Installed on Raspbian is a command line media player, called OMXPlayer. This is HW accelerated, and can play back many popular audio and video file formats.
OMXPlayer was developed by the Kodi project's Edgar Hucek.
OMXPlayer uses the OpenMAX (omx) hardware acceleration interface (API) which is the officially supported media API on the Raspberry Pi.
The simplest command line is omxplayer <name of media file>. The media file can be audio or video or both. For the examples below, we used an H264 video file that is included with the standard Raspbian installation.
omxplayer /opt/vc/src/hello_pi/hello_video/test.h264
By default the audio is sent to the analog port. If you are using a HDMI-equipped display device with speakers, you need to tell omxplayer to send the audio signal over the HDMI link.
omxplayer --adev hdmi /opt/vc/src/hello_pi/hello_video/test.h264
When displaying video, the whole display will be used as output. You can specify which part of the display you want the video to be on using the window option.
omxplayer --win 0,0,640,480 /opt/vc/src/hello_pi/hello_video/test.h264
You can also specify which part of the video you want to be displayed: this is called a crop window. This portion of the video will be scaled up to match the display, unless you also use the window option.
omxplayer --crop 100,100,300,300 /opt/vc/src/hello_pi/hello_video/test.h264
If you are using the Raspberry Pi Foundation's touchscreen display, and you want to use it for video output, use the display option to specify which display to use. n is 5 for HDMI, 4 for the touchscreen. With the Raspberry Pi 4 you have two options for HDMI output. n is 2 for HDMI0 and 7 for HDMI1.
omxplayer --display n /opt/vc/src/hello_pi/hello_video/test.h264
There are a number of options available during playback, actioned by pressing the appropriate key. Not all options will be available on all files. The list of key bindings can be displayed using omxplayer --keys:
1 decrease speed
2 increase speed
< rewind
> fast forward
z show info
j previous audio stream
k next audio stream
i previous chapter
o next chapter
n previous subtitle stream
m next subtitle stream
s toggle subtitles
w show subtitles
x hide subtitles
d decrease subtitle delay (- 250 ms)
f increase subtitle delay (+ 250 ms)
q exit omxplayer
p / space pause/resume
- decrease volume
+ / = increase volume
left arrow seek -30 seconds
right arrow seek +30 seconds
down arrow seek -600 seconds
up arrow seek +600 seconds
This is a full list of options available in the build from 23rd September 2016, displayed using omxplayer --help:
-h --help Print this help
-v --version Print version info
-k --keys Print key bindings
-n --aidx index Audio stream index : e.g. 1
-o --adev device Audio out device : e.g. hdmi/local/both/alsa[:device]
-i --info Dump stream format and exit
-I --with-info dump stream format before playback
-s --stats Pts and buffer stats
-p --passthrough Audio passthrough
-d --deinterlace Force deinterlacing
--nodeinterlace Force no deinterlacing
--nativedeinterlace let display handle interlace
--anaglyph type convert 3d to anaglyph
--advanced[=0] Enable/disable advanced deinterlace for HD videos (default enabled)
-w --hw Hw audio decoding
-3 --3d mode Switch tv into 3d mode (e.g. SBS/TB)
-M --allow-mvc Allow decoding of both views of MVC stereo stream
-y --hdmiclocksync Display refresh rate to match video (default)
-z --nohdmiclocksync Do not adjust display refresh rate to match video
-t --sid index Show subtitle with index
-r --refresh Adjust framerate/resolution to video
-g --genlog Generate log file
-l --pos n Start position (hh:mm:ss)
-b --blank[=0xAARRGGBB] Set the video background color to black (or optional ARGB value)
--loop Loop file. Ignored if file not seekable
--no-boost-on-downmix Don't boost volume when downmixing
--vol n set initial volume in millibels (default 0)
--amp n set initial amplification in millibels (default 0)
--no-osd Do not display status information on screen
--no-keys Disable keyboard input (prevents hangs for certain TTYs)
--subtitles path External subtitles in UTF-8 srt format
--font path Default: /usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeSans.ttf
--italic-font path Default: /usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeSansOblique.ttf
--font-size size Font size in 1/1000 screen height (default: 55)
--align left/center Subtitle alignment (default: left)
--no-ghost-box No semitransparent boxes behind subtitles
--lines n Number of lines in the subtitle buffer (default: 3)
--win 'x1 y1 x2 y2' Set position of video window
--win x1,y1,x2,y2 Set position of video window
--crop 'x1 y1 x2 y2' Set crop area for input video
--crop x1,y1,x2,y2 Set crop area for input video
--aspect-mode type Letterbox, fill, stretch. Default is stretch if win is specified, letterbox otherwise
--audio_fifo n Size of audio output fifo in seconds
--video_fifo n Size of video output fifo in MB
--audio_queue n Size of audio input queue in MB
--video_queue n Size of video input queue in MB
--threshold n Amount of buffered data required to finish buffering [s]
--timeout n Timeout for stalled file/network operations (default 10s)
--orientation n Set orientation of video (0, 90, 180 or 270)
--fps n Set fps of video where timestamps are not present
--live Set for live tv or vod type stream
--layout Set output speaker layout (e.g. 5.1)
--dbus_name name default: org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.omxplayer
--key-config <file> Uses key bindings in <file> instead of the default
--alpha Set video transparency (0..255)
--layer n Set video render layer number (higher numbers are on top)
--display n Set display to output to
--cookie 'cookie' Send specified cookie as part of HTTP requests
--user-agent 'ua' Send specified User-Agent as part of HTTP requests
--lavfdopts 'opts' Options passed to libavformat, e.g. 'probesize:250000,...'
--avdict 'opts' Options passed to demuxer, e.g., 'rtsp_transport:tcp,...'