HQplayer the friendly way (and stream Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify...)

[hifi25nl]

Would you like to control HQplayer from your sofa in your hifi room with a user friendly interface?

Would you like to stream Tidal, Qobuz or Spotify with HQplayer upsampling?

 

 

Read below...

 

 

Only on LINUX!

 

 

INTRODUCTION

It does not work without a license for HQPlayer. If you are in possession of the license you have to write to [email protected] to obtain a free license for HQPlayer Embedded.

Rename the file received in hqplayerd-key.xml and copy to /home/user/.hqplayer (where you have to replace "user" with your user).

 

 

WHAT IS IT FOR?

To control HQPlayer from another device, particularly from a smartphone/tablet.

 

 

INSTALLATION

hqplayerd -> Index of /bins/hqplayerd

libgmpris (library) -> Index of /src/trusty

Rygel -> directly from the repository of your Linux distribution

MinimServer -> MinimServer downloads or the repository of your Linux distribution

dff2dsf (optional) -> Signalyst

BubbleUPnP (or another UPnp client) on your smartphone -> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bubblesoft.android.bubbleupnp&hl=en

 

CONFIGURATION

hqplayerd: hqplayerd uses a configuration file similar to HQPlayer in /etc/hqplayer/hqplayerd.xml

You should copy this file to /home/user/.hqplayer so you can change it easily.

Check and possibly modify it before proceeding. The Guide for the parameters to be used can be found in

/usr/share/doc/hqplayerd/readme.txt.gz.

 

 

Rygel: Copy the file rygel.conf configuration that you can find in /usr/share/doc/hqplayerd/rygel.conf.gz in /home/user/.config/

 

 

MinimServer: unless your Linux distribution already has a package for MinimServer, I do not recommend to use the setup program also because it is much easier to run the program without installing it. You can for example extract the file MinimServer-0.8.2a-linux-x64.tar.gz (for 64-bit systems) to a directory of your choice. Personally I used /home/user/Programs/MinimServer/

At the first start MinimServer will ask you the directory of your music files.

 

 

BubbleUPnP: no special configuration is required.

 

 

START

Initially you should proceed manually to verify that everything is working properly.

Recall that Rygel unfortunately needs the X graphical environment to work (this is because of dbus). It is also important to know that hqplayerd must be started BEFORE Rygel.

We use this sequence:

1) hqplayerd in a first terminal window

2) Rygel in a second window

3) Open a third terminal window. If you have installed MinimServer in /home/user/Programs/MinimServer/ the command to use is /home/user/Programmi/MinimServer/minimserver-0.8.2/bin/startd

4) Launch BubbleUPnP on your Android smartphone. In BubbelUPnP Menu MinimServer will be selected as Library and SygnalistHQplayer3 as Renderer

5) Now you can browse your music directory in BubbleUPnP and play some file.

 

 

If everything goes well then you can use a simple script hqplayerd.sh to launch all at once (remember to change with your user):

------

#!/bin/bash

hqplayerd &

sleep 2

Rygel &

/home/user/Programs/MinimServer/minimserver-0.8.2/bin/startd

-----

 

 

LIMITATIONS

You can not play the DSD files of type .dff. You can use Signalyst dff2dsf to convert .dff to .dsf

If you use a DSD capable DAC (and the corresponding hqplayerd.xml configuration) it is highly recommendeded to lower down the volume to minimum at the beginning of the first track. There will be no large "click" from one track to another after the beginning of the first track, if you don't change the format.

 

 

PLAY AUDIO FROM A SMARTPHONE TO HQPLAYER EMBEDDED (TIDAL, QOBUZ, SPOTIFY, ecc)

And finally, let's see how to play any audio source from your smartphone to HQplayer embedded.

 

 

1) Perform the "root" of your smartphone and install the latest SuperSU (keep in mind that in many cases this will void the warranty and that, if not performed correctly, could make your phone unusable)

2) Install Xposed Installer from Xposed Installer | Xposed Module Repository and enable the module AudioCast

3) In BubbleUPnP enable AudioCast and choose SygnalistHQplayer3 as renderer. In the configuration of AudioCast under Audio format choose "WAV".

4) Play a song on your smartphone (ex. from Spotify) and then activate the AudioCast switch in the menu of BubbleUPnP and wait a few seconds ... from now on any piece of music will be played on your hifi system with HQplayerd!!

[hifi25nl]

You need a UPnP control. There is a discussion about it here

Best controller for iPad?

 

I cannot detect differences between HQplayer and HQplayer embedded. It'a little tricky to configure but at last is very rewarding!

[hifi25nl]

Did you copy

zcat /usr/share/doc/hqplayerd/rygel.conf.gz >$HOME/.config/rygel.conf

?

 

Remember also that rygel need dbus installed and hqplayerd must be started before rygel (please wait few seconds)

[hifi25nl]

No, I did not find a solution, however I am going to have another go. I think that my problem was that I did not setup Embedded HQP correctly.

 

This will happen if rygel cannot find the hqplayer plugin, most probably because HQpplayer embedded is not starting correctly.

What linux distribution are you using? How did you install HQplayer embedded?

Did you make a HQplayer configuration file?

 

This must be in /home/$USER/.hqplayer/hqplayerd.xml. Example:

--------------------------------------

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xml>

<output type="alsa"/>

<engine cd_drive="/dev/sr0" channels="2" direct_sdm="0" fft_size="512" type="alsa" volume_limit="0" volume_min="-60">

<alsa channel_offset="0" dac_bits="0" device="hw:0,0" dualwire="0" pack_sdm="0" period_time="100"/>

<network address="default" dac_bits="0" device="hw:0,0" dualwire="0" pack_sdm="0" period_time="100"/>

<transport dsd_6db="1" pdm_conv="5" pdm_filt="0"/>

</engine>

<pcm filter="9" dither="3" samplerate="192000"/>

<sdm oversampling="3" modulator="2" bitrate="5644800"/>

<mode value="pcm"/>

<title value="PCM192"/>

<log enabled="1" file="/tmp/hqplayerd.log"/>

<mime>

<type value="audio/ogg"/>

<type value="audio/vnd.wave"/>

<type value="audio/L24"/>

</mime>

</xml>

--------------------------------------

[hifi25nl]

HQplayerd will not start with the new alsa-lib 1.0.29.

Here on archlinux switching back to manually compiled alsa-lib-git 20150223 will solve the problem.

 

EDIT: the problem was iFi Dac: after disconnecting and reconnecting new alsa is working fine...

[hifi25nl]

 

is there a way to make NAA the preferred default instead of ALSA?

do i delete the ALSA information so there is no other place for the renderer to point to?

 

feel like i'm very close now...........

 

You should use something like this as hqplayerd.xml in HQPlayer configuration folder.

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xml>
<output type="network"/>
<engine cd_drive="/dev/sr0" channels="2" direct_sdm="0" fft_size="512" type="network" volume_limit="0" volume_min="-60">
	<alsa channel_offset="0" dac_bits="0" device="hw:0,0" dualwire="0" pack_sdm="0" period_time="100"/>
	<network address="default" dac_bits="0" device="hw:0,0" dualwire="0" pack_sdm="0" period_time="100"/>
	<transport dsd_6db="1" pdm_conv="5" pdm_filt="0"/>
</engine>
<pcm filter="9" dither="2" samplerate="96000"/>
<sdm oversampling="3" modulator="2" bitrate="11289600"/>
<mode value="pcm"/>
<title value="NET"/>
<log enabled="1" file="/tmp/hqplayerd.log"/>
<mime>
	<type value="audio/ogg"/>
	<type value="audio/vnd.wave"/>
	<type value="audio/L24"/>
</mime>
</xml>