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Raspberry Pi as headless streamer

Fwiw I have a ras Pi running mpd player. it's utterly glitch free even at 24/192 through a c-media based USB spdif converter and on into my dac. There are a few tweaks I could recommend if anyone is still having problems with stability.

I am absolutely amazed by what I have got for the money. I sold my nas and added a large usb drive, now it's the ultimate low power music streamer and file server. It's even available to apple devices as an airport receiver so I can stream from phone or ipad straight to speakers (sounds pretty rubbish compared to the USB connection but convenient nonetheless).
 
A couple of weekends ago I zapped my SD card and reinstalled the latest versions of everything, and it seems to be a lot more stable. Need to leave it running for a few days really (rather than powering down when not in use) to check it doesn't flip out like it has done previously.
 
RichardH said:
reinstalled the latest versions of everything, and it seems to be a lot more stable.
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Do you care to elaborate as to what newer versions we're talking about here. I imagine LMS is the same (?), so it must just be the OS that's "new".
 
lennyw said:
Do you care to elaborate as to what newer versions we're talking about here. I imagine LMS is the same (?), so it must just be the OS that's "new".
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Latest Rasbian, plus latest version of Squeezelite. That's all I'm running on mine - it's acting as a Squeezebox connected to my ReadyNAS Duo running LMS.
 
Elaborate a little more Richard please :)

ReadyNAS running LMS sending bits (How? Wired Ether?) to a Rasp pi with 'Rasbian' with squeezelite. Controlled by what ? Output is USB ?
 
trancera said:
Elaborate a little more Richard please :)

ReadyNAS running LMS sending bits (How? Wired Ether?) to a Rasp pi with 'Rasbian' with squeezelite. Controlled by what ? Output is USB ?
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Yes, using wired Ethernet. Pi controlled by my Android phone using the Squeezer app, which sees it as a Squeezebox. Also have Squeezepad on the iPad for controlling it as well - again, just seen as a squeezebox.

Yes, output is USB, with one of the cheap and not bad at all Sabre DACs (see page 2 of this thread for more info).
 
OK so I bought the Pi media centre bundle from Amazon -- added a powered hub, keyboard and mouse -- hooked it all up to an old flat screen TV and hey presto sound! Initially I ran the openelec version of XBMC that came on the SD card but after a while it started playing tracks in the wrong order and missing bits of tracks out. Following some web searching I decided to give Raspbmc a go. It downloaded OK and after realising that I needed a wired Ethernet connection and much faffing about to move the whole caboodle into another room I've got this running with sound via the jack socket -- no USB output on xbmc currently. The sound is "big" with good vocals and mid range in general but the downside is poor frequency extremes -- cymbals are very splashy -- and no stage depth -- vocalists appear to be standing in the drum kit. So I'd like to try USB but the only program I've found -- raspify -- was a down load disaster as some of the instructions are in Italian. has anyone else tried this program and if so:
- why do I need to unpack the program with WinRAR?
- Win32diskimager isn't on my netbook and I couldn't sort out the download -- is there another way to transfer the program to the SD card? -- raspbmc wasn't difficult!
Any help greatly appreciated as I've no idea about programming etc. Thanks.
Steve
 
steve6080 said:
- why do I need to unpack the program with WinRAR?
- Win32diskimager isn't on my netbook and I couldn't sort out the download -- is there another way to transfer the program to the SD card? -- raspbmc wasn't difficult!
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The sourceforge link to RaspyFi is an image file (.img) in a zip archive (.zip). You should be able to use any archiving program e.g. winzip to unzip it (also iirc since XP Windows can natively unzip zip files).

You need Win32diskimager to write the .img file to the SD card (unlike raspbmc which comes with it's own installer that basically does the same job automagically).

What was the problem with the Win32diskimager download?
 
Yes, the built-in analog output is not the best one in the world.

I am not sure changing the whole distro / OS just to get USB sound is the best approach. I would go for the standard rpi debian-based distro, and add the specific components you need.

Another approach is something like piCorePlayer that turns the pi into a squeezebox player.
 
Thanks guys -- the issue with the win32 download (or it might have been the WinRAR) was that it downloaded some other programs into my net book and then suddenly my web home page changed to something I didn't recognise -- there may have been a tick box I should have used I don't know -- this is all new to me.

Think I'll order a couple more SD cards and have another go -- also try the piCorePlayer as well. Thanks again.
Steve
 
I've had fantastic results with a stock raspbian wheezy image, coupled with installation of MPD server. Remote control is from laptop, phone or iPad using a standard MPD client.

RaspyFi looks like one big ego trip. Not a lot there which isn't already mentioned elsewhere and instructions really aren't very clear at all.

Copying the image onto the SD card was the only tricky part of my setup IIRC, the rest was just learning how to use Linux, and that's very well documented.

My pi's been running since April every day, perfectly stable even at 24/192 and the best value streamer anywhere IMHO.
 
steve6080 said:
the issue with the win32 download (or it might have been the WinRAR) was that it downloaded some other programs into my net book and then suddenly my web home page changed to something I didn't recognise
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Win32DiskImager is standalone (i.e. doesn't use an installer) so it looks as if maybe the winrar installer was bundled with malware / browser hijacking crap (seems to be quite common these days if some of my friend's computers are anything to go by).
 
thommy said:
RaspyFi looks like one big ego trip. Not a lot there which isn't already mentioned elsewhere and instructions really aren't very clear at all..
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Harsh words. Is RapyFi any more an ego trip than say picoplayer or squeezeplug? The guy(s) behind it are Italian, something may have been lost in translation, but the info on these two pages should suffice to set it up:

http://www.raspyfi.com/raspyfi-1-0-audiophile-linux-is-out/

http://www.raspyfi.com/raspyfi-quick-start-guide/


I think they deserve credit for providing a system for the non-tehcnical user for whom it's not a mater of "just learning linux". You've also forgotten they have designed a pretty good WEBUI which is unique to RaspyFI and works well enough that you can also extract and test it on a standard Linux desktop if you wish. RaspyFi is still in development and could be quite successful if they port to other ARM devices ( BB black, cubox etc.). It's already good enough to run on a RPi.
 
I was just suggesting that setting up a streamer is pretty simple. If you can configure an image, then you can install MPD, and the RaspyFi site is a cross between a linux distribution and one man's project blog. You're right, the italian aspect doesn't help.

As RaspyFi is still in development and also requires some configuration to get it all working, from my point of view at least, it would be preferable to use the stock Wheezy image and configure that instead. I hadn't looked at the Web UI closely because it's not something I had any need for.

I also don't think it's out of the question for someone buying a Raspberry Pi to have to learn some Linux, but that's just me I guess!

EDIT: It's also been more than a month since I checked their site and the recent v1.0 release probably addresses much of my previous criticism.
 
thommy said:
I was just suggesting that setting up a streamer is pretty simple. If you can configure an image, then you can install MPD, and the RaspyFi site is a cross between a linux distribution and one man's project blog. You're right, the italian aspect doesn't help
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One man's simple is another man's complicated. It all depends on your computing skills. Configuring MPD, mounting remote file systems ( nfs, samba etc.) can be a big hurdle for a lot of folk. Getting MPD right brings them face to face with Linux file/directory permissions straight away. There are guides around but following them by rote doesn't help when it comes to trouble shooting. RaspyFi aims to isolate the user from this. Of course, I agree in the end you are better learning at least sufficient Linux to have some idea of what's going on.

I also don't think it's out of the question for someone buying a Raspberry Pi to have to learn some Linux, but that's just me I guess!
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Perhaps in an ideal world, and one were the ability to think and learn for yourself had not been diluted. But all that Linux CLI stuff will remain a barrier for a lot of people who just want to get music out the thing. So RaspyFi has its place.
 
PegLeg said:
So RaspyFi has its place.
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Hence my reply and accompanying EDIT ;)

Still it's a project computer not a retail product so if RaspyFi turns out to be a simple plug and play streamer everyone's onto a winner. Quite a few of my friends want what I have but are put off by the fact that it needs to be configured.
 
I tried raspyfi but I found that I needed to understand what I was doing - so went back to the standard debian distro. Having said that, some of the raspyfi instructions were useful. Using it with an attached USB drive there was occasional stuttering in playback. So now the pi is serving as headless server (minidlna and samba) and it is coping fine with serving up flac files.

I want to get another pi to take care of playback.Has anyone succeeded in using it as a upnp renderer with usb dac?
 
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