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iTunes - HQPlayer front-end re-visited


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On 12/15/2017 at 2:17 AM, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Hi All,

 

I decided to completely re-write my iTunes to HQPlayer front end.

 

The new version is attached. The interface for choosing preferences is now based on Obj-C. This has allowed me to present all prefs in a single window.

 

Once your prefs are set you can choose to not show these prefs again. If you do that the only way to get them back will be to delete the .plist file in your ~Library/iTunes/Scripts folder.

 

This feature was suggested by Carl for headless server operation. Thanks Carl and thanks also for your testing and feedback during this development.

 

In case any of you are still using the old version, you will need to delete the .plist file produced by that version before using this one.

 

All required files are now bundled with the single app, apart from that .plist file which must be produced by the app.

 

The creation of temp files is now optional, if your files are in a format, such as '.aif' which is supported by HQPlayer.

 

I haven't got around to revising the manual yet. Hopefully though it's fairly self explanatory and you'll all be able to figure it out.

 

Geoff

 

 

iTunes - HQPlayer Server.app.zip

 

Thanks so much for putting this together.  I'm not enamored with Roon, so this is a very inviting  alternative.

 

1) With your app, HQP and iTunes launched - the volume in iTunes automatically goes down to zero.  When I turn it back up, it stays up for a few seconds, and then returns to no volume.  I did this over and over, same result.  What can I do to fix this?

 

2) Do you have a manual that explains how to fill out the preferences? I didn't alter anything, and the ones in the attached photo, I had no idea what to put.

 

Thanks again! 

Screen Shot 2017-12-16 at 2.53.05 PM.png

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I sort of figured out the volume issue.  It was turned down in HQP.  Turned it back up, and was ok.

 

First, it sounds amazing paired with iTunes.  But, right off the bat, had a number of bugs.

 

1) I paused a song in iTunes due to a phone call.  Had the song start over.  It started over in iTunes, but continued at the previous stoppage point in HQP.

 

2) After the first song - which sounded so so good - I switched to another song in iTunes.  HQP and your HQP server app could not make the transition.  Both froze and I had to quit.

 

So your app worked great for one song as long as there aren't any pauses!

 

Advice is welcome.

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1 hour ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

I have thoroughly tested this and I promise you pause and resume do work as you would expect.

 

The only possible situation I can think of that might have lead to your problem is if you tried to pause while the app was still loading files or file urls into HQPlayer.

 

Was that the case?

 

If so, please try to test with a single album and make sure all the files are loaded before trying to pause.

 

Long playlists will obviously take a long time to load into HQPlayer, especially if temporary files have to be created.

 

I'm not sure about HQP loading things.  I launched your app, HQP launched, and then iTunes.  The first song I select plays normally.  Everything after that has been problematic, with both playlists as well as stand alone albums.

 

If I switch to another song, HQP continues to play the first one.  Another issue is that once a track has been changed, the volume on HQP goes to zero and cannot be raised back up.  I've quit everything and relaunched several times, same thing.  HQP becomes detached from iTunes and the volume in both iTunes and HQP becomes defeated.

 

Would love to know how to fix it!

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8 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

This is truly bizarre! I've never come across this behaviour. In this version I'm also not doing anything which could effect the volume setting in HQPlayer.

 

So I'm sorry; but at the moment I haven't a clue as to how to solve your issues.

 

Geoff

 

 Bizarre indeed. It simply doesn’t function.

 

You mentioned loading tracks from itunes into HQP.  Is that process any different than simply playing a track in iTunes?

 

Or is there a pre-load step?

 

Thx

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On 12/17/2017 at 9:50 PM, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

The process is no different from your point of view than simply playing a track in iTunes. The first track of an album (or the track you want to start playback from) is loaded first and playback begins. Playback continues while the subsequent tracks load.

 

Temporary files will be created for file formats not supported by HQPlayer and it's those temp files which will be loaded to HQP.

 

Otherwise the original file URLs will be loaded, unless you've chosen to always create temp files in the prefs for this app.

 

I need you to check a few simple things:

 

1/ This will only work for local music files stored in your iTunes music library. Not Apple music streams. Are you trying to play back streams?

 

2/ Do you have iCloud music library turned on in iTunes prefs?

 

3/ Are your files all correctly tagged?

 

4/ Where is your iTunes music library located (default location on the Mac or elsewhere)?

 

5/ Are you playing from Albums view or a different view in iTunes. If different, which one?

 

6/ Which version of iTunes and which version of HQPlayer? This has been tested with the latest versions of both. If you are running an older version of either one, can you upgrade to the latest versions and let me know if that changes anything?

 

Something you can do is to create a virgin iTunes music library. Hold down the option/alt key when launching iTunes and it will give you this option.

 

Call it "iTunes Test" or something. Just add one or two albums, keep it simple, make sure they're tagged correctly. Then try with this lib and let me know if this works.

 

You can revert back to your regular library by holding down the option/alt key again when launching iTunes and choosing the lib you want to use.

 

If you can post screen shots of your iTunes prefs and the albums view of your library it could help. Or send me them by PM if you prefer.

 

Thanks

 

Geoff

 

 

Aloha Geoffrey,
 
Answers in red, and a few questions at the end….
 
1/ This will only work for local music files stored in your iTunes music library. Not Apple music streams. Are you trying to play back streams?
 
My files used for iTunes are stored entirely in my iTunes music library.  To my knowledge, I'm not playing back streams, its all local files.

 

2/ Do you have iCloud music library turned on in iTunes prefs?
 
Its off.  Though I have iTunes match, so probably worth turning it on!  What works best with your app?

 

3/ Are your files all correctly tagged?
 
Its 55K tracks, so I would say the vast majority are tagged correctly.  But can’t say 100%.  Tagging has not been an issue in A+, A4L, Fidelia, iTunes, Roon, HQP, etc….
 
4/ Where is your iTunes music library located (default location on the Mac or elsewhere)?
 
External hard drive connected by USB to MacBook Pro.

 

5/ Are you playing from Albums view or a different view in iTunes. If different, which one?
 
From album view primarily.

 

6/ Which version of iTunes and which version of HQPlayer? This has been tested with the latest versions of both. If you are running an older version of either one, can you upgrade to the latest versions and let me know if that changes anything?
 
iTunes 12.7.2.6    HQP 3.19.1  I'm on latest Sierra as well....
 
Which particular iTunes Preference pane screenshot would be helpful?
 
And anything in particular for the album view screenshot?  It just looks like iTunes normally does.
 
Does your app only work in Album View mode?
 
Thanks for your help!
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1 hour ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

From your responses everything looks good to go.

 

It shouldn't matter if you have iTunes music library turned on; but you need to be aware that none of the music fetched from the cloud is going to work with my App. Only the locally stored files.

 

So the only items to suspect are 1/ Yes, if there are some problems with tagging in your fairly large library, it could be causing issues with my app. It's a little more picky in this regard.

 

2/ In case the external location of the music files is not being recognised for some reason. Although this should work without a problem.

 

To try and determine if it could be one of these reasons, did you try creating a separate "Test iTunes" Library on your Mac Book Pro's internal drive, as I suggested?

 

A screen shot of the iTunes advanced preferences screen could be useful.

 

All the views should work just fine. Album view is the easiest to test from though, as it's the most straight forward.

 

Artist view will play tracks from all the albums you have of that particular artist. A playlist view will play the entire playlist. Either of these could result in a mixture of tracks which temporary files need to be created for and those that do not. Unless you've turned on the feature to always create temp files.

 

 

 

 

 

Aloha Geoffrey,

 

I created a test iTunes library.  Both on an external hard drive, as well as on the internal Mac HD.  I put 8 CD's in the library.

 

The results are very poor.  The external HD setup didn't work at all.  The internal one did play, but erratically. 

 

When I launched a Nickel Creek (AIFF) track in iTunes, a Michael Hedges (ALAC) track played on HQP instead.  Stopping the Nickel Creek track had no effect on the Hedges track on HQP, it just kept playing.

 

When I stopped the Hedges track in HQP, suddenly the Nickel Creek track began to play in HQP even though it was stopped in iTunes.  At that point, iTunes and HQP were no longer connected.

 

I repeated this several times, same thing.

 

Here's a screenshot of the test iTunes advanced preference pane...

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

Screen Shot 2017-12-20 at 12.36.34 PM.png

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8 minutes ago, Lio_B said:

After further testing,

 

the switch beetwen tracks and album works but each time HQP volume go near to zero

 

regards 

 

I had same volume issue.  Turning volume up on HQP is quickly turned back down...  Only got sound when it disconnected itself from iTunes...

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17 minutes ago, One and a half said:

 

One mandatory proviso is recognition of DSD and FLAC files !

 

 

That's part of the rub, until iTunes incorporates DSD and FLAC, its impossible to use iTunes as the front end for HQP and play those formats.  I seem to remember there is some script or app that tricks iTunes into accepting DSD, is that right?  Not sure if it would all work together with HQP though....

 

Its ok with me.  I'd just load my DSD files into HQP on its own, separate from iTunes.  All my FLAC files have long since been converted to ALAC or AIFF for iTunes.

 

Library management software is not easy to create.  Even the vaunted Roon, once you strip away their meta data stuff, has a rudimentary library management system compared to iTunes.  Don't get me wrong, beyond the library, I'm not a fan of iTunes.

 

I'd pay $15 - $20 for a simple app that let iTunes legitimately be a front end for HQP.  I don't see why such a thing should cost $50 - $75.  iTunes does the library, HQP does the playback, the app only has to connect the two - but I think the app would sell well at a lower price point.

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3 minutes ago, One and a half said:

Simple versus time intensive, a difficult equation. I would leave it up to Geoffrey to decide the amount.

If it were an analog system, the problem is solved with a cable, on the one hand a dictator of an OS is not so simple.

 

Geoffrey seems fairly close, and is offering it for free currently.  $75 just seems high to me.

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On 12/20/2017 at 9:51 PM, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Can you try this new version. It links iTunes volume and HQPlayer's volume together. This allows remote control of HQPlayer volume from Apple Remote app on IOS as well.

 

This version also corrects a bug whereby previous server settings were not applied unless they were re-entered at each launch of the app. This wouldn't have effected anyone running iTunes and HQPlayer together on a Mac; but anyone using iTunes to serve to a Windows machine would have been effected.

 

This version also adds the ability to apply different HQPlayer configurations. I will explain more about that later.

 

 

iTunes - HQPlayer Server.app.zip

 

Hi Geoffrey,

 

For me, when I launched this version it launches HQP and iTunes.  When I play a song in iTunes, it doesn't connect with HQP at all.  It just plays in iTunes.  True, the iTunes volume was not turned down this time, but it didn't matter as HQP has been left out.

 

Really appreciate your hard work.  Hoping we can get this together, what a blessing it will be!

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On 12/22/2017 at 11:26 PM, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

 

 

In the preferences:

 

1/ Whichever format you've selected for the creation of temporary files (flac or wav), can you change it to the other one, and see if that makes a difference.

 

2/ If you haven't selected to create a Ram disk, can you choose to create one and see if that makes a difference?

 

 

 

Aloha,

 

Option 1 had no different effect.  The music played through iTunes only and came on the big rig.

 

Option 2 force the sound to come out the internal speakers through iTunes.

 

Unfortunately, it doesn't really function yet.  Appreciate your efforts!

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9 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

A few words about configurations:

 

HQPlayer 3.19 introduced the capability to load configurations via API calls.

 

For iTunes - HQPlayer server to work correctly you must have a "default.xml" file located in the hidden folder:

~/.hqplayer (meaning your home folder on your Mac and ".hqplayer" for HQPlayer's hidden folder).

 

(On Windows this is located in <your user folder>\AppData\Local\HQPlayer. AppData is a hidden folder, so you will need to show hidden files/folders from view options to see it).

 

The "default.xml" file is loaded each time a new track is loaded by iTunes - HQPlayer server. So it must be a correct configuration file with the preferences needed for your DAC/System.

 

If you want to over-ride this for any given Track/Album, then you'll need to enter the alternative configuration in the comments field of the Track/Album concerned.

 

The way you enter this in the comments field is: "hqp-" followed by the name of the config file you want loaded:

 

e.g. "hqp-livejazz.xml" (You may omit the ".xml")

 

This configuration file must also have been exported from hqplayer to the "~/.hqplayer" folder. Use the "export settings" command from HQPlayer's file menu.

 

(<user>\AppData\HQPlayer folder on Windows).

 

If there are any other comments in the comments field they must be separated by a comma, e.g. "label:ECM, hqp-livejazz.xml"

 

I've attached a new version which corrects a small bug that was preventing temp WAV files being created for iTunes match originating content. So now you can use WAV or flac for iTunes match stuff.

 

Geoff

iTunes - HQPlayer Server.app.zip

 

Aloha,

 

Does any of this pertain to the issue Lio and I have been having?

 

I have a normal iTunes setup. Very standard. Your app simply won’t function to the effect both Lio and I have described. 

 

I really really don’t want to purchase Roon!

 

Thanks!

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1 hour ago, Lio_B said:

I had tested the last version.

 

HQP loaded tracks but no "default.xml" file in ~/.hqplayer 

 

But no problem with loading tracks in HQP, my 2 issues are:

 

- after 10 seconds the volume of HQP came to zero and impossible to fix it at the maximum.

 

- iTunes volume is at zero but a can ear a little the sound via iTunes which is with 3 or 4 seconds delay with HQP

 

In HQP log file, is it OK to find:

 

2017/12/28 22:01:13 CoreAudio device bits: 24
2017/12/28 22:01:13 Volume limit: 0

 

thanks again
 

 

By latest one, which post date from Geoffrey are you referring to?  The one he posted earlier today with the small bug fixes?

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11 minutes ago, Lio_B said:

 

did you delete at each new version the plist file in "Scripts" folder ?

 

No.  Good idea.  In the User folder, under Library, I found the plist files under "Preferences", but not "Scripts".  The Scripts folder was in the main library, but had no plist files.

 

Anyway, all the application plists appear to be in User --> Library --> Preferences.  

 

What is the name of the HQ Server plist?  I read through them all and didn't recognize anything.

 

Thx.

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21 minutes ago, Lio_B said:

 

itunesHpqserver.plist

 

in Scripts folder in ~/Library/

 

Are you on a Mac?

 

In my Mac HD/Library/Scripts - there are no plist files whatsoever for anything.

 

In Mac HD/User/Library - there is no Scripts folder.

 

In Mac HD/Library/Preferences - there are plist files, but nothing pertaining to iTunesHqpserver.plist.  I read through each one multiple times and did a search.

 

In Mac HD/User/Library/Preferences - there are many plist files.  Once again, nothing pertaining to iTunesHqpserver.plist.  Read and did a search.

 

Making me nuts reading them all.

 

Thanks!

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10 minutes ago, Lio_B said:

 

…but the iTunes/Scripts folder I'm referring to is the one in your Library folder. This is the folder which supports all Application support files and preferences.

 

In the Finder Click on the "Go" menu and choose the item "Go to folder"

 

In the box that appears enter "~/Library"

 

This will open the Library folder which contains an "iTunes" folder.  If there isn't already a "Scripts" folder within the "~/Library/iTunes/" folder then create one in there.

 

If there is already a scripts folder in the "~/Library/iTunes/" folder then check if there's already a "itunesHqpserver.plist" in there. If there is, send it to the Trash and delete the Trash.

 

Thanks, I was able to find the plist, which I deleted along with the app, and emptied the trash.  

 

Unfortunately, even with deleting the plist file, the app does not connect to HQP at all.  The song just plays in iTunes.  My DAC doesn't show the DSD upsampling.  And there's no sign of activity in HQP.

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3 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Anybody attempting to use this with HQPlayer 3.19 onwards MUST have a default.xml settings file in their hidden HQPlayer folder AND that default.xml file MUST have the correct settings for your DAC/System.

 

This is because iTunes - HQPlayer Server loads that default.xml file each time a new track/album is loaded.

 

Use HQPlayer's import/export commands to verify you have this file set-up correctly and in the expected location.

 

I hope that is clear now!

 

It's part of what is necessary to allow you to over-ride the default settings with different settings for any particular album using "hqp-<other settings file" in the comments field as previously described.

 

Unfortunately, I have almost no idea what any of this means ;)

 

 

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1 hour ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Just a couple of very obvious things I want to check with you:

 

1/ iTunes must not be trying to play to the same audio device as HQPlayer. Or else they would be fighting each other for that device and only one would win. So iTunes should be playing to your default system output (internal Mac speakers) which should be muted and HQPlayer set to play to your DAC/System.

 

Alternatively iTunes could play to something equally benign such as Soundflower virtual output, if you have that installed.

 

You could run into the above problem if the DAC/System you expect HQPlayer to be playing to is also your Mac's default audio output device.

 

2/ Do make sure you quit and re-launch iTunes-HQPlayer Server before trying again and correctly completing it's settings in the preference window that appears. These settings are written to the .plist file for use next time around.

 

Apologies if these points seem too obvious; but quite often there turns out to be a very obvious answer!

 

Nothing is too obvious.  I'll give this a try.  Thx

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11 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

 

 

1/ iTunes must not be trying to play to the same audio device as HQPlayer. Or else they would be fighting each other for that device and only one would win. So iTunes should be playing to your default system output (internal Mac speakers) which should be muted and HQPlayer set to play to your DAC/System.

 

 

 

How does I set iTunes to output to the internal Mac speakers?  I have HQP set to output to my DAC.  In iTunes, I see no output choice in preferences.

 

The only place I know to set the iTunes output is in the Mac wide System Preferences.  I set that to internal speakers and HQP to my DAC.  When I played a track in iTunes, it only played out of the internal speakers.  The HQP output was automatically switched to internal speakers. Tried this several times, same result.

 

Seems iTunes and HQP are bound when it comes to output, unless you can explain another way.

 

Thanks

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2 minutes ago, Lio_B said:

 

Nothing to do in iTunes, go to your apple (at the left top) and system preference / sound, change the output here.

HQP will stay with your DAC

I had try it, and I also put my HQP volume to -60 min and 0 max, and after that, iTunes volume manage HQP volume

 

 

 

I did this. But HQP’s output automatically shifted to follow the system preferences output to internal speakers. 

 

HQPlayer didn’t stay with DAC. 

 

Thx

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3 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Well this is your problem then. Please follow these instructions step by step:

 

1/ Launch HQP

 

2/ Choose preferences from the HQPlayerDesktop3 menu

 

3/ Set the device to be your DAC (device drop down menu) and all the other settings for up-sampling PCM and DSD as desired. Also the volume range your wish to use.

 

4/ Click "OK"

 

5/ From HQPlayer's file menu choose "Export Settings"

 

6/ in the window that appears you should already see .hqplayer as the folder being proposed as the location to save the settings file. If not enter "~/.hqplayer" (without the quotes) in the "Save as field" to go to that folder.

 

6/ In the Save as field enter the file name as "default.xml" (without the quotes) or if a file named "default.xml" already exists, click on it and accept the proposal to replace the existing default.xml with this new one you are about to save.

 

7/ Click on the save button at the bottom right of this window.

 

This will ensure your default.xml settings file which is loaded by iTunes-HQPlayer Server is the one that has the correct settings to talk to your DAC.

 

If you follow these instructions correctly it should finally get you up and running.

 

Thanks, I'll give it try.  Before I do, will following your instructions in anyway interfere with my HQP/ Roon setup?  Will it mess up HQP's settings relationship with Roon?

 

Will I have to revert back to how it currently is in order to use HQP/ Roon?

 

Thanks for all your help!

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