HQPlayer Linux Desktop and HQplayer embedded

[Miska]

3 hours ago, luisma said:

My internet comes in at the second floor, my music system is in the 1st floor. I love cables but renting this place I cannot have someone to come in and run a cable downstairs because of the landlord won't allow it and on top of that buildings were I live (Florida) usually they don't have good conduits like they do in Europe so my solution was wireless. So I have a wireless NUC using wifi for streaming (and access) and wired ethernet to the NUC NAA, I am forced to use dual adapters because of the situation not by choice. I already made a long cable from the upstair bedroom to the living room all over the stairs and through the living room and my wife said enough is enough so yeah, not a real option.

 

I will be looking into the multicast routes, I had a similar issue before and you advised IP4 IPs were required on the NAA side and that fixed the issue and it was working fine multihomed uintil a week ago with that same Ubuntu and your NAA image, I started testing Euphony and when I went back to your NAA image it did not worked, I tried also Audiolinux which was working before and did not work either. If it would be an issue on the NAA side why was working fine before multihomed with your NAA and AL and why it is working now but only with Euphony NAA? 

 

I tried to avoid asking you as I know you are very active with other things in these forums and really something simple I rather find myself the answer but in this specific case since there was updates involved etc. I asked, but like you said and since no one else reported this it is a network issue so I will figure it out.

 

And I'm quite puzzled as of why does it work with the Euphony NAA so I need to find out.

 

Thanks for the tip on the multicast

 

Best Wishes

 

Luis

 

 

One solution to simplify the setup and make it more flexible is to use a wireless bridge between the floors. No need for tricky multi-homed setups and much more flexible network.

 

So you could have a switch both downstairs and upstairs and connect wired network equipment to these switches. And then wireless access-point/bridge connected to both switches with a link created between the two. This keeps the entire network as one.

 

3 hours ago, luisma said:

I will be looking into the multicast routes, I had a similar issue before and you advised IP4 IPs were required on the NAA side and that fixed the issue and it was working fine multihomed uintil a week ago with that same Ubuntu and your NAA image, I started testing Euphony and when I went back to your NAA image it did not worked, I tried also Audiolinux which was working before and did not work either. If it would be an issue on the NAA side why was working fine before multihomed with your NAA and AL and why it is working now but only with Euphony NAA? 

 

Are you using my latest 3.5.6.1 image and hqplayerd 4.10.2?

 

Both HQPlayer and NAA by default use both IPv4 and IPv6 in parallel. HQPlayer picks up IPv6 if NAA is found through IPv6, if not it falls back to IPv4.

 

First check that things are working fine at the NAA side. Check that "ifconfig" shows ethernet having proper IP. Then check with "systemctl status networkaudiod" if the service is running properly or if there are any errors shown. Then stop the service with "systemctl stop networkaudiod" and start "networkaudiod" straight from the command line, this makes it easier to see what goes on. It should start up without displaying errors.

 

Then start HQPlayer and check if networkaudiod receives the discovery messages, easiest way to do this is to load /config page on HQPlayer web interface. If it does, multicast  is going out from hqplayerd towards correct direction and you can check discovery results from HQPlayer log file (/log page in web interface).

 

3 hours ago, luisma said:

And I'm quite puzzled as of why does it work with the Euphony NAA so I need to find out.

 

This indicates that it is somehow NAA side issue...

 

[ericuco]

16 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

One solution to simplify the setup and make it more flexible is to use a wireless bridge between the floors. No need for tricky multi-homed setups and much more flexible network.

 

So you could have a switch both downstairs and upstairs and connect wired network equipment to these switches. And then wireless access-point/bridge connected to both switches with a link created between the two. This keeps the entire network as one.

 

 

 

This type of network setup is what I have successfully used for years. Currently using Google Wifi units to wirelessly connect my music system on the first floor to my router on the second floor. Combining wireless bridges and switches as Miska suggests makes it really simple to do and works great.

[luisma]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

Are you using my latest 3.5.6.1 image and hqplayerd 4.10.2?

Yes

2 hours ago, Miska said:

Both HQPlayer and NAA by default use both IPv4 and IPv6 in parallel. HQPlayer picks up IPv6 if NAA is found through IPv6, if not it falls back to IPv4.

Both NAA and HQPE have IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and can ping each other on either one

 

2 hours ago, Miska said:

This indicates that it is somehow NAA side issue...

Well Logic indicates such but the ones that won't work are your "unspoiled" NAA image which I cannot change anyways as it boots from the USB and the AL networkaudiod which was just working fine before.

 

tcpdump doesn't show multicast traffic out of the wired interface when starting HQPE however there are multicast routes etc. so I am at that point now, I will keep you posted on whatever I do.

 

2 hours ago, Miska said:

One solution to simplify the setup and make it more flexible is to use a wireless bridge between the floors. No need for tricky multi-homed setups and much more flexible network.

The thing is I am using Ruckus wireless access points with a network controller as well, these are very very good but the only way to bridge would be with adding a second AP downstairs and use mesh but I think I can get better speed and simplicity and cost using just one AP. Thanks for the tip. It has to work multi homed I just haven't been able to figure it out but I will ... 

 

thanks for answering I will keep you posted.

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, luisma said:

tcpdump doesn't show multicast traffic out of the wired interface when starting HQPE however there are multicast routes etc. so I am at that point now, I will keep you posted on whatever I do.

 

You can explicitly define which interface to use for multicast by manually editing the hqplayerd.xml configuration file. In the <network> element you can specify attribute "mcast_interface" and the value is name of the interface to use (same names "ifconfig" shows). There's also magic value "*" that just picks up the first one. If a value is defined, the available interfaces are also listed in the log file. List is filtered to cover only interfaces that are capable of both IPv4 and IPv6 multicast!

 

Note that this feature has not been tested very much!

[luisma]

3 hours ago, Miska said:

 

You can explicitly define which interface to use for multicast by manually editing the hqplayerd.xml configuration file. In the <network> element you can specify attribute "mcast_interface" and the value is name of the interface to use (same names "ifconfig" shows). There's also magic value "*" that just picks up the first one. If a value is defined, the available interfaces are also listed in the log file. List is filtered to cover only interfaces that are capable of both IPv4 and IPv6 multicast!

 

Note that this feature has not been tested very much!

That's extremely valuable, let me give that a try

thank you

 

[Miska]

10 hours ago, luisma said:

The thing is I am using Ruckus wireless access points with a network controller as well, these are very very good but the only way to bridge would be with adding a second AP downstairs and use mesh but I think I can get better speed and simplicity and cost using just one AP. Thanks for the tip. It has to work multi homed I just haven't been able to figure it out but I will ... 

 

You can of course connect a wireless bridge to an existing AP, you don't need to duplicate or create a mesh. Speed is the same as connecting to the AP directly.

 

For example this device seems to have Client Mode where it connects to existing AP and bridges it to the four gigabit ethernet ports:

https://www.zyxel.com/products_services/AC2100-Dual-Band-Wireless-Gigabit-Access-Point-Range-Extender-ARMOR-X1/

There are many other similar ones too.

 

[acatala]

I use a Wi-Fi bridge (Trendnet) in order to link a few network-isolated devices to the wired network: AVR, BD player, satellite STB and a HiFiBerry Digi+ based Roon Bridge device. Altough the AP is an 802.11ac device, the Wi-Fi bridge is an older 802.11n one, but the achieved throughput is adequate for the required use. The adjacent Apple TV 4K device links directly to the 802.11ac AP.

 

I can watch 1080i content on-line with the STB and stream 192/24 with the Digi+ from Roon. The AP and the Wi-Fi bridge are around 5 meters apart, but in different flats.

 

[luisma]

6 hours ago, Miska said:

For example this device seems to have Client Mode where it connects to existing AP and bridges it to the four gigabit ethernet ports:

https://www.zyxel.com/products_services/AC2100-Dual-Band-Wireless-Gigabit-Access-Point-Range-Extender-ARMOR-X1/

There are many other similar ones too.

Thanks

 

[hols]

I  need some help here. I am exploring the HQplayer embedded on Audiolinux OS on a NUCi7 one as server and one NUCi7 as endpoint running NAA feeding my Chord Blu2 and Dave. I succeded yesterday through web interface to configure and authenticate and got some very good sound. I changed to HQPDcontrol and and it also works but there were some hiccups and stops after one minute or so. I decided to change  the server and endpoint to a static IP( a different one than before). I then tried to use web interface to connect again with the new IP address. I can only get to the configuration page but when I try to do the authentication it failed repeatedly and no sound comes out and I cannot get to the library or main page. I have tried the default passwords but they all failed. Anything I have done wrong or how should I go on from here? Thanks.

[acatala]

Hi @Miska,

 

An old issue has recently come back. When I click play in Roon for the fist time, HQplayer Embedded does not play, but it returns no error either, just it does not play. When I click play for a second time it plays.

 

I had a similar issue prior to version 4.9 and it seemed that version 4.9 solved it. Now I am using HQplayer Embedded 4.10.2 and NAA 3.5.6.1 (NAA image).

 

My startup procedure is: DAC on, then NAA on. Roon Server and HQPlayer Embedded are running 24x7. But they were running 24x7 too when the system worked in the first click, not the second. I can't say for sure, but perhaps the issue has come back to life with version 4.10.x. (or maybe with NAA 3.5.6.1??)

 

Of course, I can live with this issue, but it's annoying because it was working seamlessly.

 

[Miska]

5 hours ago, hols said:

I  need some help here. I am exploring the HQplayer embedded on Audiolinux OS on a NUCi7 one as server and one NUCi7 as endpoint running NAA feeding my Chord Blu2 and Dave. I succeded yesterday through web interface to configure and authenticate and got some very good sound. I changed to HQPDcontrol and and it also works but there were some hiccups and stops after one minute or so. I decided to change  the server and endpoint to a static IP( a different one than before). I then tried to use web interface to connect again with the new IP address. I can only get to the configuration page but when I try to do the authentication it failed repeatedly and no sound comes out and I cannot get to the library or main page. I have tried the default passwords but they all failed. Anything I have done wrong or how should I go on from here? Thanks.

 

If it keeps redirecting you to the config page and you can access it, the only problem is that it cannot access your DAC. Maybe something else is keeping the DAC busy, or you need to reselect the DAC.

 

You can reset the authentication credentials with "sudo hqplayerd -s username password".

 

[Miska]

2 hours ago, acatala said:

I had a similar issue prior to version 4.9 and it seemed that version 4.9 solved it. Now I am using HQplayer Embedded 4.10.2 and NAA 3.5.6.1 (NAA image).

 

My startup procedure is: DAC on, then NAA on. Roon Server and HQPlayer Embedded are running 24x7. But they were running 24x7 too when the system worked in the first click, not the second. I can't say for sure, but perhaps the issue has come back to life with version 4.10.x. (or maybe with NAA 3.5.6.1??)

 

Keepalive seemed to be missing, I have now enabled it for the next build... Due to that, HQPlayer didn't notice disappeared connections when the connection was idle.

 

[Superdad]

11 hours ago, Miska said:

Keepalive seemed to be missing, I have now enabled it for the next build... Due to that, HQPlayer didn't notice disappeared connections when the connection was idle.

 

Will the new build you refer to be of the NAA or of HQP Embedded?  

[Miska]

18 minutes ago, Superdad said:

Will the new build you refer to be of the NAA or of HQP Embedded?  

 

HQPlayer, NAA already has keepalives from it's side.

 

[hols]

18 hours ago, Miska said:

 

If it keeps redirecting you to the config page and you can access it, the only problem is that it cannot access your DAC. Maybe something else is keeping the DAC busy, or you need to reselect the DAC.

 

You can reset the authentication credentials with "sudo hqplayerd -s username password".

 

Thanks. You are right that I need to fix the problem of it cannot access the DAC. I changed the NAA network back to default DHCP without bridging and also disabled the onboard soundcard and it works again. Sound is good. But there is still a problem of music stopping after playing for a few minutes. On checking the log it says network engine stopped. And on hitting play it can resume playing. How should I proceed to check what went wrong? I have checked the CPU temperature it is 57 degrees Celsius.  Thanks.

[Miska]

5 hours ago, hols said:

Thanks. You are right that I need to fix the problem of it cannot access the DAC. I changed the NAA network back to default DHCP without bridging and also disabled the onboard soundcard and it works again. Sound is good. But there is still a problem of music stopping after playing for a few minutes. On checking the log it says network engine stopped. And on hitting play it can resume playing. How should I proceed to check what went wrong? I have checked the CPU temperature it is 57 degrees Celsius.  Thanks.

 

Checking corresponding log from NAA side could help figuring out what goes wrong...

 

[steveoat]

Using HQ player embedded with JRiver.

 

I have HQ player embedded running in JRiver.  I am hearing audio, but I do not see any upsampling.  How do I ensure upsampling when using HQ player embedded within JRiver

[Miska]

19 hours ago, steveoat said:

Using HQ player embedded with JRiver.

 

I have HQ player embedded running in JRiver.  I am hearing audio, but I do not see any upsampling.  How do I ensure upsampling when using HQ player embedded within JRiver

 

You can check front page of the HQPlayer Embedded web interface when playing to see complete status information. If you are on version 4.10.2 there is quite a bit more information shown compared to earlier versions.

 

At any time you can reload the page to see updated information.

[steveoat]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

You can check front page of the HQPlayer Embedded web interface when playing to see complete status information. If you are on version 4.10.2 there is quite a bit more information shown compared to earlier versions.

 

At any time you can reload the page to see updated information.

Miska,

Just to be clear, looking at the attached example, the output seems to be 564484800 -- is this correct? And it seems to be upsampling to DSD, even though the JRiver screen shows 44.1 KHz.  Am I reading this correctly?

 

Bruce

[Miska]

7 hours ago, steveoat said:

Miska,

Just to be clear, looking at the attached example, the output seems to be 564484800 -- is this correct? And it seems to be upsampling to DSD, even though the JRiver screen shows 44.1 KHz.  Am I reading this correctly?

 

Bruce

 

Yes, that is correct. JRiver has no way of knowing what happens after it has sent the data out. So it cannot possibly know what HQPlayer outputs. It is using UPnP, not HQPlayer's control protocol like Roon, where it would actually have the information available.

 

[guiltyboxswapper]

Just wanted to thank @Miskafor the latest Embedded release that significantly improves NAA handling. 

 

When I change the input on my current DAC, it disables the USB connection as a "noise control" measure which in the past meant the PITA of recycling HQPlayer Embedded, or making sure everything is on in a certain order. 

 

Seems these issues are in the past now 🙂

[WenYee]

HQplayer embedded can be run on Rock64 and raspberry pi 3B+ now, I tried it and  succeed. Bothe Rock64 and Raspberry can be DSD64.

[Le Concombre Masqué]

Hello,

 

I want to try Audirvana as a front end for Embedded.

 

How to make it work ; can somebody please share how he/she succeeded ?

 

from what I googled it's supposed to be automagic but no : Embedded on a machine is well seen on a second Mac (where Audirvana is) via browser and I can play music from Library but Audirvana just offers Built in Output.

 

Once @Superdad reported success but for DSD files ; I'm looking to access both PCM and DSD files and hopefully from my main HDD that is connected to a Apple Time Capsule (works perfectly with Desktop that I run under Windows) : alternatives to Audirvana are welcome but I also tried JRIver and it's super buggy/crashes all the time and did not work either

 

Note that I prefer D&D from Finder (yes I admit I spent quite some time creating folders and subfolders) and am not looking for a better fancier GUI. My issue is that my  SMB accessed HDD (not the big one on the Apple TC that is not formatted to work via SMB or directly connected to Embedded) does not show all albums. 

[acatala]

16 hours ago, Le Concombre Masqué said:

Hello,

 

I want to try Audirvana as a front end for Embedded.

 

How to make it work ; can somebody please share how he/she succeeded ?

 

 

Hello @Le Concombre Masqué,

 

I use HQPlayer Embedded as an output to Roon, so it is configured and running. I also have a copy of Audirvana installed in my MacBook Pro that I use away from home as a hub for Tidal and Qobuz but not in my home where I use Roon.

 

After upgrading Audirvana+ 3.2 to Audirvana 3.5 I realized that HQPlayer Embedded was available as an output to Audirvana without any configuration made by me. I just out of curiosity selected HQPlayer from Audirvana and it started to play. Just like that.

 

So from my point of view, the only thing you need is a running HQPlayer Embedded.

 

My HQPlayer Embedded runs on Debian based Intel NUC, that also runs Roon Core. HQPlayer Embedded streams DSD to a NAA attached to my remote DAC.

 

[Le Concombre Masqué]

5 hours ago, acatala said:

 

Hello @Le Concombre Masqué,

 

I use HQPlayer Embedded as an output to Roon, so it is configured and running. I also have a copy of Audirvana installed in my MacBook Pro that I use away from home as a hub for Tidal and Qobuz but not in my home where I use Roon.

 

After upgrading Audirvana+ 3.2 to Audirvana 3.5 I realized that HQPlayer Embedded was available as an output to Audirvana without any configuration made by me. I just out of curiosity selected HQPlayer from Audirvana and it started to play. Just like that.

 

So from my point of view, the only thing you need is a running HQPlayer Embedded.

 

My HQPlayer Embedded runs on Debian based Intel NUC, that also runs Roon Core. HQPlayer Embedded streams DSD to a NAA attached to my remote DAC.

 

Thank you @acatala, HQPE runs just fine but does not appear as an output to Audirvana. Both machines are wired to the same switch and the machines to communicate fine since I can launch HQPE on a machine from the other : I don't dig what's not working. I'm gonna check Firewall and stuff like that...