iTunes - HQPlayer front-end re-visited

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Ok David. Here my app for Swinsian

Swinsian - HQPlayer Server.app.zip

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

20 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Ok David. Here my app for Swinsian

Swinsian - HQPlayer Server.app.zip 7.62 MB · 1 download

Hi, Geoffrey:

 

The app works wonderfully.  The installation process went very smoothly.  Have tested all the file formats in Swinsian library, namely m4a, DSF, and FLAC.  Have tested changing music albums in the mid of playing with no issue.  Have been experimenting in the past 4 hours, only on one occasion the playing on HQPlayer4Desktop stopped by itself, however can easily restart from that track - queue of temp files was regenerated in HQPlayer4Desktop.

 

I tested both FLAC and wav as the formats for temp file, and I personally like FLAC more - a bit more snap and bass are more well-defined, with the rest of the acoustic beauty remains.  Personally I prefer more mellow sound quality - have tried to avoid any speakers with tweeters of metallic material.  Of course, only my ears which are the part of my audio system.  

 

Swinsian is a good interphase for music playing, especially with multiple formats.  I will still keep using JRiver for its capability of managing the music library.  

 

Will try to do the network control from a MacBook Air to run Swinsian, and leave “heavy lifting” computation to the MacBook Pro, to see if SQ can be further improved with HQPlayer. 

 

Thank you for your excellent effort to make the use of HQPlayer a truly pleasant experience!

 

Sincerely,  

 

David

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

On 5/8/2020 at 5:04 PM, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Ok David. Here my app for Swinsian

Swinsian - HQPlayer Server.app.zip 7.62 MB · 8 downloads

Hi, Geoffrey:

 

App continues works fine except some minor glitches.  I have to play each album from the very first song, and let the APP triggers the temp file conversion to be completed before doing anything.  If I stop the playing during the period of conversion, and more importantly, if I start play the album other than the first song, the conversion behaves more problematically.  Interestingly, if I want to play that album again, the APP appears to have some memory and only converts the album the same way as it was directed to do in the first time.  For example, I opened an album for the first time and really wanted to listen the track 5.  When I highlighted track 5, and pressed the play in Swinsian, on the queue in HQPlayer Desktop, the track 6, not the track 5, becomes the first to be converted and played by HQP, with the rest of the track are following track 5.  However, next time if I want to play this album again from whatever the track I want to start, it always starts with track 6 and the rest of the album, skipping track 1-5.  The only way to solve this problem is to convert the m4a format into Flac format.  I tried many other ways, and none of them can resolve the issue.  These include change the tag information of the album; delete the original files and replace them with my backup copy; reinstall the APP; delete *.plist.

 

The good part of this is that it forces myself to listen to the entire album without skipping any portion of an album. 

 

Thank you again!

 

David

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Hi David,

 

I'm sorry you've experienced this glitch. I'll look into it and try to resolve it.

 

If I've understood you correctly, all works fine if the original files are in .flac format?

 

Geoffrey

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

9 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Hi David,

 

I'm sorry you've experienced this glitch. I'll look into it and try to resolve it.

 

If I've understood you correctly, all works fine if the original files are in .flac

 

Geo

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

Hi, Geoffrey:

 

Thank you for your effort and nothing to feel sorry about.  Also it is always a fun to see any problem can be solved.  
 

Yes, everything works well in the cases that formats are in FLAC and DSF.  Behavior-wise, when I clicked an arbitrary  track in the middle of an album, say the track n, in the case of FLAC and DFS, APP generates the queue for play which includes the entire tracks of the album, and HQP plays the track n, whereas in the case of m4a, APP generates the queue only contains the from track n+1 towards the end, and plays track n+1.  And when I come back to the album, even if I click the track 1, APP will regenerate the same queue from n+1 towards the end of the album, and skip the track 1 to track n-1, and this behavior cannot be corrected even after I turn off the computer or reinstall the APP.  
 

My speculation was that the tracks between 1 to n-1 were deemed to be unnecessary to convert to temp files due to the first action.  So when I tried to relaunch the APP and selected “always generate temp file” option instead of “when necessary,” I still could not resolve the issue.  
 

Thank you again,
 

David

[oneartist]

I want to thank everyone on this forum. I've been reading this one plus several others in my quest to improve the sound of my PSAudio DS DAC with Bridge II. Many others have abandoned Bridge II and I've been following their lead. I've accumulated UltraRendu with Sbooster, x Matrix 2 with Sbooster, Synology NAS and Synology Router, JRiver MC 26, Dirac Live, and two days ago I added HQ Player 4.5.1. The problem I have now is that I'm in SoCal doing Grandpa duty until  mid July. The only thing I have with me now is a Win 10 laptop with JRiver, HQ Player, Dirac Live and Samplitude Pro X 5 Suite. I would like to learn the fine points of using this software as much as I can without being connected to my hardware. Of course I can always learn by reading post and that is maybe all I can do for now. Any suggestions appreciated. One interesting development with Dirac Live is that it has not only entered JRiver but it is becoming a VST plugin for many recording software programs. My Samplitude is not yet on the list. 

[edwardsean]

Hi. I just found out about this script and, if I can get it to work. It would be fantastic. I love HQP but it's UI really dampens the experience. I'm so glad the this solution exists. I really don't want to pay for Roon to have access to my own music when I don't need all its features. 

 

The only thing is I can't seem to get this to work. I'm on 10.15.5 and I'm trying to set it up with the Music app. I've gone through the prompts and given everything access. The script is pointed to the Music app. When I double click the script, after the set up screen, both Music and HQP launches.

 

However, when I play a song from the album view in Music it just plays directly to my app without engaging HQP. I have the script set up for "localhost," which should work. The HQP Client works this way flawlessly and plays files through HQP, though that UI is a mess. 

 

Can anyone help me trouble shoot. Is there anything else I need to do so that Music is seeing the files to to HQP for processing?

 

Thank and thanks to Geoffrey for creating this and even having the idea in the first place. Brilliant!

 

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Hi,

 

I understand why it's not working for you and others who tried to test it. @Mahler and Bach on Computer has been extremely helpful in helping me identify some problems. I will post the updated version for you to try later today.

 

Geoffrey

[edwardsean]

Thanks Geoffrey!

 

I'll look out for it and then report back here.

 

Edward 

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

4 hours ago, edwardsean said:

Thanks Geoffrey!

 

I'll look out for it and then report back here.

 

Edward 

Here is the current version.

 

Best,

 

Geoffrey

 

iTunes - HQPlayer Server.app.zip

[edwardsean]

Thanks Geoffrey!

 

I just got a chance to try it out. I'm getting the following error and so HQP doesn't open automatically like it did with the previous build. When I open HQP manually, and play a track on Music, it still just plays directly without engaging HQP. 

 

I wonder if there is also something I need to set on HQP as well?

[edwardsean]

Geoffrey, in case this helps. 

[edwardsean]

Interestingly. As I keep trying HQP is launching automatically now. However, I'm getting a new error. 

[edwardsean]

The Swinsian version does connect and work straight off the bat. However, it keeps playing the first track loaded and selecting another track of skipping forward only adds the track to HQP's playlist without switching to it. 

 

If anyone knows how to troubleshoot please post here. 

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

I did explain in previous instructions that HQPlayer must be launched before launching my app, the very first time you run my app. If you didn't do that, it would result in the first error you reported.

 

Please look in the location reported in that first error (~Library/Scripts) and see if the mentioned file exists there. "itunes_hqp.py"

 

As I mentioned yesterday, I have re-written both apps. If you'd have asked for the Swinsian app, I would have sent you the latest version. It's attached here.

 

Finally, I am working on further new versions that will make all the necessary checks on HQPlayer, without the need of creating the .py script mentioned above. I will post those versions here when I have them ready. They will also incorporate more robust and improved error handling.

 

Geoffrey

Swinsian - HQPlayer Server.app.zip

[edwardsean]

I will surely check back when they are released. 

 

As it right now, neither script works. Both get connection errors that keep HQP from playing files properly. 

 

I'll keep reporting back as try new releases. 

 

Thanks for all your efforts!

[konar]

I have similar issue as @edwardsean described. Running 10.15.6 / Music 1.0.6.10.

[konar]

2 hours ago, konar said:

I have similar issue as @edwardsean described. Running 10.15.6 / Music 1.0.6.10.

I resolved it by copying the .py file from app to Library/Scripts:

/Applications/iTunes - HQPlayer Server.app/Contents/Resources/Scripts> cp itunes_hqp.py $HOME/Library/Scripts

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Well done. @Mahler and Bach on Computer helped me spot this one and I’ll post a version later today where this script isn’t even needed.

 

 

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

As promised, here is the latest stable version…

 

Geoff

iTunes - HQPlayer Server.app.zip