| Console Port | Pad Port | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| 50021 | 50121 | Console ↔ Pad |
The audio streaming protocol, also known as astrm, is used to stream game audio data from the Wii U to a GamePad, or to stream microphone data from a GamePad to the Wii U. It is usually uncompressed, raw samples data, but the firmware code seems to indicate support for basic compressed formats. At of Dec 2013 compressed streaming has not been seen used in the wild.
For some reason, the astrm protocol is also used to transmit video format and timing information.
Each packet has an 8 byte header followed by payload data: either audio or video format information.
struct AstrmHeader {
u16 format : 3;
u16 mono : 1;
u16 vibrate : 1;
u16 type : 1; // 0 is audio data, 1 is video format
u16 seq_id : 10;
u16 payload_size : 16;
u32 timestamp : 32;
};
Known audio formats:
If the packet type flag indicates that the packet is audio data, the payload following the header is interpreted as audio samples to be played on the GamePad. The number of samples is inferred form the payload size.
If the packet type flag indicates that the packet is video format information, all the other header fields are ignored and the payload is interpreted as a video format header.
One video format packet is sent before each video frame is sent via vstrm.
struct AstrmVideoFormat {
u32 timestamp;
u32 unknown_freq_0[2];
u32 unknown_freq_1[2];
u32 video_format;
};
The timestamp should match the timestamp sent in the vstrm packets for that frame.