HQPlayer Linux Desktop and HQplayer embedded

[Cebolla]

How does that work, gven that Rigel can't provide hqplayerd with the entire playlist via MPRIS, only individual file track URIs one after the other (so the next track to play URI only after the last track has been played, in the case of no SetNextAVTransportURI support), when controlled by a standard UPnP/DLNA control point such as JRiver's?

[Miska]

How does that work, gven that Rigel can't provide hqplayerd with the entire playlist via MPRIS, only individual file track URIs one after the other (so the next track to play URI only after the last track has been played, in the case of no SetNextAVTransportURI support), when controlled by a standard UPnP/DLNA control point such as JRiver's?

 

It just works!

 

MPRIS itself has a full playlist/tracklist control capability. But I could of course create a separate hqplayerd-specific plugin for Rygel too, one that would use the "native" HQPlayer control API now with HQPlayer Embedded 4.x. This is quite nice and easy, because Rygel itself doesn't really have any media playback engine of it's own. It can use various external ones, like gstreamer playbin, or any other MPRIS compliant player (VLC, etc). From practical point of view it wouldn't make any difference though, apart from being able to run Rygel and HQPlayer in different computers and possibility to use HQPlayer Desktop too for UPnP and not just HQPlayer Embedded. So one could run Rygel on Linux and HQPlayer Desktop on Windows and have UPnP Renderer capability still. Maybe I'll do it just for the sake of doing it for fun.

[shadowlight]

Strange that I don't get such at all... DAC I use on my desktop for testing this is iFi iDSD Micro BL with closed Shure SRH1540 headphones. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with my slightly customized kernel build.

 

Sorry, I am still getting the crackle when I stop playing DSD files with base Ubuntu Server Xenial install with kernel 4.8.0-39. I have not tested with your kernel but that should not make any difference correct. I am streaming to Win10 based NAA which I do not believe is something that you are doing. Could the issue that I am having be related to communication between embedded version and NAA?

[Miska]

I am streaming to Win10 based NAA which I do not believe is something that you are doing. Could the issue that I am having be related to communication between embedded version and NAA?

 

Ahh, OK, then the OS where HQPlayer runs doesn't matter, only the OS/driver where NAA runs. I have Win10 based NAA connected to a T+A DAC8 DSD, that one doesn't crackle though.

[ted_b]

Strange that the Win 10 NAA and the Linux microRendu both are involved in the craclking at stop. My crackling is a unique sound in that it is left, right, left, right. left then stops (or basically that). It's not like a dropout or format thump..

[Miska]

Strange that the Win 10 NAA and the Linux microRendu both are involved in the craclking at stop. My crackling is a unique sound in that it is left, right, left, right. left then stops (or basically that). It's not like a dropout or format thump..

 

Just to make sure, do you have networkaudiod-3.4.2 on all these, or something else? What DACs are used in these cases?

[shadowlight]

Ahh, OK, then the OS where HQPlayer runs doesn't matter, only the OS/driver where NAA runs. I have Win10 based NAA connected to a T+A DAC8 DSD, that one doesn't crackle though.

 

Strange I do not get the crackle if I use Linux version of the desktop HQP on the same server that I am running embedded on. Any recommendation on how to troubleshoot the issue with the embedded version? My crackle is similar to what Ted described. I believe Ted is using XMOS based DAC, while I am using Amanero similar to your T+A.

[shadowlight]

NAA 3.4.2 with Amanero based Lampizator B7 on my end.

[ted_b]

Just to make sure, do you have networkaudiod-3.4.2 on all these, or something else? What DACs are used in these cases?

 

Yes, 3.4.2 on microRendu with Holo Spring (XMOS) dac. I will try on my Windows WS2012R1 NAA but not sure the XML work needed.

[shadowlight]

Just tried to run NAA on both Debian and rpi3 with Miska image and NAA reports back "ALSA DSD not supported" on a DAC with Amanero. Is there any specific settings that needs to be enabled for Linux NAA. I do not remember setting anything like that before.

 

Edit: I tested with DoP setting on and off.

[Miska]

NAA reports back "ALSA DSD not supported"

 

That means the driver doesn't support raw DSD for this device and DoP is not selected, so there's no DSD support available.

[shadowlight]

That means the driver doesn't support raw DSD for this device and DoP is not selected, so there's no DSD support available.

Ran some more tests tonight.

 

Hooked up the dac directly to HQPlayer Embedded server and in the logs I see "ALSA output DSD using DoP" in the hqplayerd.log file and I am able to play DSD files no issues. Than I hooked up the DAC to the Linux NAA with exact same kernel and alsa libraries and it is back to reporting DSD not supported messages. The only change that I made to the hqplayerd.xml file was output type from alsa to network.

 

I also got the crackle when I stopped DSD playback mid stream while directly hooked up to HQPe server.

[Miska]

Hooked up the dac directly to HQPlayer Embedded server and in the logs I see "ALSA output DSD using DoP" in the hqplayerd.log file and I am able to play DSD files no issues. Than I hooked up the DAC to the Linux NAA with exact same kernel and alsa libraries and it is back to reporting DSD not supported messages. The only change that I made to the hqplayerd.xml file was output type from alsa to network.

 

Note that the "sdm_pack" setting is per backend, so it is separate for "network" and "alsa"...

 

I also got the crackle when I stopped DSD playback mid stream while directly hooked up to HQPe server.

 

OK, but in this case you should try with my kernel so that the environment is comparable... Anyway, I need to be able to reproduce it somehow to do something about it... But it may be related to DoP. So far I haven't been using DoP...

[ted_b]

I never use DoP, so the crackle is not related to that. BTW, I ran with my Windows NAA yesterday (Holo ASIO driver) and the stop-crackles still exist. When I rebooted out of Linux back to my Win 10 server (and no UPnP, etc) of course the stop-crackles stopped.

[shadowlight]

Note that the "sdm_pack" setting is per backend, so it is separate for "network" and "alsa"...

OK, but in this case you should try with my kernel so that the environment is comparable... Anyway, I need to be able to reproduce it somehow to do something about it... But it may be related to DoP. So far I haven't been using DoP...

 

I will double check the settings tonight. Here is another data point in case that makes a difference. I was getting the same "ALSA DSD not supported" message with desktop version of HQP both under Linux and Windows. I even went back to couple of versions back on the Windows desktop version to just confirm. The one thing that I am not able to test/confirm is rolling back Linux NAA to version from about year ago when I switched over to the Windows due to the loud pop that I used to get with Linux.

 

So Miska if you could point me to a location on your site where older version of Linux NAA might be held, I can test and report back to see if NAA switch helps.

[Miska]

I will double check the settings tonight. Here is another data point in case that makes a difference. I was getting the same "ALSA DSD not supported" message with desktop version of HQP both under Linux and Windows. I even went back to couple of versions back on the Windows desktop version to just confirm. The one thing that I am not able to test/confirm is rolling back Linux NAA to version from about year ago when I switched over to the Windows due to the loud pop that I used to get with Linux.

 

Well, that message can only come from Linux based NAA or Linux based HQPlayer Desktop because it is from the ALSA backend. And it is printed out if the driver reports that there is no native DSD support and you don't have DoP enabled for the backend in question. Completely normal for PCM-only output case.

 

So Miska if you could point me to a location on your site where older version of Linux NAA might be held, I can test and report back to see if NAA switch helps.

 

All versions are in the same place...

[Miska]

I never use DoP, so the crackle is not related to that. BTW, I ran with my Windows NAA yesterday (Holo ASIO driver) and the stop-crackles still exist. When I rebooted out of Linux back to my Win 10 server (and no UPnP, etc) of course the stop-crackles stopped.

 

Shooting in the dark, but I made some small fixes to the only place in the code that is different between Desktop and Embedded. Now there's a13 version out...

[shadowlight]

Shooting in the dark, but I made some small fixes to the only place in the code that is different between Desktop and Embedded. Now there's a13 version out...

Ok, will download and test a13 but I am getting the same message with HQP Desktop both on Linux and Windows version 3.15.1.

Let me know if my settings is wrong for DoP in desktop and the log entry from Linux NAA. I am also unable to find the older version of NAA - https://www.signalyst.eu/bins/naa/linux/xenial/. The only version I see there is 3.4.2-33.

 

naa.txt

[Miska]

Ok, will download and test a13 but I am getting the same message with HQP Desktop both on Linux and Windows version 3.15.1.

 

Yes, of course you get it as long as you use NAA and NAA is Linux-based... What matters is where the audio drivers are.

 

Let me know if my settings is wrong for DoP in desktop and the log entry from Linux NAA.

 

Settings are correct, but the NAA seems to be completely nuts, the listed DSD rates don't make any sense. Are you running NAA on Xenial?

 

I am also unable to find the older version of NAA - https://www.signalyst.eu/bins/naa/linux/xenial/. The only version I see there is 3.4.2-33.

 

Older versions are under Trusty. But 3.4.0 is oldest because my server's HDD broke down at that point...

[shadowlight]

Settings are correct, but the NAA seems to be completely nuts, the listed DSD rates don't make any sense. Are you running NAA on Xenial?

 

Yes, running on Xenial with 4.8.0-39-lowlatency kernel. I am going to install your modified kernel and see how it goes.

[shadowlight]

@Miska,

 

No luck with a13 or your custom kernel running on naa. I still get ALSA DSD not supported and the crazy DSD supported format.

[shadowlight]

A13 still has the crackle issue when stopping dsd playback

[Miska]

No luck with a13 or your custom kernel running on naa. I still get ALSA DSD not supported and the crazy DSD supported format.

 

Yes, the "ALSA DSD not supported" is normal message you will see as long as you don't have Amanero firmware version that would be supported by the kernel for non-DoP DSD.

 

Here's my output for Amanero, but my Amanero has the 1099 firmware...

[Miska]

A13 still has the crackle issue when stopping dsd playback

 

OK, then I cannot do anything until I can somehow reproduce it. I've tried it with all kinds of different setups and I don't get anything strange. I also tested with microRendu + iFi iDSD Nano and it works perfectly fine.

[ted_b]

OK, then I cannot do anything until I can somehow reproduce it. I've tried it with all kinds of different setups and I don't get anything strange. I also tested with microRendu + iFi iDSD Nano and it works perfectly fine.

 

Jussi, not to be redundant but the stop-crackle is only with hqplayerd acting as renderer. I don't get it when simple desktop to mRendu NAA.