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Raspberry 4b - playback stops every few seconds. buffering... (DSD/DSF)
hans4712:
Hardware: I have a Raspberry 4 with 4Gb, clocked at 2000 MHz, with the lastest raspOS, on JRiver 27. I use the HDMI output of the Raspberry to my AVR-9.1 receiver.
Playback problem:
with .dsf files or .dff files with 7.1 or 5.1 channels, the playback always stops every few seconds and "buffering ..." appears., and the cpu is very busy for a short time, then the Raspberry plays a few seconds again ( cpu more or less normally busy), then playback stop again, "buffering ..." and cpu again briefly busy. So a playback with constant buffering and "reloading".
All music formats are routed through HDMI as standard, provided that the receiver decodes them directly (most of them), some files (too high bit rate / bit depth) have to be decoded by the driver so that the receiver can play them.
The same files (dsf / dff / dsd 7.1 channel) can be played back on the pc without any problems via hdmi to my receiver! However, from the raspberry to the receiver via hdmi there are problems outlined above.
my question:
1) is it due to the hardware (Cpu) of the Rasbperry?
2) Is my external hard drive too slow on the USb or the Raspberry does not like the UASP?
3) is it due to the audio processor of the raspberry 4b?
please help me find the cause.
Awesome Donkey:
Since you're outputting via HDMI you're likely converting the DSD to PCM on-the-fly, since it's not possible to bitstream DSD via HDMI from any computer, which is likely the cause of your issue (as DSD to PCM conversions are resource heavy operations). Your described symptoms are exactly what happens when this is the case.
Your first question is the correct assumption, if you're doing on-the-fly DSD to PCM conversions the Raspberry Pi is not powerful enough to handle it. Basically the Pi is trying to do the on-the-fly conversion and play it back at the same time, but it's not fast enough to keep ahead of current playback position, so when it reaches the point where there's not enough buffered it'll stop and buffer until it can convert more of it to resume playback, only for it to happen again.
If you need to do on-the-fly DSD to PCM conversions, it'd be best to avoid using a Raspberry Pi.
hans4712:
--- Quote from: Awesome Donkey on February 21, 2021, 12:48:28 pm ---Since you're outputting via HDMI you're likely converting the DSD to PCM on-the-fly, since it's not possible to bitstream DSD via HDMI from any computer, which is likely the cause of your issue (as DSD to PCM conversions are resource heavy operations). Your described symptoms are exactly what happens when this is the case.
Your first question is the correct assumption, if you're doing on-the-fly DSD to PCM conversions the Raspberry Pi is not powerful enough to handle it. Basically the Pi is trying to do the on-the-fly conversion and play it back at the same time, but it's not fast enough to keep ahead of current playback position, so when it reaches the point where there's not enough buffered it'll stop and buffer until it can convert more of it to resume playback, only for it to happen again.
If you need to do on-the-fly DSD to PCM conversions, it'd be best to avoid using a Raspberry Pi.
--- End quote ---
thanks for your quick reply.
Does it make sense to take the latest raspberry with 8Gb (instead of 4gb) and 64bit RaspOS (instead of 32bit) and tack a little higher, or does it seem completely pointless because the computing power of the Raspberry is too weak to decode DSD ? (The raspberry / JRiver does not have to decode everything and everything. DSD64 works via bitstream, e.g. but some files have a very high bit rate / bit depth because a bit has to be decoded e.g. from 192,000hz down to 96,000 then the receiver takes this directly via bitstream.
Awesome Donkey:
Nope. The Raspberry Pi, even the Pi 4 model B 8GB with 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS is still not powerful enough. No Raspberry Pi is powerful enough to handle it. It's too weak.
Also like I said, you can't bitstream DSD over HDMI via any computer so it has to convert it to PCM and output that to play it back on the receiver. It's that unavoidable conversion (with your current setup) which is causing your issues because the Pi can't handle it. DSD to PCM conversions (or PCM to DSD conversions), especially multichannel conversions, are the most resource intensive tasks Media Center can do requiring a pretty decent CPU to handle it, which all Raspberry Pis lack.
If you had a DSD-capable USB DAC connected via USB to the Raspberry Pi and you output all audio and bitstreamed DSD to that, it would avoid the conversion (unless you're converting PCM to DSD, which isn't going to work with a Pi). From there you can output from the USB DAC to your receiver. But DSD converted to PCM output via HDMI to a receiver from a Raspberry Pi isn't going to be an enjoyable experience at all because of the Pi's bottleneck.
Hopefully that makes sense. :)
hans4712:
--- Quote from: Awesome Donkey on February 21, 2021, 01:00:40 pm ---Nope. The Raspberry Pi, even the Pi 4 model B 8GB with 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS is still not powerful enough. No Raspberry Pi is powerful enough to handle it. It's too weak.
Also like I said, you can't bitstream DSD over HDMI via any computer so it has to convert it to PCM and output that to play it back on the receiver. It's that unavoidable conversion (with your current setup) which is causing your issues because the Pi can't handle it. DSD to PCM conversions (or PCM to DSD conversions), especially multichannel conversions, are the most resource intensive tasks Media Center can do requiring a pretty decent CPU to handle it, which all Raspberry Pis lack.
If you had a DSD-capable USB DAC connected via USB to the Raspberry Pi and you output all audio and bitstreamed DSD to that, it would avoid the conversion (unless you're converting PCM to DSD, which isn't going to work with a Pi). From there you can output from the USB DAC to your receiver. But DSD converted to PCM output via HDMI to a receiver from a Raspberry Pi isn't going to be an enjoyable experience at all because of the Pi's bottleneck.
Hopefully that makes sense. :)
--- End quote ---
in the long term I have to get an Intel Nuc anyway. just thought if I have a raspberry anyway, I'll try it. an intel nuc would of course be better suited for "audiophiles" (sacd) anyway. there is probably no way around it. * smile *
as a second device I can keep the raspberry as a mini music server to play simple flac with 7.1 or stereo 2.0. in another room e.g.
many thanks you for the clear information. :)
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