· I'm connected to HQ Player Desktop 3 (version 3.25.6), the last one available for desktop 3. Every step to perform the connection was performed wright. Desktop player is recognized. However to begin playing a message telling playback could not to start appears with and additional phrase saying HQPlayer may need an update. I remember that this is the last version from the provider. At the same time Roon states that desktop 3 from 3.12 and above will perfectly works. Please help me with that issue. Thank you.
Tell us about your home network
· It' s an optical fiber router provided by Movistar the internet company giving service. Router brand: Mitrostar, model: GNC-2541GNAC. I have A LAN running on this device where ROON and hardware components are connected and sharing it.
I think the next step here is to enable some diagnostics on your account so our technical staff can get some more insight into what’s going on here.
However, before I enable this feature, I’d like to ask for your help ensuring we gather the right information.
First, can you please reproduce the issue once more and note the time at which the error occurs. Then respond here with that time, and I’ll make sure we review the diagnostics related to that timestamp.
Thanks for the additional information! That “Playback could not be started / HQPlayer may need an update” message is a generic Roon error, not a definitive statement that your HQPlayer version is outdated.
Roon throws this when:
It can’t fully initialize HQPlayer’s backend
HQPlayer is reachable, but fails at playback start
There’s a mismatch in protocol expectations (not necessarily version number)
For the next step, let’s confirm which HQPlayer you’re running
HQPlayer Desktop has three different product lines:
HQPlayer Desktop
HQPlayer Embedded
HQPlayer Desktop 3
Roon only supports:
HQPlayer Desktop 3.12+
HQPlayer Embedded (recent versions)
Double-check:
Open HQPlayer
Go to About
Confirm it explicitly says HQPlayer Desktop 3.25.6
If it says HQPlayer Desktop (non-3) → Roon will connect but fail at playback.
Then, after that, let’s try to disable HQPlayer’s auto-start audio engine
This one bites a lot of people.
In HQPlayer:
Go to Settings → General
Disable:
“Start playback automatically”
Any “Resume last session” option
Quit HQPlayer completely
Relaunch HQPlayer before starting Roon
Why: If HQPlayer grabs the audio backend first, Roon can’t initialize playback even though it “sees” the player.
If that doesn’t help - let’s then check sample-rate limits. Roon will try to send audio → HQPlayer → DAC at rates that may exceed what the DAC accepts.
In HQPlayer:
Go to Settings → Output
Temporarily set:
PCM rate limit: 192 kHz
DSD rate limit: DSD128 or lower
Disable:
Poly-sinc-ext
Any heavy modulators (for now)
Then test again from Roon.
If this fixes it → the issue was an unsupported rate or modulator causing HQPlayer to reject playback.
We’ll be on standby for your reply and results, thank you!
