HQPlayer's Network Audio Adapter

[jabbr]

The other data point is that DSD512 over wifi is working great with the iFi iDSD Micro ... this network optimized puppy (espressobin) with a 3x3 WiFi card streams DSD512 without a stutter.

 

It does require a custom compiled kernel and is not intended as a direct consumer product, but does demonstrate what's technically possible. Using DSD512 the cpu usage:

 4773 root      10 -10   23108  11096   3496 S  14.8  1.1   1:02.26 networkaudiod                                                         
   99 root     -51   0       0      0      0 R  14.1  0.0   0:59.84 irq/12-xhci-hcd                                                       
  471 root     -51   0       0      0      0 S  14.1  0.0   3:31.91 irq/70-ath10k_p                                                       

so networkaudiod 14.8% the USB driver 14.1% and the wifi driver 14.1%

[semente]

Hi @Miska ,

 

You mentioned that it would not be a good idea to use NAA on a Cubox with the UD-501 because of a problem with the Linux driver.

What if I use a Mac Mini, would that work?

And if so, what would be the minimum specs for PCM384 and DSD128?

 

Thanks,

Ricardo

[shadowlight]

Anyone seeing the following error message in naa logs?

 

"ALSA attempting X-run recovery" Brand new build based on Ubuntu Bionic (18.04 LTS) with latest version of NAA installed.

[Miska]

2 hours ago, shadowlight said:

Anyone seeing the following error message in naa logs?

 

"ALSA attempting X-run recovery" Brand new build based on Ubuntu Bionic (18.04 LTS) with latest version of NAA installed.

 

Which kernel are you using? Remembered to ditch pulseaudio?

 

[shadowlight]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

Which kernel are you using? Remembered to ditch pulseaudio?

 

Your custom Bionic kernel.  I installed bare bone minimal install via Bionic network install.  I am going to have to put the troubleshooting off for awhile, since the system that was giving the error message is having wireless issues and the card is no longer recognized.  I am going to attempt the wireless working first before I come back to the error message with ALSA.

[Miska]

8 hours ago, shadowlight said:

Your custom Bionic kernel.  I installed bare bone minimal install via Bionic network install.  I am going to have to put the troubleshooting off for awhile, since the system that was giving the error message is having wireless issues and the card is no longer recognized.  I am going to attempt the wireless working first before I come back to the error message with ALSA.

 

OK, it could be related... That message appears when there's buffer underrun in ALSA - usually kernel driver, when system latency is too high and the buffer is not filled up in time. Some other driver could be causing such behavior, especially if the hardware is misbehaving and not responding as expected.

 

[shadowlight]

Got the wireless card working by resetting the card back and I am up and running.  I was using wired connections with Sabaj Da3 DAC and converting it to 705k or the correct multiple for 44.1k stream.

 

Is it ok to use Xenial NAA package under Bionic?  That is what I was using.

[Miska]

2 hours ago, shadowlight said:

Is it ok to use Xenial NAA package under Bionic?  That is what I was using.

 

Yes, it should be completely fine...

 

[Miska]

On 9/22/2018 at 5:06 PM, semente said:

You mentioned that it would not be a good idea to use NAA on a Cubox with the UD-501 because of a problem with the Linux driver.

What if I use a Mac Mini, would that work?

And if so, what would be the minimum specs for PCM384 and DSD128?

 

Now latest Linux kernels have specific fixes to make UD-501 work with native DSD. At the moment I'm playing using the CL100 to run HQPlayer Embedded on minimal Fedora 28 (with original Fedora kernel, no mods) doing upsampling to DSD128.

 

Using UpBoard as NAA running either minimal Fedora 28 or my bootable image should also work (not tested).

 

So now UD-501 should be fine with Linux given new enough kernel, or kernel with applicable patches.

[semente]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

Now latest Linux kernels have specific fixes to make UD-501 work with native DSD. At the moment I'm playing using the CL100 to run HQPlayer Embedded on minimal Fedora 28 (with original Fedora kernel, no mods) doing upsampling to DSD128.

 

Using UpBoard as NAA running either minimal Fedora 28 or my bootable image should also work (not tested).

 

So now UD-501 should be fine with Linux given new enough kernel, or kernel with applicable patches.

That's great news, thanks.

At the moment I only have the R-Pi available but I'm planning on getting a Cubox. I'll give it a try.

[Miska]

5 hours ago, semente said:

That's great news, thanks.

At the moment I only have the R-Pi available but I'm planning on getting a Cubox. I'll give it a try.

 

I would rather recommend that UpBoard I linked, instead of CuBox. CuBox-i is going to be phased out as it is quite old product and is being replaced with new model.

 

[Jud]

5 hours ago, semente said:

That's great news, thanks.

At the moment I only have the R-Pi available but I'm planning on getting a Cubox. I'll give it a try.

 

I have a spare CuBox sitting around that you’re welcome to for the cost of shipping, though I imagine the UpBoard can’t be too costly.  PM me if interested.

[semente]

On 10/9/2018 at 8:57 PM, Jud said:

 

I have a spare CuBox sitting around that you’re welcome to for the cost of shipping, though I imagine the UpBoard can’t be too costly.  PM me if interested.

Hi Judy, did you get my message? Thanks, Ricardo

[Jud]

1 hour ago, semente said:

Hi Jud, did you get my message? Thanks, Ricardo

 

I did, and my apologies for not responding.  We were hosting a reunion of old friends.  I’ll be back to you this evening or tomorrow.

[semente]

13 hours ago, Jud said:

 

I did, and my apologies for not responding.  We were hosting a reunion of old friends.  I’ll be back to you this evening or tomorrow.

No worries.

[jdubs]

Hey guys, can hqplayer be run in a vm engine or docker?  I would love to run it on my Xeon-based unRAID server.

 

Thanks

Jim

[shadowlight]

1 hour ago, jdubs said:

Hey guys, can hqplayer be run in a vm engine or docker?  I would love to run it on my Xeon-based unRAID server.

 

Thanks

Jim

There is nothing preventing you from running HQP under VM, but it will all depend on your goals.  I have successfully run HQPlayer Embedded under Windows Linux System, the only thing that did not work was UPnP functionality due to WSL not supporting the functionality correctly.  I have also run HQPe under VMWare Workstation, but I was limited on conversion rate based on the CPU/memory of the VM instance.

 

I would not recommend running HQP or NAA under VM if you plan to hook up your DAC to your VM server, USB support might be flaky.

[Miska]

10 hours ago, jdubs said:

Hey guys, can hqplayer be run in a vm engine or docker?  I would love to run it on my Xeon-based unRAID server.

 

Why!?

[jdubs]

15 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Why!?

 

So I can have just just ONE computer handling both media serving and HQPlayer playback.  More of a space saving idea....

 

I have a laptop to remote control it.

 

Here are instructions to install a Win 10 VM....maybe I could just install HQPlayer here?

 

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/57657-video-guide-the-best-way-to-install-and-setup-a-windows-10-vm-as-a-daily-driver-or-a-gaming-vm-part-1-and-part-2/

 

-Jim  

[Miska]

12 hours ago, jdubs said:

So I can have just just ONE computer handling both media serving and HQPlayer playback.  More of a space saving idea....

 

Of course you can have both on the same computer without resorting to VM's or containers... Especially VM's are really bad for any realtime application like music playback. VM/container will just burn a lot of resources without any advantages.

 

Only place where I can see point in using VM/container is in cloud where you want to have multiple customers running their services on the same computer and for security reasons you want to isolate them.

[jdubs]

13 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Of course you can have both on the same computer without resorting to VM's or containers... Especially VM's are really bad for any realtime application like music playback. VM/container will just burn a lot of resources without any advantages.

 

Only place where I can see point in using VM/container is in cloud where you want to have multiple customers running their services on the same computer and for security reasons you want to isolate them.

 

Thanks Miska.  Curious what you would consider a better solution to both serve as an unraid server AND (simultaneously) something that can run HQPlayer?  That's what I want to do.

 

-Jim

[Miska]

3 hours ago, jdubs said:

Thanks Miska.  Curious what you would consider a better solution to both serve as an unraid server AND (simultaneously) something that can run HQPlayer?  That's what I want to do.

 

Install HQPlayer directly on it? Although that is likely not the best base platform to run media things in first place...

 

[Sigi]

Hi Miska,

in the past I used NAA with an USB-DAC. I changed my DAC against a Merging Hapi who connects through Ravenna. I would like to ask if NAD will be able to connect to the Hapi, didn’t try jet. I know that Merging has developed a Linux based driver, but they seem to give it only to definite player developers due to the fact that specific properties had to be introduced in dependency of the player. So player developers like you are will need to contact Merging directly in order to get support. Are you planning to extend your Linux HQPlayer Version to be used with Ravenna ?

best Regards

Sigi

[Miska]

7 minutes ago, Sigi said:

I would like to ask if NAD will be able to connect to the Hapi, didn’t try jet. I know that Merging has developed a Linux based driver, but they seem to give it only to definite player developers due to the fact that specific properties had to be introduced in dependency of the player. So player developers like you are will need to contact Merging directly in order to get support. Are you planning to extend your Linux HQPlayer Version to be used with Ravenna ?

 

On Windows and macOS it should work through ASIO and CoreAudio respectively.

 

On Linux, you need the driver, but then it should work. I have the driver, but I cannot test it since I don't have any Ravenna hardware. Merging would need to test it and give me permission to distribute it. But this has been pending for about four months now...

 

[Sigi]

Hi,

I have tried now, unfortunately it doesn’t work under windows. When I start the bat file there is no response from the Asio driver.

Am I doing something wrong? I used the latest version of NAD