J River to HQPlayer

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

1 minute ago, teodorom said:

Yes:

C:\Program Files\Signalyst\HQPlayer Desktop 3>hqp-control.exe localhost "Y:\Music\Qobuz\0794881798629\4808205.flac"
error: Connection refused

Can you try replacing "localhost" with "127.0.0.1"?

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

1 minute ago, teodorom said:

C:\Program Files\Signalyst\HQPlayer Desktop 3>hqp-control.exe 127.0.0.1 "Y:\Music\Qobuz\0794881798629\4808205.flac"
error: Connection refused

What happens if you do "hqp-control.exe localhost --get-status"?

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Just now, teodorom said:

C:\Program Files\Signalyst\HQPlayer Desktop 3>hqp-control.exe localhost --get-status
error: Connection refused

Then I suggest you take this up with miska. I'm completely reliant on hqp-control.exe working

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

1 minute ago, teodorom said:

I understand.

The command

C:\Program Files\Signalyst\HQPlayer Desktop 3>hqp-control.exe localhost "Y:\Music\Qobuz\0794881798629\4808205.flac"

was the first I tried having debugged your PowerShell script.

Who is Miska?

The author of HQPlayer. You could post the problem on the HQPlayer thread. He's always very good at responding.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

3 minutes ago, ted_b said:

Shouldn't there be a forward slash after "Desktop 3" and not a forward arrow? 

I guess he's making this command from within the HQPlayer Desktop 3 directory, in which case the directory name would be followed by the right pointing arrow on the command line.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

40 minutes ago, teodorom said:

It works, I can listen, but ... is this worthwhile?

I agree, I have a "poor" setup, only 4,500€ (Audiolab 8200 CD, Sonus Faber Tiny Towers and a Cochet AL-2, among others) and when I compared  what I get with HQPlayer with JRiver 24, WASAPI Exclusive, I'm unable to hear any difference.

The main problem is that HQPlayer costs more than 100€ ...

Only you can answer that. I would say that your’s is a pretty decent system for the money. When you use HQPlayer you’re paying attention to the source and whereas the Audiolab probably has an ok DAC, if you invested in one of the more affordable DACS, such as one of the ifi DSD capable DACs, you’d be more likely to hear the difference HQP can make. I realise that would mean further investment on top of HQPlayer. You’re obviously looking to improve your system though and the best place to start is the source.. Which PC are you running HQPlayer on?

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

1 hour ago, teodorom said:

It's a different philosophy.

Here, in Italy, I'm in a Facebook group where people likes a lot software oversampling.

They oversample to DSD256 (at least), so that I understand why they need a lot of computing power.

Me, I'm convinced that it's not possible to get "blood from a turnip", so the information contained in a 16/44.1 cannot be "improved" by any oversampling (I checked that with a professor in "Communication Theory" @ Milan Politecnico).

More: since I know that my Audiolab 8200CD does his own oversampling, it can happen (as Archimago told to me) that the two processes (software-PC and firmware-DAC) interfere.

Perhaps HQPlayer is worthwhile with a NOS system.

You have to experience something first hand before you can “know”.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Very clear explanations. Thanks Miska. I would have just said the operation of the filter(s) gets pushed further beyond the limitations of our hearing. Your's is much more thorough and the graphs make it easier to understand.

 

Geoff

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

On 8/28/2018 at 6:50 PM, joelha said:

teodorom,

 

Please start a new thread.

 

Most of us come to this thread to read or write about the topic described by the thread title.

 

Joel

 

 

Ok, so back to the main topic then; I discovered a bug in the last version I posted here, related to treatment of Multi-Disc boxed sets. I fixed that and decided to add a couple of features at the same time.

 

Up to now if you wanted to create temp files for any music files in J River that didn't require temp files to be created, you had to specify that in a custom library field in J River. You can still do it that way; but it's somewhat cumbersome if you always want to create temp files.

 

Now you can specify this in the 'call-jr-ps.cmd' file. Setting the 'alwayscreatetemps' setting to 'Yes' will result in temp files being created in all cases. You may do this if you believe the freshly created temp files sound better than loading the original file urls and you don't mind the slight delay that will result. The default is 'No' (without the quotes).

 

You can also specify the format for these temp files here using the 'tempformat' setting. The default is 'flac' (without the quotes).

 

Another feature I've added, which is also specified in the 'call-jr-ps.cmd' file is the 'view' setting. By default, this is set to 'Album'.

 

If you set it to 'Artist' all the files will be loaded for the artist who's view you are in within J River when you select a file to play. (Playback will commence with that file). Obviously there'll be no point in doing this if you only have one album by the artist concerned.

 

Remember to set this back to 'Album' when you want to return to the default behaviour, which is to load only the files to HQPlayer of that album.

 

Unfortunately there is no way of sending information about the J River view you're in to an external program, such as this. So you have to explicitly state it in the 'call-jr-ps.cmd', as I've described.

 

This has always been possible by adding a custom library field in J River to any single file of that artist. Again though, this is somewhat cumbersome, and you have to remember to set that custom field back to 'No', when you want to return to the default behaviour.

 

Finally, this same 'view' setting can instead be set to the name of a playlist which you have previously exported from J River to the same folder where this script and its other files reside. The playlist must be exported in .m3u8 format. The '.m3u8' is excluded from the name you specify in the 'call-jr-ps.cmd' file. Example view=Jazz High-Rez.

 

If you change the view setting to the name of a playlist in this way any file you choose to play in J River will result in the specified playlist being loaded in J River, rather than the album which contains the file. So remember to ensure you are in the view corresponding to this playlist in J River, and choose one of the files from this playlist for playback. 

 

Remember to set this back to Album again when you want to return to the default behaviour.

 

All views (Album, Artist and <Playlist>) may now also have a 'shuffle' mode applied. Set this to 'Yes' and the tracks will be shuffled when sent to HQPlayer.

 

I find this to be particularly useful for Artist and <Playlist> views, for example; to get an overview of an artists work.

 

Both of these alternative views can take a while for all the tracks to load in HQPlayer, especially when temp files are created. Because of this I've added another feature whereby the track selected for playback in J River for the Artist or Playlist concerned, is immediately loaded, and playback begins in HQPlayer, before all the rest of the tracks are loaded. This is the "instant gratification feature". It means that track selected for playback will appear as the first track in HQPlayer's playlist.

 

If you've set 'shuffle' to 'Yes' for an 'Artist' or 'Playlist' this first track will not be loaded again in HQPlayer, because the order is randomised in any case.

 

If shuffle mode is set to 'No' the track selected for playback will be loaded a second time in HQPlayer in its correct order. Since making it the first track and starting playback, was simply done to save you from waiting for the music to start.

 

In Album view we generally want to respect the order of the files. So you still have to wait for the file selected for playback in J River, to be loaded in HQPlayer, before playback begins. Albums though, are normally shorter than playlists or an entire artist's collection of tracks.

 

Finally, I've removed the "hqpnewerversion" option from this release, because I figure that anyone using this will be on at least HQPlayer version 3.20 by now.

 

To upgrade to this version you will need to unzip the attached file, open the 'J River to HQPlayer v1.15' folder then drag these files to the main 'jr-hqp' folder to replace the older versions of these files in the main package.

 

A long explanation, I know. There are quite a few changes in this release though. I hope all is clear.

 

Geoff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

18 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Ok, so back to the main topic then; I discovered a bug in the last version I posted here, related to treatment of Multi-Disc boxed sets. I fixed that and decided to add a couple of features at the same time.

 

Up to now if you wanted to create temp files for any music files in J River that didn't require temp files to be created, you had to specify that in a custom library field in J River. You can still do it that way; but it's somewhat cumbersome if you always want to create temp files.

 

Now you can specify this in the 'call-jr-ps.cmd' file. Setting the 'alwayscreatetemps' setting to 'Yes' will result in temp files being created in all cases. You may do this if you believe the freshly created temp files sound better than loading the original file urls and you don't mind the slight delay that will result. The default is 'No' (without the quotes).

 

You can also specify the format for these temp files here using the 'tempformat' setting. The default is 'flac' (without the quotes).

 

Another feature I've added, which is also specified in the 'call-jr-ps.cmd' file is the 'view' setting. By default, this is set to 'Album'.

 

If you set it to 'Artist' all the files will be loaded for the artist who's view you are in within J River when you select a file to play. (Playback will commence with that file). Obviously there'll be no point in doing this if you only have one album by the artist concerned.

 

Remember to set this back to 'Album' when you want to return to the default behaviour, which is to load only the files to HQPlayer of that album.

 

Unfortunately there is no way of sending information about the J River view you're in to an external program, such as this. So you have to explicitly state it in the 'call-jr-ps.cmd', as I've described.

 

This has always been possible by adding a custom library field in J River to any single file of that artist. Again though, this is somewhat cumbersome, and you have to remember to set that custom field back to 'No', when you want to return to the default behaviour.

 

Finally, this same 'view' setting can instead be set to the name of a playlist which you have previously exported from J River to the same folder where this script and its other files reside. The playlist must be exported in .m3u8 format. The '.m3u8' is excluded from the name you specify in the 'call-jr-ps.cmd' file. Example view=Jazz High-Rez.

 

If you change the view setting to the name of a playlist in this way any file you choose to play in J River will result in the specified playlist being loaded in J River, rather than the album which contains the file. So remember to ensure you are in the view corresponding to this playlist in J River, and choose one of the files from this playlist for playback. 

 

Remember to set this back to Album again when you want to return to the default behaviour.

 

All views (Album, Artist and <Playlist>) may now also have a 'shuffle' mode applied. Set this to 'Yes' and the tracks will be shuffled when sent to HQPlayer.

 

I find this to be particularly useful for Artist and <Playlist> views, for example; to get an overview of an artists work.

 

Both of these alternative views can take a while for all the tracks to load in HQPlayer, especially when temp files are created. Because of this I've added another feature whereby the track selected for playback in J River for the Artist or Playlist concerned, is immediately loaded, and playback begins in HQPlayer, before all the rest of the tracks are loaded. This is the "instant gratification feature". It means that track selected for playback will appear as the first track in HQPlayer's playlist.

 

If you've set 'shuffle' to 'Yes' for an 'Artist' or 'Playlist' this first track will not be loaded again in HQPlayer, because the order is randomised in any case.

 

If shuffle mode is set to 'No' the track selected for playback will be loaded a second time in HQPlayer in its correct order. Since making it the first track and starting playback, was simply done to save you from waiting for the music to start.

 

In Album view we generally want to respect the order of the files. So you still have to wait for the file selected for playback in J River, to be loaded in HQPlayer, before playback begins. Albums though, are normally shorter than playlists or an entire artist's collection of tracks.

 

Finally, I've removed the "hqpnewerversion" option from this release, because I figure that anyone using this will be on at least HQPlayer version 3.20 by now.

 

To upgrade to this version you will need to unzip the attached file, open the 'J River to HQPlayer v1.15' folder then drag these files to the main 'jr-hqp' folder to replace the older versions of these files in the main package.

 

A long explanation, I know. There are quite a few changes in this release though. I hope all is clear.

 

Geoff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

!!!WARNING!!! Please don't download these files. I've found a serious error in the code and will update asap.

 

Anyone who may have already dowloaded them. Please trash and revert to the previous version.

 

My apologies!

 

Chris, if you can completely delete my previous post together with the posted files it would be safer. Thanks

 

Geoff

 

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Here is the corrected version (1.16) with corrected text:

 

Up to now if you wanted to create temp files for any music files in J River (including those formats supported by HQPlayer) you had to specify that in a custom library field in J River. You can still do it that way; but it's somewhat cumbersome if you always want to create temp files.

 

Now you can specify this in the 'call-jr-ps.cmd' file. Setting the 'alwayscreatetemps' setting to 'Yes' (without quotes) will result in temp files being created in all cases. You may do this if you believe the freshly created temp files sound better than loading the original file urls and you don't mind the slight delay that will result. The default is 'No' (without the quotes).

 

You can also specify the format for these temp files here using the 'tempformat' setting. The default is 'flac' (without the quotes).

 

Another feature I've added, which is also specified in the 'call-jr-ps.cmd' file is the 'view' setting. By default, this is set to 'Album'.

 

If you set it to 'Artist' all the files will be loaded for the artist, who's view you are in within J River, when you select a file to play. (Playback will commence in HQPlayer with that file).

 

Remember to set this back to 'Album' when you want to return to the default behaviour, which is to load only the files to HQPlayer of that album.

 

This same 'view' setting can instead be set to the name of a playlist which you have previously exported from J River, to the same folder where this script and its other files reside. The playlist must be exported in .m3u8 format. The '.m3u8' is excluded from the name you specify in the 'call-jr-ps.cmd' file. Example view=Jazz High-Rez.

 

If you change the view setting to the name of a playlist in this way, any file you choose to play in J River will result in the specified playlist being loaded in HQPlayer, rather than the album which contains the file. So remember to ensure you are in the view corresponding to this playlist in J River, and choose one of the files from this playlist for playback.

 

Again, remember to set this back to Album when you want to return to the default behaviour.

 

All views (Album, Artist and <Playlist>) may now also have a 'shuffle' mode applied. Set this to 'Yes' and the tracks will be shuffled when sent to HQPlayer.

 

If you've set 'shuffle' to 'Yes' for an 'Artist' or 'Playlist' the track you selected for playback in J River will be the first track loaded into HQPlayer and playback will start with that track as soon as it's loaded.

 

Finally, I've removed the "hqpnewerversion" option from this release, because I figure that anyone using this will be on at least HQPlayer version 3.20 by now.

 

To upgrade to this version you will need to unzip the attached file, open the 'J River to HQPlayer v1.16' folder then drag these files to the main 'jr-hqp' folder to replace the older versions of these files in the main package.

 

A long explanation, I know. There are quite a few changes in this release though. I hope all is clear.

J River to HQPlayer v1.16.zip

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

21 minutes ago, rikirk said:

Thanks Geoff for all of your work! Will try soon and report back if there is any issue.

 

Need to find an older vintage for that bottle, too

Thanks Rick. I'm looking forward to that and your feedback

 

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

16 minutes ago, rikirk said:

It works like a charm! I also applied the JR library filters as you suggested in the HQP thread, although HQP does not switch to the different filters like PCM vs DSD in playback .

 

I coded all my redbook to be played in poly-sinc-2/ASDM7/SDM (DSD), all hires PCM except 88Hz for poly-sinc/NS5/PCM and 88Hz+DSD in upsampling as the redbook.

 

By the way, since there are some many filters out there would you still consider the ones in above a good option for classical music using ESS9018AQ2M?

Thanks also for the feedback Rick.

 

Sorry, I didn’t quite get your “HQP doesn’t switch…” comment. Could you explain a bit further and I’ll see if I can help.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

9 hours ago, rikirk said:

From the other post I was under the impression that your magic software was able to change the filters in HQP on the fly according to the custom tags in JR, so that there is no need to do it manually in HQP. 

 

Another point, is it possible to create the temp files to be played from memory in an external SD card? 

It can change them on the fly. Not while the music is playing, of course; but when it loads new music into hqp. As long as it’s a valid combination for the music being loaded.

 

You shouldn’t need to change them manually.

 

You must use the long argument string when calling the custom external app (set in J River’s File Type setting). The long argument string references the contents of those custom tags, each time my script is called.

 

See the ‘arguments’ file. You can copy the long argument string from here if you need to.

 

Of course you can create the temp files on an external SD card. You just have to change the temp file path in the settings file ‘call-jr-ps’.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Well Rick, it turns out you did find an issue. You're quite right the HQPlayer Filters were not always applied on the fly.

 

Sometimes they were being applied and others not. I must have lucked out when I tested, because for me they were working. I did some further testing and realised they were not being applied at least 75% percent of the time though.

 

The new version here, corrects this problem. It also adds a number of improvements to application of HQPlayer settings.

 

Here are the new features:

 

1/ The "default.xml" settings file is now loaded by my script every time it's run. So please make sure your default.xml settings file contains, just that; your default settings. If necessary make any changes and export the new version, replacing the current "default.xml" file. This means you only need to apply the custom tags (HQPlayer Filter, HQPlayer Shaper, HQPlayer SR and HQPlayer Type) to music files where you want exceptions to apply. Obviously you only change the necessary tag. e.g. if for one album you want to apply 'ADSM5' instead of your default 'ADSM7', then just apply the HQPlayer Shaper 'ASDM5' to the files of that album.

 

2/ There is now a new 'HQPlayer Settings' tag. The long arguments list has been expanded to include this, and you will need to amend the arguments list in J River File associations, for every file type where you want my script to be called.

 

Just copy and paste the new long arguments list from here as necessary. Or from the included 'arguments.txt' file.

 

"Replace([Filename], &, ^&),[Disc #],[Track #],[HQPlayer Filter],[HQPlayer Shaper],[HQPlayer SR],[HQPlayer Type],[HQPlayer Temp Type],[HQPlayer Temp],[HQPlayer Settings],[Load Playlist],[Playlist Shuffle],[Artist Play All],[Repeat All]"

 

When you set this tag for any music files, the settings file whose name corresponds with the name you entered in this tag will be applied (if the file exists). Just put the file name in the tag, don't include the '.xml'.

 

Any exceptions you apply using the; HQPlayer Filter, HQPlayer Shaper, HQPlayer SR and HQPlayer Type tags will override this settings file as they are applied later in the script.

 

3/ Finally if the HQPlayer Filter tag has either 'poly-sinc-xtr' or 'poly-sinc-xtr-mp' applied, I attempt to load a settings file named 'extreme'. The reason I do this is that I found these filters work best with the 'Multicore DSP' settings set with a check mark rather than being greyed out, whereas other filters work well with this box greyed. This may only be applicable to my systems. Perhaps Miska can comment?

 

If the same applies on your system, you'll probably want to create a settings file named 'extreme' with a check box for the 'Multicore DSP' setting. Don't worry; I only attempt to load this file, if it exists. If it doesn't no changes are applied.

 

Finally on the subject of settings, you may want to make use of the 'HQPlayer SR' (sample rate tag). This is especially useful if you want to exceptionally apply a filter/shaper combination which won't work at the higher sample rates.

 

When setting up this custom library field in J River, you can use the following string for the allowed values. This doesn't include all possible sample rates. I believe it has all the useful ones though:

 

0;44100;48000;88200;96000;176400;192000;352800;384000;705600;768000;2822400;3072000;4096000;5644800;6144000;8192000;11289600;12000000;12288000;22579200;24000000;24576000

 

One other small bug fix not related to settings is that I found in my last version the 'Stoppause' feature wasn't working when set to 'Yes' in the 'call-jr-ps.cmd' file. This version also fixes that.

 

To upgrade to this version you only need to replace the main script file and apply the new long arguments string as described above.

 

The other files are there for information.

 

Geoff

 

 

J River to HQPlayer v1.17.zip

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

I found a bug in that last release 1.17 which was preventing the sample rate from the 'HQPlayer SR' tag being correctly applied.

 

This is now fixed in new version 1.18 attached. You only need to replace the main script file to apply this fix.

 

Geoff

jrexp.ps1.zip

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Apologies; yet another update as I've just discovered the sample rate doesn't always get set back to 'Auto' after it's been set to something else, even though I load the "default.xml' settings file.

 

This could cause problems if you change to a filter that can't cope with the sample rate, as too high.

 

The attached version makes sure the sample rate is set to Auto to begin with, just after the 'default.xml' settings file is loaded.

 

I need to listen, while testing  

 

Don't worry if you don't follow the reasons for this, just upgrade to this version 1.19 by replace the main script file, …again.

 

Geoff

 

 

jrexp.ps1.zip

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

3 minutes ago, rikirk said:

haha, I was finally testing more today and willing to provide a very late feedback and I just found your post from Friday. Will test now and get back to you as usual, maybe in a little more timely fashion

Whenever you have time that's fine. Always grateful for the feedback.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

2 minutes ago, rikirk said:

You did the magic! It works beautifully!!!

 

Now, please let me take a pebble out of my shoe...in my own unique ears and in my own more mortal audio system, Roon does have an impact in the signal path while using HQP...

 

You can imagine the value of your last implementation, at least for me personally.

 

Always grateful,

 

Riccardo

 

I'm so glad it's working well for you Riccardo. Thanks for testing and for the positive comments

 

I haven't made any direct comparisons between Roon feeding HQPlayer versus J River feeding HQPlayer. This could be very system dependant. Also it must depend on which features you have turned on or off in either Roon or J River. Perhaps in your case J River is getting out of the way, with less activity.

 

Of course Roon remains the most convenient, and a lot of people will obviously prefer its interface. It's always good to have choices though.

 

Of course, J River lacks support for either Qobuz or Tidal. With this solution you can play just one track at a time through HQPlayer from either mconnect on IOS or Bubble on Android. I sometimes use it that way when I'm being DJ for my family

 

Geoff

 

 

 

 

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

14 hours ago, rikirk said:

Ah! for streaming! sure, a beautiful interface! also a very kind team of people, I made some silly mistake in my router setup and they promptly helped me out even if I was in "trial mode". 

Agreed, they are a very nice team of people. I had the privilege of meeting and working with them during the introduction of our music server in Munich during 2016.

 

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

During the weekend I discovered a bug related to multi-disc sets. This was preventing correct navigation within the multi-disc set after the files from the album were loaded.

 

This is now fixed in the attached version 1.20.

 

It is only necessary to replace the main script file posted here to apply this fix.

 

Geoff

jrexp.ps1.zip

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

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

 

 

J River front end to HQPlayer.pdf

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

7 hours ago, rikirk said:

Thanks Geoff for all your efforts.

It's a pleasure to provide something that people can enjoy and a fun little project for me to work on. I never imagined it would go from the three lines of code batch script to what it can do today. Now I probably need to get my teeth into something more challenging,

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Although all the recent changes up to and including version 1.20 work well, I discovered they broke stop/pause/resume functionality.

 

This new version 1.21 brings back stop/pause/resume functionality along with all the newer features in 1.20.

 

Just replace the main script file to apply the fix.

 

Geoff

jrexp.ps1.zip

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

That last fix for pause/resume wasn't quite right as resume incorrectly started from the beginning of the paused track rather than where playback had been paused. This new version 1.22 fixes that.

 

Geoff

 

 

jrexp.ps1.zip