diff --git a/pulseaudio-tcp b/pulseaudio-tcp
index 3566d5d..ffd432a 100644
--- a/pulseaudio-tcp
+++ b/pulseaudio-tcp
@@ -22,18 +22,19 @@
 
 usage() {
     cat >&2 <<EOF
-Usage: $0 [OPTIONS] OPERATION
-Options:
- --debug         Enable additional debug output for start and stop operations.
- --no-gui        Do not display GUI dialogs, use terminal for input and output.
- --cookie COOKIE Pass Pulseaudio cookie of remote host as option value instead
-                 of copying it from remote_host.
-Operations:
- setup    Interactively gather settings.
- start    Start redirection to remote host.
- stop     Stop redirection to remote host.
- restart  Stop and then start redirection.
- status   Check if redirection is set up and enabled.
+# Usage:
+\`$0 [OPTIONS] OPERATION\`
+# Options:
+  * \`--debug\`:         Enable additional debug output for start and stop operations.
+  * \`--no-gui\`:        Do not display GUI dialogs, use terminal for input and output.
+  * \`--cookie COOKIE\`: Pass Pulseaudio cookie as option value instead of copying
+                       from remote_host. Expects value to be Base64-encoded.
+# Operations:
+  * \`setup\`:    Interactively gather settings.
+  * \`start\`:    Start redirection to remote host.
+  * \`stop\`:     Stop redirection to remote host.
+  * \`restart\`:  Stop and then start redirection.
+  * \`status\`:   Check if redirection is set up and enabled.
 EOF
 }
 
@@ -281,8 +282,13 @@ sync_pa_cookie() {
         error "Local directory ~/.config/pulse does not exist or is not writeable."
         return 1
     elif [[ -n $cookie ]] ; then
-        debug "Using PulseAudio cookie value as passed on the command line ..."
-        printf "%s" "$cookie" > ~/.config/pulse/cookie
+        if echo "$cookie" | base64 -d > ~/.config/pulse/cookie ; then
+            debug "Using PulseAudio cookie value as passed on the command line ..."
+            return 0
+        else
+            error "Decoding Base64 value of option --cookie failed."
+            return 1
+        fi
     elif _scp "$remote_user"@"$remote_ip":.config/pulse/cookie ~/.config/pulse/cookie ; then
         debug "Synced PulseAudio cookie from remote host $remote_ip."
         return 0
@@ -472,7 +478,6 @@ no_more_options=false
 while [[ $# -gt 0 ]] ; do
     arg=$1
     shift
-    echo "DEBUG: parsing arg=$arg .." >&2
 
     case "$arg" in
         --)