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14 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

Yes, because regularly Windows fails to recognize hostnames in the share path, like for example "\\porkkala\music" it says it cannot find "porkkala" and when I try to browse the network, it doesn't show any hosts. But sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And since it doesn't give proper error or other information it remains mystery what the problem is.

 

Meanwhile on Linux (and on macOS) I never had such problems, and if there is problem there's usually a verbose error message too. And if nothing else, I can bore right into the source code of the component that is acting up and even fix it myself. Same applies for any other part of the OS as well, kernel and all.

 

By the way you can do the stuff through command line also on Windows through the "net" command. But it is not any clearer in syntax than equivalent Linux utilities. If you have graphical stuff, you don't have a headless system like HQPlayer Embedded, which on purpose doesn't have any graphical desktop. Of course you could also run HQPlayer Desktop on graphical Linux desktop and then you have graphical way of accessing the network shares too.

 

 

When i used NAS network name on linux, i didn't work either. But when i use IP address it doesn't work as well, and i don't get any clear "verbose" error message that shows what is not going well. That is a real mistery, to be honest.

On windows if i use IP address it works 100% times, no mistery.

Needing to bore right into the source code of a component to fix it is surely not something compatible with normal home PC users, don't you think? I never had to do that in windows and i fixed 100% of the problems i ever had (very few, to be honest, in many years). That's compatible with normal pc users...

It's not just a matter of having or having not a graphical desktop. It's a problem about incompatibilities, normal functions not being easily automated, normal standards not being accepted... And so on.

 

15 minutes ago, Miska said:

No, NTFS is Microsoft's proprietary filesystem and not supported. exFAT and FAT32 are and of course ext4 which is what most Linux systems use.

 

 

Proprietary? But even in normal linux distros you can mount ntfs disks, there's a specific command for that. Why in HQPOS you can't?

My windows machine can access EXT4 disks using a simple and free driver, why the opposite should be impossible?

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6 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

Proprietary? But even in normal linux distros you can mount ntfs disks, there's a specific command for that. Why in HQPOS you can't?

 

The Linux implementation is limited and such quality that it is not suitable for inclusion.

 

14 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

My windows machine can access EXT4 disks using a simple and free driver, why the opposite should be impossible?

 

Because it's official implementation is open source, unlike NTFS.

 

16 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

When i used NAS network name on linux, i didn't work either. But when i use IP address it doesn't work as well, and i don't get any clear "verbose" error message that shows what is not going well. That is a real mistery, to be honest.

 

"dmesg | tail -n 10" is usually your friend.

 

16 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

Needing to bore right into the source code of a component to fix it is surely not something compatible with normal home PC users, don't you think? I never had to do that in windows and i fixed 100% of the problems i ever had (very few, to be honest, in many years). That's compatible with normal pc users...

 

For example one of my Windows 10 installations fails to start screensaver / lock screen automatically, even though from settings timeout has been set to 10 minutes. This is very easy to figure out how to fix?

 

At one point my Windows 10 development machine started to fail to install updates, and even though Microsoft tech support spent half a day with me they couldn't figure out why and eventually gave up. I had to reinstall the Windows which is several days of wasted work time.

 

For me, Windows has always been just pain and suffering. Also as a software developer. Also it doesn't conform to IEEE 1003.1 operating system standard. Unlike Linux and macOS.

 

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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35 minutes ago, Miska said:

For example one of my Windows 10 installations fails to start screensaver / lock screen automatically, even though from settings timeout has been set to 10 minutes. This is very easy to figure out how to fix?

 

At one point my Windows 10 development machine started to fail to install updates, and even though Microsoft tech support spent half a day with me they couldn't figure out why and eventually gave up. I had to reinstall the Windows which is several days of wasted work time.

 

For me, Windows has always been just pain and suffering. Also as a software developer. Also it doesn't conform to IEEE 1003.1 operating system standard. Unlike Linux and macOS.

 

CIFS mount failed w/return code = -112 (it was -2 just a minute ago) is clear and easy to fix, for you? If it is, then please fix it in next HQPOS release, so that i can use it. As i have a fresh, simplified OS that i have written today in my USB drive and it's exactly as you made it. And it doesn't work. Surely you cannot say it's a problem about my software configuration, drivers i installed or programs i installed that corrupted it.

Embedded functionalities for network mounting are not working as they are. OS mount command doesn't work either. Fstab edit didn't work as well and it returns the above error, even using the "vers=1.0" parameter.

I just want to make Embedded directly access and play my music files. Is it so difficult, for a music player software? I have a Qnap NAS (not a brand new one, but not a 90's one as well... and it's linux based!), a LAN file server PC, even an internal hdd inside Embedded machine. Not even one of them can be directly read by HQPOS/Embedded. Other users recently couldn't manage to have their flac files read by Embedded, from a network share. This doesn't sound normal to me. Maybe HQPOS minimization process made it a bit too rigid and inflexible in its requirements?

I say so as i have a windows HQPdesktop installation and it never gave me a problem, never, even using multiple network shares and different NAAs. So no developer incompetence or user clumsiness may be suspected here, no hardware differences either, then what is left is obviously OS incompatibility/lack of flexibility.

About windows, i owned dozens of ms-dos/windows PCs and never encountered the problems you report or any similar, at least from XP on. I am so lucky with windows and so unlucky with linux? It would be strange... Maybe the difference is that i am an home user, while you are a developer, so what you do in your PCs is not comparable to what i do in my PCs. But your softwares are targeted to home users or to developers?

Surely windows has so many possibilities and functionalities that something going wrong is statistically much simpler: surely it would be difficult to have a screensaver problem if you don't even have a screensaver in your PC... Or to have an automatic update fail if you don't even have automatic updates in your OS (and you have to rebuild/reinstall your OS everytime a new update is released). But many linux users, friends of mine, tell me that in new complex linux distros, that at last add growing functionalities and GUIs to the usual linux OS, many problems have started to occur as well, so undermining legendary linux stability and flawlessness. If you want a rich and functional OS, you will face problems. Even if it's linux based.

The solution is to have a poor and rigid OS, that only few consumers can use? That would be a nonsense, a defeat.

Windows problems, from an home user point of view, are so scarce these days. OS is fast and simple to use, but full of functionalities, stable and compatible as it never was. (Even free) software availability is huge even for the most particular needs.

It doesn't conform to IEEE 1003.1 operating system standard? No problem for me, as that is a standard for developers, not for home users. And the fact that an OS used by 75% of world PCs doesn't conform to a standard, honestly make me doubt about the standard itself... Is it really "standard"?

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34 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

CIFS mount failed w/return code = -112 (it was -2 just a minute ago) is clear and easy to fix, for you? If it is, then please fix it in next HQPOS release, so that i can use it.

 

Usually the reason is in kernel log output, that's why I said about "dmesg | tail -n 10".

 

34 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

As i have a fresh, simplified OS that i have written today in my USB drive and it's exactly as you made it. And it doesn't work. Surely you cannot say it's a problem about my software configuration, drivers i installed or programs i installed that corrupted it.

 

Yes, that's why it's good. It's very predictable environment.

 

34 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

Embedded functionalities for network mounting are not working as they are. OS mount command doesn't work either. Fstab edit didn't work as well and it returns the above error, even using the "vers=1.0" parameter.

 

Well, I was just 12 hours ago using it myself and for me it is working perfectly. I updated the image by flashing to the latest version (on Up Squared hardware). Network share is from Ubuntu 20.04 by Samba (version 4.11.6). Also earlier tested with share from macOS and Windows 10. I tested backup restore, and rescanned library for new content. Performed playback tests for one customer who wanted to know if Up2 can do sinc-M+LNS15 to 705.6/768k PCM. Yes it did, and also 1.4/1.5 MHz PCM. Playback from network share in this test case.

 

If you get for example access denied errors, then you could check how your NTFS access permissions are set up for the file tree that you are sharing. Since Windows has these two levels of permissions, one is share level access permissions and second is file system level access permissions.

 

34 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

I just want to make Embedded directly access and play my music files.

 

If you have FAT32, exFAT or ext4 formatted HDD, you can use that one. Or any other media as they get auto-mounted under "/run/media" (under respective sub-folders).

 

34 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

even an internal hdd inside Embedded machine

 

Which format does this one have?

 

34 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

Other users recently couldn't manage to have their flac files read by Embedded, from a network share.

 

If I could reproduce this problem I could maybe do something about it. SMB share itself doesn't know anything about FLAC and when I test things from SMB share, all FLAC, WAV, AIFF, DSF and DSDIFF files appear correctly. Especially since the relevant code is common between HQPlayer Desktop and Embedded.

 

34 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

But your softwares are targeted to home users or to developers?

 

HQPlayer Embedded is targeted to hardware manufacturers making "streamers". It is "firmware" version of HQPlayer. Offered also for DIY builders, with the caveat that you need to be somewhat familiar with Linux. HQPlayer OS is easiest option to it, but less flexible than bigger Linux distribution. It is easiest to use as UPnP Renderer, but local library also works fine from suitable storage media.

 

Otherwise you can always buy a ready made device with HQPlayer Embedded inside from one of the device vendors.

 

34 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

The solution is to have a poor and rigid OS, that only few consumers can use? That would be a nonsense, a defeat.

Windows problems, from an home user point of view, are so scarce these days. OS is fast and simple to use, but full of functionalities, stable and compatible as it never was. (Even free) software availability is huge even for the most particular needs.

 

If you don't like HQPlayer OS, don't use it. That's why there is free trial.

 

If you want something simple and easy that works very well most of the time, macOS is pretty good choice.

 

34 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

It doesn't conform to IEEE 1003.1 operating system standard? No problem for me, as that is a standard for developers, not for home users. And the fact that an OS used by 75% of world PCs doesn't conform to a standard, honestly make me doubt about the standard itself... Is it really "standard"?

 

Yes, it is official IEEE and ISO standard, ratified by two standardisation bodies, unlike Windows.

 

Probably 99% of world's data center computers conform to it, due to the fact that they run Linux. Even majority in Microsoft's Azure cloud runs Linux. And now Microsoft is spending a lot of effort to bring Linux compatibility to Windows through WSL. Maybe one day when WSL is mature enough, HQPlayer Embedded can run with all features on WSL. Now it maybe works if you disable UPnP support and use NAA for audio output.

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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2 hours ago, Miska said:

Usually the reason is in kernel log output, that's why I said about "dmesg | tail -n 10".

 

The error message i reported appeared after that command, together with many other statements that i can't understand, but don't seem related to share mounting.

 

2 hours ago, Miska said:

Yes, that's why it's good. It's very predictable environment.

 

In facts, being linux based, it was very easily predictable for me that it wouldn't have worked 😉

 

2 hours ago, Miska said:

Well, I was just 12 hours ago using it myself and for me it is working perfectly. I updated the image by flashing to the latest version (on Up Squared hardware). Network share is from Ubuntu 20.04 by Samba (version 4.11.6). Also earlier tested with share from macOS and Windows 10. I tested backup restore, and rescanned library for new content. Performed playback tests for one customer who wanted to know if Up2 can do sinc-M+LNS15 to 705.6/768k PCM. Yes it did, and also 1.4/1.5 MHz PCM. Playback from network share in this test case.

 

I understand, but software reliability has to be accounted on the number of systems that don't work, more than on number of systems that work. In our 2 users case, we have 50% failure, that is very high...

 

2 hours ago, Miska said:

If you get for example access denied errors, then you could check how your NTFS access permissions are set up for the file tree that you are sharing. Since Windows has these two levels of permissions, one is share level access permissions and second is file system level access permissions

 

I have no clear access denied errors, as neither Embedded nor HQPOS report what's the problem. Anyway, my NAS is linux-based and the disk inside is EXT4 formatted. Instead, my windows file server PC has NTFS disks, but it's easily accessible by any other client i have in my LAN, without any access denied error.

 

2 hours ago, Miska said:

If you have FAT32, exFAT or ext4 formatted HDD, you can use that one. Or any other media as they get auto-mounted under "/run/media" (under respective sub-folders).

Which format does this one have?

 

Unfortunately the only hdd i have at hand to put inside my Embedded PC is NTFS and i can't format it in a short time.

 

2 hours ago, Miska said:

If I could reproduce this problem I could maybe do something about it. SMB share itself doesn't know anything about FLAC and when I test things from SMB share, all FLAC, WAV, AIFF, DSF and DSDIFF files appear correctly. Especially since the relevant code is common between HQPlayer Desktop and Embedded

 

I don't know what could be involved there, just wanted to state that maybe HQPOS/Embedded requirements about hardware and system configurations are too strict, thus causing many incompatibility cases.

 

2 hours ago, Miska said:

HQPlayer Embedded is targeted to hardware manufacturers making "streamers". It is "firmware" version of HQPlayer. Offered also for DIY builders, with the caveat that you need to be somewhat familiar with Linux. HQPlayer OS is easiest option to it, but less flexible than bigger Linux distribution. It is easiest to use as UPnP Renderer, but local library also works fine from suitable storage media.

Otherwise you can always buy a ready made device with HQPlayer Embedded inside from one of the device vendors.

If you don't like HQPlayer OS, don't use it. That's why there is free trial.

 

Ok, i understand that. So please consider releasing some UPNP capable software aimed at normal home users, able to run on the 3 major OSes and not only on linux like the one aimed for hardware manufacturers. Or at least a more compatible, more easy to use, more flexible but still portable and reasonably lightweight linux version (if this is feasible). I ask this because many home users would like to have UPNP functionality on a desktop HQP app, or the "audio device" one.

Many of us would like to purchase a software for our PCs that we already have, not a new hardware device or a streamer...

 

2 hours ago, Miska said:

If you want something simple and easy that works very well most of the time, macOS is pretty good choice

 

Really? I see that a big part of users asking for support in this thread are from Mac world, many of them have compatibility problems, features/softwares/drivers lacking for their OSes, in any case no less problems than windows users.

I used Mac PCs at work for years, too, so they're not new for me. In my experience, Mac prices are higher than windows assembled PCs, performance/cost lower, user control more limited, free software availability narrower, problems not significantly better, ease of use not significantly higher.

I think they're very good for some users attitude, and it's ok for them and i fully respect their point of view. But Macs are not an option for me. We're all different.

To be clear, i already have something that is simple, easy and works very very well: windows 10. I'm absolutely satisfied by its performance and by its ease of use. My problems start when i have to face linux, something that i would willingly avoid if only HQPlayer capabilities and versions were equal on all 3 platforms.

 

2 hours ago, Miska said:

Yes, it is official IEEE and ISO standard, ratified by two standardisation bodies, unlike Windows.

Probably 99% of world's data center computers conform to it, due to the fact that they run Linux. Even majority in Microsoft's Azure cloud runs Linux.

 

I know, as i used Unix servers at work years ago too. Unix/linux machines are a developer's and pro's dream come true: so closed (even if open source) and rigid, so "concentrated on simple tasks", so fully linear, so limited in doing what they're told by someone that did setup the system years ago and it's still exactly the same today (as no normal user is capable to divert them from the designed road), so inaccessible. But for the same reasons they're a normal user's nightmare come true, as well... They're OSes conceived for IT nerds, not for normal people who wants to deal with computers in a fast, easy, open, functional, not demanding but yet powerful way.

Being obviously IT pros and developers that ratify those standards, i surely am not surprised that they are in favour of linux-type OSes...

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Ok, after nearly 24 hrs of tries, i finally managed to make my Embedded system scan the music files from my network file server PC. The 500 MB library scan took about 5 hrs, while the exact same network scan performed by the same PC under win10 and using HQP desktop took around 15 minutes.

I hope there's some difference in how the scan is performed, otherwise that surely doesn't plead in favour of linux so-claimed performance increase!

Anyway, now i'm stuck again: my NAA is correctly recognized by Embedded and i'm accessing it by another LAN PC using HQPlayer client. I find my library, choose the artist (first column), choose the album (second column), choose the songs (third column) and... nothing happens! Songs are not loaded in the playlist (fourth column) nor played.

Embedded web interface is so sluggish and very slow responding... I see Embedded doesn't play albums even if i try to play them directly from the webinterface.

After a long wait, something moves: playback starts, but my NAA doesn't receive the flow: dac lock led doesn't turn on. But everything is configured exactly the same way it was when using win10 HQPdesktop, same PC, same NAA, same setup, same filter (EXT2), same modulator (ASDM5), same DSD frequency, same options (where possible).

After another 10/15 minutes my dac receives the first DSD256 non-EC flow, full of dropouts, really impossible to listen to.

This should be the high performance, lightweight, so-few-simultaneous-tasks-to-be-faster system? Really amazing...

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11 hours ago, Miska said:

 

I've now implemented cache for the cases that take notable amount of time to initialize. So the first time it takes longer, but as long as HQPlayer is running the next time same case is hit, it is in the cache. Let's see how much this blows memory consumption and if it exposes any corner cases. Will be also in HQPlayer Embedded. So one reason leave HQPlayer running for longer periods.

 

This feature will be in next releases.

 

 

Wooowww! Thanks a lot! Will wait and test it, it's really great opportunity!

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On 2/15/2021 at 11:55 AM, Miska said:

 

You enter the share address like "//192.168.1.10/music" and then username and password for it. It will end up mounted under "/smb" path.

 

 

In the drop-down menu on the entry there is "/smb". This is the one to use for a network mount.

 

Ok, I did it as described above and it works (after I have changed the Maximum SMB-Protocol from SMB2 to SMB3 in the Samba settings of my Synology NAS. I wonder why that was not set by default). HQPe is re-scanning my music folders for more than one hour now but I already can play the detected music using HQPDcontrol.

Euphony (NUC7DNKE: Roon or Stylus) --> Euphony EP (NUC7CJYH: Roon Bridge or NAA or StylusEP) --> Matrix Audio X-SPDIF 2 --> Matrix Audio X-Sabre Pro (MQA) (I2S) -->

Euphony (NUC7DNKE: Roon) --> WS 2019 Core (i7-8700: HQPlayer, JPLAY Femto, Roon Bridge, MinorityClean) / Matrix Audio Element H --> Matrix Audio X-Sabre Pro (MQA) (USB) --> B & M Prime 6

Synology DS 112+ (LMS) --> pi3B+/HifiBerry Digi + Pro (PiCorePlayer) --> Matrix Audio X-Sabre Pro (MQA) (SPDIF) -->  

bedroom: pi3/DigiOne (RoPieee) --> S.M.S.L M500 --> KRK Rokit 5 or AKG 712 Pro

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7 hours ago, Luca72c said:

I understand, but software reliability has to be accounted on the number of systems that don't work, more than on number of systems that work. In our 2 users case, we have 50% failure, that is very high...

 

How did you come up with such figure!? :D

 

7 hours ago, Luca72c said:

Or at least a more compatible, more easy to use, more flexible but still portable and reasonably lightweight linux version (if this is feasible)

 

You can always install, Ubuntu Server 20.04 as minimal install, Debian minimal, or Fedora (Server) Minimal. And then HQPlayer Embedded on it.

 

9 hours ago, Luca72c said:

I see that a big part of users asking for support in this thread are from Mac world, many of them have compatibility problems, features/softwares/drivers lacking for their OSes, in any case no less problems than windows users.

 

Well, majority of users are either Mac or Windows. And the ones who don't have problems rarely keep posting about not having problems... ;) So that would indicate that Linux users have the least problems. :D

 

9 hours ago, Luca72c said:

My problems start when i have to face linux, something that i would willingly avoid if only HQPlayer capabilities and versions were equal on all 3 platforms.

 

They are, HQPlayer Desktop has equal capabilities on all three platforms.

 

HQPlayer Embedded is Linux only product. One reason being that there are very few if any hardware manufacturers making streamer devices with Windows. Practically all of those are Linux based (same as most Blu-ray players too).

 

3 hours ago, Luca72c said:

Anyway, now i'm stuck again: my NAA is correctly recognized by Embedded and i'm accessing it by another LAN PC using HQPlayer client. I find my library, choose the artist (first column), choose the album (second column), choose the songs (third column) and... nothing happens! Songs are not loaded in the playlist (fourth column) nor played.

 

Press the plus button to add the tracks to the playlist.

 

3 hours ago, Luca72c said:

The 500 MB library scan took about 5 hrs

 

3 hours ago, Luca72c said:

After a long wait, something moves: playback starts, but my NAA doesn't receive the flow

 

Sounds like you have a network problem at the HQPlayer OS side.  I wonder what kind of NIC do you have there? Realtek by any chance?

 

Is this the same machine where you are running HQPlayer Desktop? So that you could compare.

 

Do you have a smart/managed switch perhaps? Or unmanaged one?

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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1 hour ago, Holzohr said:

Ok, I did it as described above and it works (after I have changed the Maximum SMB-Protocol from SMB2 to SMB3 in the Samba settings of my Synology NAS. I wonder why that was not set by default). HQPe is re-scanning my music folders for more than one hour now but I already can play the detected music using HQPDcontrol.

 

For image upgrades, remember to backup the settings and library file, so that you don't need to make a full scan again.

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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What's new in 4.10?

QPlayer 4 Desktop 4.10.0 released!

Add support for reading RoomEqWizard filter export text files to matrix. Add browse button for selecting WAV and txt files for matrix. Fix IIR upsampling filter initialization. Fix graph plotting when matrix is not enabled. Component updates.

CJH

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7 hours ago, Miska said:

How did you come up with such figure!? :D

 

As i said, considering our 2 users case: i tell you that HQPOS/Embedded doesn't work for me, you answer that it works for you. So 50% / 50% 😁

 

7 hours ago, Miska said:

Well, majority of users are either Mac or Windows. And the ones who don't have problems rarely keep posting about not having problems... ;) So that would indicate that Linux users have the least problems. :

 

Linux users are simply so used to have tons of difficulties doing even the simpler things and to find workarounds googling around, that they not even ask for help in this forum: in facts it's not HQPlayer to cause problems (i never had a significant problem with HQPlayer in windows, except 4.9 freezing my NAA), but linux itself, so what would be the point in asking for help here?

Put in another way, linux users are usually much more "advanced" than Mac/Windows users, so they don't need your help for small/medium problems.

 

7 hours ago, Miska said:

They are, HQPlayer Desktop has equal capabilities on all three platforms.

HQPlayer Embedded is Linux only product. One reason being that there are very few if any hardware manufacturers making streamer devices with Windows. Practically all of those are Linux based (same as most Blu-ray players too).

 

In facts i never said that HQPDESKTOP has different capabilities depending on platforms, i said that HQPLAYER does, intending HQPlayer family of products. Embedded (or an UPNP/virtual audio device version of HQPdesktop) for Mac and Windows would not be targeted to hardware manufacturers, but to final users. They would pay for the license, maybe their money is not good as much? The money we paid for HQPlayer license wasn't meant to pay for further development, too? So many of us ask for a further development of the HQPdesktop functionality in the direction of UPNP or better of a virtual audio device, you can't simply say "there is Embedded already doing that", if Embedded is not available for our platforms and targeted to hardware manufacturers...

 

7 hours ago, Miska said:

Press the plus button to add the tracks to the playlist

 

That's the first thing i did, unfortunately it doesn't work as well

 

7 hours ago, Miska said:

Sounds like you have a network problem at the HQPlayer OS side.  I wonder what kind of NIC do you have there? Realtek by any chance?

Is this the same machine where you are running HQPlayer Desktop? So that you could compare.

Do you have a smart/managed switch perhaps? Or unmanaged one?

 

Realtek GBE, as you guess. But never had any problem in Windows, using the exact same machine. So facing the tipical linux incompatibility? Likely, but i don't think it's regarding NIC, and i'm going to explain why.

This afternoon i finally borrowed an USB hdd from one friend of mine and copied all my library there. I attached it to Embedded machine and i mounted it without any problem (files system is exFAT). Library scan took about 30 minutes, this time. I thought that was the final solution, at last!

BUT when i started playing files, no way: exact same behaviour than using network library, incredible slowish and clumsy web interface, HQPclient not inserting songs in playlists, reproduction starting after minutes even using EXT2 filter and ASDM5 modulator, music absolutely impossible to listen to due to continous dropouts even at DSD256. The system seems nearly freezed as long as i ask to play files. So i think the problem is not in PC's NIC, nor in network shares, nor in SMB or NTFS or other. The problem is in bad operation of HQPOS/Embedded on my PC, and this in actual world means TOO RESTRICTED COMPATIBILITY, as my PC is not from the 90's nor build using uncommon components. In facts it's a common i5 machine and it works perfectly well using Windows and HQPdesktop.

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2 hours ago, Luca72c said:

Embedded (or an UPNP/virtual audio device version of HQPdesktop) for Mac and Windows would not be targeted to hardware manufacturers, but to final users. They would pay for the license, maybe their money is not good as much? The money we paid for HQPlayer license wasn't meant to pay for further development, too? So many of us ask for a further development of the HQPdesktop functionality in the direction of UPNP or better of a virtual audio device, you can't simply say "there is Embedded already doing that", if Embedded is not available for our platforms and targeted to hardware manufacturers...

 

Embedded was designed ground-up for Linux platform, because as name says it is for embedded systems like streamers, and on those Linux is practically the only platform. On purpose it was not designed to be cross-platform.

 

Making Embedded for macOS and especially for Windows would need a lot of work. And at the moment I don't have hands/time to do more products. And I cannot afford hiring people either.

 

2 hours ago, Luca72c said:

BUT when i started playing files, no way: exact same behaviour than using network library, incredible slowish and clumsy web interface, HQPclient not inserting songs in playlists, reproduction starting after minutes even using EXT2 filter and ASDM5 modulator, music absolutely impossible to listen to due to continous dropouts even at DSD256. The system seems nearly freezed as long as i ask to play files. So i think the problem is not in PC's NIC, nor in network shares, nor in SMB or NTFS or other.

 

This sounds still exactly like network problem, possibly with the NIC. If Realtek would be properly contributing their drivers to the Linux kernel this problem wouldn't exist.

 

By any chance you didn't accidentally take the RAVENNA image version, instead of the regular one?

 

2 hours ago, Luca72c said:

The problem is in bad operation of HQPOS/Embedded on my PC, and this in actual world means TOO RESTRICTED COMPATIBILITY, as my PC is not from the 90's nor build using uncommon components. In facts it's a common i5 machine and it works perfectly well using Windows and HQPdesktop.

 

Since I don't have your computer, I cannot tell what the problem is based on your description. I can only make some guesses. So fixing it is quite hard.

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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1 hour ago, Miska said:

This sounds still exactly like network problem, possibly with the NIC. If Realtek would be properly contributing their drivers to the Linux kernel this problem wouldn't exist.

 

Files are loaded via USB, so you mean it could be a problem in ethernet communication with NAA?

 

1 hour ago, Miska said:

By any chance you didn't accidentally take the RAVENNA image version, instead of the regular one?

 

I took the version called "hqplayer-embedded-4.22.0-x64.7z", it wasn't in Ravenna group

 

1 hour ago, Miska said:

Since I don't have your computer, I cannot tell what the problem is based on your description. I can only make some guesses. So fixing it is quite hard.

 

I understand and i don't claim this level of support from you. Just wanted to make you aware that compatibility is quite low in your lightweight HQPOS, too many components/peripherals are incompatible (say, for example, NTFS disks, that were easily mounted on all linux incarnations i tested before without problems) and you should make a bit more effort to meet users' needs of ease and automatization, expecially of those that are not so linux-smart (just to suggest one among many, add an option for SMB vers. 1.0 in your NetworkMount page).

HQPOS could be a very simple and fast solution allowing everyone to obtain very good functionalities and performances on a fairly lightweight system, without having to mess with linux terminal interface and with a linux complete PC installation (i.e. having a dedicated linux PC). But as it is now, using HQPOS/Embedded can be a nightmare, if one unfortunately happens to have the wrong hardware while not being a linux-experienced user.

More, documentation should be quite comprehensive and warn users in advance about what they can or cannot do or have... This would avoid hassles to you, too: i can understand that a case like mine can be really annoying for a developer in a forum (and for the unfortunate forum readers, too - sorry about that).

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3 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

Files are loaded via USB, so you mean it could be a problem in ethernet communication with NAA?

 

Yes, and also with the controller application, if for example the plus button in HQPlayer Client doesn't nicely add the items to the playlist or if scrolling albums in the left side cover flow is sluggish. Could be something as simple as ethernet flow control (802.3x) auto-negotiation not working between the NIC and the upstream switch. Or the NIC reverting to 10 or 100 Mbps mode.

 

4 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

I took the version called "hqplayer-embedded-4.22.0-x64.7z", it wasn't in Ravenna group

 

OK, that's a correct one. I've been using it for example on my Intel NUC and UpSquared with content on SMB network shares.

 

6 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

Just wanted to make you aware that compatibility is quite low in your lightweight HQPOS, too many components/peripherals are incompatible

 

Linux kernel in HQPlayer OS is not particularly extraordinary. It has drivers for most of common components. As long as the drivers ship with Linux kernel.

 

6 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

(say, for example, NTFS disks, that were easily mounted on all linux incarnations i tested before without problems)

 

NTFS support is not there on purpose so far. Most Linux distributions use FUSE userspace driver for the NTFS (ntfs-3g), but this is one of the things that doesn't belong to stripped down OS. exFAT is pretty common format and most external drives come preformatted with exFAT because it works on both Windows and macOS (and Linux).

 

14 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

just to suggest one among many, add an option for SMB vers. 1.0 in your NetworkMount page

 

That is something I can add, but I'm quite surprised some NAS still stick to the very old insecure version of the protocol.

 

So far nobody reported this kind of problem before.

 

17 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

But as it is now, using HQPOS/Embedded can be a nightmare, if one unfortunately happens to have the wrong hardware while not being a linux-experienced user.

 

I doubt this can be ever completely eliminated. But for example some very specific hardware works quite well, like RasPi4, since it is kind of prior-known specific hardware configuration. Not much surprises there.

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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10 minutes ago, Miska said:

NTFS support is not there on purpose so far. Most Linux distributions use FUSE userspace driver for the NTFS (ntfs-3g), but this is one of the things that doesn't belong to stripped down OS. exFAT is pretty common format and most external drives come preformatted with exFAT because it works on both Windows and macOS (and Linux).

 

That's true for extetnal hdds indeed (in facts the external hdd i found is exFAT formatted), but i think nearly every Windows user has internal NTFS hard disks. And Windows users are, in my opinion, the most interested users for something like HQPOS, as:

- they don't have a running, installed linux system yet. Linux users hardly need a linux thumb drive to run Embedded

- they usually are not linux experts, so they would like to avoid a complete linux installation

- this would be the easiest and simpler way to have special Embedded functionalities lacking in HQplayer desktop. 

Without NTFS support, many Windows users could not easily access internal music libraries in their PCs... 

And as you said, Windows users are nearly half of this forum users

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I have been using HQP a lot with video files (concerts) using HW loopback (spdif), and it works great.

My video players (MPC-BE the main one) allow to easily set the video-audio delay time, both by typing or by increase/decrease keys. So it is crucial to know the delay time (ms)  between HQP input and output each time HQP input play starts. With some time and patience by trial and error I can get this time *almost* correctly. But this delay time depends on many factors specially filtering selected. And HQP is all about trying different filtering all the time, so it is always changing.

So it would be very important to me that HQP would display this time somewhere. For example on HQP window bottom where log messages are temporarily displayed: "Offload: resampler=disabled convolution=disabled delay=3000". But even if it were in the log file itself it would help. Is this delay time already available anywhere in HQP? If not, it seems to me it would be easy to calculate within HQP program. It would mean a lot to me. Jussi can you help here please?

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Hey @Miska, maybe something to be on the lookout for if other users have issues on your NAA firmware. I had this issue before but got a new Pi4 which worked fine. Tonight I was futzing around with something and put the "bad" Pi4 back in the system so I thought I'd do a little investigation, at least to my technical ability. Didn't find much, but found two things:

 

Using RoPieee to grab board information, and also used it to make sure both boards are up to the latest USB firmware, just in case (they are, no change in behavior):

Non-working board specs:

 

8VYAMVQh.png

 

Working board specs:

 

AFzdHw7h.png

 

Only thing I see of note is the board revision - 1.2 works, 1.4 is not working for me.

 

I also took a picture of the actual boards side by side - there are differences for sure but beyond me to explain what they mean. Diffs are by the USB 2.0 ports and the micro HDMI ports on the side:

1.2 is on top (with heatsinks)

1.4 is bottom

 

DwgL3Rzh.png

 

I'm up and running just fine on the 1.2 board with 4112 NAA image. Again, this is just in case there's something different about Rev 1.4 that may cause issues for you with other customers. IIRC, I bought the 1.4 board in December 2020, I think.

 

Lastly - both boards work and are discoverable by HQP Desktop using RoPieee, 1.4 just not for 4112 NAA image.

Ryzen 3900x Roon Core PC -> Intel i9900k HQPlayer W10 machine -> iFi Zen Stream NAA

Holo May KTE, Benchmark LA4 preamp

SMC Audio upgraded DNA-125 Amp

Dynaudio Confidence C2 Platinum speakers

Vinyl rig - Schiit Sol, Nagaoka MP-500, Mod Squad PhonoDrive phono stage

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6 hours ago, Miska said:

 

That is something I can add, but I'm quite surprised some NAS still stick to the very old insecure version of the protocol.

 

So far nobody reported this kind of problem before.

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Luca72c said:  "just to suggest one among many, add an option for SMB vers. 1.0 in your NetworkMount page"

 

I have the same problem with my NAS. But I gave up trying the hqplayer-embedded-4.22.0-x64.7z.

 

So now two persons have reported this problem.

 

 

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To be honest towards forum users interested in Embedded, i have to update my case.

I gave up trying to make HQPOS/Embedded image work. Too many problems and difficulties and, most of all, it doesn't work on my system easily.Then a forum user (thank you very much!) suggested me to try gentooplayer as well, that i know already (as i use ARM image in my NAA) but never tried as server image.

I did, and that was an amazing experience! A dream come true, opposite to the nightmare of HQPOS...

After preparing and booting USB image, everything worked very easily at first try, every function is automated via webinterface. No need to use terminal window and complex syntax commands. Registering is a breeze, sending by email an hardware key generated by webinterface itself and receiving a proper user key.

Everything is clear and easy, as gentooplayer itself takes care of everything via webinterface: disk mounts at boot or later (my NTFS internal disk is mounted as read-only, but that's absolutely ok), kernel selection (even RT), software updates, apps to start at boot (not only Embedded, but many other software players are available to choose, including Networkaudiod, HQPdesktop and Roon/RoonBridge), RAM disk system, and so many other configuration parameters!

But most of all, everything simply WORKS: no incompatibilities, no forcing of hardware choices, no delays, no dropouts.

Strangely enough, no problem with Realtek NIC driver, so by evidence a good working linux driver exists, it only needs developers to want to take the hassle of implementing it.

What can i say... many many thanks and compliments to Antonello Caroli for this lesson of great linux programming and for his respect and attention towards every user (even non-linux-expert) needs.

Now i can easily and effectively test HQPEmbedded, at last. If you're willing to have (or even simply test) a lightweight, efficient and incredibly easy to use linux image for HQPlayer, do yourself a favour and try gentooplayer: you won't regret.

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2 hours ago, sgb said:

 

6 hours ago, Luca72c said:  "just to suggest one among many, add an option for SMB vers. 1.0 in your NetworkMount page"

 

I have the same problem with my NAS. But I gave up trying the hqplayer-embedded-4.22.0-x64.7z.

 

So now two persons have reported this problem.

 

 

 

I too had this problem but didn't report. 😀 But I think @Patatorz had the same problem and has reported about it.

Well, the first step should be to have a look in the Samba settings of the NAS. At least for Synology NAS devices that's the easy way to solve it.

Euphony (NUC7DNKE: Roon or Stylus) --> Euphony EP (NUC7CJYH: Roon Bridge or NAA or StylusEP) --> Matrix Audio X-SPDIF 2 --> Matrix Audio X-Sabre Pro (MQA) (I2S) -->

Euphony (NUC7DNKE: Roon) --> WS 2019 Core (i7-8700: HQPlayer, JPLAY Femto, Roon Bridge, MinorityClean) / Matrix Audio Element H --> Matrix Audio X-Sabre Pro (MQA) (USB) --> B & M Prime 6

Synology DS 112+ (LMS) --> pi3B+/HifiBerry Digi + Pro (PiCorePlayer) --> Matrix Audio X-Sabre Pro (MQA) (SPDIF) -->  

bedroom: pi3/DigiOne (RoPieee) --> S.M.S.L M500 --> KRK Rokit 5 or AKG 712 Pro

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I am using Gentooplayer on my Allo USBridge and it is excellent. I hesitated to upgrade my server to Linux.

On the other hand, having optimized my Win10 LTSC as much as possible and with the addition of MC 114 (special AVX2), I am happy to take advantage without looking further (for the moment). Roon> HQP DSD256 ASDM7EC.

I use on the same Roon and HQP PC with 2 intel cards (inside a gigabyte Z370N) and the HQP / USBridge connection is an independent direct IPV6 network.
I don't know if there is any gain in using Diretta .. I doubt it but without having tried.
I'll be looking for the Volume extension under Roon. The fastest for me is still using TightVNC. Connection is instant with my server and even faster than launching HQP Client.
For volume, Jussy doesn't even need to develop a big button independent of the client HQP. 😄
I no longer have Explorer on my server (AO custom shell), the interface is minimal (no graphics card under Win10) and a simple remote window in 640.
The next gain will undoubtedly be done by upgrading my speakers to the higher model ...

ROON + HQP / Hdplex H3-i5 + 400ATX >Gustard A26 (NAA twk) > SQM > Benchmark AHB2 / Recital Audio Illumine HEFA

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