J River to HQPlayer

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

24 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

@bogi 's ISO2DSF is very nice tool for converting SACD ISO's to DSF. Probably same tooling could be called for temporary conversions too. IIRC you need to call sacd_extract to convert files to DFF and then my dff2dsf tool to further convert to DSF. The latest release of sacd_extract is supposed to have the DSF writing bug fixed, but I have not checked. You could also leave it at intermediate DFF. The very nice extra bogi's tool does is to extract metadata from the SACD ISO and also put that into DSF.

 

But in my opinion, it is certainly best to run ISO2DSF once and then use the DSF files and just archive the ISO's for possible future need...

 

For my ISO's I have extracted two file sets. One set of stereo DSF's and one set of multichannel DSF's. Btw, sometimes it is interesting to listen also stereo downmix, processed in HQPlayer, of the multichannel DSF's instead of the stereo versions... I feel that sometimes I get better sound that way.

 

Thanks Miska and I agree; much better to extract once and use the DSF files, keeping the ISO for back-up, if desired.

[liwario]

Thanks to Geoffrey and Miska.  Will convert all SACD ISO to DSF as advised.  Appreciate your help.

[Le Concombre Masqué]

14 hours ago, Miska said:

Btw, sometimes it is interesting to listen also stereo downmix, processed in HQPlayer, of the multichannel DSF's instead of the stereo versions... I feel that sometimes I get better sound that way.

 

Would I have something special to do or if I feed HQP mch it will automatically downmix?

[Miska]

8 hours ago, Le Concombre Masqué said:

Would I have something special to do or if I feed HQP mch it will automatically downmix?

 

You need a matrix setup, which doesn't harm stereo listening either, except dropping the main channel levels a bit (which you can compensate for using the volume knob)...

 

Here's one for 5.1 to stereo downmix:

 

The last two lines for source channel 4 are the LFE mix to main channels. Lot of DSD content is 5.0 channel, so that one ends up playing silence and you can save a little bit of CPU time by not setting it up if your content doesn't have the .1 LFE channel.

 

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

Hi, all, I have been using J River for several years but recently was introduced to HQPlayer.  I am really impressed with the sounds from HQPlayer but feel lost in my own music library.  I see this topic is relevant to my decision to purchase HQPlayer,  have read through the entire progress over the years.  Whereas I am really impressed with work, I found it works for PC.  Does any of you know a similar effort can enable J River/HQ Player in a network environment.  I am currently using J River/DLNA through SotM sMS 200.

 

Thank you very much for your help!

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

1 hour ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

Hi, all, I have been using J River for several years but recently was introduced to HQPlayer.  I am really impressed with the sounds from HQPlayer but feel lost in my own music library.  I see this topic is relevant to my decision to purchase HQPlayer,  have read through the entire progress over the years.  Whereas I am really impressed with work, I found it works for PC.  Does any of you know a similar effort can enable J River/HQ Player in a network environment.  I am currently using J River/DLNA through SotM sMS 200.

 

Thank you very much for your help!

I meant to say any similar effort for MacBook Environment.  Thank you!

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

I meant to say any similar effort for MacBook Environment.  Thank you!

 

HQPlayer works the same on Windows, macOS and Linux.

 

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

Hi, thank you for reply!  I was thinking the similar effort of J River to HQ Player for Mac instead of Window.

[Miska]

7 hours ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

Hi, thank you for reply!  I was thinking the similar effort of J River to HQ Player for Mac instead of Window.

 

I don't know anything about JRiver, so I'm not sure what you are talking about in that context.

 

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

I don't know anything about JRiver, so I'm not sure what you are talking about in that context.

 

Hi, Miska:  

 

Thank you for the wonderful effort in developing HQ Player.  I am newbie to this platform after May from SotM mention it to me.  I post another question on Signalyst HQ Player 101 about the difficulty I encountered to upsampling PCM to DSD by DoP.  I cannot make it work.  I wonder if you can take a look at that question I post.  
 

For the question I post here is more about Geoffrey’s effort in using J River as a library management tool to play HQ Player as indicated in the title of this whole discussion.

 

Thank you for your precious time in answering my question.  

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

On 9/12/2018 at 3:41 AM, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Here is an updated manual to reflect all the most recent changes.

 

 

J River front end to HQPlayer.pdf

Hi, Geoffrey:  I have been using J River for several years but recently was introduced to HQPlayer.  I am really impressed with the sounds from HQPlayer but feel lost in my own music library in the platform. I see this topic is relevant to my decision to purchase HQPlayer,  and I have read through the entire progress you guys post over the years.  Whereas I am really impressed with work, I found it works for PC.  Do you know or plan a parallel effort can enable J River/HQ Player in a network environment using MacBook.  I am currently using J River/DLNA through SotM sMS 200.

 

Thank you very much for your help!

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

On 5/3/2020 at 1:59 PM, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

Hi, Geoffrey:  I have been using J River for several years but recently was introduced to HQPlayer.  I am really impressed with the sounds from HQPlayer but feel lost in my own music library in the platform. I see this topic is relevant to my decision to purchase HQPlayer,  and I have read through the entire progress you guys post over the years.  Whereas I am really impressed with work, I found it works for PC.  Do you know or plan a parallel effort can enable J River/HQ Player in a network environment using MacBook.  I am currently using J River/DLNA through SotM sMS 200.

 

Thank you very much for your help!

Apologies for the late response. My J River to HQPlayer solution will only work on Windows. The reason for this is that J River only supports handing off to a different app on the Win platform, not on Mac.

 

I have iTunes, Music app and Swinsian solutions for Mac.

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

2 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Apologies for the late response. My J River to HQPlayer solution will only work on Windows. The reason for this is that J River only supports handing off to a different app on the Win platform, not on Mac.

 

I have iTunes, Music app and Swinsian solutions for Mac.

Thank you very much, Geoffrey!

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

9 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Apologies for the late response. My J River to HQPlayer solution will only work on Windows. The reason for this is that J River only supports handing off to a different app on the Win platform, not on Mac.

 

I have iTunes, Music app and Swinsian solutions for Mac.

Hi, Geoffrey: just realized your effort of iTune to HQPlayer Server.  I am assuming that effort will enable me to manage the music library using Apple Music but direct HQPlayer4Desktop to play music through a network streamer such as UltraRendu or SotM SMS 200?  

 

Thank you you very much!

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

13 hours ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

Hi, Geoffrey: just realized your effort of iTune to HQPlayer Server.  I am assuming that effort will enable me to manage the music library using Apple Music but direct HQPlayer4Desktop to play music through a network streamer such as UltraRendu or SotM SMS 200?  

 

Thank you you very much!

Yes, that should work if the UltraRendu or SotM SMS 200 is running the NAA.

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

4 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Yes, that should work if the UltraRendu or SotM SMS 200 is running the NAA.

Hi, Geoffrey, thank you very much for your advice.  For DSD file, based on your user guide, it looks like it will be copied into some DSD-in-ALAC file, similarly done as DSD Master App?  Will I get two copies of DSD files for each music identity I have?  I just purchased HQPlayer and try to understand the path forward.  Thank you again.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

38 minutes ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

Hi, Geoffrey, thank you very much for your advice.  For DSD file, based on your user guide, it looks like it will be copied into some DSD-in-ALAC file, similarly done as DSD Master App?  Will I get two copies of DSD files for each music identity I have?  I just purchased HQPlayer and try to understand the path forward.  Thank you again.

HI, that's a very old user guide by now. I've completely re-written the app since then and I have to check if I kept that feature.

 

In fact the alac files were just acting as proxies for the real DSD files which sat alongside them in your iTunes music folder. With those proxies in place, I sent the actual DSDs to HQPlayer.

 

It was a bit of a hack/work-around and I was never that fond of it. It also required a separate script to create the proxies. I will check if that part is still working.

 

In the meantime, here is the latest version of the main app.

This should work for all your non-dsd files. Of course iTunes (or the Music app) will not support flac. So your music files will have to be in aif or Apple Lossless format.

 

iTunes - HQPlayer Server.app.zip

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

8 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

HI, that's a very old user guide by now. I've completely re-written the app since then and I have to check if I kept that feature.

 

In fact the alac files were just acting as proxies for the real DSD files which sat alongside them in your iTunes music folder. With those proxies in place, I sent the actual DSDs to HQPlayer.

 

It was a bit of a hack/work-around and I was never that fond of it. It also required a separate script to create the proxies. I will check if that part is still working.

 

In the meantime, here is the latest version of the main app.

This should work for all your non-dsd files. Of course iTunes (or the Music app) will not support flac. So your music files will have to be in aif or Apple Lossless format.

 

iTunes - HQPlayer Server.app.zip 7.62 MB · 6 downloads

Hi, Geoffrey:  Apologize for being slow taking on information since I have been too complacent with JRIver until now.  By following your different threads, I noticed Swinsian maybe even a better choice over Apple Music because it takes DSF and FLAC?  Thank you very much for your advice!

 

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

9 hours ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

Hi, Geoffrey:  Apologize for being slow taking on information since I have been too complacent with JRIver until now.  By following your different threads, I noticed Swinsian maybe even a better choice over Apple Music because it takes DSF and FLAC?  Thank you very much for your advice!

 

The only limitation with Swinsian is that you can't remote control it from IOS, which you can with both iTunes and the Catalina music apps by using the iTunes remote app.

 

JRiver is a terrific application. If you wanted to stay with J River you could use any windows machine, that's capable of running J River and my app. Neither J River or my app are very demanding of resources, when used just for serving. HQPlayerDesktop itself can be running on a different machine, which is capable of running the filters; etc. you wish to use.

 

Even a Windows laptop or Surface Pro should probably be fine for J River plus my app.

 

Having said that, I will also take this opportunity to mention that I have been working intensely on a new version of my app, which currently has the working title of "HQAV"

 

This has many improvements and new features which I will briefly summarize below:

 

1/ It is now an .exe with a main GUI interface for setting preferences.

2/ It can now handle any music files you choose to play (previously certain file names/paths were not getting passed to HQPlayer) @ted_b in particular had this problem.

3/ Video playback is now supported, with the video being first split by my app into separate audio and video components. The audio part is sent as a .flac file to HQPlayer and a new temporary Video file is also created and played by J River (without the audio). A separate GUi can optionally appear as a player control on the PC running J River. This GUI allows to correct for any out of sync situations that may occur between the audio and video. It also allows for Previous, Next, Stop,Play and Pause functionality.

4/ Video and audio may be sent to separate machines and still kept in perfect sync. Allowing for one machine being dedicated and optimized for audio and the other for Video.

5/ J River playlists are now correctly handled for playback by j River.

 

This has been a lot of work for me and I am no longer prepared to give it away for free. If I decide to release it as a paid for app, I need to determine a reasonable price for it. I also need to work out licensing issues.

 

It will probably need to be licensed on a per machine basis using the MAC address of the machine for identification.

 

Any comments will be welcome, including from people with more experience on licensing applications than I have.

 

 

 

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

4 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

The only limitation with Swinsian is that you can't remote control it from IOS, which you can with both iTunes and the Catalina music apps by using the iTunes remote app.

 

JRiver is a terrific application. If you wanted to stay with J River you could use any windows machine, that's capable of running J River and my app. Neither J River or my app are very demanding of resources, when used just for serving. HQPlayerDesktop itself can be running on a different machine, which is capable of running the filters; etc. you wish to use.

 

Even a Windows laptop or Surface Pro should probably be fine for J River plus my app.

 

Having said that, I will also take this opportunity to mention that I have been working intensely on a new version of my app, which currently has the working title of "HQAV"

 

This has many improvements and new features which I will briefly summarize below:

 

1/ It is now an .exe with a main GUI interface for setting preferences.

2/ It can now handle any music files you choose to play (previously certain file names/paths were not getting passed to HQPlayer) @ted_b in particular had this problem.

3/ Video playback is now supported, with the video being first split by my app into separate audio and video components. The audio part is sent as a .flac file to HQPlayer and a new temporary Video file is also created and played by J River (without the audio). A separate GUi can optionally appear as a player control on the PC running J River. This GUI allows to correct for any out of sync situations that may occur between the audio and video. It also allows for Previous, Next, Stop,Play and Pause functionality.

4/ Video and audio may be sent to separate machines and still kept in perfect sync. Allowing for one machine being dedicated and optimized for audio and the other for Video.

5/ J River playlists are now correctly handled for playback by j River.

 

This has been a lot of work for me and I am no longer prepared to give it away for free. If I decide to release it as a paid for app, I need to determine a reasonable price for it. I also need to work out licensing issues.

 

It will probably need to be licensed on a per machine basis using the MAC address of the machine for identification.

 

Any comments will be welcome, including from people with more experience on licensing applications than I have.

 

 

 

Thank you very much for your advice!  For HQAV, is it a PC-based system or Mac-based system.  I dreamed to play opera blu-Ray with audio signals being set through network-based Player for better SQ.  Will it handle Blu-Ray from a rom-drive?  Your excellent work deserve rewards.  

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

2 hours ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

Thank you very much for your advice!  For HQAV, is it a PC-based system or Mac-based system.  I dreamed to play opera blu-Ray with audio signals being set through network-based Player for better SQ.  Will it handle Blu-Ray from a rom-drive?  Your excellent work deserve rewards.  

It is PC based only, as it's an evolution of my original JRiver to HQPlayer script.

 

It works well with Blu-Ray sourced content. You have to rip the Blu-Ray first though, using a combination of MakeMKV and HandBrake. Then it's the MKV that is used as the source.

 

I'll be able to provide instructions for this, including the settings that are giving me the best results. The idea is to create a video "JukeBox" so each video will play after a tap on the source video in JRemote.

 

There is a wait time for the separate audio and video files to be created; but these can optionally be saved to a location of choice. That way they'll play almost instantaneously on subsequent plays.

 

 

[Alvane]

Geoffrey, I'm running your JRiver to HQPlayer solution for windows and I got this error according to the attached log file. Do you know what can be

log.text

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

1 hour ago, Alvane said:

Geoffrey, I'm running your JRiver to HQPlayer solution for windows and I got this error according to the attached log file. Do you know what can be

log.text 1.87 kB · 3 downloads

Hi Alvane,

 

The error you're getting in the log file tells me the source file/url you're trying to play doesn't exit in your file system or is not recognised.

 

"May be a streaming URL"

 

Can you tell me exactly what you were trying to play?

 

Thanks,

 

Geoff

[Alvane]

4 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Hi Alvane,

 

The error you're getting in the log file tells me the source file/url you're trying to play doesn't exit in your file system or is not recognised.

 

"May be a streaming URL"

 

Can you tell me exactly what you were trying to play?

 

Thanks,

 

Geoff

Geoffrey, I am trying to reproduce an album that is in flac. The file path is in 😄 \ music \ artist \ album \ arquvio flac.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Alvane,

 

Has it worked for you with other albums or was this the first album you attempted to play using my app?