Convolution via LAN

[dennis88]

Hi there, hope this is the correct forum for this kind of question:

 

I start with some background:

As of now, I have a Windows Server based server that is attached via LAN to my network. A HTPC is connected to the same network with JRiver installed via LAN and to a DA-converter via USB. I use Accurate to filter audio both when listening to music and when watching movies in JRiver (filters are being processed on the JRiver instance on the HTPC).

 

What I do consider now is getting rid of the HTPC and getting an AppleTV. Since the AppleTV does not have a dedicated Audio-Out, I consider a "HDMI extractor" and use Coax for getting audio to the DA-converter. Since the AppleTV does not offer the possibility to convolute: do I have any chance of having a real-time convolution happening on the server so that when the movie is played via AppleTV, the DAC would receive the convoluted audio? Would considering an Nvidia Shield be beneficial in any way with regard to this consideration?

 

Hopefully my idea makes sense and I look forward for your input. 

[DuckToller]

Hallo Dennis,
No specialist on that topic but havin' some thoughts on your question:

if you want to stream to your AppleTV you must ensure that the the videostream includes the convoluted audio stream, which means your pre-processing befor streaming need to take place with JRiver on your server side to ensure syncronisity of the audio stream.

I did not find anything exhausting about plex server plus convolution, thus JRIVER may be the best sw to use, and you are already familiar with it. In my limited experience with JRIVER for video streaming (Prefer to use UPNP/DLNA with/or VLC,  without convolution) I found it extremely difficult to integrate external streaming services. Thus, as for local files this may not apply, the tricky component of your thought model lies within external streams like Netflix, AmazonHD, SkyHd, DAZN, Arte or the German Mediathek streams (which might applicable within JRiver, afaik)

 

IOW - if you stream only local your server convulution should work, for external streams you have a bunch of workload before you can output to your endpoint (Apple TV), and you may add some delay somwehere to compensate for the audio stream to be splitted & decoded to your audiosystem.

Again, this is thought model only ... good luck ...

[dennis88]

Thanks for the input!

 

I've been using JRiver for some years and while I moved for Audio to Roon, I still have it running on the server for being able to listen to my music on the road (via JRemote) and for watching movies.

Since my experience with setting up JRiver is kind of hit and miss, I would like to skip it altogether and am looking at Jellyfin server and Infuse as a AppleTV client. This would sync also my "number of views" which currently is a bit annoying when watching TV series: I watch some episodes on the HTPC using JRiver, then a few days later I want to watch on my AppleTV with Infuse and am not sure which episode to continue on..

Anyway, as you say, the audio needs to be convoluted when it "exits" the server as there seems to be no client for the AppleTV that supports convolution.

 

This is only for internal use. When I am on the Go, this does not matter. 

 

So one viable way would be to output from the Server via DLNA through JRiver to some DLNA client on AppleTV, which would give me convolution, correct? This would still leave me with the "no synced number of views" reported above for any other clients.

 

Audiovero offers an "offline convolution" which would give me the filtered media files already but this is something I would like to omit as this doubles my storage space..

[Matias]

JRiver MC server can process Convolution in a quite complicated way to set up, and local playback it works fine. Problem is that through the network to a DLNA renderer it loses gapless playback, which for me is a deal breaker and so annoying. I have reported this bug in JRiver forums and I have been ignored (again). So I am seriously thinking of spending the lifetime license (700 usd...) and switch to Roon, which apparently does this perfectly.

[Marco Klobas]

I've used once the Kanex HDMI-TOSLINK audio de-embedder with my AppleTV.

 

My model is the HAECOAX2, which is no more available. It's very similar to this current model:

 

https://www.kanexpro.com/item/?id=HAECOAX3

 

I'm not an audio convolution expert. Anyway, keep in mind that AppleTV resample everything to 48 kHz. That's the output sample rate you get. A 44.1 kHz or a 96 kHz audio file will be respectively upsampled/downsampled to 48 kHz.

 

If you use AirPlay, everything is resampled two times: 44.1 kHz by AirPlay protocol and then 48kHz by AppleTV. It doesn't sound bad in my opinion. Nevertheless, if you are a purist ... well, you know that's not bitperfect.

 

Eventually I switched to roon for audio only listening and use AppleTV for watching movies/TV series only.

 

If you are interested, I can give you the Kanex de-embedder.

[Darkar]

Take a look at miniDSP SHD series.

[dennis88]

Thanks guys.

 

Gapless playback would be not an issue to me as I play music via RoPieee / Roon. JRiver would then only need to serve as a convolution engine that sends audio through DLNA (the goal is to have convolution also when watching movies).

 

The Kanex looks interesting, thanks. It does not seem to be available in Germany though, a comparable solution with a Coax Out seems to be https://shop.sommercable.com/en/Electronics/HDMI/HDMI-7-1-Audio-Extractor-4K-18G-DVM-HDT-AUDEX.html#tab_attributes