wtfplay

[frd__]

Personally I did not tried it with Chord devices, but if my memory serves, one of the users was using one of Chord DACs without any issues.

 

F

[bodiebill]

22 hours ago, frd__ said:

Here is a quick workaround for setterm --blank N, where N is the the blank delay in minutes. Here are the commands that can be used instead:

echo -ne "\e[9;N]"

or

printf "\e[9;%d]" N

The commands are equivalent. They send to terminal a control sequence of characters that set the blank timeout. Just substitute N with the number of minutes.

Using your example, to set the screen to blank after 1 minute of inactivity you can type:

echo -ne "\e[9;1]"

or

printf "\e[9;%d]" 1

 

Thanks, works like a charm!

 

[bodiebill]

DSD256 works fine with wtfplay-dsd.

Has anyone here been successful in getting DSD512 to play?

Not working here with a Denafrips Terminator DAC (which should be happy even with DSD1024).

[bodiebill]

And another question, about the effect of wtfsetup on the use of the wtfplay command, i.e. using the command line method.

 

Suppose I want to achieve

wtfplay -x wtfplay-dsd -d hw:1 -f 8192 -n 2 /media/sda1/file.flac

and I set these variables (including the player) with wtfsetup, which of the following would work to this effect?

 

(1) wtfplay /media/sda1/file.flac

(2) wtfplay-dsd /media/sda1/file.flac

(3) wtfplay -x wtfplay-dsd /media/sda1/file.flac

 

I am asking because the manual says that wtfsetup configures "the default player used by wtfcui", so not the player used by wtfplay? I have to add the wtfplay-dsd player when using the command line?

[frd__]

@bodiebill: A couple of points:

 

1. The -x option is available for wtfcui only and it overrides the default player that was set in wtfsetup.
2. The player parameters that are set in wtfsetup (for example a default sound device) apply to all players regardless whether they are used via wtfcui or directly via the command line.
3. If you run any of: wtfplay, wtfplay-dsd or wtfplay-pcm directly via the command line or via wtfcui with -x option,  the player will will pick up automatically the parameters that were set in wtfsetup.

If we look at your examples - (1) and (2) will work with the parameters from wtfsetup. The (3) looks incorrect. That should rather be:

 

(3) wtfcui -x wtfplay-dsd

 

and then (3) would work as well.

 

I am thinking that adding some clarifications on this to the manual would not be a bad idea.

 

Cheers,
F

[bodiebill]

40 minutes ago, frd__ said:

@bodiebill: A couple of points:

 

1. The -x option is available for wtfcui only and it overrides the default player that was set in wtfsetup.
2. The player parameters that are set in wtfsetup (for example a default sound device) apply to all players regardless whether they are used via wtfcui or directly via the command line.
3. If you run any of: wtfplay, wtfplay-dsd or wtfplay-pcm directly via the command line or via wtfcui with -x option,  the player will will pick up automatically the parameters that were set in wtfsetup.

If we look at your examples - (1) and (2) will work with the parameters from wtfsetup. The (3) looks incorrect. That should rather be:

 

(3) wtfcui -x wtfplay-dsd

 

and then (3) would work as well.

 

I am thinking that adding some clarifications on this to the manual would not be a bad idea.

 

Cheers,
F

 

Thanks Fryderyk, clear now!

 

I am revisiting wtfplay after a year or so of fiddling with a complex (and expensive) dual box setup with an HQPlayer embedded server and a NAA endpoint. I already loved the SQ back then, but I think it has improved with the last few versions. Perhaps disabling unused sound cards helps also. And I admit that the utter simplicity of it makes me more relaxed. Not having to think about audiophile network cards and switches! I cannot imagine a better network topology for SQ than no network at all! 🙂

So happy now that I changed to a one box setup with wtfplay.

 

May I suggest something?

Given wtfplay’s top priority to optimize SQ, and the experience of some of us (and I think I can hear it too) that playing from the command line sounds slightly better than from wtfcui, would the following be a possible enhancement?

What if, when creating a playlist using wtfcui, there would  be a second option -- in addition to just hitting Play -- to translate the playlist to a wtfplay command, upon which wtfcui would be closed and this command would be shown at the command line, waiting for the user to enter it?

This way we could have the convenience of browsing without any detriment to SQ.

Just a thought.

[frd__]

@bodiebill: Try this: create the playlist in wtfcui, exit to command line and type:

wtfplay $(cat $WTFCUI_PLAYLIST_FILE)

 

 

[bodiebill]

8 hours ago, frd__ said:

@bodiebill: Try this: create the playlist in wtfcui, exit to command line and type:

wtfplay $(cat $WTFCUI_PLAYLIST_FILE)

 

 

After creating a playlist this command gives many lines like this:

 

failed load /media/sdb1/path_to_file

failed load /media/sdb1/path_to_file continued...

failed load Album

failed load Title

failed load Title

failed load Of

failed load The

failed load Track.flac

 

One for each track.

 

Looks like a problem with spaces?

 

But I am excited that we seem to be nearly there! 🙂

[frd__]

Spaces indeed. This should do:

export IFS=$'\n'; wtfplay $(cat $WTFCUI_PLAYLIST_FILE)

 

[bodiebill]

8 hours ago, frd__ said:

Spaces indeed. This should do:

export IFS=$'\n'; wtfplay $(cat $WTFCUI_PLAYLIST_FILE)

 

 

Getting closer. It now says:

 

failed load /media/sdb1/path-to-file1/file1.flac

media/sdb1/path-to-file2/file2.flac

... (etc.)

 

However, it does work well when the playlist only contains one track.

It looks like the separator between the tracks is not recognised?

[frd__]

Are you sure you typed the command correctly? It works for me (wtfplay-live 0.7.2).

 

[bodiebill]

 

I found it: mini keyboard has the wrong single quote sign; it works with another keyboard!

 

So this functionality is already part of the current release. Great!

 

Maybe you could define an intuitive shortcut to this command in the next release? Something like 'wtfplay playlist'.

[frd__]

Cool. I am glad to hear that it works for you.

 

On the unrelated note: recently we have been revisiting the player priority parameter and found that the value from range of 35 to 49 gives much better results than the current default (60). I am thinking of making 35 the new default. Please try experimenting with the new range and let me know what you think.

 

F

 

[bodiebill]

On 5/17/2020 at 10:50 AM, frd__ said:

Cool. I am glad to hear that it works for you.

 

Yes, for serious listening I now use the above command to play the playlist from the command line.

WTFPlay -- although lacking all the obvious bells and whistles -- is actually very versatile!

🙂

 

On 5/17/2020 at 10:50 AM, frd__ said:

On the unrelated note: recently we have been revisiting the player priority parameter and found that the value from range of 35 to 49 gives much better results than the current default (60). I am thinking of making 35 the new default. Please try experimenting with the new range and let me know what you think.

 

Trying now. The difference in my setup seems subtle, but I will give it some more time...

It does not help that I have not been able to have my ears syringed due to covid-19...

[Norton]

Hi Fryderyck,
 

I note there are now 4 players to chose from.  I understand Wtfplay-DSD vs. wtfplay,  but is there any advantage in using -PCM or -wav for  those formats compared to straight wtfplay, or even wtfplay-DSD, assuming the DAC copes with all formats?

[frd__]

Hi Norton,

 

You can try the -pcm or -wav executables and and see if they make a difference for you. Here is some background information:

 

* wtfplay-pcm supports only PCM in WAV and FLAC. I built it for myself. Almost all of my audio files are PCM so I decided to make a player binary without any support for DSD.

* wtfplay-wav is just one more step further than wtfplay-pcm, purely for experimentation. This one supports WAV files only.

[Norton]

1 hour ago, frd__ said:

Hi Norton,

 

You can try the -pcm or -wav executables and and see if they make a difference for you. Here is some background information:

 

* wtfplay-pcm supports only PCM in WAV and FLAC. I built it for myself. Almost all of my audio files are PCM so I decided to make a player binary without any support for DSD.

* wtfplay-wav is just one more step further than wtfplay-pcm, purely for experimentation. This one supports WAV files only.

Thanks Fryderyck - do you find using -pcm or -wav makes a difference to SQ (just so I can preload my expectation bias before playing around with it...) 

[frd__]

Oh, I am really bad in driving expectations. I think the best I can do is: expect nothing

 

However, if you are testing then try the different priority - the new value of 5. This is going to be the new default in the next release.

 

F

 

[Norton]

8 minutes ago, frd__ said:

the new value of 5. This is going to be the new default in the next release.

Thanks, Yes I have priority set at 35 (or did you mean 5?)

[frd__]

I meant 5 (five).

 

F

[bodiebill]

Very happy with wtfplay after our period of separation!

 

Below a few questions, partly 'how to', partly wishlist. DIY answers welcome of course.

• How to add shortcut commands? For instance: 'blank screen after n minutes'. Or play current playlist from command line. (Not so important as I can use the up arrow to retrieve these commands, but the command history is limited so sometimes commands are lost and I have to look them up and retype them.)
• Would it be possible to execute certain commands automatically on every boot (such as that for blanking the screen)?
• How to enable shutting down using the PC’s power button shut down wtfplay?
• Would it be possible that when browsing in wtfcui, typing a letter/number in the left pane makes the selector/cursor jump to the first folder/title starting with that letter/number? Some of my directories are huge and scrolling takes ages 😐
• Probably a Linux thing, but would it be possible to order numbered items in wtfcui as 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 instead of 1,10,11,2,3,4,5,6,7?

The above would be nice, but are hardly essential. Of a different order, really my greatest wish: 

• Support for WavPack-DSD. This (amongst other benefits: lossless, reversible, very efficient, tagging friendly, open source) would enable me to vastly reduce the size of my database which is more important now that I also use (costly) cloud storage.

See also https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/digital/pc-software/compressing-dsd-files-with-wavpack-5/ and https://thepenguin.eu/2018-01-02-losslessly-compressing-dsd-files-with-wavpack/

Anyone to chime in regarding this last request?
 

[frd__]

wtfplay-live 0.7.3 is now available for download. The release details can be found here: http://wtfplay-project.org/rnotes.html

Enjoy,

F

 

[bodiebill]

1 hour ago, frd__ said:

wtfplay-live 0.7.3 is now available for download. The release details can be found here: http://wtfplay-project.org/rnotes.html

Enjoy,

F

 

Wow Fryderyk, great! First request (wtfplaylist) already part of the new release, thanks!

Listening impressions to follow...

[bodiebill]

After a fresh flash of 0.7.3 I was surprised that my old commands were still available using the up arrow. Nice, but how can this be possible?

[frd__]

@bodiebill: very interesting observation. I am curious about that myself. It appears that the configuration partition in the image and the one on your memory stick aligned perfectly. Still, the memory stick should have been overwritten. Please let me know if you notice any anomalies about that.

 

Noted your other comments.

 

Cheers,
F