Roon as an output channel for other sources? Ugh, but maybe

Way back I had a CD that wouldnt rip on 3 or 4 different PC drives but would play on my CD player. I assume the disc was erroring but the error correction circuitry in the CD player was able to correct the problems.

I seem to remember I took the digital out on the CD player and fed it into the optical in of a sound card.

Then I must’ve used some sort of PC app allow me to play on the CD player and’save’ the file(s) on the PC.

As I say the specifics are hazy but I know I did it.

Stream what you hear does have a setting to stream lossless pcm or high bitrate lossy. It is a workaround but does work well. I use it for listening to some SiriusXM programs.

Yes I an aware of that, but last time I checked Roon could not receive lossless stations. only MP3 or AAC.Has this changed?

Good point. Not sure as I just stream high bit rate MP3. Nothing I’m streaming needs high quality (talk/news)

This would potentially be interesting for a bunch of things.

One way one might be able to make this work today is by using a tool such as Ladiocast and transmitting to a local url that Roon would pick up (I have not tried this).

Ladiocast:

And a few pointers now that Nicecast is defunct:

https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2018/03/02/broadcasting-from-the-mac-without-nicecast/

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Re-reading this thread in the hopes of seeing some indication that it’s at least on the roadmap, and took note of this:

Slaving the notification sound parameters to the format configuration of the music would be an improvement, but the most elegant solutions only become possible when you start architecting hardware around them.

@brian, does the introduction of the nucleus change this story any?

(My use case is driven by having active speakers, so I have to run all audio sources - system, streaming, local music, etc. - through DSP. I do have the means to manage two different data flows on my Mac Mini using Loopback and AU Lab, but it’s not transparent - in the sense that I need to actively change between application suites with the source - and I desperately long for it to be.)

Thanks!

So we have a great menu for audio outputs in Roon settings https://i.615283.net/u/Yawning1050618.png. I would love something similar but for audio inputs. For example, take the line in on the core computer, and be able to play this through any audio output zone. Some example uses for this:

  • For a television that cannot easily be connected to your HiFi system.
  • Game/Other program audio from computers.
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Interesting question as to whether Roon as an audio driver could actually synch with a video source. I mean, there’d have to be delay, I think.

There is another issue, discussed somewhere:
It seems fairly straightforward to feed audio that is already in a computer into a piece of software like a Roon, but with Roon’s distributed architecture, multi-room and a variety of operating systems, in many cases the audio you want to feed in is not on the machine running the Core. It may be Linux, ROCK, Nucleus; it may be a NAS; it may be in a different room. It may be, may have to be, on the remote device in your hand, like an iPhone/iPad/Android thing, because it may not have a remotable user interface like Roon, and note that in most cases the audio stream does not go through the remote. Or it may be on whatever oddball TV/TiVo/cable box you have.

So at minimum, it has to be possible to get the audio into a UI device and feed it back to the Core, in a reverse RAAT channel, so it can be processed and then sent out again, maybe to the same device where it originated (bi-directional RAAT), maybe elsewhere.

How are you force fed hip-hop? Yes, I know that the home page is hip-hop centric but I don’t listen to the stuff and I have no trouble finding classical, rock, or jazz.

I’m still amazed that I have easy access to one hundred and twelve Glenn Gould albums, to name just one artist.

I find Tidal’s catalog to be very deep, perhaps not as deep as the Naxos Music Library, and I have a subscription there, but still an amazing resource, in my opinion.

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Roon Onramp :smiley:

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Devialet Phantoms are exactly doing this. An optical input signal of the Phantom is streamed in stereo to the Dialog and Dialog distributes the signal to all Phantoms in the selected configuration being mono or stereo setups in single or multiple rooms. All up to 24bit/192k. So Roon could do the same. This would be a real winner!

I would think the only way to avoid delay, which is only relevant if it has to synch with video, would be to have the signal sent directly from the device that takes the input (i.e. not route it through the core unless that is also the input). Even then it might be impossible to avoid some delay.

It would show up as an audio driver/device and probably be independent of Roon’s media software.

Roon can’t ever do anything useful, like vertical scrolling, accept plug ins, or accept alternative line-ins (browser sound)…that would make too much sense.

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Give it some time and you’ll probably end up having everything you want in Roon.

patience

2 posts were split to a new topic: TuneBlade - I need your help with setting

I’d like to be able to route sound to Roon from other players via a virtual cable. Also, Roon would need an interface to select the input device. Thanks.

Hi, Just wondering what happened with the additional input issue? I’d really like to be able to inject my TV audio into my Roon network, ideally via a HDMI ARC input? At this stage the absence of this capability will probably see me return to the SONOS app before my trial subscription ends.

Bye then, not going to happen during you trial and unlikely to support arc as that’s for input into av equipment only, pcs that run the core don’t support arc as an input to my knowledge or infact input at all only output. If it does come it would be more likely via USB into the soundcard of the host computer that also has analogue inputs much like the current extension called entrypoints does.

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What’s the latest on this? I’m considering using Roon DSP as a critical part of my audio system, but it’ll only work if I can route my computer’s audio through it.

Ideal Solution
I would like to be able to select Roon as an audio output device on MacOS or Windows. All system audio would be routed to Roon. Then I use Roon to assign zones and apply DSP. Ideally this all works without perceptible latency.

Possible Work Around
Since Roon has no direct support for this (AFAICT from reading through this thread), I’m going to try broadcasting my computer’s audio as an internet radio station on my LAN. No idea how to do that (yet!) but it seems like the only option at the moment.

I think this will be a major deciding factor for whether or not I decide to keep Roon after my trial ends.