HQ Player

[LoryWiv]

5 hours ago, Fredc said:

It's easier to add, delte or rearrange the play queue from screen 3, especially when the queue is already playing. Go to screen 3, you can see the queue in the 4th or rightmost column. The artist of the album in play should already be in the first column list. select it, and the artist albums/songs should appear in the second column (albums on top, then songs further down separated by a space/ Click on an album, and tracks from that should appear in the third column. Click on the + sign in the 4th column, and they will be all added to the queue. You can also click on a track in the third column and then hit the + sign, then only that track will be added to the queue. In the 4th column, you can click a track in the queue and then the - sign yo remove it from the queue. Or click the up or down arrow to move the track up or down in the queue.

Also bear in mind that tracks can be queued for playback by drag and drop. I have many multi-CD albums. I select the tracks from all CD's in Windows File Explorer, drag / drop them into main HQ Player server and they are ready to play in proper sequence. Album art and tags display perfectly, and playback is easily controlled in client. This is a simple alternative to using library management that I prefer. YMMV of course.

[woshifeng3627]

8 minutes ago, LoryWiv said:

另请记住，曲目可以通过拖放排队等待播放。我有很多多CD专辑。我在 Windows 文件资源管理器中从所有 CD 中选择曲目，将它们拖放到主 HQ Player 服务器中，它们就可以按正确的顺序播放了。专辑封面和标签显示完美，在客户端中轻松控制播放。这是使用我更喜欢的库的替代方法。当然是YMMV。

 

Unless your audio file has an embedded cover, if the cover JPG file is placed in the album folder, the cover will not be displayed. The label of the audio source can be displayed. However, the small cover display box in the upper left corner of HQplayer doesn't make much sense even if it displays the cover. Many of my covers are high-definition, and they cannot be displayed properly within this small box in the upper left corner.

 

[dericchan1]

Seriously folks, preferences are really just that - your preferences. The client app is absolutely rock solid and I have been using it for more than a year now with Qobuz. Its pretty easy to use and snappy and rock solid.

 

Even now that I subscribed to jplay iOS, I still use the client app everyday to change filters/modulators settings on the fly and its still the best sounding app for qobuz streaming really

[woshifeng3627]

This is the HQplayer interface layout that I came up with myself! It can solve the problem of blurry high-definition cover display, and can quickly choose between output driver or bridge, as well as switch between PCM and SDM output.

 

[woshifeng3627]

10 minutes ago, dericchan1 said:

说真的，伙计们，偏好真的就是——你的偏好。客户端应用程序绝对坚如磐石，我已经在 Qobuz 上使用它一年多了。它非常易于使用，活泼且坚如磐石。

 

即使现在我订阅了 jplay iOS，我仍然每天使用客户端应用程序来即时更改滤波器/调制器设置，它仍然是 qobuz 流媒体的最佳声音应用程序

 

I mainly listen to local audio sources and don't listen to streaming because many of the streaming resources for early albums were incomplete due to copyright issues, and the sound quality was not as good as early CDs. Therefore, I only listen to audio captured from CDs, including SACD-ISO. I listen to music from 1980 to 2000 years ago, and the music in these years is the most incomplete streaming. Some record companies have closed down, and there is nothing to listen to on streaming media, only CDs are available.

[Miska]

4 hours ago, woshifeng3627 said:

Unless your audio file has an embedded cover, if the cover JPG file is placed in the album folder, the cover will not be displayed. The label of the audio source can be displayed. However, the small cover display box in the upper left corner of HQplayer doesn't make much sense even if it displays the cover. Many of my covers are high-definition, and they cannot be displayed properly within this small box in the upper left corner.

 

This is just he server side minimal GUI. It is designed to be as light as possible without any fancy eye candy. HQPlayer Client is the control interface that has the eye candy.

 

[Miska]

4 hours ago, woshifeng3627 said:

as well as switch between PCM and SDM output.

 

This is something you wouldn't want to do. You only output the specific format that is optimal for your DAC. Not switching between PCM and SDM output modes.

 

But you can do all that from the Client, not from the server component.

 

[Miska]

4 hours ago, LoryWiv said:

I have many multi-CD albums. I select the tracks from all CD's in Windows File Explorer, drag / drop them into main HQ Player server and they are ready to play in proper sequence.

 

Better approach is to have such merged into one album, which it really is, instead of split into multiple "CD's" which is not really concept in file based playback. So all tracks in a single folder, with correct file naming and track numbering so that it forms just one album. Then it works nicely also in album playback mode. This is anyway what you get when buying download content.

 

[Fredc]

On 3/13/2024 at 1:51 PM, Miska said:

 

Pretty common for example on iOS and Android apps overall. Roon also uses that on "pause" for example, short press for pause and  long press for stop. Adding a lot of buttons on the GUI takes away screen space from other things.

 

 

Two views to the same data. Either the content view, or the multi-column view some people prefer for editing playlists.

 

 

Make some list, give it a name and click save. Works for both local content and Qobuz.

 

You can also for example upload a .pls form di.fm and then save it in the local library for easy retrieval of internet radio channels.

 

 

What is the problem with this?

 

 

What is the problem with this?

 

When adding tracks to a queue (with Qobuz) especially when the added track is from a different album, there is often a skip for a second or two at the end of the track being played before it start to play the added track. It feels as though the buffering is not catching up with  the addition. Is the client buffer time related to the buffer time in the desktop setting? I did try to increase the buffer time in desktop setting but that doesn't do anything. This doe not seem to happen when playing from the library.

 

Pretty common for example on iOS and Android apps overall. Roon also uses that on "pause" for example, short press for pause and  long press for stop. Adding a lot of buttons on the GUI takes away screen space from other things.

 

I guess if you use the client long enough, you get used to it's navigation. As far as GUI screen space goes, I feel the album art is too big and take up too much space. Will be handy to have a slide bar at the top which allows you to resize the album art to your preference. I also think it will be good the client screen start up from it's previous close size and position. Screen 2, both the album art and even the fonts are very large. If you make them more compact, you can have screen 1 and screen 2 side by side as one screen. Then you don't have to switch from one to another. Of course, all these are just my opnion.

 

[sworksone]

1 hour ago, Fredc said:

Of course, all these are just my opnion.

 

I have to agree with this and (somewhat unusually) disagree with @dericchan1.  HQPlayer has been a revelation for me in bringing the sound quality of my system to a previously unachievable level and it just keeps getting better with almost every update.  However, although I’m getting more and more used to Client, it’s not that straightforward and the UI is lacking compared to most other music player software on the market.  This is not intended to be critical as I’d prefer to have that inconvenience if providing this would take focus away from ongoing HQPlayer advances or a more CPU demanding option would negatively change sq, but otherwise I dream to have the UI of Roon (or Qobuz, or Tidal, or Innuos Sense, or BluOS, etc.) along with the sound quality of HQPlayer through Client.  I’m more than happy to pay for Roon or other and HQPlayer to get the best of both worlds.  Maybe an integration of HQPlayer through the Qobuz app is an option?

[rjanderjr]

5 minutes ago, sworksone said:

I dream to have the UI of Roon (or Qobuz, or Tidal, or Innuos Sense, or BluOS, etc.) along with the sound quality of HQPlayer through Client.  I’m more than happy to pay for Roon or other and HQPlayer to get the best of both worlds.  Maybe an integration of HQPlayer through the Qobuz app is an option?

I agree.  The UI is a competitive disadvantage for HQPlayer.  I love HQPlayer and want it to succeed.  A more user friendly Client would help it gain more penetration into the marketplace, in my humble opinion.

[Miska]

57 minutes ago, Fredc said:

When adding tracks to a queue (with Qobuz) especially when the added track is from a different album, there is often a skip for a second or two at the end of the track being played before it start to play the added track. It feels as though the buffering is not catching up with  the addition. Is the client buffer time related to the buffer time in the desktop setting? I did try to increase the buffer time in desktop setting but that doesn't do anything. This doe not seem to happen when playing from the library.

 

Are these two albums in same format? Do you have prefetch enabled? How about freewheel? Now there's the buffer indicator, but in any case, the playback will continue with the next track once 10 seconds worth of audio has been fetched. And with prefetch enabled, that begins 10 seconds before end of the current track. This means that if the internet connection is able to keep up with realtime playback, it will have the necessary amount prefetched before the track switch.

 

However, there can be of course uncertain delays at the service side (cloud CDN), or with name service, or with TLS CRL checks or something else.

 

If the two subsequent tracks are different format (different sampling rate), then the DSP pipeline needs to be reinitialized and possibly DAC needs to be restarted (if switching between rate families using adaptive rate). These things can take some amount of time depending on the particular settings.

 

57 minutes ago, Fredc said:

I guess if you use the client long enough, you get used to it's navigation. As far as GUI screen space goes, I feel the album art is too big and take up too much space. Will be handy to have a slide bar at the top which allows you to resize the album art to your preference.

 

Album art is square scaled such that it will fill the available vertical space. If you make the window wider with lower height, you have more space on the edges. Otherwise, if you shrink it and retain aspect ratio, there will be just black banners above and beneath the picture which is also wasted space.

 

57 minutes ago, Fredc said:

I also think it will be good the client screen start up from it's previous close size and position.

 

It is partially there, for example regarding position.

 

57 minutes ago, Fredc said:

Screen 2, both the album art and even the fonts are very large. If you make them more compact, you can have screen 1 and screen 2 side by side as one screen. Then you don't have to switch from one to another. Of course, all these are just my opnion.

 

This depends on your display scaling. But remember that the GUI must work with touch screens as well. If the item size is very tiny, it becomes really painful to use with your fingers. But to me it doesn't look like particularly huge. This if from my MacBook Pro 14" display:

 

What I've tested on my Microsoft Surface tablet touch screen and on iPad touch screen, this is on the usable edge for selecting tracks through touch.

 

[Miska]

45 minutes ago, sworksone said:

However, although I’m getting more and more used to Client, it’s not that straightforward and the UI is lacking compared to most other music player software on the market.

 

Which way?

 

45 minutes ago, sworksone said:

but otherwise I dream to have the UI of Roon (or Qobuz, or Tidal, or Innuos Sense, or BluOS, etc.)

 

Which part specifically? Because I personally don't like any of those. To me, they all have a lot of disturbing useless clutter on the GUI. For example my challenge with Roon is that it is trying to hide my content. It fails to present me overall view of all the content I have. It kind of assumes I'm supposed to remember the content I have. Or that I know what I want to listen next. It just shows me couple of pretty pictures and some text. Then I'm like "damn, show me what I have! then I can maybe figure out!". I have also some favorited Qobuz and Tidal service side playlists I have trouble finding. Or Tidal's "Custom mixes for you".

 

And none of these have for example something like HQPlayer Client's metering display.

 

45 minutes ago, sworksone said:

Maybe an integration of HQPlayer through the Qobuz app is an option?

 

Extremely unlikely to happen. But you can already use Qobuz application with HQPlayer (like any other application too), that's not an issue.

 

[Miska]

44 minutes ago, rjanderjr said:

I agree.  The UI is a competitive disadvantage for HQPlayer.  I love HQPlayer and want it to succeed.  A more user friendly Client would help it gain more penetration into the marketplace, in my humble opinion.

 

Description of the exact details what is "not friendly" would help.

 

Apple Music app for example is pretty OK. It has few categories listed. HQPlayer Client does the same for Qobuz, you just select the category from the drop-list. So you don't have to do the vertical & horizontal scrolling your need to do with Apple Music. So instead you can do with just vertical scroll with more items visible at once, which I find more friendly way than the combined vertical list and horizontal scrollable banners (where you have only couple of items visible at a time).

 

[Schafheide]

Js it possible to send the Youtube sound to HQPlayer Desktop on my Mac, thence to my normal sound system?  If so, how ? TIA

[Miska]

19 minutes ago, Schafheide said:

Js it possible to send the Youtube sound to HQPlayer Desktop on my Mac, thence to my normal sound system?  If so, how ? TIA

 

Yes, simplest solution is to just use Blackhole loopback driver.

 

But if you want something more advanced, or from external streamer device or such, then the solution is NAA OS on RPi4 as input NAA. In such case, you may also need a suitable powered USB hub, such as this one I'm using, to power the RPi4. This makes HQPlayer look like a USB DAC.

 

P.S. For the video use cases, remember there's the new low delay mode intended for such cases.

 

[LoryWiv]

3 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Better approach is to have such merged into one album, which it really is, instead of split into multiple "CD's" which is not really concept in file based playback. So all tracks in a single folder, with correct file naming and track numbering so that it forms just one album. Then it works nicely also in album playback mode. This is anyway what you get when buying download content.

 

Yes, Miska you read my mind as that is actually exactly what I do and it works a charm. If the OP wants to PM me I will show an example 

[dericchan1]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

Yes, simplest solution is to just use Blackhole loopback driver.

 

But if you want something more advanced, or from external streamer device or such, then the solution is NAA OS on RPi4 as input NAA. In such case, you may also need a suitable powered USB hub, such as this one I'm using, to power the RPi4. This makes HQPlayer look like a USB DAC.

 

P.S. For the video use cases, remember there's the new low delay mode intended for such cases.

 

@Miska would that tp-link port be something that allows charging a rpi4 at 5v2a through connecting it to anyone of the rpi4 usb 3.0 port so it frees up the rpi4 usb c port for otg use?

[dericchan1]

3 hours ago, sworksone said:

I have to agree with this and (somewhat unusually) disagree with @dericchan1.  HQPlayer has been a revelation for me in bringing the sound quality of my system to a previously unachievable level and it just keeps getting better with almost every update.  However, although I’m getting more and more used to Client, it’s not that straightforward and the UI is lacking compared to most other music player software on the market.  This is not intended to be critical as I’d prefer to have that inconvenience if providing this would take focus away from ongoing HQPlayer advances or a more CPU demanding option would negatively change sq, but otherwise I dream to have the UI of Roon (or Qobuz, or Tidal, or Innuos Sense, or BluOS, etc.) along with the sound quality of HQPlayer through Client.  I’m more than happy to pay for Roon or other and HQPlayer to get the best of both worlds.  Maybe an integration of HQPlayer through the Qobuz app is an option?

Again that’s just that a few of you’s preferences  on some of the features from other apps over the client app. I am not disagreeing but I can totally see other ppl may actually prefer the client app’s simplicity, rock solid and snappy…

 

Now if you are interested to read about some diy effort to incorporate some other interfaces to control playback into hqplayer, we were talking about building a “upnp/usb input NAA hub” so you can use it with something like jplay iOS with hqplayer. It’s a bit complex to set up (you might as well get an embedded license) but honestly it’s only available because hqplayer with its insane flexibility allow one to do something like that 

[Luca72c]

4 hours ago, dericchan1 said:

Again that’s just that a few of you’s preferences  on some of the features from other apps over the client app. I am not disagreeing but I can totally see other ppl may actually prefer the client app’s simplicity, rock solid and snappy…

 

To be honest, i agree with Miska and Dericchan: i tried using Roon and many others players and frequently i was disturbed by a confusing interface that is including too much infos and graphics elements i'm not interested in, using a logic too different from my own. 

I like very much hqp client simplicity and focus on versatility, without too many frills, going straight to let me play what i need, keeping sorces and infos under complete control. Obviously it can't grant full access to all Qobuz functionalities (being a third party player), but that's not a problem as i can do my more complicated searches on Qobuz app and then move to hqp clent for max quality reproduction.

I like it much more than Roon gui, but i can understand that others may have different needs so we are here to help Miska make his products always better - of course he needs some more clear indication of what's needed. 

Loopback possibilities are very welcome and i have no problem in using it even without automatic frequency change, not a great problem for me

[dericchan1]

15 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

 

To be honest, i agree with Miska and Dericchan: i tried using Roon and many others players and frequently i was disturbed by a confusing interface that is including too much infos and graphics elements i'm not interested in, using a logic too different from my own. 

I like very much hqp client simplicity and focus on versatility, without too many frills, going straight to let me play what i need, keeping sorces and infos under complete control. Obviously it can't grant full access to all Qobuz functionalities (being a third party player), but that's not a problem as i can do my more complicated searches on Qobuz app and then move to hqp clent for max quality reproduction.

I like it much more than Roon gui, but i can understand that others may have different needs so we are here to help Miska make his products always better - of course he needs some more clear indication of what's needed. 

Loopback possibilities are very welcome and i have no problem in using it even without automatic frequency change, not a great problem for me

I agree wholeheartedly. Suggestions for improvements are of course welcome, but there is always going to be the risk when making changes, while satisfying a few ppl preferences, upsetting the half a million of others who enjoy what they have right now.

 

With hqplayer, there are infinite number of ways and flexibilities to get what you want if you don't happen to like the client app. The easiest way is to use the Qobuz mobile app for searching and adding to the client app for playback. The new NAA V5 is absolutely amazing that provides the capabilities of perhaps using jriver or foobar or whatever other programs for library management or even simpler just use the windows qobuz or amazon or tidal app, connect to a input NAA and play back to HQplayer......

[woshifeng3627]

13 hours ago, Miska said:

 

这是你不想做的事情。您仅输出最适合 DAC 的特定格式。不在 PCM 和 SDM 输出模式之间切换。

 

但是，您可以从客户端执行所有这些操作，而不是从服务器组件执行所有这些操作。

 

 

If you can't change, learn to get used to it. Can the album view list of HQplayer Client be arranged alphabetically by artist for local music libraries? It would be best to include sorting by album release date! This would be a better choice! thanks

 

[copy_of_a]

11 minutes ago, woshifeng3627 said:

 

If you can't change, learn to get used to it. Can the album view list of HQplayer Client be arranged alphabetically by artist for local music libraries? It would be best to include sorting by album release date! This would be a better choice! thanks

 

HQPDcontrol (iOS + Android app) provides almost all the features of Client and you can also sort by Album-Artist->Year (personally I also prefer this sorting)

[woshifeng3627]

8 minutes ago, copy_of_a said:

HQPDcontrol（iOS + Android 应用程序）提供了 Client 的几乎所有功能，您还可以按 Album-Artist->Year 排序（我个人也更喜欢这种排序）

 

The HQPDcontrol Android version will not display music albums according to the Genre tags I have set. All categories will return to artist categories. I have provided specific feedback to the HQPDcontrol thread, and I am not sure if this can be resolved!

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/60342-hqplayer4-remote-hqpdcontrol-v4/?do=findComment&comment=1273534

[Miska]

8 hours ago, dericchan1 said:

@Miska would that tp-link port be something that allows charging a rpi4 at 5v2a through connecting it to anyone of the rpi4 usb 3.0 port so it frees up the rpi4 usb c port for otg use?

 

Pi needs to be powered through the Type-C, so you need both power and data through it. Hub can provide standard 900 mA USB3 power to it's Type-C port. Then to the host side of the hub you can connect a PC, or for example iPad.

 

Another alternative to provide power is to use PoE hat and feed the power over Ethernet using a PoE feeder, or PoE switch.