HQ Player

[semente]

On 26/11/2017 at 12:06 PM, Miska said:

 

More you have hops between HQPlayer and NAA, better isolation you have from each other. I don't see a point in trying to isolate router, other than adding a proper switch to your home network. Then the router doesn't see any of the traffic unless it goes to the internet.

 

Good switches know how to measure cable lengths and adjust transmit powers based on that and many other nice features you'll miss by using direct connections.

 

My router is not connected to the internet and the wireless is turned off.

The connections in use are for the NAS, the laptop/HQPDesktop and the Pi/HQPNAA.

 

Do you think that my netwrork performance would benefit from adding a switch?

[Miska]

3 hours ago, semente said:

My router is not connected to the internet and the wireless is turned off.

The connections in use are for the NAS, the laptop/HQPDesktop and the Pi/HQPNAA.

 

Do you think that my netwrork performance would benefit from adding a switch?

 

It is now practically working as a switch. And probably as a DHCP server? So probably not in such dedicated setup.

 

[semente]

11 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

It is now practically working as a switch. And probably as a DHCP server? So probably not in such dedicated setup.

 

 

OK, thanks.

[Account Closed]

Hi Miska,

 

I noticed that after the 3.19.1 install that the correct filter selection and dither selection are no longer showing in Roon. It now just shows "default" in both fields. The correct PCM output rate is still showing. It still sounds the same so it probably is just a data display issue. I did re-boot everything but it did not help.

 

I saw some other display issues reported earlier but not this one. Sorry if I missed it if it was already reported.

 

Thanks,

 

Bob

[Miska]

3 hours ago, bobflood said:

I noticed that after the 3.19.1 install that the correct filter selection and dither selection are no longer showing in Roon. It now just shows "default" in both fields. The correct PCM output rate is still showing. It still sounds the same so it probably is just a data display issue. I did re-boot everything but it did not help.

 

I saw some other display issues reported earlier but not this one. Sorry if I missed it if it was already reported.

 

Yes, works as designed, fixing the display issue. When you set output mode to "Auto", settings from HQPlayer setting dialogs are used, that's why "Default" is shown. In Auto output mode you cannot change those settings from the main window because it is logically impossible to display the settings there with current GUI design, so all those controls are disabled now. Otherwise it is just plain confusing as before... If you explicitly select PCM or SDM output mode, then things are as before, so the change only affects "Auto" output mode switching.

 

I'm expecting most people would not use the Auto-output-mode.

[Account Closed]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

Yes, works as designed, fixing the display issue. When you set output mode to "Auto", settings from HQPlayer setting dialogs are used, that's why "Default" is shown. In Auto output mode you cannot change those settings from the main window because it is logically impossible to display the settings there with current GUI design, so all those controls are disabled now. Otherwise it is just plain confusing as before... If you explicitly select PCM or SDM output mode, then things are as before, so the change only affects "Auto" output mode switching.

 

I'm expecting most people would not use the Auto-output-mode.

Switched to PCM and the display is now correct again. Thanks and I will await your fix.

 

Bob

[Miska]

2 hours ago, bobflood said:

Switched to PCM and the display is now correct again. Thanks and I will await your fix.

 

Mmh, what fix?

[Dr Tone]

2 hours ago, bobflood said:

Switched to PCM and the display is now correct again. Thanks and I will await your fix.

 

Bob

 

It wasn't right before it was showing the settings of whatever you had chosen before choosing Auto.  So if you were in SDM and then chose Auto, even if Auto was converting to PCM it was showing the SDM conversion settings back at Roon.

 

Now it just shows Auto instead because it could be either the SDM or PCM settings, depending on the source track.  I assume HQPlayer doesn't converse the setting used on a track by track bases or maybe Roon doesn't ask as tracks change, so this is compromise.

[Hammer]

HQPlayer and priority in Windows.  

 

Hi, I recall reading on this thread sometime ago that one should not set the priority level for HQPlayer in Windows because the only impact that would have is on the GUI and not the signal processing give HQPlayer manages that internally.

 

I am running HQPlayer on a Server 2016 system with a GTX 1080 for CUDA offload.  What I find is that the music will pause every so often, but as soon as I RDP into the system to see what is happening, the music starts up again.  Therefore it appears Windows is suspending HQPlayer.  The system has 64 GB of RAM, a 16 Core Threadripper, the GTX 1080 and not running anything in the background and so I think it is not a resource issue.  

 

Has anyone experience this and if setting priority does not help, are there any workarounds to get HQPlayer “running” all the time?

 

Thanks, Hammer

[Account Closed]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Mmh, what fix?

You mentioned above "fixing the display issue". That is what I was referring to.

[Account Closed]

1 hour ago, Hammer said:

HQPlayer and priority in Windows.  

 

Hi, I recall reading on this thread sometime ago that one should not set the priority level for HQPlayer in Windows because the only impact that would have is on the GUI and not the signal processing give HQPlayer manages that internally.

 

I am running HQPlayer on a Server 2016 system with a GTX 1080 for CUDA offload.  What I find is that the music will pause every so often, but as soon as I RDP into the system to see what is happening, the music starts up again.  Therefore it appears Windows is suspending HQPlayer.  The system has 64 GB of RAM, a 16 Core Threadripper, the GTX 1080 and not running anything in the background and so I think it is not a resource issue.  

 

Has anyone experience this and if setting priority does not help, are there any workarounds to get HQPlayer “running” all the time?

 

Thanks, Hammer

 

You might try "Process Lasso" by Bitsum. It has a great algorithm for this type of issue. I have used it for years. There is a free version if you want to try it out. He also has another called "Park Control" to keep all cores active and it works with Lasso. Just a thought.

[bibo01]

5 minutes ago, bobflood said:

You mentioned above "fixing the display issue". That is what I was referring to.

Yes, but Miska said also "works as designed"

So no need for further fixing (at the moment)

[Miska]

7 hours ago, bobflood said:

You mentioned above "fixing the display issue". That is what I was referring to.

 

Yes, I was referring that the display was fixed in 3.19.1 (to show "Default")...

[Miska]

8 hours ago, Hammer said:

Has anyone experience this and if setting priority does not help, are there any workarounds to get HQPlayer “running” all the time?

 

In Control Panel -> Power you can select High Performance power profile.

 

Regarding priorities; HQPlayer manages it's own thread priorities, different threads inside HQPlayer run at different priorities depending on the tasks they perform. In addition, GPU tasks are scheduled by the Nvidia display driver and not subject to OS priorities.

 

[Hammer]

9 hours ago, Miska said:

 

In Control Panel -> Power you can select High Performance power profile.

 

Regarding priorities; HQPlayer manages it's own thread priorities, different threads inside HQPlayer run at different priorities depending on the tasks they perform. In addition, GPU tasks are scheduled by the Nvidia display driver and not subject to OS priorities.

 

 

Thanks.  Is there another way to solve the issue besides permanently setting it to high performance?   I notice when I change to the high performance profile that, at idle, my CPU voltage goes from 0.84V to 1.45V and core speed goes from 2ghz to 3.6ghz.  Yes, that’s what high performance means and so the setting is doing what it’s supposed to do, but given I don’t listen to music 24/7, I would like to be energy efficient.  Is there a way to change to the high performance profile automatically when HQPlayer is under load?  Eg., In my ideal word, I would always leave HQPlayer running (since I control using Roon) and then when I start to play music, it changes to the high performance profile.   When I was running HQPlayer in a Windows 10system, I didn’t have the pausing issue even though my profile was not high performance.  Is this specific to Server 2016?

 

Thanks, Hammer

[Miska]

16 hours ago, Hammer said:

Thanks.  Is there another way to solve the issue besides permanently setting it to high performance?   I notice when I change to the high performance profile that, at idle, my CPU voltage goes from 0.84V to 1.45V and core speed goes from 2ghz to 3.6ghz.  Yes, that’s what high performance means and so the setting is doing what it’s supposed to do, but given I don’t listen to music 24/7, I would like to be energy efficient.  Is there a way to change to the high performance profile automatically when HQPlayer is under load?

 

Windows also allows you to create custom profiles...

 

16 hours ago, Hammer said:

When I was running HQPlayer in a Windows 10system, I didn’t have the pausing issue even though my profile was not high performance.  Is this specific to Server 2016?

 

Why did you change from Win10 to S2016? Server versions are not really good for multimedia use cases, because those are optimized for network and disk bandwidth which requires opposite tunings compared desktop/multimedia use cases. That's why there are two different versions in first place.

 

What DAC are you using? Would Linux be more suitable for your use case?

 

[Hammer]

I was trying to be more green since the server already runs 24/7 and in the past, I also kept the dedicated HQPlayer machine up 24/7.  

 

I was doing some googling and it appears with powershell, I can monitor processes and perhaps I can figure how to switch to the performance profile on the fly if the HQPlayer process consumes more than x% of CPU time.

 

i have an Auralic Vega.

[drjimwillie]

On ‎12‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 10:36 AM, Miska said:

 

The GUI state is messed up for some reason. I have not seen this happening. If someone can tell how to reliably reproduce this issue I'd like to hear about it. Changing the mode once from the main window should bring it back to sanity.

 

I cannot get DSD to play. I am having the same issue reported a few pages back. When I change the front page, right hand pulldown menu to SDM/DSD, the pulldown menus to the left do not give me DSD options. I have tried opening and closing the HQ player, right hand pull down stays SDM/DSD, but the left-hand pulldown options do not change. PCM plays.  I am trying to upsample 44.1 PCM to DSD.

I have been using HQ player for years and DSD has been working fine.

In the last few weeks I got a Holo Spring. I was able to play DSD512 with the – 2s filters without a problem. 

Tim said to burn in the PCM 16 and 24 bit and DSD modules as I put that 500 hours on the Spring. I had been playing PCM for a while and when I decided to switch back to DSD, it did not work. Tim suggested that I uninstall and reload the AISO driver, which I did to no avail.

I was excited when I saw others had the same issue as I have, but there wasn't much of the resolution for it.  I think it said open and close HQP.

I rarely update my software or change my settings if everything is working fine. 

I thought a solution might be for me to update HQ player, I am running version 3.13.3. 

But I have another problem. I cannot get onto the Internet. When I try I get the error message “Microsoft Edge can't be opened using the built-in administrator account. Sign in with a different account and try again.” I do not have a different account on this computer.  I have a CAPS Pipeline with an HDPlex ATX LPS built for me by Small Green Computer.  Andrew was using the “Default” user profile when he sent the pipeline to me, I added a password.  This computer is for Audio only.  I have AO on this computer and I do not allow Windows updates.  I am running Windows 10 Pro, Version 1511, build 10586.545. I don't know why the OS would change my access to the internet.  I have tried the Internet fixes to allow the Administrator account to access the Internet but it does not work. 

I understand that before I install the latest HQP I should update my Windows software.

Help please - I have tried everything I can think of and I am stuck. 

[Miska]

 

17 minutes ago, drjimwillie said:

I am having the same issue reported a few pages back. When I change the front page, right hand pulldown menu to SDM/DSD, the pulldown menus to the left do not give me DSD options.

 

Can you provide a screenshot?

 

18 minutes ago, drjimwillie said:

right hand pull down stays SDM/DSD, but the left-hand pulldown options do not change. PCM plays.  I am trying to upsample 44.1 PCM to DSD.

 

If you get output this way you are doing PCM to DSD upsampling already. What are you expecting to happen?

 

17 minutes ago, drjimwillie said:

But I have another problem. I cannot get onto the Internet.

 

That is unrelated to HQPlayer...

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Hammer said:

I was trying to be more green since the server already runs 24/7 and in the past, I also kept the dedicated HQPlayer machine up 24/7.  

 

I was doing some googling and it appears with powershell, I can monitor processes and perhaps I can figure how to switch to the performance profile on the fly if the HQPlayer process consumes more than x% of CPU time.

 

Windows is quite dumb in that sense, I have my i7-6950X running on High Performance profile because of similar issue. Since half of the cores are virtual Hyper Threading cores, total virtual load can be low and Windows decides to "save power" while deadline critical work is going on. MacOS tends to have similar issues sometimes. Never seen that happen on Linux though.

 

These profiles may also affect GPU power management having impact on CUDA behavior. Windows allows creation of custom profiles though, so it is possible to start with High Performance profile and modify it a bit to become a custom one.

 

But you could leave it at high performance profile and configure power button to enter machine into sleep state? (through the same Control Panel -> Power -> What Power Buttons Do stuff) Then you can switch the machine between two modes, headlessly, through it's power button while saving some extra power when the machine is not in use. Sleep power consumption is usually quite low in few watts at most.

 

[tboooe]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

But you could leave it at high performance profile and configure power button to enter machine into sleep state? (through the same Control Panel -> Power -> What Power Buttons Do stuff) Then you can switch the machine between two modes, headlessly, through it's power button while saving some extra power when the machine is not in use. Sleep power consumption is usually quite low in few watts at most.

This is a great idea..not sure why I didnt think of it.  I guess I was too focused on trying to have the changing of the power setting be fully automated.  I am going to do this right now.  Thank you!

[jimdukey]

Does Mac/HQ have a Control Panel, or is it just Windows?

[tboooe]

23 minutes ago, tboooe said:

This is a great idea..not sure why I didnt think of it.  I guess I was too focused on trying to have the changing of the power setting be fully automated.  I am going to do this right now.  Thank you!

Spoke too soon.  I dont have the option to select Sleep for the power button, only shutdown.  Oh well, back to wasting power and money.

[jimdukey]

One Word:

Go Solar....

[Hammer]

I wrote a very simple PS script to switch to High Performance when HQPlayer uses more than 3% of CPU.  It’s not the most elegant thing, but it does the job although it does use up resources by continuous checking of HQPlayer CPU usage.  I wonder if HQPlayer can simply change the power profile on its own when it is playing, and then switch back when it is idle.

 

#Power Scheme GUID: 1ca6081e-7f76-46f8-b8e5-92a6bd9800cd  (Maximum Battery 
#Power Scheme GUID: 2ae0e187-676e-4db0-a121-3b7ddeb3c420  (Power Source Opt 
#Power Scheme GUID: 37aa8291-02f6-4f6c-a377-6047bba97761  (Timers off (Pres 
#Power Scheme GUID: 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e  (Balanced) 
#Power Scheme GUID: 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c  (High performance 
#Power Scheme GUID: a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a  (Power saver) 
#Power Scheme GUID: a666c91e-9613-4d84-a48e-2e4b7a016431  (Maximum Performa 
#Power Scheme GUID: de7ef2ae-119c-458b-a5a3-997c2221e76e  (Energy Star) 
#Power Scheme GUID: e11a5899-9d8e-4ded-8740-628976fc3e63  (Video Playback) 


$p = '8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c'



# To match the CPU usage to for example Process Explorer you need to divide by the number of cores
$cpu_cores = (Get-WMIObject Win32_ComputerSystem).NumberOfLogicalProcessors


do

    {

        $currScheme = POWERCFG -GETACTIVESCHEME 
        $c = $currScheme.split()
        
        do

        {

        # To get the PID of the process (this will give you the first occurrance if multiple matches)
        $proc_pid = (get-process "*HQPlayer*").Id[0]
       
        # This is to find the exact counter path, as you might have multiple processes with the same name
        $proc_path = ((Get-Counter "\Process(*)\ID Process").CounterSamples | ? {$_.RawValue -eq $proc_pid}).Path

        # We now get the CPU percentage
        $prod_percentage_cpu = [Math]::Round(((Get-Counter ($proc_path -replace "\\id process$","\% Processor Time")).CounterSamples.CookedValue) / $cpu_cores)


        If ($prod_percentage_cpu -gt 3)
            {
            PowerCfg -SetActive $p
            }
        else
            {
            PowerCfg -SetActive $c[3]
            }
        start-sleep -s 10

        }

        while ($prod_percentage_cpu -gt 3)

    }

while ($true)