HQPlayer Linux Desktop and HQplayer embedded

[Miska]

2 hours ago, audiofool said:

One other note, these are 2 channel 44khz 16 bit wav files not flac as I thought, I wonder if the lack of channel layout unlike flac (ie. L R)  is an issue?  

 

Two channel files are assumed to be stereo and end up populating channels 1 and 2 (0 and 1 in the config file). Usually files without mapping info are not remapped. 2L and few others delivering multichannel material usually fill unused channels with silence if container doesn't support specific maps.

 

As you may have noticed, Embedded comes with some example downmix matrix profiles.

[audiofool]

On 5/29/2021 at 2:34 AM, Miska said:

 

Two channel files are assumed to be stereo and end up populating channels 1 and 2 (0 and 1 in the config file). Usually files without mapping info are not remapped. 2L and few others delivering multichannel material usually fill unused channels with silence if container doesn't support specific maps.

 

As you may have noticed, Embedded comes with some example downmix matrix profiles.

After some more comparisons I still hear a difference between having 2 pipelines defined vs 9, the difference is there for both flac, wav and dsf stereo files.  I have commented in the past about a difference between flac vs wav that was throwing me off with this.  I don't notice any sound difference between wv and dsf files but wv doesn't seem to ff or rewind using hqp-control2.

Here is what I used:
poly-sinc-ext2  LNS15  705600/32/2

<matrix enabled="1" engine="1" expand_hf="0">
<pipeline channel="0"  gain="-11.5" mixdown="0"  process="/tmp/hqplayer-eq.txt" source="0"/>
<pipeline channel="1"  gain="-11.5" mixdown="1"  process="/tmp/hqplayer-eq.txt" source="1"/>
<pipeline channel="2"  gain="-14.5" mixdown="0"  process="/tmp/hqplayer-eq.txt" source="2"/>
<pipeline channel="3"  gain="-14.5" mixdown="1"  process="/tmp/hqplayer-eq.txt" source="2"/>
<pipeline channel="4"  gain="-14.5" mixdown="0"  process="/tmp/hqplayer-eq.txt" source="3"/>
<pipeline channel="5"  gain="-14.5" mixdown="1"  process="/tmp/hqplayer-eq.txt" source="3"/>
<pipeline channel="6"  gain="-8.8"  mixdown="0"  process="/tmp/hqplayer-eq.txt" source="4"/>
<pipeline channel="7"  gain="-8.8"  mixdown="1"  process="/tmp/hqplayer-eq.txt" source="5"/>
<pipeline channel="8"  gain="-8.8"  mixdown="0"  process="/tmp/hqplayer-eq.txt" source="6"/>
<pipeline channel="9"  gain="-8.8"  mixdown="1"  process="/tmp/hqplayer-eq.txt" source="7"/>
<pipeline channel="10" gain="0.00" mixdown="10" process="" source="10"/>

Here is some of the eq file, I have up to 12db of gain at some frequencies:
Filter  9: ON  PK  Fc   200   Hz  Gain   2.5 dB  Q  5.000
Filter 10: ON  PK  Fc   250   Hz  Gain   1.8 dB  Q  5.000
Filter 11: ON  PK  Fc   310   Hz  Gain   2.5 dB  Q  5.000
Filter 12: ON  PK  Fc   400   Hz  Gain   0.5 dB  Q  5.000
Filter 13: ON  PK  Fc   500   Hz  Gain   0.0 dB  Q  5.000
Filter 14: ON  PK  Fc   630   Hz  Gain  -2.5 dB  Q  5.000

Also, what is the difference between sdm-pcm standard and High order filters - I like the High Order best.

Hopefully there is an explanation besides me going crazy..

Thanks again
 

[shadowlight]

How are folks getting around bit rate changes with Qobuz --> Roon --> HQPlayer.  I have set HQPlayer to play native format so I have instances where I have to pause/play in Roon to get the song playing.  This happens with mConnect also.  So I have some setting under HQPe that needs to be tweaked.

[AudioDoctor]

2 minutes ago, shadowlight said:

How are folks getting around bit rate changes with Qobuz --> Roon --> HQPlayer.  I have set HQPlayer to play native format so I have instances where I have to pause/play in Roon to get the song playing.  This happens with mConnect also.  So I have some setting under HQPe that needs to be tweaked.

 

Can you clarify what you're asking here? DO you not want the bit rate changes? Is your system not auto switching the bit rate?

[shadowlight]

Apology for not being clear.

I am ok with bit rate changing but when that happens music stops playing and I have to hit pause/play to get it going.  Next time I am listening I will look through the logs to see where the problem occurs is it going from 44.1/16 to 48/24 or some other combination.

[AudioDoctor]

@shadowlight What DAC are you using?

 

Maybe try adding a resync delay in HQP of a few milliseconds and see if that helps.

 

[sig8]

I have it posted in AudioLinux Thread, I am poting it here as well to see if someone has any suggestions:

 

I  have always used JRIver as my control for HQPe running on AL.

 

I have just started to upsample 44.1 files to 1411.2 using something called PGGB, see this AS thread:

 

 

When I play these files residing on an internal NVMe drive, I get lot of buffering and system crashes (JRiver freezes), and these files sometimes play with buffering, sometimes they just freeze.

 

When I play the same files in AL using HQP desktop, or HQPe Client they play fine.

 

Let me know if you have any idea how to fix it? Seems some kind of settings thing between AL/JRiver/HQPe. Thanks.

[Miska]

1 hour ago, sig8 said:

I have it posted in AudioLinux Thread, I am poting it here as well to see if someone has any suggestions:

 

I  have always used JRIver as my control for HQPe running on AL.

 

I have just started to upsample 44.1 files to 1411.2 using something called PGGB, see this AS thread:

 

 

When I play these files residing on an internal NVMe drive, I get lot of buffering and system crashes (JRiver freezes), and these files sometimes play with buffering, sometimes they just freeze.

 

When I play the same files in AL using HQP desktop, or HQPe Client they play fine.

 

Let me know if you have any idea how to fix it? Seems some kind of settings thing between AL/JRiver/HQPe. Thanks.

 

Why don't you use something simpler to play the files? HQPlayer is just going totally wasted.

 

[sig8]

28 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

Why don't you use something simpler to play the files? HQPlayer is just going totally wasted.

 

My understanding was that in this case JRiver is just an interface and not really used for playback, but I could be wrong. I certainly like the library management of Jriver. But I think if I were to try/use PGGBd files, Jriver interface is not an option because it does not work. See image below, you think this setup can cause sound quality to degrade?

 

[Miska]

14 minutes ago, sig8 said:

But I think if I were to try/use PGGBd files, Jriver interface is not an option because it does not work. See image below, you think this setup can cause sound quality to degrade?

 

Why not use original source files instead? HQPlayer just goes wasted with such pre-processed files in addition to causing such troubles.

 

I have never used JRiver, so cannot comment on it. But what matters in UPnP context is what is used to provide the stream. If JRiver cannot play those files itself, I wouldn't be surprised if it's UPnP Media Server would have similar problems. Because likely they share largely the same software stack, apart from the HTTP server on top for UPnP Media Server functionality.

 

[Johnseye]

I was playing some test files through HQPe and the center imaging file only plays out of the left channel. Likewise I played a different file that is supposed to engage both speakers and only the left speaker played. I can play left or right channel files separately and they play fine.  I use Euphony as my OS and Stylus as the front end.

This occurs both with our without an NAA so it is being initiated by HQPe.

I then played the same center image file through Stylus without HQPe and it worked fine.

 

If this is a known issue already discussed or addressed please let me know.

 

Test files were from Free Online Audio Tests, Test Tones and Tone Generators (audiocheck.net)

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Johnseye said:

I was playing some test files through HQPe and the center imaging file only plays out of the left channel. Likewise I played a different file that is supposed to engage both speakers and only the left speaker played. I can play left or right channel files separately and they play fine.  I use Euphony as my OS and Stylus as the front end.

 

How many channels HQPlayer indicates those files have? If it's a single channel (mono) file, when the result is as expected, unless you use matrix to map the single channel to both output channels.

 

[Johnseye]

I've attached the file.  I'm not sure how to determine whether it's a single channel mono file.  If that's as expected are you saying that HQPe only plays mono recordings back from a single speaker unless it's mapped to both?

audiocheck.net_C.wav

[Miska]

9 minutes ago, Johnseye said:

I've attached the file.  I'm not sure how to determine whether it's a single channel mono file.  If that's as expected are you saying that HQPe only plays mono recordings back from a single speaker unless it's mapped to both?

audiocheck.net_C.wav 98.8 kB · 0 downloads

 

jussi@swift:~/Downloads$ sndfile-info audiocheck.net_C.wav
========================================
File : audiocheck.net_C.wav
Length : 101170
RIFF : 101162
WAVE
fmt  : 18
  Format        : 0x1 => WAVE_FORMAT_PCM
  Channels      : 1
  Sample Rate   : 44100
  Block Align   : 2
  Bit Width     : 16
  Bytes/sec     : 88200
data : 97020
*** id3  : 4096 (unknown marker)
End

----------------------------------------
Sample Rate : 44100
Frames      : 48510
Channels    : 1
Format      : 0x00010002
Sections    : 1
Seekable    : TRUE
Duration    : 00:00:01.100
Signal Max  : 23198 (-3.00 dB)

 

So the result you are getting is what is expected.

 

If someone is distributing mono material, those are usually stereo files with same data on both channels. Many compression algorithms understand this and can compress it efficiently.

 

[Johnseye]

48 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

 

So the result you are getting is what is expected.

 

If someone is distributing mono material, those are usually stereo files with same data on both channels. Many compression algorithms understand this and can compress it efficiently.

 

 

Then other playback software like Stylus automatically interpret that the file should be played through both channels where HQPe does not?

 

[Miska]

39 minutes ago, Johnseye said:

Then other playback software like Stylus automatically interpret that the file should be played through both channels where HQPe does not?

Yes, what ”should” happen depends on software intentions.

 

[shadowlight]

On 5/31/2021 at 4:34 PM, AudioDoctor said:

@shadowlight What DAC are you using?

 

Maybe try adding a resync delay in HQP of a few milliseconds and see if that helps.

 

Lampizator DAC - Roon --> HQPe --> NAA (win10) --> DAC

 

I added 50ms to resync delay and I will let you know how it goes.

[AudioDoctor]

2 hours ago, shadowlight said:

Lampizator DAC - Roon --> HQPe --> NAA (win10) --> DAC

 

I added 50ms to resync delay and I will let you know how it goes.

 

I have a Lampi DAC as well. I checked my settings and I do have a resync delay set. I can't necessarily remember why though.

 

[Miska]

What resync delay are you talking about? HQPlayer doesn't have such. And I doubt setting something at Roon side affects HQPlayer outputs.

 

[AudioDoctor]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

What resync delay are you talking about? HQPlayer doesn't have such. And I doubt setting something at Roon side affects HQPlayer outputs.

 

Oh crap you're right it is in Roon, sorry.

[AudioDoctor]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

What resync delay are you talking about? HQPlayer doesn't have such. And I doubt setting something at Roon side affects HQPlayer outputs.

 

 

What then do you suggest he look at to solve his problem?

[AudioDoctor]

I actually looked at HQPlayer now, its called Buffer Time there, that's my mistake.

[Miska]

27 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

I actually looked at HQPlayer now, its called Buffer Time there, that's my mistake.

 

I think resync delay is something else than Buffer Time... But generally you get something like that of silence when output format is changed.

 

[chipvn]

Hi @Miska, I have been running HQP Desktop 4.11.2 AMD optimized version on my HQPD dedicate i7-9700 (without dedicate GPU) on standard Ubuntu 20.04.2 Desktop without issue.

However, most of the time I run my HQPD computer headless (control via remote desktop when needed), I think having heavy Gnome 3 desktop running is a waste of resource.

I'm not sure if switching to Ubuntu Studio (without installing all optional packages) will be better in this case. Will there be any issue with HQPlayer Desktop if I don't install all those Studio optional packages?

Thanks

[Miska]

8 hours ago, chipvn said:

Hi @Miska, I have been running HQP Desktop 4.11.2 AMD optimized version on my HQPD dedicate i7-9700 (without dedicate GPU) on standard Ubuntu 20.04.2 Desktop without issue.

However, most of the time I run my HQPD computer headless (control via remote desktop when needed), I think having heavy Gnome 3 desktop running is a waste of resource.

I'm not sure if switching to Ubuntu Studio (without installing all optional packages) will be better in this case. Will there be any issue with HQPlayer Desktop if I don't install all those Studio optional packages?

Thanks

 

No, you can leave those out. HQPlayer will pull in all packages it needs.

 

Last time I tested I had some problems with Studio 20.04. You may have better experience by installing Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.1 and install there either the stock lowlatency kernel or alternatively my custom one. Linux Mint also comes in MATE and Xfce desktop flavors (Xfce is also used on Ubuntu Studio).