5.1 FLAC with Roon to Raspberry Pi

Audio Gear Talk Raspberry Pi
1

I have been successful sending 5.1 FLAC to my surround receiver via HDMI using my MacBook as a Roon endpoint. I would like to do this with a Raspberry Pi, can it be done? What do I need ? Software? Best Pi for the job?

2

AFAIK, it still can’t be done using an RPi. None of the Linux distros seem to be able to deliver multichannel audio via HDMI when used with Roon Bridge.

Some of us have resorted to entry-level NUCs with ROCK to get this done…

3

Yes, I was able to do that with Volumio on a Raspi4 via HDMI. HDMI gets resampled to 48khz/16bit and the channel mapping might need a tweak or two. Asfarasiknow, Volumio is the only software that makes full use of hdmi on Raspi4, incl. the Roon Bridge.

4

That was my first thought then someone mentioned the R Pi. I was looking a a $300+ NUC with windows. I would use this as an endpoint only. I have a sonicTransporter with 2TB SSD for my Roon Core and ultraRendu for 2 ch. 5.1 streams to my MacBook for playback no problem. I want a more permanent solution though. Connecting my Mac to my receiver via HDMI when I want to listen to 5.1 will be a nuisance. So can I use a cheap NUC as a headless endpoint controlled from Mac, iPhone or iPad. What specifications would the NUC need? Thanks for any help!

5

I was unsuccessful. I was able to get multichannel from the pi but with a lot of cracks. Like Geoff mentioned above I resorted to a very basic refurbished NUC for €100. It only runs ROCK configure as Roon bridge (like te PI), not Roon Core.

6

Buy a cheap used NUC and install ROCK on it. This is what I have done. No chance with RPi, Kernel does not support it :roll_eyes:

7

Thanks to all I will be looking at cheap Nucs. Im still ripping disks to FLAC. Does anyone know of a way to rip encoded BluRay? I have the drive and DVD extractor says it rips BD but I have had no luck.

8

You need to first use a program like MakeMKV to make a “backup” of the Blu-ray which DVD Audio Extractor can then process.

9

Trying that out as I type. Thanks for the tip.

10

thats a complicated thing :frowning: rip the blu ray to an mkv, then you need to extract the audio stream from it and cut it in separate flacs according to the chapters mark. then you have to name them by yourself.

11

Converted a BD to MKV with MakeMKV and have no idea how to extract the audio. DVD extractor doesn’t seem to recognize the MKV file. I’m lost!

12

IIRC (it was a while ago) you have to use the backup feature in MakeMKV not copy. I’d say Google is your friend at this point.

13

I’m using also Picoreplayer with an installed roon usbridge, which is able to play 24/192 without resampling.

14

I meant resampling on the HDMI port. With an Hifiberry DAC I get not resampling but no Mch too.

15

I’ve also meant HDMI…
Some years ago, I’ve worked together with the developer from picoreplayer on a patched kernel, which can output native PCM, dts and DD through HDMI.

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16

Goggle it and followed the directions, still no luck. I’ll keep trying.

17

I am totally confused by the NUC. I have lived in a Mac world too long. I am running core on a sonicTransporter. I want to run the NUC as an endpoint only for 5.1. Will this machine do? **(Intel NUC NUC6CAYH Mini PC/HTPC - Intel Celeron J3455 Quad-Core up to 2.30 GHz Processor, 4GB DDR3L RAM, 128GB SSD, Intel HD Graphics 500, Dual Monitor Capable, WiFi + Bluetooth 4.2, Windows 10 Pro)**I figured I would just download Roon Bridge for Windows and be done. The price is $266 on Amazon. Is this a good way to go and will it work?