J River to HQPlayer

[ted_b]

Resurrecting a very old (but great) idea. Since later versions of HQPlayer now load in Programs rather than Programs (x86) I edited the bat to reflect this. But lo and behold when I am playing an album (say Album A) and ask to play Album B then Album B is appended to the end of the playlist and Album A starts playing again (with Album B being next in the list). A third album (Album C) does the same thing, appended to the end, but Album A starts again. What am I doing wrong (realizing this is a basic and unsupported bat file).

 

Regardless, thanks for the ideas! I am blown away that JRIver has an ability to associate files to be played by an external program (and I long ago relegated my albums to only four file types: wav, flac, dff, dsf)!! Yeah.

[ted_b]

Does JRiver version matter?

 

I know that stuff like this keeps getting disabled in JRiver, e.g. JPlay.

 

I wouldn't think so. Looks like the file association page has been that way for some time. HQplayer version matters, simply if it's installed in x86 or not.

 

Edit: I'm assuming my album-adding-to-end-of-playlist issue is due to hqp-control syntax changes since Geoff wrote this bat?

 

To make this easier for Geoff or Jussi to troubleshoot (or anyone else familiar with hqp-control) here is the bat where I simply removed reference to Program Files (x86):

@echo off

set datapath=%~dp1

IF %datapath:~-1%==\ SET datapath=%datapath:~0,-1%

TIMEOUT /T 2

start "" "C:\Program Files\Signalyst\HQPlayer Desktop 3\hqp-control.exe" localhost --stop

TIMEOUT /T 2

start "" "C:\Program Files\Signalyst\HQPlayer Desktop 3\hqp-control.exe" localhost --playlist-clear

TIMEOUT /T 2

start "" "C:\Program Files\Signalyst\HQPlayer Desktop 3\hqp-control.exe" localhost "%datapath%"

TIMEOUT /T 2

start "" "C:\Program Files\Signalyst\HQPlayer Desktop 3\hqp-control.exe" localhost --select-track 0

 

To reiterate, nothing in the playlist is clearing, but instead albums selected are adding to the end and then track 0 starts again.

[ted_b]

Thanks Geoff. I tried it again with a fresh restart of JRiver and the first time it did indeed replace the album, but the second time and after, no.

[ted_b]

The latest Windows version (3.15.1 beta 2).

[ted_b]

OK, so I fell back to 3.15.0 (stable) and the intent of the bat seems to consistently work, but only when the current album music is stopped. If I try while playing: on some albums it works fine while playing, yet on others it does nothing (i.e. once the four dos command windows go away the oirginal album is there and starts playing again). In 3.15.1 (beta 2) the bat works fine, so far, when music is first stopped before selection. However, if selection happens while music is playing then 90% of the time the album is appended to the playlist. Overall, really, kind of a nice feature (but not a guarantee).

 

Again, I can't thank you enough for this idea. I hope bat masters get on it and add functionality, but the prize goes to you, Geoff. Thanks.

 

P.S. I have not tested JRemote but assume the same results.

[ted_b]

Afew things:

1) my JRIver is MC 20, build 133

2) both HQP and JR exist on my Windows 10 AO'd server (i7 6700k, 32GB RAM, etc)

3) all my music is on a shared folder in my Synology NAS (currently sharing a Diablo fiber switch with the HQP server), mapped to the server as drive M (multichannel is drive N but that is also a different library in JR). The music is divided by type in subfolders (directories really) like DSD, DSD128, hirez 24 bit, redbook, etc) and from there in album folders (named "artist-album"). I find no correlation to issues described above and album location (or format).

[ted_b]

Thanks Jussi. Above my paygrade; Geoff do you get this?

 

oops, you are quick. Thx

[ted_b]

1)Just take what I did (copy and paste) and make that text a BAT file format, then stick it somewhere on the pc that has JR and HQP.

 

2) go to JR and tools/options/file types and for those formats you have albums in go to playback method and pick external program (custom) and browse to your bat file.

2a) Realize that JRiver accepts more formats than HQP does, so choose FLAC, WAV, DSF/DFF and AIFF. Not sure many more. That's only 4 setups, will take less than 2 minutes.

[ted_b]

Successfully tested the setup. Adding a new album removes the previous one and plays the new one. Using JRiver 20.0.131 with HQPlayer 3.15b2 on Windows.

 

Bizarre. Other than build 131 vs 133 we are identical, yet I just ran it again and I got appended albums (ran album select 3 times, got a playlist of 3 albums).

 

My JR setup looks like this:

[ted_b]

Geoff, if you look at my screen shot above (post 36) you'll see the filename argument. Nothing wrong there I don't think.

 

Still no idea why my setup acts differently, though.

[ted_b]

JRiver seems to be particular about what it will execute. On my system it will not execute powershell script unless I called that script via .cmd or batch file.

In case anyone is interested I converted Geoffery's batch script into powershell.

 

Rename call-jr-ps.cmd.txt to call-jr-ps.cmd

Rename jr.ps1.txt to jr.ps1.txt

 

In call-jr-ps.cmd file change the location to where you saved the jr.ps1 file (I have mine stored in subdirectory under download)

 

Change the location of External Program under Tools --> File Types for the files that you want HQPlayer to play.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33304[/ATTACH]

 

Edit: If anyone know of a away to send stop/start/forward etc commands from JRiver to external program let me know and I will try to see if I can write the logic in to forward those commands over to HQPlayer.

 

Shadowlight, thanks for doing this but I am slightly confused. The bolded line does nothing, but I see that in the cmd file it is called just jr.ps1 so did you mean to rename it to that?

 

Edit update: Did just that (renamed jr.ps1.txt to jr.ps1). Works great, and works as intended (no more appended albums). The only issue is that file association browsing is looking for executable file types, so make sure "all files" is set or it may not find the cmd file.

 

Thanks again.

[ted_b]

Great! If so can HQP embedded run on a machine that also has Win10 (i.e dual boot of sorts)?

[ted_b]

I know I'm getting ahead of myself, but where does JRiver sit (Win 10 or Debian) and where does HQP desktop sit? Since my HQP server (currently Win10) is headless is there an RDC type product for Linux. My NAAs (plural) are microRendu (for most 2 channel playback since I have uRendu-certified dacs) and WS2012R1 (for exaSound multichannel plyabck, as exaSound drivers do not like Linux).

[ted_b]

You think JRemote will be fine, too? Are you building a Debian x64 system to run JRIver just cuz, or is there a performance or sq issue? I ask cuz UPnP and a renderer shouldn't care, right?

[ted_b]

Deepak,

I assume the file association screen is no longer needed if using HQPembedded as renderer

[ted_b]

I have similar questions (can HQP as renderer have an NAA), which hopefully will be shored up soon (Windows 10 box shrunk partition and AudioLinux bought and an hour from dl completing). I am especially concerned with the setting of filters/modulators and the setting/choosing of NAAs (I have both microRendu for daily use and Windows NAA for exaSound multichannel, etc). I'm especially in the twilight zone here cuz I am a Linux idiot, and being that HQP embedded is not only headless it is somewhat body-less. I am very open to doing settings in desktop then sharing XML file somehow....dunno.

 

Shadowlight has been very helpful (as has Jussi) but these open issues still remain. Stay tuned.

[ted_b]

Ouch. I use auto and expect embedded to do the same. All my PCM goes to 384k and all my DSD goes to 512. I have HQP Linux running now (on AudioLinux) and it seems identical to the Windows version (i.e uses auto, etc). And found my microRendu (NAA) immediately. Haven't tried embedded yet, but this is a deal breaker if I have to manually change.

[ted_b]

Ummh, why!?

 

HQPlayer Embedded doesn't currently support AutoSDM option, but I can add it in future, it shouldn't be hard to do. Never remember that because I never use it... Can be set through hqp-control though.

 

 

Why?? Becuase you allow at in every other config and OS , and my DAC (Holo Spring Level X) has two paths, R2R PCM or DSD. I find there is a subtle but better PCM to 384k than to DSD512.

[ted_b]

Thx. I just upgraded to alpha10 and had issues communicating with NAA. Rolled back to alpha8 and everything started working again. Will test hqp-control mode command to confirm if it works.

 

Yes, shadowlight spent the evening troubleshooting my setup too (AudioLinux) and we find A10 not working in NAA setup. I sent Piero a message, too. I will need to roll back to A8 until you find a fix. But at least getting a baptism by fire understanding of how embedded is supposed to work. Pretty nice. Thx

 

Thx again to shadowlight. Above and beyond!!

[ted_b]

Geoff,

Thanks for doing this. A couple questions:

1) both versions of ps script look identical (and both have log.text in them). What is the diff; I changed the path to the log file but no log exists so far.

2) although the local (to my server and HQP) JRiver works fine, the JRemote that talks to that JRIver works a bit weirdly. See screenshots. Although the 10CC album was picked, and is indeed loaded into HQPlayer (green highlighted boxes) and playing the correct track, my iPad's JRemote shows a different album in Now Playing (red highlighted boxes) and that album does not show up in any other player picked ( this device or something called Humax RVU Mediarenderer). Furthermore, the 10CC track does not decimate the elapsed time. And moreover, if I were to chose the 2L album in the now playing window and try to play track 4 HQPlayer would load it yet play track 1.

 

Update: I found the 2L album playing in the local JRIver but not in HQPlayer. I removed it. Now, when I pick an album from Jremote it loads in HQPlayer but does not load in JRiver, and therefore does not show in Jremote's Now Playing ("nothing is currently playing" is the message in any JRemote player). The picked album, like 10CC, shows in JRemote but does not activate any play or elapsed time icons, and does not show what song is playing. I have to look at my HQP (through RDC) to see that.

 

[ted_b]

Thanks, thought I was going mad.

 

Yes, now that you mention it the JRemote response makes sense. I fully understand, thanks.

[ted_b]

Great work, as always, Geoffrey.

 

Are you saying it now accepts single digit track numbers (and hopefully leading zeros too) ?  I made sure, in MP3, that I had all mine 01, 02, etc.  No big deal.

2 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

I tested with a box-set consisting of 1,150 tracks. To work properly this relies on the naming scheme; “1-1 …50-8; etc. to identify it as a multi-disc album.

 

[ted_b]

When I pick an album from JRemote all is well, at first.  But, if during album playback I pick, say, track 5, then HQplayer will show only track 5.  Is that correct?   IF so, seems like a lot of reloading if I pick, next, say, track 9.

[ted_b]

Geoff,

Amazing stuff, especially taking the time to create a guide! 

 

Two questions and a clarification:

1)  Do you find that using a JRIver instance on any non-HQPlayer machine (i.e somehwere else on your network) is better than "bogging down" the HQplayer machine with JRMC activity, as little as it may be?

2) If one implements filter/mode etc changes from one album to another does HQplayer continue to play or does this require an internal auto-restart (i.e any pops or clicks associated with restarting HQPlayer may be heard)

 

Clarification: I notice that it is not mentioned in the guide, but one should set up JRiver as Media Sever (options -> start up) if one does not want the GUI overheard but still wants JRiver running.

[ted_b]

I assume the call-jr-ps.cmd is unchanged through all this (i.e the edits are simply required for first time users to include their file location)?