Usage
vsound [options] program arguments
options:
-f, --file=FILE output file name
-v, --verbose set to verbose output
-k, --keep-temps don't delete temporary files
-h, --help this help message
-V, --version show program version
-r, --resample resample the output file to the given sample rate
eg. vsound -r 44100 realplay file.rm
-d, --dspout enable simulateous output to /dev/dsp and file
(may be required for some programs)
-s, --stdout write the intermediate (Sun AU format) file to stdout
(no other output file is generated)
-n, --no-convert do not convert the AU file to WAV
-t, --timing add timing delays to allow recording of streaming data
-a, --autostop=SEC kill the player after 'SEC' seconds of inactivity.
Once
you have the vsound program installed you can use the following
command to convert a realmedia file to a WAV file. This conversion
process is completely silent. You may not even need a sound
card and kernel sound module although this hasn't been tested.
vsound realplay realmediafile.rm
New
in version 0.3 is the capability of doing sample rate conversion
on the output file. The following command will ensure that the
output file is a 44.1kHz sample rate WAV file.
vsound -r 44100 realplay realmediafile.rm
Warning:
If you use --resample/-r when the input and output rates are
equal, sox will fail to convert it and vsound will delete the
output file. I suggest unless you are sure the sample rates
are different that you also use the -k switch when using -r.
This will tell vsound to keep the temporary file which you can
then manually convert with sox if the resample fails. If anyone
has a fix or an idea for a fix for this, please
email
me.
If
you
would like to listen to the file while it is being recorded,
you can use the dspout mode. In this mode, the audio data is
simultaneously recorded to a file and output to /dev/dsp. Please
note that if you are using the Enlightened Sound Daemon, you
may need to disable it before using vsound in this mode.
vsound -d realplay realmediafile.rm
Finally,
the Realplayer sometimes expects the audio data to be consumed
by the soundcard at a specific rate. This is particularly true
of files with URLs like "pnm://somewhere.com/file.rm" and "rtsp://somewhere.com/file.rm".
For files of this type there is a new option in version 0.5 which
adds timing delays keep the realplayer synchronised with the stream
it is playing.
vsound -t realplay realmediafile.rm
where
the realmediafile.rm might contain one or more URLs of the above
type.
Autostop
-a / --autostop option
New
in version 0.6, this addition from Richard Taylor adds an autostop
switch to vsound allowing it to stop recording automatically
when /dev/dsp is closed, ideal for use with RealPlayer
for recording BBC
radio programmes (a very popular use for vsound).
Richard's
original email describes it best;
"I
use vsound to record programmes from the BBC to listen
to in my car on the way to work. One of things that
I have found annoying is having to find out the length
of the programme before I can set up my record script
to kill realplayer when the programme has finished.
I
noticed that realplayer closes the /dev/dsp handle once
a programme has finished so I have patched vsound to
add a new flag '-a' which will kill the player after
a set number of seconds of inactivity (defined as the
time that the /dev/dsp device is closed)."
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You might also find Text-Mode
RealMedia Player handy in conjunction with vsound.
Real Player 10 / Helix Player
I've
had reports that the -t/--timing option no longer works with
Realplayer 10 but doesn't seem necessary. Just drop the -t and
it should work. Another user has informed me that using the
-d/--dspout
also solved this problem.
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