J River to HQPlayer

[ted_b]

This is not for embedded hqplayer!

[vortecjr]

I know.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

19 hours ago, ted_b said:

Geoff,

Thanks.  What is new, fixed or different about this release?  Didn't expect to see a changelog from you, but asking anyway.

The main changes are:

 

1/ Making the Pause/Resume and Stop feature optional.

2/ Correcting a bug whereby temporary files were created when they didn't need to be.

3/ Limited support for Qobuz and Tidal streaming. See below.

 

Apologies for the slow response. To be completely honest with you, I hadn't had much feedback on this and then yesterday, out of the blue, someone thanked me for it via Dropbox. Then said, "it's not working though". That wasn't a lot of information to go by. Anyway, I decided to check that all is working well with MC 24, now that I have a licensed copy of that version.

 

I also re-read the last few posts here and realised that I'd promised a completely updated package way back in January, then I must have just forgotten about it. My bad!

 

I've been carrying out some more tests today and did find some areas for improvement. Specifically I was looking to simplify installation; etc, for those who don't wish to delve into the more advanced features.

 

So here is version 1.12. As with yesterday's version it is now named simply "jr-hqp" and needs to be placed at the root of your "C:" drive.

 

First, I'll just re-iterate here the most basic instructions for installation.

 

After unzipping and placing the extracted folder in C: open the file "call-jr-ps.cmd" with a text editor:

 

set datapath=%~dp1
set filepath=%~f1
set extension=%~x1
set hqpath=C:\Program Files\Signalyst\HQPlayer Desktop 3\hqp-control.exe
set stoppause=No
set hqpnewerversion=Yes
set temps=C:\temp
powershell -executionpolicy bypass C:\jr-hqp\jrexp.ps1

 

The first three lines you leave alone.

 

The fourth line you leave alone as well, unless you've installed HQPlayer somewhere other than the default location shown above.

 

The fifth line you leave alone unless you want to take advantage of the pause/resume and stop functionality; which admittedly can be confusing. This is fully explained in the manual. If you want to use this feature, simply change the "No" on this line to "Yes".

 

The sixth line will only have to be altered if you're running a version of HQPlayer prior to 3.20. In that case you would change the "Yes" here to "No".

 

The seventh line is where any temp files that need to be created will be stored. This will only happen by default for files types which are not supported by HQPlayer. If you would prefer these to be created in a Ram Disk, then change "C:\temp" to the location of the Ram Disk. If the root of that disk you just enter the drive letter followed by a colon here (e.g. "M:") without the quotes.

 

The final line is where the actual Powershell script is installed. Provided you've installed the "jr-hqp" folder at the root of your C: drive, you can leave this alone.

 

So hopefully most people won't need to edit this file at all.

 

Next open the file named "arguments.txt" in a text editor:

 

Copy this line:

 

"Replace([Filename], &, ^&),[Disc #],[Track #]"

 

… if you don't need to use the more advanced features.

 

Or copy this line:

 

"Replace([Filename], &, ^&),[Disc #],[Track #],[HQPlayer Filter],[HQPlayer Shaper],[HQPlayer SR],[HQPlayer Type],[HQPlayer Temp Type],[HQPlayer Temp],[Load Playlist],[Playlist Shuffle],[Artist Play All],[Repeat All]"

 

…if you do.

 

These will need to be copied into J River.

 

As before, this is done in "Options -> File Types"

 

1/ Click on each file type that you wish to be played in HQPlayer, instead of J River.

2/ In "Playback Method:" choose "External Program (custom).

3/ In "Program" browse to the "call-jr-ps.cmd" file located in the "jr-hqp" folder. (You will need to enable "All files '.'" when browsing for this).

4/ Finally paste the line you copied from the arguments.txt file exactly as it appears above, including the surrounding quotes.

 

Repeat for each file type you wish to be played through HQPlayer instead of J River.

 

That's it as far as the instructions go. The rest is in the supplied manual.

 

Finally as mentioned above, I've had limited support for Qobuz and Tidal streams for a while now; but I've managed to improve how this works a little.

 

This is lifted from the new version of the manual:

 

Two options exist for this as follows:

– Playing from a UPnP server with J River set up as a DLNA/UPnP renderer.

∗ Unfortunately this is limited to just one track at a time, because once the UPnP stream URL is handed over from J River to HQPlayer the sync between the UPnP server and J River is lost, and playback also stops in the UPnP server. For one track at a time playback, it is fine though. So if you enjoy playing dj, this might be for you. I've tested this with the app “mconnect” on IOS and BubbleUPnP on Android.

∗ For continous playback to be achieved on Windows the only solution I know of is my own “Supersonic” add-on for Kodi. This can send the stream urls directly from Kodi to HQPlayer though, so you might ask why involve J River as another middle-man? It does work well though, especially as from version 1.5 onwards of Supersonic, Kodi's own playback of the streams can be optionally turned off. Continuous playback is still achieved, since Supersonic waits for the duration of the currently playing track before fetching the next url from Qobuz or Tidal. If you have both J River and Kodi you might want to compare this option of Kodi - Supersonic J River - HQPlayer to Kodi - Supersonic - HQPlayer to see which works out best for you.

 

That's it. I hope the simplified procedures and above instructions will help some new users get onboard with this.

 

… and, of course, please replace any previous version with this one.

 

Geoff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

jr-hqp.zip

[sb6]

Sorry for my laziness, but I can't seem to find the latest link to the script and instructions.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

1 hour ago, sb6 said:

Sorry for my laziness, but I can't seem to find the latest link to the script and instructions.

It’s right there at the bottom of my last post!

[sb6]

Thanks, I thought that was just an updated script but not the full solution.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

12 minutes ago, sb6 said:

Thanks, I thought that was just an updated script but not the full solution.

You're welcome. Yes, I updated the entire package.

[rikirk]

Hi Geoff!

I tried the new version and to my understanding I still cannot use your tool if I have UltraRendu as a renderer. Am I correct?

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

1 hour ago, rikirk said:

Hi Geoff!

I tried the new version and to my understanding I still cannot use your tool if I have UltraRendu as a renderer. Am I correct?

Hi, There should be no difference in using my tool than using HQPlayerDesktop directly. If UltraRendu is the NAA renderer and HQPlayerDesktop is running under Windows, all should work.

 

If you're having any problems, let me know and I'll try to help.

 

Geoff

[rikirk]

You are always so kind and the Armagnac is still not in your hands

 

After few trial and error I see than it loads some albums randomly, does not matter in which hard disk they are stored. I have a single internal SSD and an external one via 3.0USB +the  SSD for the Win1064 OS (last update, so you know...). Running AO not extreme.

 

When HQP hangs a quick red script appears in DOS and I can read a ArgumentOutOfRangeException error. It goes too fast to capture it with PrintScr.

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

3 minutes ago, rikirk said:

You are always so kind and the Armagnac is still not in your hands

 

After few trial and error I see than it loads some albums randomly, does not matter in which hard disk they are stored. I have a single internal SSD and an external one via 3.0USB +the  SSD for the Win1064 OS (last update, so you know...). Running AO not extreme.

 

When HQP hangs a quick red script appears in DOS and I can read a ArgumentOutOfRangeException error. It goes too fast to capture it with PrintScr.

I'm still looking forward to that. More incentive to help  There's a log file and another bunch of files in the same folder as the script.

If you can post those I'll try to figure it out from there.

 

Geoff

[rikirk]

That's the problem in the world we live nowadays, it's all virtual! Maybe one day you will get here for the Axpona...

 

The track in the track.text was actually playing.

 

album.text

current_tracks.text

log.text

playlist.text

temps.text

testurl.text

vars.text

artist.text

track.text

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

9 hours ago, rikirk said:

That's the problem in the world we live nowadays, it's all virtual! Maybe one day you will get here for the Axpona...

 

The track in the track.text was actually playing.

 

album.text

current_tracks.text

log.text

playlist.text

temps.text

testurl.text

vars.text

artist.text

track.text

Hopefully the Sound Galleries Music Server will give me a chance to go there at some stage.

 

The error your getting indicates that my script can't validate the path to the file(s) you're trying to play.

 

From your first message I got the impression that some albums were playing and others not?

 

If that's the case could you send me the string of the full path of a file that's playing and the full path of one that's failing to play?

 

That should help me further in understanding the problem.

 

Thanks

 

Geoff

[teodorom]

Hi,

I have tried this with my flacs. Doesn't work!

First of all I see the code of the .cmd running on my console, but apart that I get the error:

error: Connection refused
Get-ChildItem : Cannot find path 'C:\Users\HYSTOU\Desktop\“Y:\Music\Qobuz\t256gezal0c1a' because it does not exist.
At C:\Users\HYSTOU\Downloads\jr-hqp-album\jrexp.ps1:376 char:18

The album is indeed in Y:\Music\Qobuz\t256gezal0c1a, so I don't understand why the program is trying to go somewhere else.

Thanks

Teodoro Marinucci

[rikirk]

playing:

M:\Classical\Beethoven, Ludwig van\Beethoven - Symphonies - Toscanini\No. 1 (1937) (BBC) (Pristine)\

 

not playing:

M:\Classical\Chopin\Chopin - Late Works, Opp. 59-64 - Pollini (2017) [24-96]\

 

hope it helps doing your magic...

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

10 hours ago, teodorom said:

Hi,

I have tried this with my flacs. Doesn't work!

First of all I see the code of the .cmd running on my console, but apart that I get the error:

error: Connection refused
Get-ChildItem : Cannot find path 'C:\Users\HYSTOU\Desktop\“Y:\Music\Qobuz\t256gezal0c1a' because it does not exist.
At C:\Users\HYSTOU\Downloads\jr-hqp-album\jrexp.ps1:376 char:18

The album is indeed in Y:\Music\Qobuz\t256gezal0c1a, so I don't understand why the program is trying to go somewhere else.

Thanks

Teodoro Marinucci

Hi Teodoro,

 

I tried to recreate your problem by making a path very similar to yours:

 

M:\Music\Qobuz\t256gezal0c1a\Arbos\Master Class

 

The tracks themselves are in that final "Master Class" folder.

 

The only obvious difference is that my directory is "M" instead of "Y"; but that wouldn't make any difference.

 

I also tried placing the tracks in the "t256gezal0c1a" directory.

 

In both cases it worked for me.

 

Can you provide the full path to the files themselves? I can only think there might be something in the actual file name that is preventing it from working for you.

 

Thanks,

 

Geoff

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

5 hours ago, rikirk said:

playing:

M:\Classical\Beethoven, Ludwig van\Beethoven - Symphonies - Toscanini\No. 1 (1937) (BBC) (Pristine)\

 

not playing:

M:\Classical\Chopin\Chopin - Late Works, Opp. 59-64 - Pollini (2017) [24-96]\

 

hope it helps doing your magic...

The quick answer to this is that it's the "[24-96]" at the end of the album name that's causing the problem.

 

Remove that and it should work.

 

…of course that's not ideal and I'm working on a solution that can handle these characters.

 

Let me know if removing the "[24-96]" fixes it for you.

 

Thanks,

 

Geoff

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

1 hour ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

The quick answer to this is that it's the "[24-96]" at the end of the album name that's causing the problem.

 

Remove that and it should work.

 

…of course that's not ideal and I'm working on a solution that can handle these characters.

 

Let me know if removing the "[24-96]" fixes it for you.

 

Thanks,

 

Geoff

This should now be properly fixed in the new version below. IOW it should not be necessary for you to remove the "[24-96]"

 

You only need to replace the main powershell script with the one attached here.

 

Please test. If all working well everyone else using this should also replace their ps script with this version.

 

Thanks

 

…ps for some reason I had to zip it to upload it here

 

jrexp.ps1.zip

[rikirk]

Thank you!!! Will report back as soon as I hit home tonight.

[rikirk]

I confirm that the issue is related to the [ parenthesis and the new jrexp did not fix it.

Wish I can be more helpful.

While all my hires files are marked within square parethesis, I am also aware HQPlayer does not like { curly parenthesis either and I have many folders categorized in that way for any particular information relevant to a specific recording...

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

18 hours ago, rikirk said:

I confirm that the issue is related to the [ parenthesis and the new jrexp did not fix it.

Wish I can be more helpful.

While all my hires files are marked within square parethesis, I am also aware HQPlayer does not like { curly parenthesis either and I have many folders categorized in that way for any particular information relevant to a specific recording...

Hi Rick,

 

No need to apologise. Although the change I made didn't cure your problem, it does mean the script should now handle any of these characters that would have caused problems before, such as '[' and ']' … and no doubt many others. So you've helped me improve my script.

 

I dug a little deeper into your problem, taking that Chopin album as an example. This album no longer causes any errors with my script. So you're probably correct that the file path's contain some characters that can't be loaded by HQPlayer for some reason.

 

For me this falls into the same situation as file types HQPlayer can't handle, like Apple Lossless, for example. Even though the file type itself is .flac in your case.

 

The only solution is to create temporary files. I'm working on a version which tries to identify these problem files (for HQPlayer) and creates temp files for those albums.

 

In the meantime, the only thing I can offer you is a version which always creates temp files, if you're in a hurry for a solution.

 

I have improved temp file handling. Each track is loaded to HQPlayer incrementally now as it's created and as soon as the selected track is reached playback starts.

 

Please let me know if you're ok with having temp files created to work around these problems.

 

Thanks

 

Geoff

 

 

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

52 minutes ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Hi Rick,

 

No need to apologise. Although the change I made didn't cure your problem, it does mean the script should now handle any of these characters that would have caused problems before, such as '[' and ']' … and no doubt many others. So you've helped me improve my script.

 

I dug a little deeper into your problem, taking that Chopin album as an example. This album no longer causes any errors with my script. So you're probably correct that the file path's contain some characters that can't be loaded by HQPlayer for some reason.

 

For me this falls into the same situation as file types HQPlayer can't handle, like Apple Lossless, for example. Even though the file type itself is .flac in your case.

 

The only solution is to create temporary files. I'm working on a version which tries to identify these problem files (for HQPlayer) and creates temp files for those albums.

 

In the meantime, the only thing I can offer you is a version which always creates temp files, if you're in a hurry for a solution.

 

I have improved temp file handling. Each track is loaded to HQPlayer incrementally now as it's created and as soon as the selected track is reached playback starts.

 

Please let me know if you're ok with having temp files created to work around these problems.

 

Thanks

 

Geoff

 

 

Too late to edit this. As it turns out, it's not a problem with HQPlayer at all.

 

Apologies Jussi!

 

I'm finalising a new version which can handle these albums without having to create temp files.

 

Geoff

[teodorom]

Hi Geoff,

the path has nothing strange:

Y:\Music\Qobuz\t256gezal0c1a\46758268.flac

I tried with a file converted in the same directory as ALAC

Y:\Music\Qobuz\t256gezal0c1a\46758268.m4a

This gives me no errors but I'm not sure that's really HQPlayer playing since I see no trace of it in Task Manager or Process Lasso.

Thanks

Teodoro Marinucci

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

19 minutes ago, teodorom said:

Hi Geoff,

the path has nothing strange:

Y:\Music\Qobuz\t256gezal0c1a\46758268.flac

I tried with a file converted in the same directory as ALAC

Y:\Music\Qobuz\t256gezal0c1a\46758268.m4a

This gives me no errors but I'm not sure that's really HQPlayer playing since I see no trace of it in Task Manager or Process Lasso.

Thanks

Teodoro Marinucci

Hi Teodoro,

 

For me that is kind of strange ?. I have to make certain assumptions in my script, while trying to keep it as open as possible.

 

At least I’d like to see a track number followed by a track name that is human readable.

 

Ok, it is human readable; but it just looks like a hex value (or something) followed by another bunch of numbers for, what I guess, is the track name.

 

I can’t help wondering how your music files ended up like that ?

 

Normally I follow the standard: Album Artist/Album name, followed by track number then track name and finally extension.

 

Geoff

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Hey Rick,

 

Something you could try for me with that Chopin album. Take a look at the Disc Num tag. If it’s anything other than zero or blank, try changing it to zero or blank for all the tracks and see if it loads in HQP.

 

Thanks

 

Geoff