HQ Player

[Miska]

On 11/17/2022 at 3:28 PM, eboy said:

@miska why is hqplayer 4.20.0 (generic x64) only using/focusing on threads 1,2,3,4? Only a few load on threads 5,6,7,8

cpu: i7 3770

 

It has just four physical cores that can do actual work. So it is utilized in most efficient way. Threads are left for other tasks.

 

[Miska]

 

On 11/17/2022 at 8:40 PM, Mops911 said:

Plus Audiophyle Optimizer gets rid of the remaining junk. Plus settings for HQPlayer are set to "realtime" and a "special" reliable timer is used instead of standard timer etc

 

If you touch HQPlayer priorities, you may be creating a lot of problems. Although HQPlayer resets most of the priority stuff. Because HQPlayer will run couple of hundred threads inside, executing different kinds of tasks, from updating the GUI to processing realtime audio. Each of these threads is internally applied carefully designed affinity and priority based on what kind of work they are doing. There's no way you can externally control this, because you have no way of knowing which thread is doing which kind of work. Usually if you blindly assign priority to the HQPlayer process, you are adjusting priority of the thread that deals with the graphical interface. It won't affect the ones dealing with audio.

 

[Miska]

15 hours ago, Luca72c said:

Were those statings based on theories and prejudice, or simply on different configurations? I don't know, but in any case they were unreliable. Then this year Miska changed something in the code (better optimization for Linux?) and now performace is SLIGHTLY better on Linux, i reported that too. Not anything that changes much, to be honest, in facts i always use Win instead of Linux on my double-boot server PC as i prefer better SQ and usability than useless (for me) <1% better performance.

 

I've been working on next release of HQPlayer Pro. Linux and macOS releases have been ready and fine for about two weeks. And now I've spent two extra weeks trying to get Windows release not explode for pretty unknown reason. Now I hope it is close to release. Not that I would be happy about having to spend those extra two weeks.

 

[Luca72c]

8 hours ago, Miska said:

 

I've been working on next release of HQPlayer Pro. Linux and macOS releases have been ready and fine for about two weeks. And now I've spent two extra weeks trying to get Windows release not explode for pretty unknown reason. Now I hope it is close to release. Not that I would be happy about having to spend those extra two weeks.

 

 

Of course, Miska, you have always made a wonderful job on Hqplayer for Windows, as facts show, and i understand the harder work needed for a proprietary, more closed and worse documented platform, from a developer point of view. Mine was not a complaint about your patient work. I am happy to be one of your customers! 

[SunYang]

In my new music dedicated PC:

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X + ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420

ASUS ProArt X670E-CREATOR WIFI + Corsair HX1500i

MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GAMING TRIO 24G

G.SKILL 32GB KIT DDR5 6000MHz CL30 Trident Z5 NEO AMD EXPO

Seagate Firecuda 530 500GB M.2 SSD for OS and HQP

Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB for music files

Dual boot:      Windows 11 (NVIDIA drivers 520)

            Ubuntu 22.04 Desktop (NVIDIA drivers 520, original kernel)
              Miska's custom kernel 5.15.71-jl+_5.15.71-jl+-10_amd64 collided with GPU drivers

HQPlayer 4 Desktop 4.19.3 and now new 4.20

Output: 4 channels DSD 512 (44.1), ASDM7ECv2 and my preferable AMSDM7EC 512+fs

Poly-sinc- gauss-long / Poly-sinc- gauss-hires-lp

Multicore DSP: grey   /  CUDA offload: x

From PCM sources all is smooth. From DSD256 sources on Windows ok, but on Ubuntu heavy scattered.

(Windows also scatters if Multicore DSP is x) 

Can anybody help?

[CJH]

1 hour ago, SunYang said:

In my new music dedicated PC:

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X + ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420

ASUS ProArt X670E-CREATOR WIFI + Corsair HX1500i

MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GAMING TRIO 24G

G.SKILL 32GB KIT DDR5 6000MHz CL30 Trident Z5 NEO AMD EXPO

Seagate Firecuda 530 500GB M.2 SSD for OS and HQP

Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB for music files

Dual boot:      Windows 11 (NVIDIA drivers 520)

            Ubuntu 22.04 Desktop (NVIDIA drivers 520, original kernel)
              Miska's custom kernel 5.15.71-jl+_5.15.71-jl+-10_amd64 collided with GPU drivers

HQPlayer 4 Desktop 4.19.3 and now new 4.20

Output: 4 channels DSD 512 (44.1), ASDM7ECv2 and my preferable AMSDM7EC 512+fs

Poly-sinc- gauss-long / Poly-sinc- gauss-hires-lp

Multicore DSP: grey   /  CUDA offload: x

From PCM sources all is smooth. From DSD256 sources on Windows ok, but on Ubuntu heavy scattered.

(Windows also scatters if Multicore DSP is x) 

Can anybody help?

SunYang--what DAC are you using? I am not aware of any DAC that will output 4 channels of DSD512.

CJH

[Miska]

1 hour ago, SunYang said:

In my new music dedicated PC:

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X + ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420

ASUS ProArt X670E-CREATOR WIFI + Corsair HX1500i

MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GAMING TRIO 24G

G.SKILL 32GB KIT DDR5 6000MHz CL30 Trident Z5 NEO AMD EXPO

Seagate Firecuda 530 500GB M.2 SSD for OS and HQP

Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB for music files

Dual boot:      Windows 11 (NVIDIA drivers 520)

            Ubuntu 22.04 Desktop (NVIDIA drivers 520, original kernel)
              Miska's custom kernel 5.15.71-jl+_5.15.71-jl+-10_amd64 collided with GPU drivers

HQPlayer 4 Desktop 4.19.3 and now new 4.20

Output: 4 channels DSD 512 (44.1), ASDM7ECv2 and my preferable AMSDM7EC 512+fs

Poly-sinc- gauss-long / Poly-sinc- gauss-hires-lp

Multicore DSP: grey   /  CUDA offload: x

From PCM sources all is smooth. From DSD256 sources on Windows ok, but on Ubuntu heavy scattered.

 

Given your CPU, I assume you are using the AVX2 build? Not the generic one, since it would have bad performance on your CPU.

 

My kernel works fine with the official Nvidia drivers. I have "515.65.01-0ubuntu1" version of the drivers at the moment with my latest kernel.

 

1 hour ago, SunYang said:

(Windows also scatters if Multicore DSP is x) 

Can anybody help?

 

What multicore setting works for you? Grayed? I would sort of expect checked to work at least as well on your CPU.

 

[tcode]

On 11/15/2022 at 2:41 PM, Miska said:

 

Should be fine. I assume this is stock Windows 10 without any modifications or "optimizers"?

 

I have tested this release on two machines with Windows 10 Pro. One with i9-9900KS + GTX1080 and another one with i9-12900K + RX6800XT.

 

And on two machines with Windows 11. One with Ryzen 9 5900HS + RTX3060 and another one with i9-10900K + RTX2080Ti.

 

That is all Windows machines I have. So a bit of mystery what could be going wrong.

 

I've installed a fresh Win10 install on a 2nd SDD. There v.4.20 works indeed, so something is definitely different on my main Win10 install. Still mystery because every single version till 4.20 was working without any problem.  

 

[SunYang]

3 hours ago, CJH said:

SunYang--what DAC are you using? I am not aware of any DAC that will output 4 channels of DSD512.

CJH

This is my custom made DSD only discrete DAC (4 mono DACs capable 4 x DSD1024, but with current computing HW max. 4 x DSD 512)

[The Computer Audiophile]

6 minutes ago, SunYang said:

This is my custom made DSD only discrete DAC (4 mono DACs capable 4 x DSD1024, but with current computing HW max. 4 x DSD 512)

Wow!

[copy_of_a]

@Miska

a (minor!) issue with HQPDesktop (Intel Mac) 4.20. See attachment.

When upsampling 48x base rates to DSD256 the interface displays "768k" although the DAC correctly (dis-)plays 12.2MHz.

🙏

 

[SunYang]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Given your CPU, I assume you are using the AVX2 build? Not the generic one, since it would have bad performance on your CPU.

 

My kernel works fine with the official Nvidia drivers. I have "515.65.01-0ubuntu1" version of the drivers at the moment with my latest kernel.

 

 

What multicore setting works for you? Grayed? I would sort of expect checked to work at least as well on your CPU.

 

In Windows 11 greyed multicore is fine for everything PCM or DSD to DSD512. Checked scattered only for DSD256 to DSD512 (ASDM7ECv2 / AMSDM7EC 512+fs)

In Ubuntu with AVX2 build looks that current performance is weaker than in Windows. DSD256 to DSD512 is scattering either for greyer or checked multicore switch. 

Installing Ubuntu 22.04 for me was nightmare. First problem was Safe boot in BIOS. After it long time I can’t install Nvidia drivers. Problem was that pciids was not up to date. After sudo update-pciids, lspci starts show RTX3090 Ti card correctly and was possible to install drivers. During instalation of kernel:

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-5.15……11_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i linux-image-5.15……11_amd64.deb

installation stopped (something like „Your version of kernel not compatible with instaled GPU drivers”).

[johnemcgregor]

I have an Intel 11 i9 11900 and an RTX 3060 with overclocking ability. Has anyone knowledge of filter performance gains by overclocking? And if so, what functions to concentrate on.

[copy_of_a]

37 minutes ago, copy_of_a said:

@Miska

a (minor!) issue with HQPDesktop (Intel Mac) 4.20. See attachment.

When upsampling 48x base rates to DSD256 the interface displays "768k" although the DAC correctly (dis-)plays 12.2MHz.

🙏

 

@Miska

Sorry!!

The issue only goes for playback through NAA.

When playing directly from HQPD on the computer to the DAC all is good!

[Miska]

46 minutes ago, SunYang said:

In Windows 11 greyed multicore is fine for everything PCM or DSD to DSD512. Checked scattered only for DSD256 to DSD512 (ASDM7ECv2 / AMSDM7EC 512+fs)

In Ubuntu with AVX2 build looks that current performance is weaker than in Windows. DSD256 to DSD512 is scattering either for greyer or checked multicore switch. 

Installing Ubuntu 22.04 for me was nightmare. First problem was Safe boot in BIOS. After it long time I can’t install Nvidia drivers. Problem was that pciids was not up to date. After sudo update-pciids, lspci starts show RTX3090 Ti card correctly and was possible to install drivers. During instalation of kernel:

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-5.15……11_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i linux-image-5.15……11_amd64.deb

installation stopped (something like „Your version of kernel not compatible with instaled GPU drivers”).

 

You need to keep secure boot enabled in BIOS, but you need to disable secure boot process at Linux side:

sudo mokutil --disable-validation

 

If you use stock Ubuntu kernel, make sure you use lowlatency variant available from the official repositories.

 

But it is also possible that you will need some newer kernel for the new AMD CPU.

 

[dave147]

  I get this error when trying to re install the player "Can't write c:\program files\ signalyst\HQplayer 4Desktop\cufft64_10.dll".

[SunYang]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

You need to keep secure boot enabled in BIOS, but you need to disable secure boot process at Linux side:

sudo mokutil --disable-validation

 

If you use stock Ubuntu kernel, make sure you use lowlatency variant available from the official repositories.

 

But it is also possible that you will need some newer kernel for the new AMD CPU.

 

After reading this article (https://www.phoronix.com/review/7950x-windows-linux), maybe this processor is still not supported enough in Linux, and will be better to wait for a new kernel. Never mind, I'll stay with Windows 11 Pro 22H2 for now. But I had a different problem in Windows. When I play the whole album continuously, everything is ok. But if I start switching individual tracks, suddenly HQplayer disappears. In log in not anything interesting:

……  2022/11/19 19:05:00 Offload: resampler=enabled convolution=disabled

& 2022/11/19 19:05:09 GoTo 2

  2022/11/19 19:05:09 Offload: resampler=enabled convolution=disabled

& 2022/11/19 19:05:14 GoTo 3

  2022/11/19 19:05:14 Offload: resampler=enabled convolution=disabled

& 2022/11/19 19:05:20 GoTo 4

  2022/11/19 19:05:20 Offload: resampler=enabled convolution=disabled

& 2022/11/19 19:05:23 GoTo 5

  2022/11/19 19:05:23 Offload: resampler=enabled convolution=disabled

& 2022/11/19 19:05:25 GoTo 9

[Miska]

46 minutes ago, SunYang said:

After reading this article (https://www.phoronix.com/review/7950x-windows-linux), maybe this processor is still not supported enough in Linux, and will be better to wait for a new kernel. Never mind, I'll stay with Windows 11 Pro 22H2 for now. But I had a different problem in Windows. When I play the whole album continuously, everything is ok. But if I start switching individual tracks, suddenly HQplayer disappears. In log in not anything interesting:

……  2022/11/19 19:05:00 Offload: resampler=enabled convolution=disabled

& 2022/11/19 19:05:09 GoTo 2

  2022/11/19 19:05:09 Offload: resampler=enabled convolution=disabled

& 2022/11/19 19:05:14 GoTo 3

  2022/11/19 19:05:14 Offload: resampler=enabled convolution=disabled

& 2022/11/19 19:05:20 GoTo 4

  2022/11/19 19:05:20 Offload: resampler=enabled convolution=disabled

& 2022/11/19 19:05:23 GoTo 5

  2022/11/19 19:05:23 Offload: resampler=enabled convolution=disabled

& 2022/11/19 19:05:25 GoTo 9

 

If you are OK without CUDA support, you can use Fedora 36 as the OS instead of Ubuntu. This gives you pretty much bleeding edge kernel as stock. But since Fedora is moving so fast, Nvidia is not able to keep up with it and thus CUDA support is missing. Fedora is currently on kernel version 6.0.8.

 

My own kernels are based on long term kernel versions. Once there is a new one, I will likely support that on Ubuntu as well. But currently it is 5.15. And on Debian I have 5.10 supported. So these match with the official kernel versions.

 

On your Ubuntu, make sure you have "linux-lowlatency-hwe-22.04" and "linux-headers-lowlatency-hwe-22.04" meta-packages installed to stay on up to date kernel. You need the headers package for Nvidia driver DKMS modules.

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, dave147 said:

  I get this error when trying to re install the player "Can't write c:\program files\ signalyst\HQplayer 4Desktop\cufft64_10.dll".

 

You have probably HQPlayer process running. Uninstall the old version first. Reboot your computer, and then check that the "C:\Program Files\Signalyst\HQPlayer 4 Desktop" folder doesn't exist anymore. If it does, just delete it.

 

[Luca72c]

4 hours ago, SunYang said:

This is my custom made DSD only discrete DAC (4 mono DACs capable 4 x DSD1024, but with current computing HW max. 4 x DSD 512)

 

Wonderful! 👍🤩

How do you pass the 4ch DSD512 flow from your PC to the DAC, if i can ask?

[SunYang]

Luca72c: Through Beagle Bone Black as NAA. This brinks one limitation. BBB has only 100 Mbit ethernet. For 44.1 based 4 ch. DSD512 is just OK, but 48 based DSD512 works good for about 10 second and then starts to crack regularly. Maybe some network optimalization can help.

[Luca72c]

25 minutes ago, SunYang said:

Luca72c: Through Beagle Bone Black as NAA. This brinks one limitation. BBB has only 100 Mbit ethernet. For 44.1 based 4 ch. DSD512 is just OK, but 48 based DSD512 works good for about 10 second and then starts to crack regularly. Maybe some network optimalization can help.

 

I understand, thanks! But no 8ch dsd possible using bbb even at 256, if i remember well, right? I ask because i am willing to build an 8ch dac, but i can't find a working way to pass 8ch dsd (at least 256) from Hqp PC to the dac. Ravenna seems to be able, but i can't find any diy board i can use

[SunYang]

Luca72c: BBB has only 4 serializers, so only can be usesed for 4 ch. DSD or 8 ch. PCM

[SunYang]

Any idea why HQP Desktop 4.20 on Win 11 Pro 22H2 (without any optimalization) during manual swithing tracks suddenly disappears with no eror info in log? Continual playing is OK, 4.19.3 has also no problem.

[Miska]

20 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

I understand, thanks! But no 8ch dsd possible using bbb even at 256, if i remember well, right? I ask because i am willing to build an 8ch dac, but i can't find a working way to pass 8ch dsd (at least 256) from Hqp PC to the dac. Ravenna seems to be able, but i can't find any diy board i can use

 

IIRC, NXP's iMX8M can do multichannel DSD and supports up to DSD512. It is commonly used chip nowadays. I have number of boards with it. It is much more powerful and capable than BBB.