so, as someone mentioned somewhere…
a person could build a Ubuntu NUC, install roon, and then add HQPlayer to that.
Is that the BEST way to do it?
Otherwise, if a person builds a ROCK NUC, then that person will need to find another computer to run HQPlayer. (As a roon bridge?)
Or run HQP embedded OS on a Pi.
I’m exhausted, but it seems I’m the only one. 
That is pretty straightforward. Use Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS, and install the stock lowlatency kernel. And then Roon Server and HQPlayer Embedded there. Note that Desktop and Embedded require separate licenses.
But if you want, you could run the same, or just HQPlayer on your old Macs.
You can also install Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 LTS if you’d like to run HQPlayer Desktop there.
Depends on what kind of DSP you want to do. Running HQPlayer OS on a NUC or something else gives you more processing power.
Irrespective of above, you can always run one or more NAA’s on RPi4 using my NAA OS images. If you have more than one, just remember to change the name of the NAAs so that there’s no naming conflict, for example by changing hostnames.
For those users who are aggrieved by the notice period given by Roon, can I ask what sort of notice period you would consider reasonable ?
You can control update behaviour by Roon and elect not to install the update on Monday 28 February. Eventually you will need to update, but doesn’t that control give you the power to delay updating for the same time as you would have had under any reasonable longer notice period ?
Consider the position of those users who are experiencing audio dropping out during track transitions. They have paid for HQ Player 4 but are not getting satisfactory use of it due to issues Roon can now fix. Why should the fix for them be delayed for a greater notice period when those who want more notice have an option to delay updating ?
If I had to pull a number out of my bum, I would say 3 weeks.
In the case of buying Embedded v4, anybody that has had to ask Jussi for the license key after sending him the fingerprint for new hardware, knows 5 days is sometimes not enough. And that’s just to get the license key.
That is no fault of Jussi. But that’s 1 week already. Roon staff may never have had to go through those steps themselves, so may not be aware. You could be lucky and get a new license key in 2 days but sometimes it can take a bit longer, depending if Jussi is travelling, on leave etc. Again no fault of him at all.
And allow 2 weeks for someone to buy news parts for a new PC or buy a new PC.
Certainly 3 weeks would be better than 5 days for those complaining.
But it’s hard, there will be still people upset with 3 weeks.
Anyway we all know:
I don’t know that there’s a specific number of days that would be adequate, but they sent out an email on Feb 23 telling us that the update will happen on Feb 28. Considering this requires people to either stop using the software, or buy new equipment, and since they have the ability to send out an actual email, some lead time would be nice to allow us to get our ducks in a row.
yep, that’s the plan.
I think this is the thing that I didn’t know, that others were having issues. When those issues were discovered, and the knowledge about AVX2 support known, an email could have gone out to those running HQP saying, “ok, this might affect you, and we’re working on a solution that might require you to update your hardware and/or software.”
That would have been cool.
Would I have acted immediately? Ehhh probably not, but at least they would have had their bases covered when we complained.
ok, wait, what?
I thought the old macs were deprecated with this new update?
I can understand that. However it would be irresponsible of Roon to give notice before the changes were ready for release. Testing might have resulted in further delays, a redesign or a change of last supported version.
Once the changes are ready for release it is hard to justify further delay.
Ultimately the various constraints mean not everyone can be happy, so it’s an exercise in minimising unhappiness, not eliminating it.
Personally I’m pleased Roon were able to give users the notice they have, short as it may be This is a vast improvement on reading about it for the first time in Release Notes after users have already installed the upgrade.
AVX2 requirement on Windows version has been there for months already. So it is not really anything new.
Not if you run Linux…
Apple has discontinued macOS support for the oldest hardware quite a while ago. And Microsoft on Windows 11. But Linux is a bit different.
There are some universal binaries for macOS in use, which sets baseline macOS version. Since older versions of macOS don’t support M1.
Why would you need a new key for this case?
Someone going from HQP Desktop v3 to Embedded v4?
Maybe installing Ubuntu Server edition on old hardware for first time.
5 days is not much time but then again, I guess they can try to hold off updating Roon. Until ready.
ya, no worries. I’m a mac guy. Haven’t used windows for years.
Then you get the key through automated process from the web shop.
Ah yes, thanks for the correction. I forgot the “wait for new key” was only for change in fingerprint.
Is that the official answer from roon now? You really want to force a certainly not significant proportion of your users into larger investments, although it is not necessary for you? And this is the only answer? You can certainly continue the support for hqplayer 3, I think most users will come to you next week, because most do not read the announcement, because they do not expect such a massive cut. Sorry, I find your behaviour very user unfriendly. In my opinion you should support both.
I’m just a user, not a Roon employee. So no, it’s not an official anything.
Whether it’s hardware, operating system or application, the only certainty in computing is that things will change and the old will give way to the new. Expecting everything to stay the same is a recipe for unhappiness.
HQ Player 3 is no longer supported even by Signalyst, the developer. You can’t seriously expect Roon to branch its software to continue support. There is an exponential cost to branching. SFAIK Roon has never branched the software and I suspect you would have to drag the devs backwards through a hedge over hot coals to get them to do so.
As a developer myself, I agree that maintaining separate branches for backward compatibility is a pain in the a**, no matter what type of software you develop.
I for one am very happy with the news that Roon + HQPlayer gets an improved integration.
Also, let’s not forget that Jussi is poor and lives in a small apartment with his cats. He could use some extra income from upgrades 
While this change is totally understandable what is truly deplorable is the very short notice for a change with a potential rather high impact that can force you to make a drastic choice: abandon Roon or abandon HQP.
In my opinion, the notice had to be at least two / three months
This indicates a lack of attention towards users / customers …
I think you can postpone Roon updates for that two to three months if you need that much. Holding back the improvements from vast majority of the people who are already up to date and ready for this wouldn’t be so nice either.
You are forgetting the option not to update Roon - for 2 or 3 months.
Really Roon seem damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Hey guys we have a fix for HQP dropouts but to give the guys who run an unsupported version of HQP time to sort out things we are going to leave you with dropouts for another 3 months.
.sjb