HQPlayer Desktop thread

Quick question about the licence “fingerprint”. Do I just cut and paste the license code, into the Hardware registration box?

When you order license key for HQPlayer Desktop, you don’t need the hardware fingerprint. It is only used in cases where HQPlayer license is included with the hardware.

For HQPlayer Embedded license, you just copy-paste the fingerprint string from HQPlayer’s web interface /about page to the order form.

I bought a desktop license, do I need to use it somewhere, or does the 30min trial just stop now?

You load the license key file by selecting Register from HQPlayer’s Help-menu. You can see more details in manual section “Registering your copy”.

Yep got the key loaded. Thx

Replying to your other post in the ‘what filters’ thread.

It’s more appropriate to discuss that nitty gritty here

That’s all you need to stick with.

Roon plays to HQPlayer (desktop in your case) and then HQPlayer will output to whatever backends you choose.

You need to give each RPi NAA image a unique name, so that you can select them from the dropdown menu. If you don’t rename them, they are all called ‘naa’ and it won’t work.

Hookup the Pi to a screen and keyboard.

Type:

  1. root (at login)
  2. nano /etc/hostname
  3. It should be an empty file.
  4. Type whatever name you want (like Living Room) in this empty file
  5. Control + X keys to exit and make sure you say yes to saving
  6. reboot

Wait for the Pi to reboot then open HQPlayer and you should see the new NAA name.

Now you can have a dozen RPi’s around the house with unique names and you choose them in HQPlayer , not in Roon.

You can just keep one keyboard and monitor hooked to one Pi and do this hostname naming procedure with different SD cards (for doing this with multiple Pi’s). Just make sure you label each SD card or know exactly which name you’ve given it.

There’s another way as per Jussi’s comment below but I find the hostname method easy enough.

Give it a crack !

Stick to RPi4’s by the way (if you can even find any !). RPi3’s are no longer supported.

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Gold!! Thanks.

Next step😃

Another step closer to becoming a HQPlayer Jedi

Jussi is Yoda

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I’m just a stormtrooper atm

Hi together,
I also have a question.

Every time I turn off my DAC, and later turn it on again, the playback via the HQPlayer does not work anymore.
I have to go to the preference menu of the HQPlayer, there is then my DAC, I click on OK, and then it works again.

So far so good, but if I now want to run my Mac Mini M1 headless as HQPlayer server, it’s a problem.

Can anyone say something about this?

System:
Roon Rock
RPi4 with RooopieXL (with jussis NAA image I have the same problem)
ifi Pro iDSD
Mac Mini M1 & HQPlayer Desktop 4.19.2

Yes it’s normal.

You will have to keep your DAC on.

Thank you for your reply.
That’s a pity, then after my conversion at the new listening place HQPlayer probably falls away, since I then no longer have a PC there, and to leave my DAC always switched on is not an option - is a DAC with tubes.

If you’re using it with hqplayer desktop, in macOS, enable Remote Management (System Preferences > Sharing). Use the ScreenSharing app on your other Mac and/or there are RemoteManagement clients that work on iOS and Android that you can use.

If you have or want to use an iOS or Android app that only supports vnc, the vnc protocol can be enabled in macOS by clicking ‘Computer Settings’ (found in area when you selected remote management) and selecting the vnc checkbox and supplying a password for vnc connections.

Also you can use HQPDcontrol on iOS and Android to change hqplayer settings. But as of now, you cannot use it to enable the dac at power on.

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When you turn off DAC while it is in use (HQPlayer is running), depending on how DAC’s USB interface is implemented, it will just suddenly disappear.

This causes various problems and sometimes confuses the OS drivers as well. For example last nigh I changed one setting on one of my SMSL DACs which caused USB disconnect. As a result the USB interface and OS stack got so confused that I had to power off both DAC and NAA and restart both to make it work again.

Another option here, instead of turning off HQPlayer each time, turn off also NAA if you turn off DAC.

To power off, first turn off NAA then DAC. To power on, first turn on DAC and then NAA. NAA takes couple of seconds to boot up. HQPlayer will automatically reconnect to the NAA. At least on PC based hardware devices, short press of power button triggers proper OS shutdown procedure on both NAA OS and HQPlayer OS. This is what I do with my headless HQPlayer Embedded servers. Shutdown takes 2 seconds. Boot up takes 5 - 10 seconds. But NAA OS shouldn’t get broken even if you just pull the plug. If it one day happens to fail, it takes couple of minutes to rewrite the microSD card for RPi.

If first play attempt fails, just press play second time, in some failure cases it triggers reconnection.

I have 2 usb DAC’s connected to my NAA. HQPlayer has always been defaulting to the DAC I use 95% of the time with HQPlayer… which is a good thing.


  • Is there a rhyme or reason as to which DAC hqplayer will choose on restart? (Both DACs are always on)

To answer the question as to why 2 dacs on the same NAA…
One dac has a roonready ethernet connection and a usb connection and I mostly use it with the ethernet connection… but occasionally I use it with HQPlayer to get to DSD256. So I just remote desktop in and select it.

Yes, device selection in HQPlayer stores device id which to use. For NAA endpoints this is always combination of two things - NAA name and device id of the DAC behind it. This is also reason why each NAA must have a unique name, otherwise HQPlayer will get confused.

It is normal to have multiple DACs behind a single NAA, or have multiple NAAs with one or more DACs behind each. I do it too.

It can now with new firmware update

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Wow - did they really do it?! Or its just a marketing nonsense that no one in iFi understands but it sounds so freaking fancy though !?!?

Anecdote #1 my ticked with iFi about Go Bar DSDx48 rates is still open - precisely two months with no single indication of an answer. Front line has apologised a month ago for “delayed” response. I personally find that pathetic, but, hey, this is the level of service you must expect with iFi. Pure nonsense… I have returned their devices weeks ago.

Now for the Gryphon I’m very sure its a different animal to a nonsense-dongle and if this can really perform fully fledged it may actually be something!!!

Anecdote #2 I have been very excited to prepare my “summer break” HQP station, and am very happy as I really got impressive desktop setup, but… At the end I was so freaking tired before the break that I did not take any sound source/music device with me. However now i have fully immersive 3D audio of Cote d"Azure hot breeze 24/7 instead and I find this exactly what I need right now blended with good chilled wines or better - Pastis :slight_smile: Because back at home there are plans of changing cooling system on my HQP 129k server and making a final assault at 7ECv2@1024 ! :))) May be those extra 5-6C i count on will make a difference??? Igorski - it is really a time for a break! hahaha!!!

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apologies if this has already been answered elsewhere, but for an M1 Mac Mini, is 8gb of ram sufficient for HQPlayer? Or does it need 16gb?

thanks!

For simpler use cases it is sufficient. For complex ones maybe not.

But even without HQPlayer, 8GB models suffer from early flash (SSD) wear out due to increased swapping.