Play iTunes through HQPlayer

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Glad to hear it. Thanks for letting me know. I'll be releasing a new version soon with with some further improvements.

 

Geoff

[satbaba]

DSF can play this script ?

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

DSF can play this script ?

 

You need to have all the DSF files in the same music folder as your other music files, organised by Artist then Album.

 

I supply an additional script called Copy DSD to ALAC which will make .m4a copies of the DSF files and add them to iTunes. Then when you run "Play thru HQPlayer" and choose the album the .dsf copies will be played instead of the .m4a files.

 

This is all explained in the manual.

 

Geoff

[zorntel]

The following latest version corrects the bugs where tracks could occasionally be skipped when playing albums:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86110007/software/Play%20Thru%20HQPlayer%201.5.6%20Beta%202%202.dmg.zip

 

Geoff

 

Unfortunately the most recent versions no longer work on my my main system. They start...sometimes files are created, but they are always deleted before anything gets played. Very sensitive. iTunes will stop playing arbitrarily...before files will get made. I think I'm giving up until roon has hq player support. Just using XLD to manually make wav files when I want to play something from my library with hqplayer.

 

Robert

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

In a few days I'll be releasing a new version, with a lot of changes that take advantage of the hqp-control commands developped by Miska.

 

I'm just doing final testing.

 

You're welcome to try it of course.

 

I'm also looking foward to Roon with hqp integration; but will continue to offer an iTunes solution.

 

I wonder what is different about your system, since you're the first to report any problems with the existing version in a while.

 

Geoff

[zorntel]

In a few days I'll be releasing a new version, with a lot of changes that take advantage of the hqp-control commands developped by Miska.

 

I'm just doing final testing.

 

You're welcome to try it of course.

 

I'm also looking foward to Roon with hqp integration; but will continue to offer an iTunes solution.

 

I wonder what is different about your system, since you're the first to report any problems with the existing version in a while.

 

Geoff

 

I'll certainly give the new version a try...I think it is closer to what Roon is likely to do. The system I'm reporting on is running on a 2012 mac mini 10.10.4, itunes 12.2.1.16, hq player 3.8 b3. iTunes library is stored on a external firewire hard drive. Hq player drives an Auralic DAC via USB and apple core audio.

 

Robert

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

I'll certainly give the new version a try...I think it is closer to what Roon is likely to do. The system I'm reporting on is running on a 2012 mac mini 10.10.4, itunes 12.2.1.16, hq player 3.8 b3. iTunes library is stored on a external firewire hard drive. Hq player drives an Auralic DAC via USB and apple core audio.

 

Robert

 

Robert,

 

Could you just check for me if the albums which aren't working for you have their disc number and disc count tags set?

 

At one point I was setting these values programatically when they were missing; but I removed that code because it was causing problems for non Mac formatted, NTFS drives.

 

This might be the cause of your problem. If so I can put that code back with some tests to avoid problems with non Mac formatted drives.

 

Thanks,

 

Geoff

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Thanks to Miska’s hqp-control commands I have been able to make some major improvements to my iTunes script for HQPlayer.

 

I’ve made a lot of changes so I’ll summarise the most important ones here. For more details consult the updated manual.

 

1/ The script can now run in server mode.

 

This allows you to interact with iTunes running on your Mac in the normal way, including using the remote IOS app and have the the temporary files created on another machine on your network. This other machine only needs to be running HQPlayer.

For example you could have an optimised Win 10 machine for the music playback only and still control everything from your Mac.

 

Because this change is so important I’ve renamed the script “iTunes - HQPlayer Server”

 

The first dialogue that pops up requires 3 comma separated parameters. If you are not going to run in server mode, just make sure the first parameter reads “localhost” and ignore the other 2 which are there as examples only. Since “localhost” is the default, in this case you can just dismiss this dialogue with the “OK” button.

 

If instead you want to run in server mode you’ll need to change the first parameter to the ip address or host name of the other machine you want to use for playback. Then you’ll need to change the second parameter to the address where the temporary files will be stored on the other machine. On a Windows machine this will simply be the drive letter of the ram disk followed by a colon and backslash, e.g. “M:\”. The last parameter is the share name you’ve given to this location on the other machine.

 

When setting up sharing on this other machine you will have to give write permission to this shared drive/folder/

 

You will also need to mount this shared volume on your Mac.

 

Finally you’ll have to make sure HQPlayer is launched on the other machine as I can’t do that from the script running on the Mac.

 

2/ As soon as the first track selected for playback is converted and written to the ram disk playback begins and any subsequent tracks are added to the end of HQPlayer’s transport area as they get converted and written, so they’ll be ready for playback. There is no longer any need for HQPlayer to be quit and restarted when new albums or playlists are selected for playback or new HQPlayer settings need to be applied.

 

You just have to be a little patient for the first track to begin playback just after “iTunes - HQPlayer Server” launched. That’s because a lot of initial set-up takes place at that time. Subsequent albums, playlists and tracks should start playback almost instantly.

 

3/ Filters and Ditherers/Modulators are now changed automatically when switching from one album to another with different settings or when iTunes/HQPlayer traverses tracks in a playlist which have different settings applied by you. All you have to do to make this work is add the appropriate setting ID into the comments fields of the albums/tracks concerned. The list of setting ID’s can be found in the manual.

 

This makes it very easy for you to try out different HQPlayer settings for different music.

 

Some feedback on this will be much appreciated because at the moment I’m including almost all of the filter and dither/modulator combinations for both PCM and DSD. This makes for 55 DSD options and 135 PCM. I could easily allow the sample rates to also be changed on the fly, since hqp-control includes this feature. If I did that for all filter and dither/modulator options though, the possible combinations would run into the thousnds.

 

Would a small useful sub-set of the filter and dither/modulator options with the ability to apply different sample rates be more useful? You tell me. At the moment I’m not sure what to include and what to leave out.

 

4/ The various initial dialogue settings are now persistent, so no need to change them each time you launch “iTunes - HQPllayer Server” if your settings differ from the defaults.

 

5/ Extensive error handling is now incorporated so it’s difficult to impossible to get away with filling in those dialogues incorrectly.

 

Although I always speak about writing the temp files to a ram disk, these could just as easily be written to an SSD or HDD; but the process would be progressively slower. I have also ran into some problems converting and writing to non-Mac formatted SSD’s when running in server mode. I think the problem is limited to NTFS formatted drives. Feedback on this will also be appreciated.

 

I have also only tested server mode with a local Windows machine. Feedback will be appreciated on how well this works with a Linux box or even with a different Mac.

 

This requires version 3.8.1 for Mac which is included in the package or the 3.8.1. Windows or Linux if you’re using it in server mode to one of those platforms.

 

Here is is:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86110007/software/iTunes%20-%20HQPlayer%20Server.dmg.zip

 

 

Geoff

[zorntel]

Thanks to Miska’s hqp-control commands I have been able to make some major improvements to my iTunes script for HQPlayer.

 

I’ve made a lot of changes so I’ll summarise the most important ones here. For more details consult the updated manual.

 

1/ The script can now run in server mode.

 

This allows you to interact with iTunes running on your Mac in the normal way, including using the remote IOS app and have the the temporary files created on another machine on your network. This other machine only needs to be running HQPlayer.

For example you could have an optimised Win 10 machine for the music playback only and still control everything from your Mac.

 

Because this change is so important I’ve renamed the script “iTunes - HQPlayer Server”

 

The first dialogue that pops up requires 3 comma separated parameters. If you are not going to run in server mode, just make sure the first parameter reads “localhost” and ignore the other 2 which are there as examples only. Since “localhost” is the default, in this case you can just dismiss this dialogue with the “OK” button.

 

If instead you want to run in server mode you’ll need to change the first parameter to the ip address or host name of the other machine you want to use for playback. Then you’ll need to change the second parameter to the address where the temporary files will be stored on the other machine. On a Windows machine this will simply be the drive letter of the ram disk followed by a colon and backslash, e.g. “M:\”. The last parameter is the share name you’ve given to this location on the other machine.

 

When setting up sharing on this other machine you will have to give write permission to this shared drive/folder/

 

You will also need to mount this shared volume on your Mac.

 

Finally you’ll have to make sure HQPlayer is launched on the other machine as I can’t do that from the script running on the Mac.

 

2/ As soon as the first track selected for playback is converted and written to the ram disk playback begins and any subsequent tracks are added to the end of HQPlayer’s transport area as they get converted and written, so they’ll be ready for playback. There is no longer any need for HQPlayer to be quit and restarted when new albums or playlists are selected for playback or new HQPlayer settings need to be applied.

 

You just have to be a little patient for the first track to begin playback just after “iTunes - HQPlayer Server” launched. That’s because a lot of initial set-up takes place at that time. Subsequent albums, playlists and tracks should start playback almost instantly.

 

3/ Filters and Ditherers/Modulators are now changed automatically when switching from one album to another with different settings or when iTunes/HQPlayer traverses tracks in a playlist which have different settings applied by you. All you have to do to make this work is add the appropriate setting ID into the comments fields of the albums/tracks concerned. The list of setting ID’s can be found in the manual.

 

This makes it very easy for you to try out different HQPlayer settings for different music.

 

Some feedback on this will be much appreciated because at the moment I’m including almost all of the filter and dither/modulator combinations for both PCM and DSD. This makes for 55 DSD options and 135 PCM. I could easily allow the sample rates to also be changed on the fly, since hqp-control includes this feature. If I did that for all filter and dither/modulator options though, the possible combinations would run into the thousnds.

 

Would a small useful sub-set of the filter and dither/modulator options with the ability to apply different sample rates be more useful? You tell me. At the moment I’m not sure what to include and what to leave out.

 

4/ The various initial dialogue settings are now persistent, so no need to change them each time you launch “iTunes - HQPllayer Server” if your settings differ from the defaults.

 

5/ Extensive error handling is now incorporated so it’s difficult to impossible to get away with filling in those dialogues incorrectly.

 

Although I always speak about writing the temp files to a ram disk, these could just as easily be written to an SSD or HDD; but the process would be progressively slower. I have also ran into some problems converting and writing to non-Mac formatted SSD’s when running in server mode. I think the problem is limited to NTFS formatted drives. Feedback on this will also be appreciated.

 

I have also only tested server mode with a local Windows machine. Feedback will be appreciated on how well this works with a Linux box or even with a different Mac.

 

This requires version 3.8.1 for Mac which is included in the package or the 3.8.1. Windows or Linux if you’re using it in server mode to one of those platforms.

 

Here is is:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86110007/software/iTunes%20-%20HQPlayer%20Server.dmg.zip

 

 

Geoff

 

Geoff,

 

I did manage to get the previous version working...just really long delays for file writing. Occasionally skips tracks. It does require all the metadata to be correct.

 

I tried the new version...but no dice. It opens...makes the ramdisk and jqpram with hqplayer. Then after about 20 minutes of "playing" the first track (no sound) HQ player opens. Nothing gets written to the ramdisk and nothing plays. Spinning rainbow wheel of death in itunes.

 

Robert

[zorntel]

Geoff,

 

I did manage to get the previous version working...just really long delays for file writing. Occasionally skips tracks. It does require all the metadata to be correct.

 

I tried the new version...but no dice. It opens...makes the ramdisk and jqpram with hqplayer. Then after about 20 minutes of "playing" the first track (no sound) HQ player opens. Nothing gets written to the ramdisk and nothing plays. Spinning rainbow wheel of death in itunes.

 

Robert

 

Sorry...meant to say 20 seconds of "playing" hqplayer opens but nothing gets written or is played and itunes locks up.

[Carl Mawer]

Hi Geoffrey

No luck here.

Ram Disks are created after about 20 seconds.

HQ Player launches but no tracks are added to the Ram Disk and nothing plays.

 

HQPlayer server set in local host mode all preferences left at default except changed the filter to hqp-PCM80

 

Regards

Carl Mawer

[zorntel]

Hi Geoffrey

No luck here.

Ram Disks are created after about 20 seconds.

HQ Player launches but no tracks are added to the Ram Disk and nothing plays.

 

HQPlayer server set in local host mode all preferences left at default except changed the filter to hqp-PCM80

 

Regards

Carl Mawer

 

Right...should have said I was in localhost mode too...tried two different filter modes...same result as Carl in both.

 

Robert

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Right...should have said I was in localhost mode too...tried two different filter modes...same result as Carl in both.

 

Robert

 

Thanks for the feedback. I've tested under a variety of different conditions. Different Mac's running iTunes and "iTunes - HQPlayer Server", localhost mode and sever mode (to two different windows client machines), different libraries, some well organised, some deliberately badly organised and all without the problems you guys are reporting.

 

I need to try to determine exactly what conditions are causing it to fail for both of you.

 

Can you try to create test libraries with just one or two albums making sure all meta-data is correctly completed for those albums and see if you can get it working under those circumstances? Those test libraries and their files should be on the internal hard drive of the Mac running iTunes.

 

Have you both read the manual and are you doing everything as per the manual?

 

Are you getting error messages from "iTunes HQPlayer Server", if so what are they?

 

Are you both using version 3.8.1 or later of HQPlayer?

 

Are you trying to convert temp files to .wav or .flac?

 

Are you trying to play from albums or playlists?

 

What are the formats of the original files you are trying to play?

 

Please appreciate that in order to find and correct any bugs I need as much information as possible. Can you send me all of the settings you are using in each dialogue box?

 

Are you starting the music in iTunes before or after launching "iTunes HQPlayer Server" and completing the dialogues? You should start the music after this.

 

Has anyone else reading this thread tried this new version? If so I'd be very grateful if you could post your results, positive or negative.

 

Thanks,

 

Geoff

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

In trying to figure out what might be causing the problems reported here, I did find one small error I'd introduced into the python script responsible for launching HQPlayer.

 

I've corrected this now and added it to an updated version below.

 

This versions also includes some changes to keep iTunes and HQPlayer in sync while music is playing:

 

I can't guarantee this new version will cure the problems reported here. Please give it a try though:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86110007/software/iTunes%20-%20HQPlayer%20Server.dmg.zip

 

Thanks,

 

Geoff

[fordski]

Hi Geoff

 

I was able to get your initial version of HQ server working on a local machine. All of my files are tagged properly with track and disk numbers. It did seem to take much longer to load the first song and start playing than your non-server version. However once playing it works great. I will try your new version today.

 

I want to thank you for the effort in putting these scripts together as it gives me the best of both worlds with iTunes as a front end and HQPlayer SQ. The time and effort you have put into building and supporting these scripts is not insignificant and is a great gift to the community. Thank you!

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Hi Geoff

 

I was able to get your initial version of HQ server working on a local machine. All of my files are tagged properly with track and disk numbers. It did seem to take much longer to load the first song and start playing than your non-server version. However once playing it works great. I will try your new version today.

 

I want to thank you for the effort in putting these scripts together as it gives me the best of both worlds with iTunes as a front end and HQPlayer SQ. The time and effort you have put into building and supporting these scripts is not insignificant and is a great gift to the community. Thank you!

 

I'm glad it's working for you. Thank you for your feedback and very kind comments Rick.

[Carl Mawer]

Hi Geoffrey

I will try and answer your questions.

I have checked that metadata is complete.

I am not getting any error messages except when I stop iTunes using command .

Version 3.8.1 HQPlayer

Convert to .wav file

Playing from albums

Original format is aiff

I don't alter any of the default settings except the last one which is for filter/dither options and I have tried a couple of the polysinc options to see if that was an issue.

I launch iTunes, select play through HQPlayer, complete settings as above, double click track. It starts to play in iTunes. After approx 20 seconds HQPlayer launches but nothing appears in HQPlayers windows and nothing appears in the ramdisk.

I have tried restarting my music server (2012 macmini with 16gb ram) a couple of times but no joy.

I hope this helps.

Thank you for your hard work and perseverance.

 

Regards

Carl

[zorntel]

Hi Geoff

 

I was able to get your initial version of HQ server working on a local machine. All of my files are tagged properly with track and disk numbers. It did seem to take much longer to load the first song and start playing than your non-server version. However once playing it works great. I will try your new version today.

 

I want to thank you for the effort in putting these scripts together as it gives me the best of both worlds with iTunes as a front end and HQPlayer SQ. The time and effort you have put into building and supporting these scripts is not insignificant and is a great gift to the community. Thank you!

 

 

Geoff,

 

I upgraded to the new version and tried it under a number of conditions both with my main machine (with the firewire raid drive for the music library) and also my macbook pro with stripped down library all on a SSD.

 

Here are the answers to your first questions.

 

Yes, read manual.

localhost, M:\, Music server

wav only...can't get flac to work

50, 8, Playlist Shuffle Off lossless 24/96 vinyl rip.

 

hqp-PCM71 of hqp-DSD38

hqplayer 3.8.1 (from your download)

Started server first before selecting a track for playback.

I don't play from playlists...only albums or single tracks. The other day I was trying to play a 24/96 apple lossless vinyl rip. Today used that and 16/44 apple lossless tracks ripped from CD and a couple of 24/96 apple lossless HD Tracks tracks.

 

Today I tried again with new version on main machine and got the same result.

Created a new library with just three apple lossless tracks. Now created the tracks, loaded them into HQ player, but did not start to play. When I then hit play in itunes it started and played ok.

 

Created a new library with the music folder on the external disk...same result as before, hq player started quickly and the files weren't created on the ramdisk.

 

When I used the script on my powerbook I got the best results.

Ramdisk and HQPRam created normally

Seems to be working ok and is definitely less sensitive than the previous version.

 

 

Pushing it hard I encountered a couple of problems.

 

 

My test album has a very short first track (22 seconds). This track “plays” entirely in itunes before the first track is created and HQ player starts…it is ignored and not created by the script. The first track to be created is the second one. This plays normally and begins before the remainder of the tracks are added as you reported. This also happened with the previous versions.

 

 

I can pause and restart either to the same track or another one. The forward button works fine. However, if I try to use the back button nothing happens. If I hit pause first and then hit back all the tracks are deleted. This occurs regardless of what track is currently playing. Of course I can hit pause and then select an earlier track and that works ok. Also, if I’m on the last track and I hit forward the tracks are erased…would be nice if the album was just paused…but maybe not possible. Having a working back button would be nice.

 

 

Occasionally when I go to a new track, without restarting iTunes or your script again the file would load, show up in hq player, begin to play…but there was no sound. It appears that iTunes had locked out hq player. I quite everything and tried again and things sometimes work ok including sound playback. But not all the time. Sometimes nothing short of a computer restart will get it working again. This has happened several times…where things appear to load and start normally in hq player, but then there is no sound. It appears related to the script as when this happens and I quit everything and then just manually open hq player it will load tracks fine, including tracks formerly made by the script and play with no sound problems. If I then go back to the script…still no sound. If I delete the ram disks and then restart things the script will start normally again, but hqplayer will not start to play…the track will load ok…but play will never engage unless I push play either in hqplayer or itunes. Note this is similar to what happened on my other machine when the tracks were created but playback would not initiate. If I initiate playback in HQ player then go to iTunes I can control payback but the controls are reversed…because I started things from hq player.

 

I like the fact that if I get confused and use the HQ player controls things are not hopelessly lost…however…the controls in iTunes show up backward…shows it is playing when it paused and paused when it is playing. However, you can still control it from iTunes. Not a big deal.

 

 

If I manually close hq player because a track loaded by the script won’t start and then choose a track to play in iTunes the track is created in the ramdisk, but hq player does not restart. Thus, it seems if anything goes wrong with the script the best thing to do is close hqplayer, the script and iTunes and try again…the script doesn’t recover well. Usually this works ok, but sometimes I get the weird behavior described above where the track appears to be playing in HQ Player but there is no sound.

 

 

I also tested with an incorrectly labeled track (no disk number and an incomplete album) and it played ok.

 

So to sum up, external disks for music library (at least a firewire one) appears to be a problem. Worked ok with former versions of the old script. Incidentally, I turned permissions off on this disk just to make sure that wasn't a problem. Playback is still a bit sensitive...lots of ways to trip it up. But the sound quality is incredible when it plays...as usual with HQ Player. Every time I use HQ player I have to continue to use it for the rest of the day or listen to vinyl. Have to sleep before I can go back to Roon or Audirvana! I really hope the Roon guys are serious about getting HQ Player working as a sound engine.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Robert

[rowli]

Hi Geoff

I tried that latest version of the script (default values, localhost, wav, iTunes 12.2.1.16, HQPlayer 3.8.1).

 

I have only two albums in itunes library.

Could change tracks and album without trouble occasionally, but sometimes I come across the following problems

 

* Problem 1 (Album with track 1-12)

- Select track 5, track 5 plays ( -> track 5-12 loads in HQPlayer)

- Select track 6, track 6 plays

- Select track 5, track 5 plays

- Select track 4, track 4 loads, and play (but don’t continue loading track 5-12, can’t change tracks after that. Resolved if temporarily changing album and then select track 4 again, which loads 4-12)

 

* Problem 2:

Somehow got to a state that clicking track X in itunes played track X-1 in HQplayer, something like this

- Select track 2, track 2 plays ( -> track 2-12 loads in HQPlayer)

- Select track 5, Start to play track 4

- Select track 6, Start to play track 5

(if i change album I got it working again)

 

Some trouble with my DAC now, so could only try for a short while, will try more later when I fixed the DAC.

 

thanks

Micke

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

When I used the script on my powerbook I got the best results.

Ramdisk and HQPRam created normally

Seems to be working ok and is definitely less sensitive than the previous version.

 

Thanks for your detailed feedback Robert. There are so many different ways to configure iTunes libraries whether on the internal or external drives. Any external drives used for the music files can also be formatted in various ways. I have tried to account for every possibility. That is quite a challenge though. I'm glad we at least seem to be making some progress from the new version not working at all for you, to it working under some circumstances.

 

I'm confident that I could get it working on any configuration if I were there to set it up. The next best thing to that is Teamviewer. We had a TV session before with a much earlier version and managed to get it working for you and I'm willing to do the same next week for you or anyone else who's experiencing problems.

 

My test album has a very short first track (22 seconds). This track “plays” entirely in itunes before the first track is created and HQ player starts…it is ignored and not created by the script.

 

The script is not designed to work with such short test tracks; but rather with real music. As I pointed out, the track after launching "iTunes HQPlayer Server" will take a long time before playback starts, because of the set-up I have to do. Subsequent tracks usually play much faster, though this will depend on how much work the conversion programs have to do to create and copy the temporary files.

 

I can pause and restart either to the same track or another one. The forward button works fine. However, if I try to use the back button nothing happens. If I hit pause first and then hit back all the tracks are deleted. This occurs regardless of what track is currently playing. Of course I can hit pause and then select an earlier track and that works ok. Also, if I’m on the last track and I hit forward the tracks are erased…would be nice if the album was just paused…but maybe not possible. Having a working back button would be nice.

 

The back button issue has been resolved in a new version I will provide a link to. This got screwed up by the "always keep in sync" feature I added in the last version. I found this isn't needed since iTunes and HQPlayer keep pretty much in sync anyway.. It was introduced for video; but actually video also works better without it, so I've now removed it.

 

When you go past the track you initially selected for playback from an album or past the last track of the album, the Ramdisk will be emptied, playback will stop and the tracks will be removed from HQPlayer. This is deliberate, as I take it as a sign you are done with that particular selection of tracks. If you started playback from a track other than the first track, then navigate to an earlier track on the same album, the new set of tracks will be loaded starting from the track you have now navigated to. So start an album from track 4, and tracks are loaded and played from track 4. Navigate back to track 2 and all tracks are cleared and re-loaded from track 2. Fall off the end of the album and everything is just cleared. This is the only way of putting iTunes into "stopped mode" from the remote app as far as I'm aware. in iTunes on the Mac itself you command plus or command minus to go forwards or backwards. The back command will only take you to the beginning of the current track when you hit it the first time though, so you often have to hit it twice to actually navigate to the previous track. Navigation via a remote is preferred.

 

I like the fact that if I get confused and use the HQ player controls things are not hopelessly lost…however…the controls in iTunes show up backward…shows it is playing when it paused and paused when it is playing. However, you can still control it from iTunes. Not a big deal.

 

Using my script you should always operate with iTunes not HQPlayer itself as I pointed out to you before.

 

I also tested with an incorrectly labeled track (no disk number and an incomplete album) and it played ok.

 

Nice to hear As I said, I've tried to account for all possibilities.

 

Having said that I have just encountered two possible problems, which I'm working on.

 

1/ When the total track count is not present for an album it doesn't play.

I'll try to do this programatically. In the meantime please try to ensure this is tagged.

 

2/ When a comment it seems to cause a problem unless the comment field also contains an HQP settings id and all comments are separated by a comma. Obviously I haven't correctly taken account of existing comments when no HQPSetting id is present.

 

The only workaround until I can correct this is to add an HQPSetting id to all albums with another comment present. Use your default setting and separate all different comments by a comma.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

New version with keep sync feature remove as it only did harm:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86110007/software/iTunes%20-%20HQPlayer%20Server.dmg.zip

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

A correction to my post #170 The comments field is not causing any problems for my script as I thought. It doesn't matter what is in the comments field except that when you add an HQPSettings id it must be separated from other comments by a comma as per the manual.

 

The only issue I've found that causes problems is the lack of a value in the track count field. These need to be set for every track of an album to the total number of tracks for the album.

 

I am adding these automatically where they are missing in the new version below; but you should tag all your tracks with the total track count in any case. For those of you who've reported problems, they may have been due to the total track count being missing.

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86110007/software/iTunes%20-%20HQPlayer%20Server.dmg.zip

 

Geoff

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Hi Geoffrey

I will try and answer your questions.

I have checked that metadata is complete.

I am not getting any error messages except when I stop iTunes using command .

Version 3.8.1 HQPlayer

Convert to .wav file

Playing from albums

Original format is aiff

I don't alter any of the default settings except the last one which is for filter/dither options and I have tried a couple of the polysinc options to see if that was an issue.

I launch iTunes, select play through HQPlayer, complete settings as above, double click track. It starts to play in iTunes. After approx 20 seconds HQPlayer launches but nothing appears in HQPlayers windows and nothing appears in the ramdisk.

I have tried restarting my music server (2012 macmini with 16gb ram) a couple of times but no joy.

I hope this helps.

Thank you for your hard work and perseverance.

 

Regards

Carl

 

Hi Carl,

 

Thanks for your feedback. Which error message do you get when you stop iTunes using command period?

 

When you say metadata is complete does that include total track count for each album?

 

Are you using an external drive or the internal drive for you iMac?

 

If external drive how's it formatted.

 

Do you have "Keep iTunes Media older organised" and "Copy files to iTunes when adding to lib" options checked in iTunes advanced settings or unchecked?

 

Do you have a file created named "itunesHqpserver.plist" created in your ~/Library/iTunes/Scripts folder (you should have) and can you open it and tell me what it reads?

 

Thanks again,

 

Geoff

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Hi Geoff

I tried that latest version of the script (default values, localhost, wav, iTunes 12.2.1.16, HQPlayer 3.8.1).

 

I have only two albums in itunes library.

Could change tracks and album without trouble occasionally, but sometimes I come across the following problems

 

* Problem 1 (Album with track 1-12)

- Select track 5, track 5 plays ( -> track 5-12 loads in HQPlayer)

- Select track 6, track 6 plays

- Select track 5, track 5 plays

- Select track 4, track 4 loads, and play (but don’t continue loading track 5-12, can’t change tracks after that. Resolved if temporarily changing album and then select track 4 again, which loads 4-12)

 

* Problem 2:

Somehow got to a state that clicking track X in itunes played track X-1 in HQplayer, something like this

- Select track 2, track 2 plays ( -> track 2-12 loads in HQPlayer)

- Select track 5, Start to play track 4

- Select track 6, Start to play track 5

(if i change album I got it working again)

 

Some trouble with my DAC now, so could only try for a short while, will try more later when I fixed the DAC.

 

thanks

Micke

 

Thanks for your feedback Micke.

 

* Problem1

So if I understand correctly when you select a track earlier than the one previously selected for play from the same album it loads from the new earlier track and plays; but the subsequent tracks are failing to load? Is that right?

 

* Problem2

I've never got into this situation when testing. I'll try to re-create the problem.

 

So will look into both problems.

 

Please also try the latest version I posted to see if that helps.

 

Thanks again,

 

Geoff

[rowli]

Geoff,

I tried again with latest version of script.

Problem 1:

If I click track 2 then track 2-9 loads in HQplayer and track 2 starts to play.

If I then click track 3, track 3 plays.

If I then click track 1, playlist is removed, track 1 is loaded and start to play. But track 2-9 is not loading.

If I then press any of track 1-9 in itunes nothing happens in HQPlayer (only change track in Itunes)

 

Problem2:

Couldn't reproduce this today

 

regards

Micke