|
Post by dmcrimson on Jul 3, 2016 13:13:29 GMT
Well, my mediaplayer is nowadays DVico Tvix Slim HD1, but the interface is quite kludgy. Thus I'm contemplating building one around Raspberry, as it's got WiFi and BT built-in. The only thing it's lacking is the connection to internal HDD, but I think it's easily overcome with an USB-to-SATA -adapter. Anyone with experience on RPi here? What would be the OS of choice for such a player? Most of my audio/video is with my computer, so NFS support would be welcome.
|
|
|
Post by dmcrimson on Jul 3, 2016 15:44:33 GMT
|
|
|
Post by chinook9 on Jul 15, 2016 2:52:53 GMT
I've read a little bit on use of the Raspberry Pi for audio but haven't gotten to it yet. I'll probably leave it for some winter when I need a project.
Please keep us informed what you end up doing.
|
|
|
Post by dmcrimson on Jul 15, 2016 9:04:14 GMT
Well, nothing yet, just pondering. But it seems very good solution - I have a spare USB-hdd box lying around, from that I can scavenge the adapter to use external drive... And I think I will end up running OpenElec and Kodi, hooking up the NFS-shares from my puter
|
|
|
Post by chinook9 on Jul 16, 2016 15:57:36 GMT
Well, nothing yet, just pondering. But it seems very good solution - I have a spare USB-hdd box lying around, from that I can scavenge the adapter to use external drive... And I think I will end up running OpenElec and Kodi, hooking up the NFS-shares from my puter Good luck!
|
|
|
Post by dmcrimson on Aug 27, 2016 13:49:35 GMT
Hmm, seems that a change in plans is out: Odroid c2. Specs are better.
|
|
|
Post by chinook9 on Aug 31, 2016 4:39:53 GMT
Hmm, seems that a change in plans is out: Odroid c2. Specs are better. Quite a bit more powerful than the Raspberry Pi. I'll check them both out this winter when I have time for a project. Raspberry Pi would be a challenge for me. Doesn't look like there's much documentation on the Odroid c2. Keep us informed of your progress.
|
|
|
Post by dmcrimson on Sept 4, 2016 17:20:10 GMT
Well, as of today, I got Rpi2+, purchased it all for 30e, included a powersupply and wifi-dongle... Odroid will come later, I'll tinker with this one first x265 is a nogo, thus I'll upgrade later.
|
|
|
Post by deireleire on Sept 4, 2016 18:57:50 GMT
|
|
garyc
contributing
Posts: 45
|
Post by garyc on Sept 4, 2016 20:43:56 GMT
I've just lost 30 minutes of my life composing a reply and lost it due to finger trouble, but I can provide some insight if I find time to post tomorrow. In the meantime, check out IQaudio and their user guide. Also check out Moode, I wasted a whole BH weekend with Volumio - I don't think it's ready for primetime.
|
|
|
Post by deireleire on Sept 5, 2016 9:05:11 GMT
ok thanx on the update and saving me lots of time.
|
|
garyc
contributing
Posts: 45
|
Post by garyc on Sept 5, 2016 11:45:33 GMT
ok thanx on the update and saving me lots of time. Indeed, much time can be wasted with htis kind of activity :-) Just to fill in the story: I decided to investigate the use of the RPI with I2S 24/192 DACs for home use. I had an RPi 1, 2 and a Banana Pi Pro (clone with built-in wifi and 1GbE). Used to run the Pi 1 with its own audio jack using PiMusicBox (I think). It was just a bit clunky driven from a mobile phone (Android). The Pi 1 only has a 26 pin GPIO connector so can't be used with the current crop of 40 pin DACs (unless you solder directly to the I2S points on the board). So I got the Pi2 from its box (purchased over a year ago!), bought 3x 16GB uSD sandisk class 10 cards from Tesco (3 for £16) and downloaded Volumio, Rune Audio and Moode images and burnt them to the cards (with WIn32DiskImager). I also ordered the IQaudio PiDAC+ which was available at the time for £21 as a B grade stock - the holes for the rotary encoder were filled with solder and one of the other connectors - not a problem for me. But it's out of stock now, as is the regular £31 version but there is a selection of other DACs, some with built-in amps. I did all the setup 'head-less' (which is to say no keyboard or screen attached to the Pi, connecting via its built-in web server via a Windows PC and also an iPad). First problem I hit was indexing my 650Gb music share on my NAS (still using Ethernet at this point) - Volumio seemed to be the only one that seemed to get through to the end (after 2 hours) and still have a working UI. I installed the Spotify plugin and that worked well. Radio support But after unplugging and connecting the wifi dongle and rebooting, the library was gone. I had to re-index. I tried the others (Rune and Moode - neither seemed to get to the end of the indexing, for Rune the release was older and I just didn't find the Moode interface quite so nice, so went back to Volumio. Only to find the library gone again. I then experimented with wifi dongles - I had 3 different 11n dongles to try. Each time the Volumio interface threw a wobbler and gave me empty screen and lost libraries. So I gave up on it and switched to Moode. For wifi access btw you may need to access your router's admin page to find the IP address assigned via DHCP to the Pi when running in wifi mode. The Volumio Access Point mode I just found to be pants and gave up with it. All these builds use MPD as the underlying music server, so they outght to behave more or less the same. But they may vary in the vesion of MPD they were built with. I even went to the extent of recompiling MPD from source on Volumio but couldn't get it to work with the GUI. Volumio v2's GUI is a work in progress I reckon. With Moode I didn't try to index the full 650Gb but just connect to separate, smaller, folders just with HD Flac and SACD. Its wifi setup was also just regular and straightforward, no problems. So far I have had no problems. I've yet to discover how to get Spotify running though (Later: it turns out there is no Spotify plugin like Volumio, so you have to run Spotify on a second device and cast it using Airplay or UPnP). Over the BH weekend I bought a Pi Zero and Phat DAC from Pimironi (20% off). This is much more DIY, you have to solder the GPIO connectors and there are no supplied instructions, only buried online. In my haste I soldered the socket header on the dac to the wrong side of the board (should be on the the reverse to the other components I later found out). I desoldered the connector but it broke in the process. I've asked for a replacement so have yet to find if there was any permanent damage to the DAC. The Pi booted fine though with the dac connected normally. (Later: I purchased my own connector replacement, having heard nothing from Pimironi, soldered it the correct the way round and everything was fine.) Using a pi Zero might seem the cheaper soln, with the Pi itself only being £4. But by the time you have added PSU, wifi (if needed), the DAC and a case, the difference diminishes % wise. Also you have to solder your own connectors (correctly :-) ). It's also more of a fiddle as, having no Ethernet, you have to mount and edit the card image on a separate PC and make changes to the networks config file in order to get wifi working (SSID, user, pwd). For my next, I will stick with the normal Pi (or try out the Banana Pi Pro) and use the IQaudio dacs if I build another (the Dac+ has built in headphone amp and line out, all connectors fitted). Moode has excellent support for almost all known Dacs and is very up to date (last release 28 Aug 2016, MPD v19.19). I can't really comment on the sound quality - I've spent more time fiddling than listening, also the point was to get some cheap 24/96/192 capable playback stations for the systems around the house which can be easily accessible from a phone or tablet. I still have my doubts about wifi though for streaming - I have a top of the range 11ac router, a small, modern (wood/plasterboard construction) house but still have signal and throughput problems. Casting via Airplay does work but with 2 wifi hops I can't see this as improving the situation at all. I'm worried as I think the Moode Spotify soln involves using Airplay casting. Once the Pi Zero is up I will try and assess what the best of the dongles I have are (none are branded with RPI logo btw - SunFounder rt5370, Tontec and Tp-Link). 11ac dongles for the Pi are pointless as the underlying connection is via USB2 and limited by that. Those with external antennas may provide better signal quality. I've just given away all my Ethernet powerline adapters due to the RF hash they chuck out (I'm a radio amateur). As a fallback I might just run the players with 1GB 2.5" USB hard drives with content copied form the NAS.
|
|
|
Post by deireleire on Sept 5, 2016 21:31:09 GMT
Thank you for your effort in posting your experiences, much appreciated. I already have a basic pi2 and am going to order a Mamboberry LS DAC+ or the Pi-DAC+. Was thinking of storing my music on local storage iso nas to rule out network performance problems (spinning disk is no option cause of power and possible noise/vibrations). (streaming uncompressed isn't my cup of t)
|
|
garyc
contributing
Posts: 45
|
Post by garyc on Sept 6, 2016 1:01:36 GMT
You could consider Lexar 128GB Jump drives which are now 20 quid on Amazon or slightly bulkier Sandisk cruzer blades for the same price, depends on how much content you have to store. I would only use these as copies of content already stored elsewhere though. As you are only reading the data and not constantly re-writing, you don't need the extra reliability afforded by regular SSDs. Retention time will not be as good/guaranteed as an SSD but you can just refresh the whole lot if you get read problems. I may just buy a couple myself as they are Low power, unobtrusive and silent and avoid the network issue.
The Mamboberry I had not heard of, looks to be a quality product, will read up on it.
|
|
|
Post by dmcrimson on Sept 16, 2016 14:09:53 GMT
Well, got Pi2+ to play with, and a wifi dongle. Now if only had the time...
|
|