Playing Music At The Console - Raspberry Pi A User Manual

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PA R T I I
ONE OF THE
The Broadcom BCM2835 at the Pi's heart is specifically designed as a multimedia power-
house, originally developed for use in HTPCs.
The graphics portion of the BCM2835 system-on-chip (SoC) design, a Broadcom VideoCore
IV module, is capable of full-speed high-definition video playback using the popular H.264
format. The chip is also able to play back audio files in a variety of formats, both through the
analogue 3.5 mm audio output and digitally via the HDMI port.
The small size, low power draw and silent operation combine to make the Pi a tempting
device for home theatre enthusiasts. A variety of distributions and software packages
designed to turn the Pi into a user-friendly home theatre PC have appeared since its launch,
but you don't necessarily need to give up your existing operating system to get started.

Playing Music at the Console

If you're a developer, you will likely spend most of your time at the Pi's console. With the major-
ity of music playback software being aimed at desktop use, it can be a quiet experience—but it
doesn't have to be.
The Pi supports a powerful text-based music playback package called
music on console). Unlike other tools (such as
when there is no graphical user interface (GUI) installed on the Pi.
To get started, install the
distribution, this is as simple as typing the following command at the console or in a terminal
window:
sudo apt-get install moc
Some distributions already have another tool called
TIP
playback. If you find that installing
substituting mocp as the package name.
If you spend a lot of time outside of the graphical user interface and working at the console,
moc
ing there's no interruption to your music if you start doing something else.
To load
another tool which uses the command
operating system from getting confused between the two packages.
B U I L D I N G A M E D I A C E N T R E , P R O D U C T I V I T Y M A C H I N E O R W E B S E R V E R
most popular tasks for a Pi to carry out is that of a home theatre PC, or HTPC.
package from your distribution's repositories. For the Raspbian
moc
is a great choice for music playback. Unlike other tools, it runs in the background, mean-
, the command is
moc
),
LXMusic moc
, which has nothing to do with audio
moc
doesn't give you the result you're expecting, try
moc
rather than . The reason for this is that there's
mocp moc
, so a different name was chosen to prevent the
moc
(which stands for
moc
can be installed and used even