc — use the ncurses frontend. Terminal-core aesthetic, lowkey slay.
  • -vol <volume> — set volume (0.0 - 1.0).
  • -tracks <track_spec> — <track_spec> can be a ranges mixed with comma separated tracks.
  • -as <idx> — selects audio stream index (starting with 1).
  • -ss <idx> — selects subtitle stream index (starting with 1).
  • -ra plugin[?param1=val1[&param2=val2...]] — select audio recoder plugin. Use -list-ra to list available plugins, and -list-plugin-parameters <plugin> to list all supported options. (yes, "recoder" — one r, iconic typo, not touching it)
  • -rv plugin[?param1=val1[&param2=val2...]] — use -list-rv to list available plugins, and -list-plugin-parameters <plugin> to list all supported options. (That's genuinely the whole description she gives, no cap.)
  • -list-input — list the names of the installed input plugins.
  • -list-oa — list the names of the installed audio output plugins.
  • -list-ov — list the names of the installed video output plugins.
  • -list-fa — list the names of the installed audio filter plugins.
  • -list-fv — list the names of the installed video filter plugins.
  • -list-ra — list the names of the installed audio recorder plugins.
  • -list-rv — list the names of the installed video recorder plugins.
  • -list-plugin-parameters plugin — list the parameters supported by the plugin.

🌈 GENERIC OPTIONS 🌈

The following generic options are available for all gmerlin applications — every single one of her sisters gets these too 💜

  • -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.
  • -v level — set verbosity level (0..4).
  • -syslog name — log to syslog the specified name.
  • -stderr — always log to stderr.

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • ~/.gmerlin/plugins.xml — cache of the plugin registry (shared by all applications).
  • ~/.gmerlin/generic/cfg.xml — default plugin parameters are read from there. Use gmerlin_plugincfg to change them.
Heads up bestie: gmerlin_plugincfg is the one you reach for when you wanna change those default plugin parameters. Don't go hand-editing and then act surprised, iykyk 😭

And that's the whole page, fr fr. She's from the Gmerlin girlies, dated 2025-09-26, and she's filed under GMERLIN_PLAY(1) in your User Manuals. Go play something gorgeous. 🦋✨🎀

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