HQ Player

[Jud]

Then am I supposed to live with 3.7.1. for who knows how long? What am I supposed to do? I am not a programmer who can figure this out. I paid for a program that is supposed to work for me - and it did, until 3.8.2 came along. I paid you to provide me a working copy of HQ Player 3.xxxx, not just 3.7.1. Does this seem fair to me?

 

Since no developer has ESP, the better you are at providing him with information, the faster a fix can occur.

[KCJay]

A simple suggestion worth trying; you can try disabling your antivirus program. Some of these programs analyse every new startup for a few seconds. Just a thought since this has effected other people.I still believe there is a program or process on your computer causing this problem.

 

Okay, that may be, but the Fidelizer program disabled my antivirus program when I ran the "Extreme" version of it when I was running 3.8.1 - I saw the notice from Windows that my firewall and antivirus had been disabled. In addition, with those conditions, it ran once fine and then did not run fine after it was rebooted. I agree it could be something on my computer, or it could be something in your 3.8.1 that is not working well with my particular system - each system is unique. I have an AMD 8-core and 32gib of RAM, so I think I have plenty of processor and memory. I don't have any problem working with you on this to get this fixed - my experience with computer programs (I am retired IT) is that bugs in programs inevitably affect other computers. I just happened to be the first one. I just don't want to be left hanging - I love your program and want to go forward with it into Roon.

[Chodi]

Okay, that may be, but the Fidelizer program disabled my antivirus program when I ran the "Extreme" version of it when I was running 3.8.1 - I saw the notice from Windows that my firewall and antivirus had been disabled. In addition, with those conditions, it ran once fine and then did not run fine after it was rebooted. I agree it could be something on my computer, or it could be something in your 3.8.1 that is not working well with my particular system - each system is unique. I have an AMD 8-core and 32gib of RAM, so I think I have plenty of processor and memory. I don't have any problem working with you on this to get this fixed - my experience with computer programs (I am retired IT) is that bugs in programs inevitably affect other computers. I just happened to be the first one. I just don't want to be left hanging - I love your program and want to go forward with it into Roon.

 

You do realize that Fidelizer resets with every reboot (the free version). That might explain why it worked the first time and not after you rebooted. Once you reboot all the settings are lost untill you use Fidelizer to restart HQPlayer again. You must also point to the .exe of HQPlayer to properly start Fidelizer. You may already know all this but just thought I would point it out since it worked once.

[Miska]

I just tested latest version with Marantz ASIO driver, using the default 2048 buffer size, Mac Mini, stock Win8.1 install, no Fidelizer or AO, Kaspersky Anti-Virus. Content on external Western Digital FW800 HDD. No stuttering so far.

 

[FritzDitz]

Then am I supposed to live with 3.7.1. for who knows how long? What am I supposed to do? I am not a programmer who can figure this out. I paid for a program that is supposed to work for me - and it did, until 3.8.2 came along. I paid you to provide me a working copy of HQ Player 3.xxxx, not just 3.7.1. Does this seem fair to me?

 

Finally noticed someone talking about the same issue as I have since introduction of HQP 3.8.0. Please confirm that you are using win 10 (I suspect that is the reason behind that issue).

I have no problems with all previous HQP versions on win 10. I informed Miska about that, but he is still using win 8.1.

[AndreasB]

Dear Jussy / Miska

 

 

KINDLY REMINDER

 

Bug in 3.8.2 (Mac OS): after closing and re-opening HQP there are four tracks in playlist window from the first album I opened after first launching 3.8.2 couple of days ago. "Clear playlist" removes these four tracks but next time I open HQP the same tracks are here again.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

...so what time is it in Finland ?

 

 

>> You can queue items for playback for example with

>> "hqp-control localhost /music/some/folder" or

>> "hqp-control localhost /music/some/folder/song.flac".

>> You can then issue "hqp-control localhost --play" to start playback.

 

Well that is good to hear, and is encouraging because it means that it is supposed to work in a manner that would be useful to me...but it doesn't work for me now. I had already tried a bunch of the obvious stuff, but if:

 

hqp-control localhost ./rbcd

 

followed by

 

hqp-control localhost --play

 

 

is supposed to populate the playlist and start playing, then something is not working here. And I did try it with the full directory path as well with no different result.

 

Are the hqp-control commmands supposed to hit the log?...because I am not seeing anything being added, if that is significant...

 

...and there is no error msg at the prompt, it comes back as if the command completed...tried it with a file name instead of a directory and that did not work either...

 

...so any suggestions welcome, this would be a good thing to get working

 

 

 

 

On the other topic;

 

>> But in HQPlayer all Deep Purple albums from all these three different

>> places are just shown under "Deep Purple" artist. Roon by the way does

>> a bit similar job, so it is also usable for me, but not the ones that expect all

>> music to be under single folder, or browsers that just reflect file system structure.

 

Well I can understand that you would want to be able to find all your Deep Purple, and you can do that because you can search the Artist tag. I would hope that you would understand that I would want to be able to find all my Vivaldi, and there is no way to do that without remembering which Artist or Album I was thinking of...

 

 

thanks again for your help,

 

 

rikm

 

Have you tried surrounding the full path with double quotes?

 

hqp-control localhost "fullpath"

[Jabs1542]

Then am I supposed to live with 3.7.1. for who knows how long? What am I supposed to do? I am not a programmer who can figure this out. I paid for a program that is supposed to work for me - and it did, until 3.8.2 came along. I paid you to provide me a working copy of HQ Player 3.xxxx, not just 3.7.1. Does this seem fair to me?

 

I've been quite happy with 3.7.1, it seems perfectly fair to me. But then I tend to not fix things that aren't broken (i.e. incorporating useless upgrades) as I just want to enjoy the music.

[Miska]

Dear Jussy / Miska

 

 

KINDLY REMINDER

 

It has been fixed for upcoming version...

[Miska]

I have no problems with all previous HQP versions on win 10. I informed Miska about that, but he is still using win 8.1.

 

I didn't want to update any important machine because Win 10 comes with so much spyware. I need to get some new machine just for testing purposes... Although now there's at least one tool to tame it a bit:

https://github.com/windowslies2/blockwindows/

 

So far I've found two three things that can cause stuttering and which I have removed.

1) Google Chrome has background service to install updates at inappropriate moments without asking

2) Mozilla Firefox has similar

3) Microsoft .NET "Performance Optimization Service" or something similar

 

And fourth was some Microsoft update/secure component installer service that runs in the background after update reboot.

 

Some anti-virus utilities don't know how to run at idle priority and cease updates/scheduled scans when something performance critical is running. Kaspersky and Bitdefender seem to behave properly after changing some settings.

[Miska]

Finally noticed someone talking about the same issue as I have since introduction of HQP 3.8.0.

 

As I add more features and improve algorithm quality, updates tend to end up using more CPU and RAM. You may also want to make sure you don't accidentally have matrix processing (introduced in 3.8.0) enabled...

 

It is important to check that none of the cores exceed 75% loads in resource monitor.

 

Also check power management settings and possibly select "performance" profile. You can also use some utilities to control core parking feature.

[rikm]

Have you tried surrounding the full path with double quotes?

 

hqp-control localhost "fullpath"

 

 

 

 

Good morning and thanks for your reply,

 

It does work with the full path...quotes not needed as there are no spaces...had to turn the GUI off and on again for some reason, but then the file showed up in the GUI and played...

 

Doesn't work with a playlist however...my saved lists are all simple .m3u text files and have relative paths, so that may be the issue there...

 

That and the GUI requirement for CLI functionality will make it less useful for me however...has anyone done anything with the remote networkaudiod that they can share? Have not installed it yet and was wondering if that might be more useful...

 

 

thanks again,

 

rikm

[57gold]

This seems to be issue for some people with Macs, but I don't still know why it happens. Do you get dropouts if the content is on internal storage, the same where the OS is located?

 

Ran a couple of HD Tracks files that I downloaded to the SSD on the Mini (before transfer to iTunes library on OWC RAID1 connected with USB2), two 20 minute Allman Bros Band Live jams, and no dropouts experienced.

 

When playing from internal SSD CPU usage up by 10% to @70% versus the USB2 external drive, which operated at @60%?

[AndreasB]

Thanks Miska or Jussy,

 

Many thanks that volume control and a black screen (after returning from Full screen mode in the main window toolbar) will be repaired by next OSX-release. Planned when?

 

Just another general remark. Referring to Signalist-website it is very difficult to understand (for me :-( ) how HQPlayer Embedded, HQPlayer Desktop Control and for example Network Audio Daemon are functioning / to be installed and on which platform this working (Linux, Win or preferably OSX)?

 

Also your manual isn't always consistent and aligned. For example: increase Buffer time to 50 ms or more from the File .. Settings dialog. This isn't working in OSX etc. There are in my opinion nowadays too many imperfections in the manual for example an earlier problem / bug.

 

The overall toolbar disappeared after accidentally clicking the right mouse button! And was only recoverable by means of special command line in the OSX terminal.

 

A better manual explaining in layman's terms explaining all settings and functionality would be a great improvement

for this w o n d e r f u l sounding application and would save a lot time of lesser emails!

 

Ps. And I do not need to qualify as a computer expert in which I frankly do not appetite in. :-))

 

Very best regards / Parhain terveisin,

 

AndreasB.

[clipper]

Thanks for your reply, Clipper...

 

Have you tried the Eastern Supreme???

 

Would it be an upgrade over Junior for usb only use??? Mine has single Sparkos Opamps (tried Dexa discrete, but too grainy)...

 

In regards to Regen, wouldn't it be something like Iusb power and Gemini I already have???

 

USB REGEN – UpTone Audio

 

micro – iUSB

 

Accessory – Gemini

Thanks again...

 

I don't want to get too far off topic, so I'll (try to) keep it short and send you a PM.

 

I have a Supreme and use it in my main system, but have never really A/B tested it against the Junior. They both sound great. I need more than 1 input where my main system is, so that's why I have the Supreme there. Plus it's fun to mess around with 12AU7 tubes once in a while.

 

I like the Dexas better than the Sparkos, but that's probably due to personal preference and is system dependent, I'm sure...

 

Like the iUSB Power, the Regen provides 5V of "clean" power. But the Regen does more. Put it this way: I put my iUSB Power out to pasture when I got the Regen. If you got one, I'm guessing that you wouldn't even have to use the power leg of your Gemini, as the Regen would provide your 5V of USB power right before the DAC.

[57gold]

Ran a couple of HD Tracks files that I downloaded to the SSD on the Mini (before transfer to iTunes library on OWC RAID1 connected with USB2), two 20 minute Allman Bros Band Live jams, and no dropouts experienced.

 

When playing from internal SSD CPU usage up by 10% to @70% versus the USB2 external drive, which operated at @60%?

 

Now (later same day) playing files from OWC RAID1 via USB2...Govt Mule live w/buds (yup, in a southern rock/redneck mood) and no dropouts for 20+ minutes...switching back and forth between HDs fixed the slower connection?

[Miska]

Many thanks that volume control and a black screen (after returning from Full screen mode in the main window toolbar) will be repaired by next OSX-release. Planned when?

 

For DSD volume control, you need enable SDM DSP engine by unchecking the "Direct SDM" in DSDIFF/DSF Settings dialog.

 

For black screen I don't know. It doesn't happen for me on my iMac or Mac Mini. If there's a bug it is somewhere deep in the graphics toolkit.

 

Also your manual isn't always consistent and aligned. For example: increase Buffer time to 50 ms or more from the File .. Settings dialog. This isn't working in OSX etc.

 

Buffer time setting is only available on Windows and Linux. OS X wants to handle such things by itself.

 

The overall toolbar disappeared after accidentally clicking the right mouse button! And was only recoverable by means of special command line in the OSX terminal.

 

This was already fixed in, IIRC, 3.8.2. Right mouse click doesn't make it go away by itself, but right-click opens a context menu with single check box entry to enable/disable toolbar. On Windows/Linux it was possible to get it back in a similar way, but unfortunately it didn't work on OS X. It's a toolkit feature I didn't remember existing...

[vmanuelgm]

I don't want to get too far off topic, so I'll (try to) keep it short and send you a PM.

 

I have a Supreme and use it in my main system, but have never really A/B tested it against the Junior. They both sound great. I need more than 1 input where my main system is, so that's why I have the Supreme there. Plus it's fun to mess around with 12AU7 tubes once in a while.

 

I like the Dexas better than the Sparkos, but that's probably due to personal preference and is system dependent, I'm sure...

 

Like the iUSB Power, the Regen provides 5V of "clean" power. But the Regen does more. Put it this way: I put my iUSB Power out to pasture when I got the Regen. If you got one, I'm guessing that you wouldn't even have to use the power leg of your Gemini, as the Regen would provide your 5V of USB power right before the DAC.

 

 

Hi again, mate, thanks for your reply...

 

Will remain with my junior then. Gonna put again Dexa's to compare exhaustively...

 

In short, there will be a new machine in the market, the IFI IUsb power 3.0, so probably wait for it and decide after reading impressions. Meanwhile, my iusb, ipurifier and gemini do the trick.

 

Regards from Spain.

 

 

EDIT: when you say Dexas are superior in your opinion, are you referring to original Dexas or the new special edition??? I got the original, haven't tried the new ones.

[Miska]

Ran a couple of HD Tracks files that I downloaded to the SSD on the Mini (before transfer to iTunes library on OWC RAID1 connected with USB2), two 20 minute Allman Bros Band Live jams, and no dropouts experienced.

 

When playing from internal SSD CPU usage up by 10% to @70% versus the USB2 external drive, which operated at @60%?

 

Great that it works! Drop-outs seems to be sometimes related to storage devices, but most commonly network shares.

 

Use of internal storage certainly shouldn't increase the CPU load. Using USB storage has higher CPU overhead because of the packet handling while SATA connected internal storages can do straight transfers to RAM. One possible reason could be increased CPU load at the beginning of the track when data is being pre-loaded to RAM but it should settle fast. But in the pre-load period the load could be higher for SSD because the data transfer speed is so much higher.

[Rizlaw]

For Miska,

 

I just purchased my copy of HQP today, plus the 2 year download protection (not sure what that's about, or if it's worth $7.00. Wording is a little too vague, especially the last sentence in the "info" pop out which makes no sense due, I believe, to a grammatical error in the sentence structure).

 

I'm running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS /64bit with Unity desktop. I am noticing a few bugs in HQP 3.8.2-28 running Linux kernel 3.19.

 

BUG 1: I believe was also reported for another OS somewhere in this 138 page thread! I read the entire thread over two days. The bug deals with missing folders (File, Matrix, Tools, Help) in the top menu bar of the main transport screen. This occurs when switching the view to full screen mode and then back to what I call the initial main screen. Once you switch back, you no longer get the four menus no matter what you do on the menu/title bar (right click, left click, middle click, double click). It's necessary to quit the program and restart.

 

BUG 2: I use an old Logitech MX3100 wireless keyboard which works very well with Linux, particularly the keyboard's dedicated "media" transport keys (play, pause, stop, forward, backward, audio mute and volume control via a wheel). These keys control every media player I use: Guayadeque, Quodlibet, gMusicbrowser, and Rhythmbox. Most of these keys almost work (only once each - see Bug 3) in HQP's main screen after a couple of seconds delay, but they don't work in the full screen mode at all. If I depress "stop" I can see the "stop" icon in full screen mode giggle just a bit, but the music stream doesn't stop. The same goes for the other keys in full screen mode.

 

BUG 3: On the main screen, if I pause playback by clicking the "pause" button, I can't resume playback by clicking the "play" button. Everything freezes. Same goes for "stop" button. I think part of this may be due to the long delay in HQP reacting to each button click. Other players react immediately with no delays.

 

BUG 4 a/b: Using the main menu's folder tree to select an album does not always import the album into the lower half of the main window with the tracks in "chronological" order. The tracks are not always listed 01....02...03...04....etc. They can be 02.....04.....03......01....... I purchase and rip whole CDs with dbPoweramp under Crossover and no such issues occur in my other music players under Linux.

 

In addition, clicking on the column heading, in this particular case the "#" header, fails to correct the broken "chronological" track number order. Normally, I expect column headers, when clicked in a gui, to reorder or reverse order a list of items in a column, be the items numerical or alphabetical.

 

BUG 5: Main screen "Time", "Remain" and "Total Time" are not saved on a restart of HQP program; a minor inconvenience.

 

BUG 6: HQP icon in the Ubuntu Unity Panel (left vertical panel on desktop) has no right click options for: Play, Pause, Stop, Forward, Back and Quit. IMO, a serious oversight since you are doing such a fine job in creating and supporting this software under Ubuntu. This alone, makes it worth my while to support you by purchasing this fine product.

 

I hope these issues, assuming they can be reproduced, can be fixed in the near future.

[Miska]

plus the 2 year download protection (not sure what that's about, or if it's worth $7.00. Wording is a little too vague, especially the last sentence in the "info" pop out which makes no sense due, I believe, to a grammatical error in the sentence structure).

 

That is service of the reseller / web shop (DigitalRiver). Same goes for physical media too.

 

I'm running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS /64bit with Unity desktop. I am noticing a few bugs in HQP 3.8.2-28 running Linux kernel 3.19.

 

I am using Ubuntu Studio 14.04 with patched 3.13 kernel and libasound2 (both available from my website).

 

BUG 1: I believe was also reported for another OS somewhere in this 138 page thread! I read the entire thread over two days. The bug deals with missing folders (File, Matrix, Tools, Help) in the top menu bar of the main transport screen. This occurs when switching the view to full screen mode and then back to what I call the initial main screen. Once you switch back, you no longer get the four menus no matter what you do on the menu/title bar (right click, left click, middle click, double click). It's necessary to quit the program and restart.

 

This is a bug in the OS itself and should be fixed by Canonical. Seems to work perfectly fine with the XFCE desktop of Ubuntu Studio. It could be also bug in the display driver, I'm using latest nVidia proprietary driver on Maxwell-series Quadro GPU.

 

BUG 2: I use an old Logitech MX3100 wireless keyboard which works very well with Linux, particularly the keyboard's dedicated "media" transport keys (play, pause, stop, forward, backward, audio mute and volume control via a wheel). These keys control every media player I use: Guayadeque, Quodlibet, gMusicbrowser, and Rhythmbox. Most of these keys almost work (only once each - see Bug 3) in HQP's main screen after a couple of seconds delay, but they don't work in the full screen mode at all. If I depress "stop" I can see the "stop" icon in full screen mode giggle just a bit, but the music stream doesn't stop. The same goes for the other keys in full screen mode.

 

I think this goes to same category as (1), being some bug in Unity or desktop compositor. I have a wired Logitech keyboard with some multimedia keys and for me both work just fine in desktop and full screen mode. In order for these keys to work, the window needs to have input focus since they are treated as normal key presses. Are you able to type into the search field?

 

BUG 3: On the main screen, if I pause playback by clicking the "pause" button, I can't resume playback by clicking the "play" button. Everything freezes. Same goes for "stop" button. I think part of this may be due to the long delay in HQP reacting to each button click. Other players react immediately with no delays.

 

It should just return to normal stopped mode. To resume playback, click pause button again. For me both work correctly. A log file could help tracing down the problems. The delay are due to design, I suspect other players are not running as elaborate DSP engines either...

 

BUG 4 a/b: Using the main menu's folder tree to select an album does not always import the album into the lower half of the main window with the tracks in "chronological" order. The tracks are not always listed 01....02...03...04....etc. They can be 02.....04.....03......01....... I purchase and rip whole CDs with dbPoweramp under Crossover and no such issues occur in my other music players under Linux.

 

Tracks are sorted based on the file name, this is explained in the manual section 2.4. Usually ripping software prefixes the file name with track number using 0-prefix for single digit tracks, this makes the tracks being sorted in correct order. Track number metadata is only shown for informational purposes.

 

In addition, clicking on the column heading, in this particular case the "#" header, fails to correct the broken "chronological" track number order. Normally, I expect column headers, when clicked in a gui, to reorder or reverse order a list of items in a column, be the items numerical or alphabetical.

 

Tracks on the list are in the order they have been placed on a playlist or appear on a transport (in case of CD disc for example). Let's assume for a second that you click on some header column while the playlist is being played. What should be the next track from a playlist file? The track that comes next on the real list, or the one that is shown to be next on the screen? Also since CD is read-only media and tracks and TOC are stored on the disc, those cannot be reordered. What if you drop in new content while the playlist is playing, what if it becomes sorted first, when should it play? I think it would be confusing if track display order and playback order would become disconnected from each other.

 

BUG 6: HQP icon in the Ubuntu Unity Panel (left vertical panel on desktop) has no right click options for: Play, Pause, Stop, Forward, Back and Quit. IMO, a serious oversight since you are doing such a fine job in creating and supporting this software under Ubuntu.

 

There is no desktop environment integration because there are various different desktop environments. The way those are usually done are also clumsy.

[57gold]

Great that it works! Drop-outs seems to be sometimes related to storage devices, but most commonly network shares.

 

Use of internal storage certainly shouldn't increase the CPU load. Using USB storage has higher CPU overhead because of the packet handling while SATA connected internal storages can do straight transfers to RAM. One possible reason could be increased CPU load at the beginning of the track when data is being pre-loaded to RAM but it should settle fast. But in the pre-load period the load could be higher for SSD because the data transfer speed is so much higher.

 

Expected the internal SSD sourced files to use less resources that external USB2 source, particularly since the SSD file was a HD Tracks Hi Rez PCM file...but no, the SSD source file was consistently using @70% of CPU to play hi rez internal SSD files and low rez files at same settings from USB2 external HD in an OWC RAID1 unit run at less than 60% CPU.

 

Was curious and needed to check for visual confirmation of dropouts, so checked Activity Monitor, which displays CPU usage.

[jimdukey]

Hi, I'm been trying the poly-zinc-hb-2s Oversampling, and DSD7 256+fs Modulator.

I think that it's Up-converting everything to DSD 256.

Can anyone confirm that for me???

I use Mac/Yosemite, exaSound E12.

Feedback, Please....

[kurb1980]

Hi, I'm been trying the poly-zinc-hb-2s Oversampling, and DSD7 256+fs Modulator.

I think that it's Up-converting everything to DSD 256.

Can anyone confirm that for me???

I use Mac/Yosemite, exaSound E12.

Feedback, Please....

 

What does the led read out on your DAC? If DSD is illuminated then you should be but there is alot of other settings if you could post screen caps of preferences "PCM Content Upsampling" and DSDIFF/DSF Settings "DSD Content" Upsampling.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Miska,

I can't get the following command to work using Windows command prompt:

hqp-control localhost --state

 

If I use Power shell it works and I get the output.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

 

Geoff