HQ Player

[Jud]

40 minutes ago, Bob Stern said:

Whether the chosen upsampling filter also minimizes (2) is orthogonal.

 

Yes, I grant if you design a very bad apodizing filter that itself rings like hell, you will not get a result with minimized ringing.

[Jud]

2 hours ago, Jud said:

 

A filter that maintains the phase of the original must be linear phase, I thought.  No?

 

49 minutes ago, Bob Stern said:

 

Here's some hairy theory:

 

https://www.dsprelated.com/freebooks/filters/Zero_Phase_Filters_Even_Impulse.html

 

https://www.dsprelated.com/freebooks/filters/Filters_Preserving_Phase.html

 

https://www.dsprelated.com/freebooks/filters/Minimum_Phase_Filters.html

 

I've read the articles and note linear phase filters and the special case of them called a zero phase filter are classified as filters preserving phase (what I mentioned), while minimum phase filters are not so classified.

 

Is there something key here I'm missing?

[Hammer]

17 minutes ago, Hammer said:

 

I think I am having the same issue.  I use Roon and it will only play one song at a time.  The song will stop 1 or 2 seconds before the end and it will not move onto the next track.  At that point, I can select another track to play and I can do this once or twice, but after that, selecting another track will not play.  If I then quit HQPlayer, and start it up again, it says it cannot open my audio device.  On my Auralic Vega, I need to switch the input to say Coax and switch back to USB before I can start HQPlayer again.

 

 I am using the latest 3.16.3 version on Windows 10 CU with the most recent updates.  I hesitate to uninstall any of the updates given the news on the ransomware...

 

Thanks for looking into this!

 

Upon further testing, it appears this only happens with some songs and not all. It appears redbook files are fine, but I have found a DSF and a 88/24 file that stops before the end.  Note both of these are in my play everyday playlist and this phenomenon did not occur until the most recent Windows update were installed and I installed 3.16.3.  The Roon server version has not changed.

 

Thanks.

[jhwalker]

52 minutes ago, steveoat said:

No it is not.  I have tried 3.16.3 on three different machine with different DACs and HQ Player crashes while opening on each one of them.  Is there anything else I can try?

 

It works fine for me, at least.  I know that doesn't help you just wanted to confirm it's not a universal issue.

[Bob Stern]

52 minutes ago, Miska said:

Analog filters may of course also ring, but since all modern ADCs are oversampling, the analog filter is to large extent non-issue.

 

I think the problem intended to be solved by Meridian's apodizing filter is early digital recordings with non-oversampling A/D's.  A steep low-pass "anti-aliasing" analog filter was required to avoid aliasing distortion caused by frequencies above the Nyquist frequency being fed to the A/D.  Of course, any steep filter causes ringing at the corner frequency.  Because this analog filter preceded the A/D, its ringing became encoded in the digital recording.

 

I apologize if this discussion is OT.

[Dr Tone]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

I think someone else has got success running HQPlayer on Creators Update?

 

It works for me.

[louisxiawei]

@Miska Hey Miska,

 

Since 7th generation intel CPU officially claims that it can be only run on windows 10, but some mobo does support windows 7.

 

I'm wondering if I use 7th gen Intel CPU on a windows 7 system (since it has much less background processing compared to windows 10), will windows 7 affect the HQplayer's performance compared to the one on windows 10?

 

Thanks in advance.

[scan80269]

4 hours ago, louisxiawei said:

@Miska Hey Miska,

 

Since 7th generation intel CPU officially claims that it can be only run on windows 10, but some mobo does support windows 7.

 

I'm wondering if I use 7th gen Intel CPU on a windows 7 system (since it has much less background processing compared to windows 10), will windows 7 affect the HQplayer's performance compared to the one on windows 10?

 

Thanks in advance.

Whoa, I wasn't aware of such an Intel claim.  Intel's public website carries drivers (graphics, chipset, etc.) for their 7th generation Core (Kaby Lake) processors and Windows 7, 8.1 and 10.

 

One thing to be mindful of using Windows 7 with Intel 6th & 7th generation Core processors is that an Intel XHCI USB controller driver for Win7 needs to be manually installed at an early phase of OS installation.  This is because these recent Intel platforms (desktop & mobile) have a fully-unified XHCI USB host controller in the chipset supporting all USB device speeds (1.1, 2.0 & 3.0) but the Microsoft Win7 OS installation files completely lack this driver.  Without the proper driver added, one will end up with no user I/O (USB keyboard & mouse non-functional) at the very beginning of OS installation or at the desktop after installation completes.

 

One solution is to offline inject the Intel XHCI driver for Win7 into the Win7 OS installation files.  There are articles on the net on how to do this.

 

[Miska]

7 hours ago, louisxiawei said:

@Miska

Since 7th generation intel CPU officially claims that it can be only run on windows 10, but some mobo does support windows 7.

 

I'm wondering if I use 7th gen Intel CPU on a windows 7 system (since it has much less background processing compared to windows 10), will windows 7 affect the HQplayer's performance compared to the one on windows 10?

 

No, HQPlayer at least doesn't make a difference between those. It may be that the Win7 OS itself doesn't support all the new CPU features though.

 

I believe this "doesn't support Windows 7" comes from UEFI boot. All the new hardware is supposed to boot using UEFI (possibly with Secure Boot) instead of old legacy BIOS boot. IIRC, Windows 7 doesn't support boot through UEFI.

[tboooe]

12 hours ago, louisxiawei said:

Since 7th generation intel CPU officially claims that it can be only run on windows 10, but some mobo does support windows 7.

Totally dumb question...but does that mean the 7th gen chips wont run on Server 2012 r2 or 2016?  I think I have read a few people using 6th and 7th gen chips with these OS.

[rickca]

45 minutes ago, tboooe said:

Totally dumb question...but does that mean the 7th gen chips wont run on Server 2012 r2 or 2016?  I think I have read a few people using 6th and 7th gen chips with these OS.

The server OS situation is different.  I found this in an Ars Technica article. 

 

2012 and 2012 R2 are both in mainstream support until 9th January 2018. As such, manufacturers will be able to request certification of systems produced up until that date. This means that they will support Skylake, Kaby Lake, and possibly even Cannonlake processors. After that date, only Server 2016 will be in mainstream support, meaning that subsequent processors will require the use of Windows Server 2016.

[scan80269]

6 hours ago, Miska said:

 

No, HQPlayer at least doesn't make a difference between those. It may be that the Win7 OS itself doesn't support all the new CPU features though.

 

I believe this "doesn't support Windows 7" comes from UEFI boot. All the new hardware is supposed to boot using UEFI (possibly with Secure Boot) instead of old legacy BIOS boot. IIRC, Windows 7 doesn't support boot through UEFI.

Windows 7 does not support Secure Boot (first Microsoft OS to support Secure Boot is Windows 8), but UEFI boot should work.  On a UEFI motherboard, Windows 7 can still be installed and boot with the legacy BIOS support (CSM - Compatibility Support Module) manually disabled, but the Secure Boot setting must be disabled.

 

[scan80269]

38 minutes ago, rickca said:

The server OS situation is different.  I found this in an Ars Technica article. 

 

2012 and 2012 R2 are both in mainstream support until 9th January 2018. As such, manufacturers will be able to request certification of systems produced up until that date. This means that they will support Skylake, Kaby Lake, and possibly even Cannonlake processors. After that date, only Server 2016 will be in mainstream support, meaning that subsequent processors will require the use of Windows Server 2016.

Microsoft mainstream support for server OS such as Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 have nothing to do with specific Intel HW platforms.  Though the above statement is correct, there is no technical reason why any recent Intel platform such as Skylake and Kaby Lake cannot work with these editions of Windows Server.

 

I have run Windows Server 2012 R2 on an Intel Skylake NUC PC for over a year, and have recently installed Windows Server 2016 for another Skylake ITX motherboard and a Kaby Lake motherboard.

 

Also, "Extended Support End Date" for Windows Server 2012 R2 is 10/10/2023.  It will be quite a while before I have to change Windows Server OS for my DIY NAS box.

 

 

[steveoat]

16 hours ago, steveoat said:

Would it help if I sent you the crash log.  If so, where do I send it?

 

I finally got HQ Player to work after installing the creator update.

 

I tried to delete HQ Player and reininstall.  No luck.

 

I went to the program folders and saw the program was installed in both the program folder and the program X86 folder.  I used the HQ player uninstaller in each of these folders to uninstall both versions of the program.

 

I then reinstalled HQ player and now everything appears to be working.

 

If anyone else has a problem you might want to consider this.

 

Bruce

[EdmontonCanuck]

23 hours ago, Dr Tone said:

 

This is a good read.

 

https://www.ayre.com/pdf/Ayre_MP_White_Paper.pdf

 

@Dr Tone, @Jud thanks very much for the web resources. I think I get it now.

 

So, with respect to the Ayre MP white paper, which HQP filter combination comes the closest to the last "best of both worlds" digital filter they gave as being optimal?

 

Dave

[Jud]

Just now, EdmontonCanuck said:

 

@Dr Tone, @Jud thanks very much for the web resources. I think I get it now.

 

So, with respect to the Ayre MP white paper, which HQP filter combination comes the closest to the last "best of both worlds" digital filter they gave as being optimal?

 

Dave

 

I'm guessing there may not be one.  That "best of both worlds filter" actually hardly filters at all, a philosophy with which I don't think Miska agrees (but I am as always ready to be corrected).

[Dr Tone]

8 minutes ago, EdmontonCanuck said:

 

@Dr Tone, @Jud thanks very much for the web resources. I think I get it now.

 

So, with respect to the Ayre MP white paper, which HQP filter combination comes the closest to the last "best of both worlds" digital filter they gave as being optimal?

 

Dave

 

This is what Miska had to say on the Ayre filter and the possible closest HQ Player matches:

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Dr Tone said:

 

This is what Miska had to say on the Ayre filter and the possible closest HQ Player matches:

 

 

Since there is now "minringFIR-mp" it is probably closest to the Ayre's "listen"...

 

[jimdukey]

I'm downloading 3.16.4 /Mac now.

That was a fast turnaround from 3.16.3.

What happened to 3.16.2?

Anyway, anyone know what's new in .4?

[Miska]

4 minutes ago, jimdukey said:

What happened to 3.16.2?

 

It was intermediate version delivered to one hardware manufacturer, very close to 3.16.1.

 

5 minutes ago, jimdukey said:

Anyway, anyone know what's new in .4?

 

Only change is fix to a problem in playlist handling when end of playlist is reached. This also affected control from Roon.

 

[louisxiawei]

8 hours ago, tboooe said:

Totally dumb question...but does that mean the 7th gen chips wont run on Server 2012 r2 or 2016?  I think I have read a few people using 6th and 7th gen chips with these OS.

Not dumb question at all since me myself don't know the answers as well.  

 

I believe other people has kindly answered your questions and as Miksa mentioned,  old OS itself might not support all the new CPU features though. So better safe than sorry. 

[jimdukey]

Thank You, Miska!

 

[Hammer]

23 hours ago, Hammer said:

 

I think I am having the same issue.  I use Roon and it will only play one song at a time.  The song will stop 1 or 2 seconds before the end and it will not move onto the next track.  At that point, I can select another track to play and I can do this once or twice, but after that, selecting another track will not play.  If I then quit HQPlayer, and start it up again, it says it cannot open my audio device.  On my Auralic Vega, I need to switch the input to say Coax and switch back to USB before I can start HQPlayer again.

 

 I am using the latest 3.16.3 version on Windows 10 CU with the most recent updates.  I hesitate to uninstall any of the updates given the news on the ransomware...

 

Thanks for looking into this!

 

Hi, 3.16.4 fixed my problems.  Thank you very much!

[firedog]

37 minutes ago, Hammer said:

 

Hi, 3.16.4 fixed my problems.  Thank you very much!

Still have an issue with playlists in Roon, when going from hi-res track to Redbook track from Tidal, playback stops at end of high res track and doesn't continue (in some instances). Maybe HQP has an issue with the amount of time needed to load the track from Tidal?

[Miska]

22 hours ago, firedog said:

Still have an issue with playlists in Roon, when going from hi-res track to Redbook track from Tidal, playback stops at end of high res track and doesn't continue (in some instances). Maybe HQP has an issue with the amount of time needed to load the track from Tidal?

 

HQPlayer waits 10 seconds for data before giving up. So if the time exceeds that, then it is one possibility.

 

If you can spot an error message in HQPlayer log when it happens, it would be great if you can email snippet of the log around that place.

 

Hitting play again in Roon should get you going, unless it is constantly taking longer time.