Media Players 102: Kodi for Multichannel Music Playback (features and hardware)

[LuvMyQuad]

No hiccups with cross fade off, no gap less playback either.

I wonder if the crossfade and the no-gapless is related somehow.

In truth though, if you are cross fading, you aren't really playing gapless anyway.

I don't crossfade on my system and I do get gapless playback. What do you feed the signal to after it leaves the media player?

I am at work and I cant remember if there is an option in Kodi to insert silence between tracks. I think there is. Is that defeated?

 

[gwlbe]

Gapless works and no hiccups on cross fade with 2.0 FLAC & MP3 files. it appears only to impact MCH files.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Ok, one thing at a time...

The fact that its 2.0 or MCH shouldn't matter to Kodi, but it may cause issues if the PC used for playback has too little muscle to get the job done for Hi Res MCH. Could the PC be running out of processing power?

If you do not cross fade, do you get gapless playback with 2.0 FLAC and MP3 files?

If you do not cross fade, do you get gapless playback with 2.0 Hi Res FLAC files? Like 24/96 files?

And like I asked before, where does the signal go from the media player? To an AVR?, to Bluetooth headphones? Some devices simply will not play gapless

 

[gwlbe]

My desktops are 16 gb ram and 24 gb ram I7 & I5 which output to Logitech 5.1 speakers. With 18.2 the audio dropout occurs when shuffling (3,374 songs) with cross fade on all devices, Windows, Shield, Raspberry Pi2, and FireTV II. All devices wired to Ethernet sending the signals to 2 Yamaha & Onkyo AVRs One Yamaha (Home Theater) is 7.1, the other (outside) is 4.0. The Onkyo (garage) is 5.1. I rolled the windows machine back to Jarvis 16.1 and it corrected it. It's just pain to roll back the other devices and I modded the Estuary Skins to display Album Art to full screen.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

My desktops are 16 gb ram and 24 gb ram I7 & I5 which output to Logitech 5.1 speakers. With 18.2 the audio dropout occurs when shuffling (3,374 songs) with cross fade on all devices, Windows, Shield, Raspberry Pi2, and FireTV II. All devices wired to Ethernet sending the signals to 2 Yamaha & Onkyo AVRs One Yamaha (Home Theater) is 7.1, the other (outside) is 4.0. The Onkyo (garage) is 5.1. I rolled the windows machine back to Jarvis 16.1 and it corrected it. It's just pain to roll back the other devices and I modded the Estuary Skins to display Album Art to full screen.

OK. so the PC's involved seem more than well equipped enough for audio processing. I wouldn't be surprised if you ran into issues with the Pi2 or the FireTV though.

What sound driver do you use with the Windows?

I don't shuffle and I don't crossfade. If you disable the shuffle and disable the crossfade, does the problem still occur? If so, I'm out of ideas.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Looks like Leia 18.2 is ok then.

They haven’t released LibreElec with final Kodi Leia 18.2 but my alpha version with a 18.2 beta doesn’t have this issue on my old NUC. I haven’t tried my new NUC as only played movies and music videos on that system in last 4 or 5 weeks.

Just to be clear, I noticed the problem on my main system with 18.1 while playing 24/96 stereo. I later noticed a pending OS update (which I know from experience, can cause issues with my Kodi setup). After the OS update, 18.1 worked fine, just as it had for weeks prior. So I cant say it was a problem with 18.1.

 

[gwlbe]

If you disable the shuffle and disable the crossfade, does the problem still occur?

No
I rolled back my SHIELD to Jarvis 16.1 and the shuffle crossfade problems diappeared. Its the new builds. Thanks for your input. I'm debating on putting in a ticket over at KODI.

 

[windhoek]

My mch listening has been almost non-existent of late as I've yet to completely figure out streaming. I've got some of the right hardware and some clue but I'm sure I'm missing pieces of the puzzle. Here's where I'm at:

I've got a Synology NAS, an Nvidia Shield TV (2017- edition) and PLEX premium. You'd think that would be enough but it's sort of one step forward two steps back. The native PLEX app doesn't do 5.1 audio playback - I'm not sure if it does gapless. Running PLEX within Kodi does work for 5.1 audio and it does do gapless... but Kodi (18.2) and/or the PLEX app for Kodi is buggy.

Has anyone cracked mch audio using this particular combo? Fwiw, I bought the Nvidia gadget as a bedroom streamer in a stereo setup so it doesn't matter too much if I can't get it to work but if I can, then I'll be buying another for sure.

 

[dr. simple]

I'm not sure I can be of much help, but I can offer this:

I use both Plex and Kodi, but not together. I have a Synology NAS and an Intel NUC. The NUC is running both Kodi and Plex, but not Plex within Kodi. I use Kodi in my listening room (HDMI from the NUC to the AVR). I use Plex everywhere else (streaming to the family room television, iPads, etc., including my daughters who live far away, which is very cool, but I digress...)

One thing I can add to your story is that I don't believe you need Plex premium to get 5.1. I do not have Plex premium, but the Plex app on the Vizio smart TV in the family room will stream 5.1. Ironically, the Plex app on the Roku streaming box in the listening room (the room where I use Kodi) does NOT stream music in 5.1. Both the Vizio and the Roku stream movies in 5.1.

 

[windhoek]

Interesting: the native Plex app for Fire TV doesn't stream 5.1 music either but I think 5.1 film content work for Fire TV and the Nvidia Shield TV... but that's no good as I want 5.1 music. One day there will be a simple streaming solution that runs off an Android box. I'll keep faffing about and see where I get... see how much closer I can get to streaming 5.1 gapless music from my NAS before I throw in the towel lol

 

[HomerJAU]

I have a Synology NAS and two Intel NUCs both running Kodi 18.2 (LibreElec/Linux) via HDMI to Denon AVRs, no Plex, but all multichannel content is playing perfectly.

 

[GOS]

I have a Synology NAS and two Intel NUCs both running Kodi 18.2 (LibreElec/Linux) via HDMI to Denon AVRs, no Plex, but all multichannel content is playing perfectly.

Garry - I've been looking for your thread about NUC's and how to get one up and running......isn't there one?

 

[dr. simple]

I have a Synology NAS and two Intel NUCs both running Kodi 18.2 (LibreElec/Linux) via HDMI to Denon AVRs, no Plex, but all multichannel content is playing perfectly.

I think the “catch” here is that @windhoek wants to stream it rather than connect via HDMI.

 

[PK]

Garry - I've been looking for your thread about NUC's and how to get one up and running......isn't there one?

This one?
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...nuc8i3beh-how-to-installation-of-parts.25705/

 

[GOS]

This one?
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...nuc8i3beh-how-to-installation-of-parts.25705/

Yes!! Thanks...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[windhoek]

I have a Synology NAS and two Intel NUCs both running Kodi 18.2 (LibreElec/Linux) via HDMI to Denon AVRs, no Plex, but all multichannel content is playing perfectly.

I tried streaming music from my NAS via Kodi on my Nvidia Shield but I couldn't get it to work, hence I ended up trying Plex within Kodi. Using NFS, Kodi could see my NAS but it couldn't go any further than that. It sounds like I'm close to getting gapless mch playback sorted but I'm not quite there just yet.

 

[windhoek]

Well blow me down, as Popeye used to say, I think I've cracked it! I went back over the settings on my NAS as shown in the Youtube tutorial below and noticed that I'd missed one of the steps when selecting the appropriate settings in NFS Permissions... and after fixing that, I've now got gapless stereo and mch content playback using Kodi.

I still need to extract mch audio from my SACD rips - a pain for sure as I've got a lot of SACDs with mch content - but other than that, the day of streaming perfection has finally arrived

 

[HomerJAU]

Well Done!!

I don’t remember you describing your Kodi problem. NAS permissions are easy to fix if you know how. Sorry we didn’t help solve this earlier.

Enjoy your ‘new’ system!

If you have iOS devices, especially an iPad, take a look the Kodi Music Remote app it adds a whole new dimension for music on Kodi

 

[windhoek]

Well Done!!

I don’t remember you describing your Kodi problem. NAS permissions are easy to fix if you know how. Sorry we didn’t help solve this earlier.

Enjoy your ‘new’ system!

If you have iOS devices, especially an iPad, take a look the Kodi Music Remote app it adds a whole new dimension for music on Kodi

I only bought the Nvidia gadget the other day so my problem with it was hot of the press as it were. I don't have an IOS device; I've got a macbook, but nothing running IOS. Is there an Android app that can control Kodi... a quick look on the Google Play store tells me there's an official Kodi app so I'll that a go as the Nvidia remote... jackpot - the kodi app gives me complete control - woohooo

 

[gwlbe]

My Nvidia plays MCH wired and wireless using KODI from my NAS. I never used PLEX, KODI/XBMC has always done the trick.

the kodi app gives me complete control

Set a static IP on the Box so the remote always finds KODI.