xine - a free video player
This manual page documents briefly the xine audio/video
player.
xine plays MPEG system (audio and video) streams, mpeg
elementary streams (e.g. .mp3 or .mpv files), mpeg transport streams, ogg
files, avi files, asf files, quicktime files, (S)VCDs and DVDs and many
more.
The programs follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long
options starting with two dashes (`--'). A summary of options are included
below. For a complete description, see README and FAQ in
/usr/share/doc/xine-ui or on the xine home page.
- -h, --help
- Show summary of options and available output drivers (plugins).
- --verbose[=level]
- Set verbose level.
- -c, --config <file>
- Use config file instead of default one.
- -a, --audio-channel <num>
- Select the given audio channel. <num> is the audio channel
number, default is 0.
xine 0.5 and newer tries its best to collect all valid audio channels (ac3,
mpeg audio, avi audio, ...) from the stream and maps them to "virtual
channels" with channel numbers starting at 0.
- -V, --video-driver <drv>
- Select video driver. Check out xine --help for a list of
available video output plugins on your system. This selection is stored
automatically in your ~/.xine/config so you'll have to specify the
video driver only once.
- -A, --audio-driver <drv>
- Select audio driver. Check out xine --help for a list of available
audio output plugins on your system. This selection is stored
automatically in your ~/.xine/config so you'll have to specify the
audio driver only once.
- -u, --spu-channel <num>
- Select subpicture (subtitle) channel. <num> is the subpicture
channel id, default is no subtitle (-1).
- -p, --auto-play=[f][F][h][w][q][d][v]
- Start playing immediately after start. Can be followed by:
`f' in fullscreen mode,
`F' in xinerama fullscreen mode,
`h' hide GUI (main panel, etc...),
`w' hide video output window,
`q' for quitting after playback,
It is also possible to request the playlist from DVD `d', or VCD
`v'. There is now a more generic option, --auto-scan, for
that (see below).
- -s, --auto-scan <plugin>
- Auto-scan playlist from named input plugin. Many plugins allow one to read
a default playlist, in order to play everything. This works fine
for DVDs or VCDs, for example. Giving this option has the same effect as
pressing the according button on xine's main panel.
This option is especially useful in combination with
auto-play. You could start
xine --auto-play --auto-scan dvd in order to
play a whole DVD without having to press any additional buttons. This
also works for plugins that are not supplied with xine, just give the
name of the button that the desired plugin adds to the xine panel!
- -f, --fullscreen
- Switch xine to fullscreen mode on start (just like pressing
`f')
- -F, --xineramafull
- Switch xine to xinerama fullscreen mode on start (just like pressing
`F'). That is to say, try to expand display on several screens.
Screens to use are defined in config file.
- -g, --hide-gui
- Hide all GUI windows (except the video window) on start. This is the same
as pressing `G' within xine.
- -H, --hide-video
- Hide video output window.
- -L, --no-lirc
- Turn off LIRC support. This option is only available if xine
has been compiled with LIRC support.
- --visual <visual-class-or-id>
- Try to use a specific X11 server visual for xine windows. The
<visual-class-or-id> parameter is either the name of an X11
visual class (StaticGray, GrayScale, StaticColor,
PseudoColor, TrueColor or DirectColor) or the
hexadecimal value for a specific X11 visual.
When used with a visual class name, xine tries to find such a
visual with depth 15 or 16, 24, 32 or
8 (in that order). The default visual class used by xine in
absence of a --visual option is TrueColor.
If no usable visual is found, xine falls back to the default
visual used on the X11 server's root window.
- --install
- When using an X11 visual with changeable colors (colormaps), install a
private colormap for xine. With a private colormap, xine can allocate more
colors so that video output may look better.
- --keymap [=option]
- Display keymap. Option are:
`default' display default keymap table,
`lirc' display draft of a ~/.lircrc config file,
`remapped' user remapped keymap table,
`file:<file>' use file as keymap table,
If no option is given, `default' is selected.
- -n, --network
- Enable network remote control server. To use network remote control
server, a password file is required. If xine cannot find it, the server is
stopped. The syntax of the password file follows the (familiar) scheme
<identification>:<password>. Since cryptography
is subject to legal issues in some countries, the password is not
encrypted and also transmitted unencrypted, so take care with remote
connections. Two (optional) generic rules are available as well (one at a
time)
ALL:ALLOW or ALL:DENY
In the first case, all clients are allowed to execute all available
commands, without restriction. In the second case, no-one is allowed to
execute any commands, except identified users (using 'identify' command).
If a password entry begins with an asterisk `*', the
user is blocked. If a password entry is empty, the full entry is
ignored. Here is an example of a small ~/.xine/passwd file:
ALL:DENY
daniel:mypasswd
foo:*
This will allow only 'daniel' to execute commands, after a successfully
identifying stage.
The default port of the server is 6789, this number is
totally arbitrary. You can connect the server using a simple
telnet command:
telnet localhost 6789
To change the default port, you can (as root) edit your
/etc/services, and add an entry like this:
xinectl 7890/tcp # xine control
This will change the default port from 6789 to 7890, and create a
"human" service called xinectl.
The server itself offers command help/syntax:
help [command]
Without command specified, all available commands will be
displayed. If a command is specified, short text about the command
functionality will be given.
syntax <command>
Display the command syntax.
- -R, --root
- Use root window as video window.
- -G, --geometry <WxH[+X+Y]>
- You can set video output size and position using the X like geometry (see
X(7)). X and Y offset are optional.
- -B, --borderless
- Remove borders of video output window, in windowed mode.
- -N, --animation <mrl>
- Specify one or more mrl to play with audio only streams.
- -P, --playlist <filename>
- Use file as playlist. Known formats are: asx, toxine, m3u, pls, sfv and
raw text file.
- -l, --loop [=mode]
- Set playlist loop mode. If mode isn't specified, mode loop is used.
Possible modes are:
loop: loop entire playlist.
repeat: repeat current playlist entry.
shuffle: select randomly an entry in playlist from those not yet
played.
shuffle+: same as shuffle, but indefinitely replay the playlist.
- --skin-server-url <url>
- Define the skin server url.
- --enqueue <mrl>...
-
Enqueue one or more mrl in a running session (session 0).
If you want to specify another session, use -S session=x
option.
- -S, --session <option1,option2,...>
-
Session managements. All options can be used more than one time, except
session.
Options are:
session=n specify session <n> number,
mrl=m add mrl <m> to the playlist,
audio=c select audio channel (<c>: next or
prev),
spu=c select spu channel (<c>: next or
prev),
volume=v set audio volume (<v>: 0 to 100),
amp=v set audio amplification of instance (<v>: 0
to 200),
loop=m set loop mode (<m>: none
loop repeat shuffle or shuffle+),
get_speed get current speed status. Return values are:
- 1: error
- 2: stop
- 3: play
- 4: pause
- 5: slow4
- 6: slow2
- 7: fast2
- 8: fast4
get_time[=p|pos] get current position status in seconds, or in
position in stream (0..65535).
(playlist|pl)=p
<p> can be:
clear: clear the playlist,
first: play first entry in the playlist,
prev: play previous playlist entry,
next: play next playlist entry,
last: play last entry in the playlist,
load:s: load playlist file <s>,
stop: stop playback at the end of the current playback,
cont: continue playback at the end of current playback.
There are also some self explanatory options.
play, slow2, slow4, pause, fast2,
fast4, stop, quit, fullscreen,
eject.
- -Z
- Don't automatically start playback, affect only auto-start when smart mode
is used.
- -D, --deinterlace [post[:..][;]]
- Deinterlace video output. You can override configuration option of post(s)
used to deinterlace the output picture. See --post for syntax.
- -r, --aspect-ratio <mode>
- Set aspect ratio of video output. <mode> can be: auto,
square, 4:3, anamorphic, dvb.
- --broadcast-port <port>
- Set port of xine broadcaster (master side), slave is started with 'xine
slave://address:port'
- --no-logo
- Don't display the logo.
- -E, --no-reload
- Don't reload old playlist. Playlist is saved when you leave xine, then it
is reloaded and played the next time you lanch xine. This feature can be
disabled via setup window.
- --post <plugin>[:parameter=value][,...][;...]
- Load one or more post plugin(s). Parameters are comma separated. This
option can be used more than one time to chain two or more video
postprocess plugins. You can specify two or more plugin, which may be
separated by a semi-colon ';'.
- --disable-post
- Don't enable post plugin(s). This way, you can specify one more plugin to
use, using the --post command line option, but don't enable those
effects.
- --no-splash
- Don't display the splash screen.
- --stdctl
- Turn on controlling xine over STDIN.
- -T, --tvout<backend>
- Turn on TVout support. <backend> can be: nvtv, ati.
- --list-plugins[=type]
- Display the list of available plugins. Optional <type> can
be: audio_out, video_out, demux, input, sub, post, audio_decoder,
video_decoder
- --bug-report[=mrl]
- Enable bug report mode. This turns verbosity on, gathers all output
messages and writes them to a file named BUG-REPORT.TXT. If
<mrl> is given, xine will play that mrl then quit (like -pq
does).
If you don't specify any MRL, you'll have to select a file by drag
and drop. Dragging files from the
GNOME Midnight Commander (gmc), Nautilus or
Konqueror is known to work.
MRLs are similar to URLs in your web browser. They describe the
media to read from. xine(5) describes them in some detail. xine
extends the syntax as follows:
- <mrl>::<subtitlefile>
- This is the xine-ui specific way to define the subtitle file to use. The
filename will be extracted by the frontend, that permit one to change it,
save it in a playlist, etc...
After a delimiting # you can add several stream
parameters:
- novideo
- video will be ignored
- noaudio
- audio will be ignored
- nospu
- subpictures will be ignored
- demux:<demux name>
- specify the demux plugin to use
- volume:<level>
- set audio volume
- compression:<level>
- set audio dynamic range compression
- <config entry>:<config value>
- assign a new value to any config entry
- change configuration
option 'on the fly':
-
You can change a configuration option at anytime, using the special cfg:/
mrl style. The syntax is:
cfg:/<config entry> : <config value>
Unlike stream config option, you can change anything before playing
the stream.
Many features can be controlled by pressing control keys.
`M-' is the Meta key (`Alt' key on PC keyboard), `C-'
is the Control `CTRL' key, other special keys are delimited by
`<' and `>' characters, e.g. the `HOME' key is
displayed as <home>. The default key bindings are:
- <Return>
- Start playback
- <space>
- Playback pause toggle
- S
- Stop playback
- t
- Take a snapshot
- e
- Eject the current medium
- <Next>
- Select and play next MRL in the playlist
- <Prior>
- Select and play previous MRL in the playlist
- l
- Loop mode toggle
- C-s
- Scan playlist to grab stream infos
- C-a
- Add a mediamark from current playback
- C-e
- Edit selected mediamark
- <Left>
- Set position to -60 seconds in current stream
- <Right>
- Set position to +60 seconds in current stream
- M-<Left>
- Set position to -30 seconds in current stream
- M-<Right>
- Set position to +30 seconds in current stream
- C-<Left>
- Set position to -15 seconds in current stream
- C-<Right>
- Set position to +15 seconds in current stream
- M3-<Left>
- Set position to -7 seconds in current stream
- M3-<Right>
- Set position to +7 seconds in current stream
- C-0
- Set position to beginning of current stream
- C-1
- Set position to 10% of current stream
- C-2
- Set position to 20% of current stream
- C-3
- Set position to 30% of current stream
- C-4
- Set position to 40% of current stream
- C-5
- Set position to 50% of current stream
- C-6
- Set position to 60% of current stream
- C-7
- Set position to 70% of current stream
- C-8
- Set position to 80% of current stream
- C-9
- Set position to 90% of current stream
- <Up>
- Increment playback speed
- <Down>
- Decrement playback speed
- M-<Down>
- Reset playback speed
- V
- Increment audio volume
- v
- Decrement audio volume
- C-V
- Increment amplification level
- C-v
- Decrement amplification level
- C-A
- Reset amplification to default value
- C-m
- Audio muting toggle
- <plus>
- Select next audio channel
- <minus>
- Select previous audio channel
- <period>
- Select next sub picture (subtitle) channel
- <comma>
- Select previous sub picture (subtitle) channel
- i
- Interlaced mode toggle
- a
- Cycle aspect ratio values
- <less>
- Reduce the output window size by factor 1.2
- <greater>
- Enlarge the output window size by factor 1.2
- M-1
- Set video output window to 50%
- M-2
- Set video output window to 100%
- M-3
- Set video output window to 200%
- z
- Zoom in
- Z
- Zoom out
- C-z
- Zoom in horizontally
- C-Z
- Zoom out horizontally
- M-z
- Zoom in vertically
- M-Z
- Zoom out vertically
- C-M-z
- Reset zooming
- s
- Resize output window to stream size
- f
- Fullscreen toggle
- F
- Xinerama fullscreen toggle
- b
- Video window borders appearance toggle
- <Escape>
- Jump to media Menu
- <F1>
- Jump to Title Menu
- <F2>
- Jump to Root Menu
- <F3>
- Jump to Subpicture Menu
- <F4>
- Jump to Audio Menu
- <F5>
- Jump to Angle Menu
- <F6>
- Jump to Part Menu
- <Keypad Up>
- Menu navigate up
- <Keypad Down>
- Menu navigate down
- <Keypad Left>
- Menu navigate left
- <Keypad Right>
- Menu navigate right
- <Keypad Enter>
- Menu select
- <Keypad Next>
- Jump to next chapter
- <Keypad Prior>
- Jump to previous chapter
- <Keypad Home>
- Select next angle
- <Keypad End>
- Select previous angle
- M-h
- Visibility toggle of help window
- M-P
- Visibility toggle of video post effect window
- C-M-P
- Toggle post effect usage
- h
- Visibility toggle of output window
- g
- Visibility toggle of UI windows
- M-c
- Visibility toggle of control window
- M-m
- Visibility toggle of mrl browser window
- M-p
- Visibility toggle of playlist editor window
- M-s
- Visibility toggle of the setup window
- M-e
- Visibility toggle of the event sender window
- M-t
- Visibility toggle of analog TV window
- M-l
- Visibility toggle of log viewer
- M-i
- Visibility toggle of stream info window
- C-i
- Display stream information using OSD
- M-k
- Enter key binding editor
- C-o
- Open file selector
- C-S
- Select a subtitle file
- C-d
- Download a skin from the skin server
- C-t
- Display MRL/Ident toggle
- <Insert>
- Grab pointer toggle
- 0
- Enter the number 0
- 1
- Enter the number 1
- 2
- Enter the number 2
- 3
- Enter the number 3
- 4
- Enter the number 4
- 5
- Enter the number 5
- 6
- Enter the number 6
- 7
- Enter the number 7
- 8
- Enter the number 8
- 9
- Enter the number 9
- M3-<plus>
- Add 10 to the next entered number
- <slash>
- Set position in current stream to numeric percentage See the section on
"Numeric Input" below.
- M-<Up>
- Set position forward by numeric argument in current stream
- M3-<Up>
- Set position back by numeric argument in current stream
- m
- Change audio video syncing (delay video)
- n
- Change audio video syncing (delay audio)
- <Home>
- Reset audio video syncing offset
- M
- Change subtitle syncing (delay video)
- N
- Change subtitle syncing (delay subtitles)
- C-M-o
- Toggle TV modes (on the DXR3)
- d
- Switch Monitor to DPMS standby mode
- C-l
- Stop playback after played stream
- q
- Quit the program
Following shortcuts are used by third party plugins, generally for
DVD navigation:
- <KeyPad Up>
- Up event.
- <KeyPad Down>
- Down event.
- <KeyPad Left>
- Left event.
- <KeyPad Right>
- Right event.
- <KeyPad Prior>
- Prior event.
- <KeyPad Next>
- Next event.
- <KeyPad End>
- Previous angle event.
- <KeyPad Home>
- Next angle event.
- <KeyPad Enter>
- Select event
Some streams have bad timestamps, so synchronization fails. This
can be tweaked using these keys:
- n
- press if video lags behind audio
- m
- press if video runs ahead of audio
- <home>
- press to reset audio/video offset to 0, so stream timestamps are
unchanged.
You can adjust subtitle synchronization by using these keys:
- M / N
-
You can specify a numeric argument to be applied to a command
typing in a number and then entering a function key. For example entering
"99/", that is, the number-9 key twice and then the slash key, you
should seek 99% of the current stream.
The new VCD/SVCD plugin allows some numeric input. Entering a
number followed by the "Select event" (by default the keypad
enter), one can go to a specific "Chapter" (track or entry) or
selection number. As this is a relatively new feature, perhaps over time
more plugins will make use of numeric selection.
Other commands that can be numeric prefaced by a numeric argument
are next/previous MRL (MRL_NEXT, MRL_PRIOR), next/previous
subtitle (SPU_NEXT, SPU_PRIOR), and next/previous audio
channel (AUDIOCHAN_NEXT, AUDIOCHAN_PRIOR). With a numeric
prefix, it is as though one entered that command the number of times. Here,
the argument 0, since it would otherwise meaningless, is interpreted here to
be 1 instead.
Admittedly the use of numeric input here is of limited value. Over
time perhaps more useful commands like specifying a specific or absolute
MRL, subtitle or audio channel number will be implemented.
- ~/.xine/config
- Main config file
- ~/.xine/keymap
- Key bindings for xine-ui
- ~/.xine/passwd
- Passwords file xine-ui
- ~/.xine/xinerc
- Additional command line arguments
Each line specifies an additional command line argument (one argument per
line):
--geometry 720x576+0+0
--network
-s DVD
-p
This manual page was written by Siggi Langauf
<siggi@debian.org>, for the xine project. Lots of additions by Guenter
Bartsch <guenter@users.sourceforge.net>, Daniel Caujolle-Bert
<f1rmb@users.sourceforge.net>, Rocky Bernstein
<rocky@panix.com>, and Philipp Hahn
<pmhahn@users.sourceforge.net>.