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Bino(1) Version 2.5 Bino(1)

Overview

Bino is a video player with a focus on 3D and Virtual Reality:

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Support for stereoscopic 3D videos in various formats
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Support for 360° and 180° surround videos, with and without stereoscopic 3D
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Support for Virtual Reality environments, including SteamVR, CAVEs, powerwalls, and other multi-display / multi-GPU / multi-host systems

Invocation

bino [options] URL...

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-h, --help

Displays help on command line options.

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--help-all

Displays help including Qt specific options.

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-v, --version

Displays version information.

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--log-level level

Set log level (fatal, warning, info, debug, firehose).

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--log-file file

Set log file.

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--read-commands script

Read commands from a script file. See Scripting.

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--opengles

Use OpenGL ES instead of Desktop OpenGL.

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--stereo

Use OpenGL quad-buffered stereo in GUI mode.

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--vr

Start in Virtual Reality mode instead of GUI mode. See Virtual Reality.

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--vr-screen screen

Set VR screen geometry, either as the special values `united' or `intersected', or as a comma-separated list of nine values representing three 3D coordinates that define a planar screen (bottom left, bottom right, top left), or as a an aspect ratio followed by the name of an OBJ file that contains the screen geometry with texture coordinates (example: `16:9,myscreen.obj').

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--capture

Capture audio/video input from microphone and camera/screen/window.

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--list-audio-outputs

List audio outputs.

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--list-audio-inputs

List audio inputs.

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--list-video-inputs

List video inputs.

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--list-screen-inputs

List screen inputs.

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--list-window-inputs

List window inputs.

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--audio-output ao

Choose audio output via its index.

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--audio-input ai

Choose audio input via its index. Can be empty.

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--video-input vi

Choose video input via its index.

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--screen-input si

Choose screen input via its index.

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--window-input wi

Choose window input via its index.

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--list-tracks

List all video, audio and subtitle tracks in the media.

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--preferred-audio lang

Set preferred audio track language (en, de, fr, ...).

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--preferred-subtitle lang

Set preferred subtitle track language (en, de, fr, ...). Can be empty.

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--video-track track

Choose video track via its index.

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--audio-track track

Choose audio track via its index.

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--subtitle-track track

Choose subtitle track via its index. Can be empty.

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-p, --playlist file

Load playlist.

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-l, --loop mode

Set loop mode (off, one, all).

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-w, --wait mode

Set wait mode (off, on).

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-i, --input mode

Set input mode (mono, top-bottom, top-bottom-half, bottom-top, bottom-top-half, left-right, left-right-half, right-left, right-left-half, alternating-left-right, alternating-right-left).

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-o, --output mode

Set output mode (left, right, stereo, alternating, hdmi-frame-pack, left-right, left-right-half, right-left, right-left-half, top-bottom, top-bottom-half, bottom-top, bottom-top-half, even-odd-rows, even-odd-columns, checkerboard, red-cyan-dubois, red-cyan-full-color, red-cyan-half-color, red-cyan-monochrome, green-magenta-dubois, green-magenta-full-color, green-magenta-half-color, green-magenta-monochrome, amber-blue-dubois, amber-blue-full-color, amber-blue-half-color, amber-blue-monochrome, red-green-monochrome, red-blue-monochrome).

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--surround mode

Set surround mode (360, 180, off).

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--surround-vfov degrees

Set surround vertical field of view (default 50, range 5-115).

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-S, --swap-eyes

Swap left/right eye.

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-f, --fullscreen

Start in fullscreen mode.

Output modes

Most output modes should be self explanatory, but there are some exceptions:

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stereo requires OpenGL quad-buffered stereo support, typically limited to high-end graphics cards.
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alternating tries to mimic stereo mode by displaying the left and right frames alternating, ideally at display speed. This is unreliable since Bino has no way of making sure that its output frames actually correspond to display output frames, but it might work, depending on your hardware and system setup.
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hdmi-frame-pack is a special mode supported by some 3D TVs via HDMI 1.4a, where the left view is placed in the top part of a frame and the right view in the bottom part, and both parts are separated by a blank area that takes 1/49 of the vertical space. To use this mode, force your display output resolution into either 1280x1470 (720p 3D: 720+30+720=1470; 1470/49=30) or 1920x2205 (1080p 3D: 1080+45+1080=2205; 2205/49=45).
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even-odd-rows, even-odd-columns and checkerboard are for (older) 3D TVs.

File Name Conventions

Bino currently cannot detect the stereoscopic layout or the surround video mode from metadata because Qt does not provide that information. It therefore has to guess.

Bino recognizes the following hints at the last part of the file name, just before the file name extension (.ext):

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*-tb.ext, *-ab.ext: Input mode top-bottom
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*-tbh.ext, *-abq.ext: Input mode top-bottom-half
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*-bt.ext, *-ba.ext: Input mode bottom-top
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*-bth.ext, *-baq.ext: Input mode bottom-top-half
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*-lr.ext: Input mode left-right
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*-lrh.ext, *-lrq.ext: Input mode left-right-half
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*-rl.ext: Input mode right-left
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*-rlh.ext, *-rlq.ext: Input mode right-left-half
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*-2d.ext: Input mode mono

Additionally, if the number 180 or 360 is part of the file name and separated by neighboring digits or letters by other characters, then the corresponding surround mode is assumed.

Scripting

Bino can read commands from a script file and execute them via the option --read-commands scriptfile. This works both in GUI mode and in Virtual Reality mode.

The script file can also be a named pipe so that you can have arbitrary remote control interfaces write commands into it as they come in.

Empty lines and comment lines (which begin with #) are ignored. The following commands are supported:

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open [--input mode] [--surround mode] [--video-track vt] [--audio-track at] [--subtitle-track st] URL

Open the URL and start playing. The options have the same meaning as the corresponding command line options.

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capture [--audio-input ai] [--video-input vi] [--screen-input si] [--window-input wi]

Start capturing camera and microphone. The options have the same meaning as the corresponding command line options.

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play

Start playing.

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pause

Pause.

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toggle-pause

Switch between pause and play.

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stop

Stop playing.

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playlist-load playlist.m3u

Load the playlist.

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playlist-next

Switch to next playlist entry.

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playlist-prev

Switch to previous playlist entry.

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playlist-wait mode

Set wait mode (off, on).

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playlist-loop mode

Set loop mode (off, one, all).

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quit

Quit Bino.

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set-position p

Set the video position to p, where p=0 is the beginning and p=1 is the end.

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seek seconds

Seek the given amounts of seconds forward or, if the number of seconds is negative, backwards.

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wait stop|seconds

Wait until the video stops, or wait for the given number of seconds, before executing the next command.

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set-mute on|off

Set the volume mute status.

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toggle-mute

Switch between mute and unmute.

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set-volume vol

Set the volume level to vol (between 0 and 1).

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adjust-volume offset

Adjust the volume by the given amount (the final volume is clamped between 0 and 1).

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set-output-mode mode

Set the given output mode. See the command line option --output for a list of modes.

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set-surround-vfov degrees

Set surround vertical field of view (default 50, range 5-115).

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set-swap-eyes on|off

Set left/right eye swap.

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toggle-swap-eyes

Toggle left/right eye swap.

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set-fullscreen on|off

Set fullscreen mode.

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toggle-fullscreen

Toggle fullscreen mode.

Slideshows

You can play slideshows of images (or videos) simply by making a playlist and switching on its wait status. This is the default whenever one or more of the files you open are images instead of videos; this works from the command line as well as from the GUI.

With wait enabled, the next media in the playlist will only be displayed after you press the N key, or choose Playlist/Next from the menu.

For automatic media switching based on predefined presentation times, use the scripting mode as in the following example:

set-fullscreen on
playlist-load my-slideshow.m3u
playlist-loop on
playlist-wait on
playlist-next
wait 4
playlist-next
wait 7
playlist-next
wait 5
quit

Virtual Reality

Bino supports all sorts of Virtual Reality environments via QVR:

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When QVR is compiled just with Qt6, CAVEs and powerwalls and similar multi-display setups are supported, including multi-GPU and multi-host rendering.
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When QVR is compiled with VRPN, all sorts of tracking and interaction hardware for such systems are additionally supported.
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When QVR is compiled with OpenVR, SteamVR is additionally supported and automatically detected (e.g. HTC Vive).

To start Bino in VR mode, use the option --vr. Bino will then display a screen in the virtual world, and the video will be displayed on that screen, unless the input is a surround video (360° or 180°), which will of course be displayed all around the viewer.

The default is a 16:9 screen in a few meters distance from the viewer, but you can use the --vr-screen option to either define arbitrary planar screens via their bottom left, bottom right and top left corners, or to load arbitrary screen geometry from an OBJ file. The latter case is useful e.g. if you want Bino’s virtual screen to coincide with a curved physical screen.

The --vr-screen option also accepts the special values united and intersected. This will unite (or intersect) the 2D geometries of all VR windows at runtime. For example, use --vr-screen=united --qvr-config=two-screen-stereo.qvr for a two-screen stereo setup, where the left view goes on the first screen and the right view goes on the second screen.

Bino uses QVRs default navigation, which may be based on autodetected controllers such as the HTC Vive controllers, or on tracking and interaction hardware configured via QVR for your VR system, or on the mouse and WASDQE keys if nothing else is available.

Additional interaction in VR mode is currently limited to the same keyboard shortcuts that also work in GUI mode. That means you currently must specify the video to play on the command line, and have no way to pause, skip or seek with VR controllers. This will be added in a future version.

Feburary 15, 2025