HQPlayer Linux Desktop and HQplayer embedded

[Miska]

7 minutes ago, Em2016 said:

This might explain why I'm having issues with ALSA, but could it explain the same pops issues playing to NAA?

 

If those are coming from the input side...

[asdf1000]

2 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

If those are coming from the input side...

 

True. Silly me.

 

Will go to bare minimum USB devices on the NUC and re-test.

 

 

[asdf1000]

28 minutes ago, Miska said:

Well, that fix is kind of black magic...

 

I don't want to jinx/jynx it, so let's not talk about the Rendu again...

[asdf1000]

On 12/6/2018 at 8:38 AM, gvl said:

 

Any particular reason to use the USBStreamer with the CCA? I picked a used Edirol UX-1ex interface for cheap, works fine in my limited tests.

 

Hi again. Did you have to change any settings in HQPe config file, to get your  Edirol UX-1ex interface to work?

 

Or just plug and play?

And which option do you select on the "Input" page?

 

And is it UA-1EX? I've seen one used for sale. Might pick one up.

 

Thanks in advance

[asdf1000]

@Miska if I use a UA-1EX, which option would I select?

 

And any HQP config file settings I need to change/add?

 

 

I'm still having pops even with only 1 USB port used (for the USBStreamer).

 

I can see a cheap used UA-1EX for sale and may try it out.

[Miska]

4 minutes ago, Em2016 said:

@Miska if I use a UA-1EX, which option would I select?

 

And any HQP config file settings I need to change/add?

 

 

I'm still having pops even with only 1 USB port used (for the USBStreamer).

 

I can see a cheap used UA-1EX for sale and may try it out.

 

You'd need to modify the hqplayerd.xml to match different ALSA device id. It may also need some changes to ALSA mixer settings.

 

Hold on for couple of days, I'll think about this, and perform some tests if I get similar behavior in some situation and if I can then do something about it.

 

[asdf1000]

7 minutes ago, Miska said:

Hold on for couple of days, I'll think about this, and perform some tests if I get similar behavior in some situation and if I can then do something about it.

 

Awesome, thanks Jussi.

 

[asdf1000]

Also, I remember co-reporting a similar issue to this a few months ago.

 

10 minutes after Apple Music playback has stopped (feeding USBStreamer), CPU usage stays high?

 

HQPe v4.71

 

[asdf1000]

Just changed input from USBStreamer to "Playlist" again and CPU dropped.

 

So all good now.

 

[Miska]

That is completely normal. USBStreamer is sending data, and quite many times S/PDIF outputs keep sending silence after playback has stopped.

[wealas]

@Miska Is it possible to use the NAA to transfer input to HQPe? 

I have Kodi running on a small box and would like to transfer the sound to HQPe for convolution and up-sampling and then send to the DAC for playback.

Currently, I can do that if I use Pulseaudio TCP tunnel to transfer to the HQPe machine and then use an ALSA loopback device to feed  the input to HQPe. It would be great if I could get rid of Pulseaudio (or JACK). So something like Kodi->ALSA->NAA1->HQPe->NAA2->DAC.

And no, latency is not a problem for live TV because Kodi can compensate for it as long as it's a constant value.

 

Thanks!

[Miska]

Now I'm sick and tired listening 400Hz / 440Hz tones...

 

I've been testing USBStreamer vs other devices. I managed to reproduce couple of clicks with Chromecast audio. I'm starting to think that it has some clock sync issues, something for miniDSP to fix.

 

I tested my reference system HQPlayer on laptop -> iFi nano iDSD -> S/DPIF -> RME ADI-2 Pro -> HQPE. Absolutely flawless playback until I got tired of listening 440 Hz.

 

Then I swapped the USBStreamer on my loudspeaker system to Mutec MC-1.2 and did the same testing as with USBStreamer. No problems either. Note that the Mutec device(s) are not desirable input devices because they are not bit-perfect but instead run the data through ASRC.

 

[asdf1000]

52 minutes ago, Miska said:

Now I'm sick and tired listening 400Hz / 440Hz tones...

 

Ha, the second headache I've caused you now (after the Rendu saga). If I visit Europe, I definitely owe you one (or 3) beer/wine!

 

52 minutes ago, Miska said:

I've been testing USBStreamer vs other devices. I managed to reproduce couple of clicks with Chromecast audio. I'm starting to think that it has some clock sync issues, something for miniDSP to fix.

 

Nice! Now you know I'm not imagining these pops.

 

Do you have any motivation to contact miniDSP about this? I could try but I don't have the technical heft/weight/qualification to really get their attention the way you would, in a technical discussion.

 

Or we can both contact them. You first.. and then I can followup if you tell me what to write 🙂

 

[asdf1000]

And the funny thing is, as a USB-to-TOSlink(output) converter this has been flawless for me, even with DoP64.

 

It's just the TOSlink(input)-to-USB conversion that has issues it seems.

 

[Miska]

6 hours ago, wealas said:

@Miska Is it possible to use the NAA to transfer input to HQPe? 

I have Kodi running on a small box and would like to transfer the sound to HQPe for convolution and up-sampling and then send to the DAC for playback.

Currently, I can do that if I use Pulseaudio TCP tunnel to transfer to the HQPe machine and then use an ALSA loopback device to feed  the input to HQPe. It would be great if I could get rid of Pulseaudio (or JACK). So something like Kodi->ALSA->NAA1->HQPe->NAA2->DAC.

And no, latency is not a problem for live TV because Kodi can compensate for it as long as it's a constant value.

 

Not yet, this has been in works for NAA 4.x for a while now, been busy on other things. But it is definitely coming!

 

[Miska]

2 hours ago, Em2016 said:

And the funny thing is, as a USB-to-TOSlink(output) converter this has been flawless for me, even with DoP64.

 

It's just the TOSlink(input)-to-USB conversion that has issues it seems.

 

In first case it is the master clock. In latter case it is clock slave. This is the notable difference.

 

And unfortunately both S/PDIF and USB are quite crappy things, when you combine the two...

[Miska]

2 hours ago, Em2016 said:

Do you have any motivation to contact miniDSP about this? I could try but I don't have the technical heft/weight/qualification to really get their attention the way you would, in a technical discussion.

 

Maybe at some point. I'd really like it to work. But I'm a bit short of hands and heads all the time...

 

[asdf1000]

6 hours ago, Miska said:

Maybe at some point. I'd really like it to work. But I'm a bit short of hands and heads all the time...

 

Not a problem, understood. Thanks for spending the painful time to reproduce it.

 

On 1/23/2019 at 11:19 PM, Miska said:

You'd need to modify the hqplayerd.xml to match different ALSA device id. It may also need some changes to ALSA mixer settings.

 

 

Can you share the steps to do this (how to find ALSA device id and where in hqplayerd.xl to enter it. And also how to change ALSA mixer settings).

 

I found a used UA-1EX for $30.

 

At least I can definitively rule out USBStreamer this way. And maybe then I have something to contact MiniDSP with, if another product works and theirs is having issues in same setup (only one variable).

[Miska]

30 minutes ago, Em2016 said:

Can you share the steps to do this (how to find ALSA device id and where in hqplayerd.xl to enter it. And also how to change ALSA mixer settings).

 

Because it is device specific it is hard to say. But with "arecord -l" you can see available input devices and their names. You can compare this with the current config for USBStreamer and then modify accordingly for some other device. Depending on how the device represents things you may need to change other things either in configuration file, or through ALSA mixer.

 

[asdf1000]

1 minute ago, Miska said:

 

Because it is device specific it is hard to say. But with "arecord -l" you can see available input devices and their names. You can compare this with the current config for USBStreamer and then modify accordingly for some other device. Depending on how the device represents things you may need to change other things either in configuration file, or through ALSA mixer.

 

 

Thanks Jussi. And how/where to change things in ALSA mixer (if I need to - I will look and test before changing of course).

 

[asdf1000]

On 12/6/2018 at 8:38 AM, gvl said:

 

Any particular reason to use the USBStreamer with the CCA? I picked a used Edirol UX-1ex interface for cheap, works fine in my limited tests.

 

Hi again gvl.  I'm getting a used UA-1EX and hoping you can help.

 

 

Can you share the contents of your hqplayerd.xml file, in order to get your  Edirol UX-1ex interface to work?

 

And were there any other changes you needed to do, like ALSA mixer changes Jussi mentions might be needed, or has it worked fine without any other chances needed?

Thanks in advance

[Bob Stern]

On 1/24/2019 at 12:43 AM, wealas said:

I use Pulseaudio TCP tunnel to transfer to the HQPe machine and then use an ALSA loopback device to feed the input to HQPe.

 

@wealas Would you be willing to help a Linux neophyte?

 

(1) What pulseaudio configuration files and commands on the source and sink sides do you recommend to implement TCP streaming?

 

(2) For the ALSA loopback device, did you use aloop?  aloop seems simple to use, but the installation instructions are rather lengthy.  I confirmed that my Ubuntu 18.04 Server system includes soundcore.  Do I need to execute all the steps on the following page, or are there some sections that are unnecessary for this purpose?

 

https://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Module-aloop

 

Thanks very much for your trouble!

[wealas]

13 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

(1) What pulseaudio configuration files and commands on the source and sink sides do you recommend to implement TCP streaming?

 

 

Hey @Bob Stern, I followed this (using the tunnel option) for the pulseaudio setup: https://manurevah.com/blah/en/p/PulseAudio-Sound-over-the-network and then tried some of the options from here: http://juho.tykkala.fi/Pulseaudio-and-latency to try and get the latency down.

Then you have to link the sinks from the remote (your source machine) to the local (your HQPe machine) and route the input sink to the alsa output device with something like pacmd load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:x,y where x and y are the device and card indexes of the alsa loopback device (you can get some more details here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/895216/how-to-route-pulse-audio-device-into-alsa-loopback-virtual-microphone for example or just google some how-tos).

 

13 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

2) For the ALSA loopback device, did you use aloop?

 

ALSA is the easiest part, the only thing you really need to do is "sudo modprobe snd-aloop pcm_substreams=1"

 

And finally, you have to edit the HQPe config file and expose an input device that matches the alsa loopback output device.

 

 

[Bob Stern]

Thanks, wealas, that's extremely helpful!

 

The "bad" latency of the default config described by Juho Tyklala before he reduced various buffer sizes is only a fraction of a second.  That would be wonderful compared to my present solution — using icecast to send http to HQP Desktop — which has a latency of about 5 seconds!

[asdf1000]

On 12/6/2018 at 11:42 AM, Miska said:

I first got some fancier devices, like Mutec MC-1.2 just to discover that they have ASRC engaged between input and USB

 

Hi Jussi,

 

So if you feed PCM16bit/44.1 into the Mutec and set HQPe input to 44.1 input, it doesn't work?

 

I see the MC-1.2 has been added to HQPe input options now in v4.80

 

Also, I've emailed miniDSP Technical Support about pops with TOSlink input. There's not much I can explain to them other than it works the other way (USB to TOSlink). And I've tried difference sources and cables. Hopefully they reply with some interest in helping to fix this.

 

In the mean time, I have the Roland USB interface coming soon. If I feed it 16/44.1 and HQPe input is set to 44.1 and HQPe main page shows 44.1 incoming and sound is fine... is that good enough confirmation that the Roland is bitperfect at 44.1 sample rate?