HQPlayer Linux Desktop and HQplayer embedded

[bogi]

1 hour ago, Sunny_Player said:

@Miska with my nvidia 4070 I get some dropouts with the 7ec super 512+ modulator @dsd1024(ubuntu server, avx2 Version) and any filter although there ist sufficient vram available. Is this an issue of the gpu or CPU? I am using an i9 13900 k with 32gb ram. Settings are: multicore=1, ecores=pool, cuda=1. Thank you. 

Modulator does not use nVidia CUDA. It runs always on CPU, 1 core per channel. Modulator needs high CPU frequency.

[Sunny_Player]

45 minutes ago, bogi said:

Modulator does not use nVidia CUDA. It runs always on CPU, 1 core per channel. Modulator needs high CPU frequency.

OK. Thank you. What am I doing wrong? My cpur is running at 5800 mhz and still have some drop outs with 512+ modulators. 

[Miska]

19 hours ago, El Guapo said:

Hi @Miska

A small request for HQPlayer future upgrade (Desktop, Embedded):

Since the software has 7.1 Speakers and Convolution features already, please consider to add four additional channels to 7.1.4 layout. Speakers' distance compensation and level matching is the key of immersive music! The Convolution is also good for music lovers who don't need XO. Here I also suggest to change the channel sequence to L - R - C - LFE - Ls - Rs - Lrs - Rrs - Ltf - Rtf - Ltr - Rtr to match typical immersive music speaker layout. Thank you! El Guapo.

 

This is already in the matrix processor? It gives you same functionality with more flexibility. Convolution and channel balance thing are simplified version for the simple cases.

 

[Miska]

7 hours ago, Sunny_Player said:

@Miska with my nvidia 4070 I get some dropouts with the 7ec super 512+ modulator @dsd1024(ubuntu server, avx2 Version) and any filter although there ist sufficient vram available. Is this an issue of the gpu or CPU? I am using an i9 13900 k with 32gb ram. Settings are: multicore=1, ecores=pool, cuda=1. Thank you. 

 

If you have full CUDA offload, then ecores setting doesn't change much, since most of those tasks would be on the GPU.

 

I think the issue is the 512+ fs modulator variant. If you switch to the regular one it will be fine. This has to do with the algorithm in combination with the CPU implementation (AMD in is better in this particular respect).

 

[El Guapo]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

This is already in the matrix processor? It gives you same functionality with more flexibility. Convolution and channel balance thing are simplified version for the simple cases.

Thanks for replying. 😃 Although the Speakers processing is simplified but sometimes it's very handy for immersive quick setup. Just type the value of gain and distance for each loudspeaker then done. Matrix is very powerful but needs to understand the syntax first.

Convolution's master gain compensation is also handy for recovering average gain loss when building FIR filters from ALXO or Acourate, just one field and a value, not like Matrix needs to input the value of gain compensation line-by-line... El Guapo

[Miska]

37 minutes ago, El Guapo said:

Convolution's master gain compensation is also handy for recovering average gain loss when building FIR filters from ALXO or Acourate, just one field and a value, not like Matrix needs to input the value of gain compensation line-by-line... El Guapo

 

OTOH, matrix Plot function is useful for finding suitable values when gain estimation in convolution dialog fails.

 

But everything you can do in channel balance (speakers) dialog and convolution dialog can be done through matrix processor, plus more. I just prefer to keep the simple method simple and the more advanced method as flexible as possible. Matrix processor can also be heavier to process, since it needs to account for more complex cases. You can choose between the two, but of course there will always be a distinction between the two as long as such two different ways exist.

 

[Gato]

With HQPlayer Control :

• hqp5-control.app/Contents/MacOS/hqp5-control 192.168.1.2 --get-filters
• hqp5-control.app/Contents/MacOS/hqp5-control 192.168.1.2 --get-shapers
• hqp5-control.app/Contents/MacOS/hqp5-control 192.168.1.2 --get-rates

seems to list the filters, shapers and rates associated with the SDM (DSD) mode.

How to list filters, shapers and rates associated to PCM mode?

 

Which kind of file can be loaded with hqp5-control.app/Contents/MacOS/hqp5-control 192.168.1.2 --configuration-load <file>?

Thanks for helping!

[bogi]

8 minutes ago, Gato said:

seems to list the filters, shapers and rates associated with the SDM (DSD) mode.

How to list filters, shapers and rates associated to PCM mode?

Try this:

C:\Users\bogi>hqp5-control localhost --get-modes
[0] "[source]" -1
[1] "PCM" 0
[2] "SDM (DSD)" 1

C:\Users\bogi>hqp5-control localhost --set-mode 1

C:\Users\bogi>hqp5-control localhost --get-shapers
[0] "none" 0
[1] "NS1" 1
...

C:\Users\bogi>hqp5-control localhost --set-mode 2

C:\Users\bogi>hqp5-control localhost --get-shapers
[0] "DSD5" 0
[1] "DSD5v2" 1
...

[Gato]

14 minutes ago, bogi said:

Try this:

C:\Users\bogi>hqp5-control localhost --get-modes
[0] "[source]" -1
[1] "PCM" 0
[2] "SDM (DSD)" 1

C:\Users\bogi>hqp5-control localhost --set-mode 1

C:\Users\bogi>hqp5-control localhost --get-shapers
[0] "none" 0
[1] "NS1" 1
...

C:\Users\bogi>hqp5-control localhost --set-mode 2

C:\Users\bogi>hqp5-control localhost --get-shapers
[0] "DSD5" 0
[1] "DSD5v2" 1
...

Thanks, I was looking for a command that do no stop the current playing music, but I will do with this solution!

[Gato]

With HQPlayer Control :

• Which kind of file can be loaded with hqp5-control.app/Contents/MacOS/hqp5-control 192.168.1.2 --configuration-load <file>?

Thanks for helping!

[Sunny_Player]

16 hours ago, Miska said:

 

OTOH, matrix Plot function is useful for finding suitable values when gain estimation in convolution dialog fails.

 

That's interesting. I am using double precision acourate filters. Is there any advantage that one could generate out of applying matrix instead of simpler convolution settings? As I prefer it simple, I have not yet thought about using the matrix. 

[StreamFidelity]

21 minutes ago, Sunny_Player said:

Is there any advantage that one could generate out of applying matrix instead of simpler convolution settings?

The advantage is that you can switch between different convolution on the fly in the HQP client, either to compare or because you prefer a different convolution for certain situations.

[Sunny_Player]

1 minute ago, StreamFidelity said:

The advantage is that you can switch between different convolution on the fly in the HQP client, either to compare or because you prefer a different convolution for certain situations.

Ok, thank you. This is what I have learnt so far. How do you apply your gain settings in convolution? Do you compensate 100% of the db-loss of your Acourate filter? It it my understanding that it is better not to compensate the db loss, correct? 

[StreamFidelity]

1 hour ago, Sunny_Player said:

Do you compensate 100% of the db-loss of your Acourate filter?

Why should I do that? I even add a reserve of -3dB. My convolution filter has -7dB.

 

I create Acourate filters with 64Bit. 64Bit have a dynamic range of 384dB (64 x 6). Good DACs resolve up to approx. 120dB. So a 10dB dynamic range loss is completely unimportant. 

[Miska]

2 hours ago, Sunny_Player said:

That's interesting. I am using double precision acourate filters. Is there any advantage that one could generate out of applying matrix instead of simpler convolution settings? As I prefer it simple, I have not yet thought about using the matrix. 

 

You can choose which way you prefer to go. The overall pipeline is different for these cases, but the fundamental algorithms are the same.

 

You can use the matrix plot function for evaluating things, even you are not running the actual processing through matrix. But I recommend to choose between simple convolution/speaker, or matrix. Please do not enable both, as it becomes very error prone.

 

[Miska]

9 hours ago, Gato said:

With HQPlayer Control :

• Which kind of file can be loaded with hqp5-control.app/Contents/MacOS/hqp5-control 192.168.1.2 --configuration-load <file>?

Thanks for helping!

 

At the moment this is not supported. It was supported back in v3, but it was removed in v4. It is planned to become back, but it is rather complicated thing for HQPlayer Embedded, because you need to have some web interface for managing those profiles. So I will likely come up with a different kind of solution.

 

[Markus8]

@Miska When using left & right files for a convolution filter, are there any more options / checkboxes that should be taken into account?

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Markus8 said:

@Miska When using left & right files for a convolution filter, are there any more options / checkboxes that should be taken into account?

 

If you are using the basic convolution engine, just enabling the engine overall. Nothing else.

 

If you are using matrix processor for doing the same, you have more flexibility through profiles, if you wish.

 

[William.c]

On 3/20/2024 at 3:20 AM, Miska said:

 

If you like those filters, use the poly-sinc-gauss-xla (similar to sinc-MGa) or poly-sinc-ext3 (similar to sinc-Mx) instead.

 

Hi Sir, thank you for your reply. PCM part works OK now.

However, DSD got the same problem.

 

I tried many different combination, Roon still plays by every two seconds. And DSD 256, 512 1024 share are the same.

Current setup up is attached. 

 

I wonder it's my hardware problem (NUC 13) or embedded setup problem.

Thanks.

 

 

[cpcat]

More library management stuff. - Mounting Network Shares and Getting Them to Persist after Reboot.  
 

This is with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and HQPe.  I have been playing around with mounting my QNAP music library in HQPe over the past few days.  I ended up using both NFS and CIFS and was able to eventually get it all working.  I thought this might benefit someone here as it wasn’t easy for me to get to permanently mount and persist after reboot.  
 

You need first to install nfs-common and/or cifs utils on your HQPe client.  Then you need to create a directory to mount the share to.  I ended up using simply /mnt but you can create /mnt/whatever/folder you desire or makes sense to you.  Obviously, in addition, you need to be sure your NAS/server is setup to share your desired music folder via samba  and/ or NFS.

 

Now go to /fstab on your HQPe client and create lines for one or both of your NFS and CIFS shares respectively.  Use your text editor for this ie nano.  If you create lines for both, be sure to comment one of them by placing a # at the beginning of the line -so both won’t be needlessly mounted and you can still keep the lines in /fstab for use as needed.  Just uncomment one line and comment the other and visa/versa for convenience.

 

Here is what mine look like 

 

Then, be sure to test first - don’t try to reboot yet!  You can brick your machine!!

 

Use    sudo mount -a   
then   df -h

 

If the share shows as mounted then it is ok.  It should look something like this: the share is last in the list and is NFS format -so you can tell it is the NFS share.

 

Now, you can see if it persists on reboot.  Mine didn’t.  I spent hours trying to figure it out.

If yours won’t either, I will save you the time by providing the solution.  The problem is that at boot the network connection may not initialize fast enough.  The added lines  _netdev and   auto   in /fstab are supposed to help but for me it still didn’t work.  I ended up somewhat serendipitously figuring out how to solve I by editing netplan.

 

Use nano or similar to edit  /etc/netplan/*.yaml     
 

It should look something like this:  I use the enp5s0 interface and the other (enp4s0) is inactive.  If you have only one then just add the lines shown for the active one..  This slows the boot down enough ( maybe a few seconds) so the share will mount.  The key line is  
optional: false    for the desired/active interface that makes the difference.  Be sure the desired/active interface has the   dhcp4: yes   line kept in.

 

 

That is it.  PS about 2/3 the way through this post it occurred to me that this may have been better posted in the “How to install Embedded on Ubuntu” thread.    @The Computer Audiophile feel free to move it if you like!

Thanks.

Charles

 

[cpcat]

Need to insert that the above post is on Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS.

Tried but too late.🥲

[Markus8]

Just to get a better understanding of Dither options: are there some more suitable for PCM and others for DSD or are they more suitable to the maximum resolution used, let’s say PCM 192/24?

[Miska]

11 hours ago, William.c said:

Hi Sir, thank you for your reply. PCM part works OK now.

However, DSD got the same problem.

 

I tried many different combination, Roon still plays by every two seconds. And DSD 256, 512 1024 share are the same.

Current setup up is attached. 

 

I wonder it's my hardware problem (NUC 13) or embedded setup problem.

Thanks.

 

 

 

You could probably try some lighter filter versions, like "poly-sinc-gauss" for example, or "poly-sinc-ext2". Otherwise especially DSD1024 will likely be a bit too much for a low power NUC CPU.

 

Also lighter modulator, like "ASDM7EC-ul" for example. Although for DSD1024 that AHM7EC5L is probably lighter still.

 

[Miska]

4 hours ago, Markus8 said:

Just to get a better understanding of Dither options: are there some more suitable for PCM and others for DSD or are they more suitable to the maximum resolution used, let’s say PCM 192/24?

 

Dither options only apply to PCM outputs. Since available bandwidth of 192k output rate is rather limited, it is better to use a flat dither in such case, such as TPDF or Gauss1 (instead of noise-shaped ones).

 

[Carousel]

@cpcat 

When I muddled my way through making a NAS drive mapping survive the rebooting of my Ubuntu server that runs HQP and Plex for me, I had similar items. Though I did not need to get into netplan for this. I did though set up a credentials files, called crednas for this example. I happened to call my mount location nas.

 

I do not know why any of it works though. Was cobbled together from various advice pages.

 

For mounting NAS drive:

 

sudo mkdir /mnt/nas
sudo apt-get install cifs-utils
sudo mount -t cifs -o username=FORTHENASSHARE,password=FORTHENASSHARE //NASIPADDRESS/NASSHAREFOLDER /mnt/nas

To make the credentials file:

 

sudo nano /etc/crednas

username=FORTHENASSHARE
password=FORTHENASSHARE

 

CTRL+O, enter, CTRL+X

 

Then change its access permissions to prevent unwanted access to credentials: 

sudo chmod 600 /etc/crednas  (777 for all access, which I used for Plex)

 

sudo mkdir /nas

 

sudo nano /etc/fstab

 

//NASIPADDRESS/NASSHAREFOLDER /nas cifs credentials=/etc/crednas,users,uid=1000,gid=1000,vers=3.0,iocharset=utf8,file_mode=0770,dir_mode=0770    0    0

 

note: uid = gid = 998 for user plex

 

CTRL+O, enter, CTRL+X

 

sudo mount -a