# VLC with native FreeBSD audio



## SlySven (Apr 4, 2019)

Using the current VLC (3.0.6 Vetinari) I can get 5.1 audio media to playback through more than just two speakers.

However, as I am just about to replace a pair of powered speakers that I am using alongside the two in my lower monitor (which gives me a 4.0 arrangement) with a full 5.1 set to give me 7.1 (I'll keep the existing monitor speakers as they are in the right place to be "Front" ones and wire the front pair of the new 5.1 set as "Side" ones).

I cannot however see how to tell VLC to upmix output formats less than 7.1 *to 7.1* format however.  Having run several files through it I can see that my dev.pcm.2.play.vchanformat is switching between `s16le:7.1`, `s16le:5.1` and `s16le:2.0` as I play 7.1, 5.1 and stereo audio files but I cannot see how to force VLC to use more than a stereo pair output when it is playing a 2.0 file. For the file (`.wav`) output it does allow you to specify the number of channels and I think it has the code to make reasonable upmixes itself.  I also think that the native sound API can also be set to do that - but I cannot see how this can be done.

When using the OSS output in VLC it does allow the user to manually specific an output location (I have choosen `/dev/dsp2.vp0` which corresponds to the audio output within the VLC UI of "pcm2:virtual:dsp2.vp0") but it seems to me that this assumes the 2.0 form by default so VLC never tries to output more than that. TBH I cannot tell if this is a VLC or an native sound system issue.


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