I am using an Intel NUC for Roon headless and Kodi Media Player.
The reason for this setup is that I am just artificially trying to justify my NUC with Win10 purchase by running both Kodi and Roon on it. Before, I was just running Kodi on a RasPi. Now I just consolidated my hardware chaos.
After listening via Roon excessively and using my tablet for controlling Room, I realized that too often I ask myself which song is currently playing and just miss the possibility to see what is currently playing on the big screen.
So, in order to realize this I would need to install Roon remote instead of room headless on my NUC. But the problem I have is the following:
Do I need to dust off my raspi and run Kodi on it separately so that I can keep Roon interface on the TV screen? Or is there any software allowing me to quick switch between Roon window and kodi? Preferably the âswitchingâ solution is also compatible with a Logitech harmony remote.
Have you tried the Linux platform over windows? I prefer linux to windows. I keep Kodi and Roon on separate NUCs so if Kodi crashes or like it does not affect my audio experience that could be in another room. Anyways Kodi needs a screen unless you use the Kodi remote app - you can on your tablet switch between Kodi remote app and Roon app - however you will need to ultimately playback Kodi on a monitor. Roon does not require a monitor once it is installed on the NUC (you can ping the ip address on any other monitor in the house). Good Luck.
Btw the best solution is using ROCK OS for Roon on the NUC - seamless and no crashes on the audio front - but Kodi does not work on ROCK, therefore my earlier suggestion to keep Kodi separate to Roon.
I run RoonServer and Kodi on a Windows 7 PC. I have zero issues with either. To be able to use a Harmony remote, get a Flirc USB IR receiver. This will allow you to program any Windows key or key combinations such as Alt-Tab to switch between running apps.
I also have restart and sleep programmed to keys on my Harmony, among others but I use these frequently.
i am currently runnig both roon and kodi on the same NUC with no issues at all. Roon is running headless in the background enabling me to select music via my mobile devices for streaming via different roon endpoints.
I am just now missing some kind of roon visualization on the big screen. In order to enable this I only see 2 options:
a) I run kodi on a seperate hardware, e.g ,on a Raspi 3, as I did before and run roon on my NUC as a remote instance so that I always have the roon GUI on the TV
b) i find a simple solution that allows me to easily minimise kodi and bring up the Roon GUI on the same NUC with a press of a button and vice versa.
Out of hardware efficiency reasons I would like to realize option b) and would need advice if there is a way to realize thisâŚ
I used to do exactly this using AutoHotKey. Itâs a Windows utility that runs in the system tray and listens for keystrokes and then performs actions.
Most NUCs have an IR receiver built-in, but if yours doesnât you can pick them up on eBay cheap. Apart from that you donât need any hardware.
Then you need to configure Harmony to send keystrokes to your NUC. You can add it as a device in your Harmony configuration, as a Media Centre PC. Map a remote button to a specific keystroke (like Alt-1 for example), or add the keystroke to an Activity startup. Then configure AutoHotKey to activate a named window when it detects that key.
Let me know if you need more info, Iâve got my old config backed up somewhere.
I created the autohotkey script but now I am stuck at how to assign the hotkey to the harmony remote. I defined RALT&J for ALT+TAB.
But now, I do not know how to tell Logitech Harmony that it needs to send RALT&J. Maybe I need to try another hotkey for ALT+TAB? Such as â1â e.g.?
You need to look at the available keys in the Harmony device and choose one of them. You should choose a key that isnât likely to ever be normally used on the PC.
There are two Harmony device definitions that you can use, âMicrosoft MCE Keyboardâ and âMicrosoft Windows Media Centre SEâ (and probably more I donât know about). You can have them both active in your config, and map keys from either of them to button presses or activity startup/shutdown sequences.
The âMicrosoft Windows Media Centre SEâ device can send keystrokes Alt-1 to 9 and Ctrl-Alt-1 to 9. I mapped them to remote buttons and used them to fire off AutoHotKey commands.
Also, with AutoHotKey, rather than relying on Alt-Tab, your config can active the specific window you want, https://autohotkey.com/docs/commands/WinActivate.htm. So you can have one button that always activates Roon, and another that activates Kodi.
I just found some time to fiddle around with this topic again.
I took a look at ropiee but did not find out if I could use a raspi with ropiee, connect it via HDMI to the TV and have the roon screen showing ânow playingâ on the big TV screen.
Would this be possible? Everyone in the forum is talking about connecting the RPI screen, which confuses me.
Iâm not sure how ropiee can be connected directly to the big TV screen over the HDMI connection. This question must be raised to @spockfish - heâs the owner of Ropiee.
RoPieee can only server the RPI touchscreen, which is a dedicated 7" touchscreen developed by the Raspberry Foundation. So everytime someone is mentioning âthe RPI screenâ they are generally referring to this one.
RoPieee does not use the HDMI connection, hence itâs not possible to use RoPieee for displaying stuff on a TV. For that I suggest you combine some elements from other projects yourself.
Just fiddled around again and the autohotkey option together with windows hotkey manager software enabled me to control kodi and immediately switch to Roon âNow Playingâ screen and back again.
Could you describe in some more detail how your remote control setup works now, and how you got there? I am also interested in using a remote control on a NUC based Core which doubles as an HTPC.
I am running a NUC with Win10. I initially wanted to use it for Roon, Kodi and Netflix and control it via a Logitech Harmony Remote. With control I mean the following:
navigating Kodi
navigating Netflix
switching to âRoon now playingâ screen from within Kodi or Netflix or from shutdown/ sleep mode whenever I am interested in showcasing what is currently playing. Given the navigational complexity of roon which is perfectly made for touch control I only intended it as showcase on the big screen.
After some experimentation, I decided to ditch Netflix and implement the rest as intended. The reason for that is simply that Netflix has an abysmal user experience on non-touch device as it only supports navigation via mouse from within Chromebrowser or as an Windows App - Keyboard keys cannot do anything. Though there is a leading app that offers emulating mouse control via arrow keys on the keyboard but the app is in beta since 2 years and is a catastrophe with regard to ease of use, let alone woman acceptance factor (WAF).
In order to realize these requirements, I did the following:
Install required media software:
1.1 Install Roon server (to make sure that it is always running the background and not accidentally closed)
1.2 Install Roon Remote for showcasing now playing
1.3 Install Kodi as a standalone app and not from the Windows AppStore
Create macros for each required activity with AutoHotKey Software:
2.1 Shutdown
2.2 Sleep
2.3 Run Kodi or bring into foreground if Kodi already is running
2.4 Kill Kodi (should it freeze at any time - happens sometimes in my setup, unfortunately)
2.5 Run Roon remote and switch to ânow playingâ screen or bring into foreground if Roon is already running
Map each macro file created above to a single key with Windows Hotkey Manager Software, because harmony remote does not understand special keystrings. In my case I mapped it to F2, F3, F4, F8, F10
Configure Logitech Harmony Remote:
4.1 Create activity that includes all devices for running the NUC
4.2 assign the F buttons above to buttons on the Harmony Remote
put the primary app into the windows startup folder (in my case kodi)
Et voila, you are done:
I just start the NUC by pressing the corresponding activity button on the Harmony remote. With that Kodi opens directly after startup. With a press of a button on the remote, Roon remote starts and switches to the ânow playing screenâ and with a press of a button I can switch back to Kodi.
It might sound overwhelming but it is easy in fact. I can also make the AutoHotKey scripts available here, if interested, which saves you most of the work. You would only need to review and update the file paths for Roon and Kodi depending on your setup.
All this is assuming that you know how to setup your HTPC with Logitech Harmony. If this is also not known, I can also provide detailed instructions for that as well. Just let me know if it would help you.
Thankyou so much for this very detailed write up Kian. This seems to be very close to what I would like to do. I would definitely be interested in your AutoHotKey scripts. Thanks for the offer!
Sure thing. Here are the contents per script (just copy paste the content while reviewing the file paths to kodi and roon): Run Roon Now Playing Script
Iâve got Roon on the same i5, 8Gb RAM NUC as Plex and Sonarr and it is fine, the processor hardly breaks a sweat. No sleep or hibernate, always on. UI for Plex, Netflix, Amazon etc using an Nvidia Shield, so the NUC is headless.
also interesting setup and more user friendly actually. the only missing feature is roon remote on the shield. on top, you would have to buy a nvidia shield as an addition to the NUC.
In my case, I would not like to miss the âRoon now playingâ screen on the TV and would like to keep my âdevice saladâ to a minimum, although maintaining Win10 is a painâŚ