manpages

bino(1)

Bino(1) Version 2.8 Bino(1)

Overview

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

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

Invocation

bino [options] URL...

•
-h, --help

Displays help on command line options.

•
--help-all

Displays help including Qt specific options.

•
-v, --version

Displays version information.

•
--log-level level

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

•
--log-file file

Set log file.

•
--control-file file

Get control commands from a file. See Scripting and Remote Control.

•
--control-fifo name

Get control commands from a named pipe (fifo). See Scripting and Remote Control.

•
--control-uds name

Get control commands from a Unix Domain Socket. See Scripting and Remote Control.

•
--control-tcp [ip|name]:port

Get control commands by listening on a TCP port. See Scripting and Remote Control.

•
--stereo

Enable OpenGL quad-buffered stereo support. This typically only works with legacy proprietary GPU drivers, and autodetection breaks with these drivers, so this feature has to be enabled manually.

•
--opengles

Use OpenGL ES instead of Desktop OpenGL.

•
--vr

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

•
--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').

•
--capture

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

•
--list-audio-outputs

List audio outputs.

•
--list-audio-inputs

List audio inputs.

•
--list-video-inputs

List video inputs.

•
--list-screen-inputs

List screen inputs.

•
--list-window-inputs

List window inputs.

•
--audio-output index

Choose audio output via its index.

•
--audio-input index

Choose audio input via its index. Can be empty.

•
--video-input index

Choose video input via its index.

•
--screen-input index

Choose screen input via its index.

•
--window-input index

Choose window input via its index.

•
--list-tracks

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

•
--preferred-audio lang

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

•
--preferred-subtitle lang

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

•
--video-track track

Choose video track via its index.

•
--audio-track track

Choose audio track via its index.

•
--subtitle-track track

Choose subtitle track via its index. Can be empty.

•
-p, --playlist file

Load playlist.

•
-l, --loop mode

Set loop mode (off, one, all).

•
-w, --wait mode

Set wait mode (off, on).

•
-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).

•
-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).

•
-s, --surround mode

Set surround mode (360, 180, off).

•
--surround-vfov degrees

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

•
-S, --swap-eyes

Swap left/right eye.

•
-f, --fullscreen

Start in fullscreen mode.

Output Modes

Single-Screen Output

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

  • stereo requires OpenGL quad-buffered stereo support, typically limited to high-end graphics cards. You must use the --stereo option on the command line to enable this mode.
  • 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.
  • 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).
  • even-odd-rows, even-odd-columns and checkerboard are for (older) 3D TVs.

Multi-Screen Output

Common stereoscopic display setups have one display for the left view and one display for the right view.

The easiest way to use such setups is to configure your desktop environment to allow Bino to use two screens in fullscreen mode, and then pick output mode left/right or top/bottom.

For example, on KDE Plasma, look for “KWin Scripts” in the System Settings, enable the “Video Wall” script, and configure it so that it applies to “org.bino3d.bino”.

An alternative is to use Virtual Reality mode, which can support much more complex multi-screen setups without the need for any VR hardware (you can still use keyboard and mouse).

File Name Conventions

Bino tries to autodetect the stereoscopic layout and the surround video mode from image and video metadata, but that data is often incomplete or unknown. In such cases, Bino has to guess.

To help with this, the hints listed below can be used as the last part of the file name, just before the file name extension (.ext).

If you use both stereoscopic and surround mode hints, but the surround hint first, followed by the stereoscopic hint, e.g. example-180-tb.mp4.

Stereoscopic Layout Hints

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

Surround Mode Hints

  • *-180-*.ext or *-180.ext: Surround mode 180°
  • *-360-*.ext or *-360.ext: Surround mode 360°

Virtual Reality

Overview

Bino supports all sorts of Virtual Reality environments via QVR:

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

VR mode does not require any VR hardware, it can also be used for multi-screen output in normal desktop environments, with keyboard/mouse interaction.

Use the option --vr to start Bino in VR mode.

Interaction

You can quit VR mode by pressing the Menu button on your controller, or the Q key on your keyboard.

Activate the on-screen user interface by pressing a trigger on your controller. When you release the trigger, the selected action will be performed, and the on-screen user interface will vanish again. Keyboard shortcuts also still work, in case you have access to your keyboard in VR mode.

Bino uses QVRs default navigation to move around in the virtual world: * With autodetected controllers such as the HTC Vive controllers, one controller is for left/right/forward/backward movement, the other is for up/down and for left/right rotations. * When keyboard/mouse input is available, the WASD keys will move forward/left/backward/right, QE will move up/down, and the mouse will change the viewing direction.

Virtual Screen

Bino will display a video screen in the virtual world for conventional video. If the input is a surround image or video instead (360° or 180°), it will be displayed all around the viewer.

The default screen is a 16:9 screen in front of the viewer, but you can use the --vr-screen option to define your own screen via its bottom left, bottom right and top left corners, or to load 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, which is useful for multi-screen output configurations. 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.

Scripting and Remote Control

Bino can read commands and execute them. This works both in GUI mode and in Virtual Reality mode.

The source of the commands can be a text file, a named pipe (fifo), a Unix Domain Socket (UDS), or a TCP port that Bino listens on. See the various --control options. Examples:

### File:
$ bino --control-file script.bino
### FIFO:
$ mkfifo fifo.bino
$ bino --control-fifo fifo.bino &
$ echo "open myvideo.mp4" > fifo.bino
### Unix Domain Socket:
$ bino --control-uds /tmp/socket.bino &
$ echo "open myvideo.mp4" | nc -q0 -U /tmp/socket.bino
### TCP Socket:
$ bino --control-tcp localhost:63000 &
$ echo "open myvideo.mp4" | nc -q0 localhost 63000

This allows pre-scripted media presentations as well as the implementation of custom remote controls for Bino.

The command interface is line-based. Empty lines and comment lines (which begin with #) are ignored. The following commands are supported:

•
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.

•
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.

•
play

Start playing.

•
pause

Pause.

•
toggle-pause

Switch between pause and play.

•
stop

Stop playing.

•
playlist-load playlist.m3u

Load the playlist.

•
playlist-next

Switch to next playlist entry.

•
playlist-prev

Switch to previous playlist entry.

•
playlist-wait mode

Set wait mode (off, on).

•
playlist-loop mode

Set loop mode (off, one, all).

•
quit

Quit Bino.

•
set-position p

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

•
seek seconds

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

•
wait stop|seconds

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

•
set-mute on|off

Set the volume mute status.

•
toggle-mute

Switch between mute and unmute.

•
set-volume vol

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

•
adjust-volume offset

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

•
set-output-mode mode

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

•
set-surround-vfov degrees

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

•
set-swap-eyes on|off

Set left/right eye swap.

•
toggle-swap-eyes

Toggle left/right eye swap.

•
set-fullscreen on|off

Set fullscreen mode.

•
toggle-fullscreen

Toggle fullscreen mode.

Slideshows

You can play slideshows of images (or videos) simply by making a playlist. In the GUI, use the Playlist menu, and on the command line, just list multiple files to play.

By default, the next image/video in the playlist will only be displayed after you press the N key, or choose Playlist/Next from the menu or the on-screen user interface.

When the wait status of the playlist is switched off instead, the next media will play as soon as the previous is finished.

For a scripted slideshow with predefined presentation times for each image or video, 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
July 31, 2026