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Author Topic: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?  (Read 23820 times)

PrinterPrinter

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New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« on: February 29, 2016, 03:53:32 am »

Hello People,
I'm sure you've seen the news on the new Pi (http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/02/raspberry-pi-3-has-wi-fi-and-bluetooth-64-bit-chip-still-just-35/)

I wonder how it'll impact the Hifi use and JRiver?
They say the current 32 bit software - will work on the new Pi.

I welcome the addition of on board Wifi and Bluetooth but wonder if it'll generate noise for audio applications? I Imagine it'll be possible to turn them off if needed?
Will the new processing power help MC? Perhaps allow running convolution on the Pi?

Lastly, I'm using the HiFiberry Digi+ board now to get coax and optical out - I'd love a version with proper BNC connection.

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Hilton

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #1 on: February 29, 2016, 04:37:21 am »

I'm ordering one to replace my pi2 in my brick. Should be a drop-in replacement. :)
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PrinterPrinter

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #2 on: February 29, 2016, 04:51:40 am »

I'm ordering one to replace my pi2 in my brick. Should be a drop-in replacement. :)

So you believe there's no need to reinstall the OS, just swap the memory card from Pi2 to Pi3?

Thanks!
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mattkhan

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #3 on: February 29, 2016, 05:44:40 am »

Perhaps allow running convolution on the Pi?
the pi2 has the horsepower for fairly beefy filters today, e.g. it's used to power http://www.audiovero.de/en/preamp-14-cleanvolver.php
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bob

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #4 on: February 29, 2016, 09:10:55 am »

Looking forward to trying it out.
I wonder when it will hit the retail stores.
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BryanC

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #5 on: February 29, 2016, 10:04:30 am »

I'm ordering one to replace my pi2 in my brick. Should be a drop-in replacement. :)

Any details on power consumption changes?

Quote
The on-board power distribution can handle up to 2.5 amps at 5v now and USB power control has been dropped – it’s fixed at 1.2 amps, so make sure you have a good PSU capable of delivering over 2 amps if you want to make full use of it – I did a test and had 4 other Raspberry Pi’s being powered off the USB ports.

I wonder if this will hurt battery performance.

Here's a good link/review of some of the important stats: https://projects.drogon.net/raspberry-pi-v3/

Quote
Some quick benchmarks have shown speeds of 40Mb/sec via Wi-Fi.

 :-\
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mwillems

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #6 on: March 01, 2016, 11:51:33 am »

Some quick benchmarks have shown speeds of 40Mb/sec via Wi-Fi.

Given that there's no video support on JRiver for ARM at this point, it's not a real rate limiter today.  40Mb/sec (if that's real and achievable) should be plenty for audio applications, or, put another way, if you've got audio files that need more than 40 Mb/sec (5MB/sec or 300MB per minute) you're on a whole 'nother level of highres  ;D

It would be less suitable for high res video obviously, but if that throughput is real it should be more than enough bandwidth for DVD quality video.  But even if we had video support on ARM, if past experience is any guide the pi's video capabilities aren't really going to allow it to be a great platform for high res video unless you're willing to reencode everything to the format it can most easily digest (and even then...). The new one has an allegedly much improved video processor, and the foundation and community have been working on mainlining some open source video components for the Pi, which might help things eventually, but color me skeptical.  

FWIW I haven't found a dev board (including some with much nicer specs than the new pi) that can really handle high quality video in a seamless way.  The integrated graphics on cheapo x86 intel Atoms (like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883722001) blows away the graphics performance I've seen from some of the high end "desktop replacement" ARM boards like the one's odroid sells for as much or more.  The graphics chips on these ARM boards and the attendant proprietary driver support (outside of the android or OEM space) are just way too finicky and unreliable.  I expect that's a big part of why there's no video support on ARM in JRiver. 
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millst

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2016, 05:46:50 pm »

At idle, it draws about 50mA more than a Pi2. It's 160mA at load, but presumably you'll get the work done faster and it could be a wash.

Not quite sure how the wi-fi factors in, but I'd be surprised if it was less efficient than a USB dongle. If you don't need it, you can disable it.

-tm
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newbluesman

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #8 on: April 19, 2016, 12:29:51 pm »

I wonder how it'll impact the Hifi use and JRiver?
I've been running MC on a Pi3 for a few weeks now - it's absolutely great (and the WiFi works fine).  My other MC zones include MC on a Win7 PC, MC on an Ubuntu PC, an original Sony SMP-N100 media streamer, VLC on an Asus Chromebox (which also plays well using WebGizmo but isn't recognized as a MC zone), and MC on a Debian-based Beaglebone Black (as soon as I figure out how to get it running again after a software upgrade failed last week). The Pi3 sounds every bit as good as any of the others with DACs, amps and speakers of equal quality.
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skifastbadly

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2016, 06:36:44 pm »

Newbluesman:  I am impressed by your results, I've had nothing but headaches.

Using the Pi as a music server or renderer has great appeal to me but I have not succeeded.  About six months ago, I successfully loaded Media Center 21 onto the Pi 2 and thought I was home free.  But it wouldn't play without dropouts, which kind of ruins the whole "if perfect audio is your goal" aspect of MC.

Here's a bit about my environment:  my wireless router is  Netgear Nighthawk X6, with PLENTY of speed.  On the network I have two PCs running MC, and a Yamaha RX-A2020 with DLNA capability.  I can play from either PC to the other with no dropouts.  I can play from either  PC to the Yamaha with no dropouts.  I can play from either PC to my HTC One phone with Gizmo with no dropouts.   I can play from either PC to my frigging Kindle Fire with no dropouts.  But as soon as the Pi is entered into the equation, I get drop outs.  In each case, by the way, I'm using FLAC files.

I tried overclocking, no help.   So after awhile, I figured it just wasn't going to work.  It seems the horsepower just isn't there for whatever reasons.
Well a few days back I noticed that the Pi 3 was out, and it looked like a real upgrade in terms of horsepower over the 2 so I figured it was worth another forty bucks to give that a shot.

The first thing I learned, which other people have learned, is that it's not as simple as taking the SD out of the 2 and putting it into the 3.  It won't boot.  So I downloaded the latest raspbian image (2016-03-18-raspian-jessie), put it on a new SD, and attempted to go through the installation process based on the excellent directions on how to load MC onto the Pi.  There appear to be a number of changes that are problematic.

The first thing I tried to do was to follow the same sequence as laid out on this site for the Pi 2.  Once I made the changes to the config text: 
framebuffer_depth=32
framebuffer_ignore_alpha=1
When I rebooted, the video never came back.  I mean the boot screen appeared, the status scrolled, but then it would disappear.  Ok, there's maybe something in the graphics that's different. 

Then I figured I'd at least try to load MC to see what would happen. It didn't finish.  I got the following:

Input/Output Eror
dbkg: error processing package shared mime-info (--unpack)
subprocess installed post-installation script
returned error exit status 1

dbks: error:  unable to synch new file
'/var/lib/dpkg/status-new: input/output error E: subprocess /usr/bin/dpkg returned and error code 2

when I rebooted, I got the same as before, the status scrolled by then blank screen.

I have put hours into this with no luck.  What's the trick?
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mwillems

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2016, 09:32:28 pm »

Newbluesman:  I am impressed by your results, I've had nothing but headaches.

Using the Pi as a music server or renderer has great appeal to me but I have not succeeded.  About six months ago, I successfully loaded Media Center 21 onto the Pi 2 and thought I was home free.  But it wouldn't play without dropouts, which kind of ruins the whole "if perfect audio is your goal" aspect of MC.

Here's a bit about my environment:  my wireless router is  Netgear Nighthawk X6, with PLENTY of speed.  On the network I have two PCs running MC, and a Yamaha RX-A2020 with DLNA capability.  I can play from either PC to the other with no dropouts.  I can play from either  PC to the Yamaha with no dropouts.  I can play from either PC to my HTC One phone with Gizmo with no dropouts.   I can play from either PC to my frigging Kindle Fire with no dropouts.  But as soon as the Pi is entered into the equation, I get drop outs.  In each case, by the way, I'm using FLAC files.

I tried overclocking, no help.   So after awhile, I figured it just wasn't going to work.  It seems the horsepower just isn't there for whatever reasons.
Well a few days back I noticed that the Pi 3 was out, and it looked like a real upgrade in terms of horsepower over the 2 so I figured it was worth another forty bucks to give that a shot.

The first thing I learned, which other people have learned, is that it's not as simple as taking the SD out of the 2 and putting it into the 3.  It won't boot.  So I downloaded the latest raspbian image (2016-03-18-raspian-jessie), put it on a new SD, and attempted to go through the installation process based on the excellent directions on how to load MC onto the Pi.  There appear to be a number of changes that are problematic.

The first thing I tried to do was to follow the same sequence as laid out on this site for the Pi 2.  Once I made the changes to the config text: 
framebuffer_depth=32
framebuffer_ignore_alpha=1
When I rebooted, the video never came back.  I mean the boot screen appeared, the status scrolled, but then it would disappear.  Ok, there's maybe something in the graphics that's different. 

Then I figured I'd at least try to load MC to see what would happen. It didn't finish.  I got the following:

Input/Output Eror
dbkg: error processing package shared mime-info (--unpack)
subprocess installed post-installation script
returned error exit status 1

dbks: error:  unable to synch new file
'/var/lib/dpkg/status-new: input/output error E: subprocess /usr/bin/dpkg returned and error code 2

when I rebooted, I got the same as before, the status scrolled by then blank screen.

I have put hours into this with no luck.  What's the trick?

Did you download the raspbian image from the raspberry pi foundation?  The NOOBS installation?  Just last week, I tested the directions in the sticky thread with a NOOBS image and a raspberry pi 3 and it all worked perfectly.  It's odd you're seeing errors.
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skifastbadly

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #11 on: April 24, 2016, 03:27:16 pm »

You must get sick of idiots like me.  For some reason I got it into my head that I could start with the raspbian image download instead of the NOOB.  I started over with the NOOB download, everything went swimmingly, and I'm now listening to the Pi 3 through the Hifiberry SPDIF.  But I just experienced a dropout. 

Half way there, I guess.

Thanks.
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mwillems

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #12 on: April 24, 2016, 03:51:09 pm »

You must get sick of idiots like me.  For some reason I got it into my head that I could start with the raspbian image download instead of the NOOB.  I started over with the NOOB download, everything went swimmingly, and I'm now listening to the Pi 3 through the Hifiberry SPDIF.  But I just experienced a dropout. 

Half way there, I guess.

Thanks.

Half is better than nothing!  Glad you made forward progress  ;D
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skifastbadly

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #13 on: April 24, 2016, 05:46:26 pm »

Thanks.  I hit one more snag if you don't mind.

Since the Pi 3 is new I was running the trial license.   Once I got everything working, I tried loading the license.  I have a Master license.  I learned earlier that the way to do this on the Pi is to use the instructions on your sticky thread, providing the .mjr file name.  So that's what I did.  The system then stated that the license was renewed.  However, when I started MC up again, I got a window stating that my trial had expired.  Any ideas what I've screwed up this time?
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JimH

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #14 on: April 24, 2016, 05:51:26 pm »

The .mjr file is an Install Key and it is only good for 14 days.  Use your Registration Code to do a Restore.  You'll get a new Install Key by e-mail.

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Restoring_a_License
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bob

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #15 on: April 25, 2016, 11:42:56 am »

I've been experimenting with a pi2 for a home audio renderer plugged into a powered speaker pair (which has pretty dicey DLNA firmware on it which I'm bypassing by using the pi).
My setup is to create a headerless L24 PCM server config on the MC server PC with sample rate same as source (handling the sample rate differences on the pi's DSP studio config) and stereo downmix enabled.
So far that's been playing via wifi with a cheezy usb wifi adapter on the pi flawlessly.
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skifastbadly

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #16 on: April 25, 2016, 02:56:54 pm »

The .mjr file is an Install Key and it is only good for 14 days.  Use your Registration Code to do a Restore.  You'll get a new Install Key by e-mail.

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Restoring_a_License

Here's what I did this morning:
1) went to the restore page
2) entered my Master Registration code
3) The new .mjr file went to my download directory
4) followed the process on the sticky, mediacenter21 /RestoreFromFile ~/Downloads/"Media Center21 Master-YYYYYY.mjr"

The system then said "License restored successfully"

5)  Started MC, received the message "The trial period has expired."


What am I missing?
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bob

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #17 on: April 25, 2016, 06:40:55 pm »

Here's what I did this morning:
1) went to the restore page
2) entered my Master Registration code
3) The new .mjr file went to my download directory
4) followed the process on the sticky, mediacenter21 /RestoreFromFile ~/Downloads/"Media Center21 Master-YYYYYY.mjr"

The system then said "License restored successfully"

5)  Started MC, received the message "The trial period has expired."


What am I missing?
I'd guess you are not doing step 4 as the same user you are running MC under...
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skifastbadly

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #18 on: April 26, 2016, 12:53:20 pm »

I'd guess you are not doing step 4 as the same user you are running MC under...

I have no earthly idea how that would be possible, as I've not logged out or in between steps and I've added no users.  I'm going to start a new thread to get this more visibility because I still can't run MC on the Pi 3 as is is.
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skifastbadly

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #19 on: April 26, 2016, 05:20:44 pm »

I'd guess you are not doing step 4 as the same user you are running MC under...

On further review:  It occurred to me that while I didn't switch users, I DID use the sudo command to install the product.  And sure as hell, when I fired off MC as "sudo mediacenter21" it same up and ran fine.  So you are right.  The question is how I reverse this.  Should I uninstall and re-install without the sudo?

Thanks
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bob

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #20 on: April 26, 2016, 07:12:55 pm »

On further review:  It occurred to me that while I didn't switch users, I DID use the sudo command to install the product.  And sure as hell, when I fired off MC as "sudo mediacenter21" it same up and ran fine.  So you are right.  The question is how I reverse this.  Should I uninstall and re-install without the sudo?

Thanks
Don't run as sudo.
In a terminal as the user that's running MC in your home directory, fix your MC data files ownership:

chown -R whateveruseryouare:whatevergroupyouare .jriver

Then reinstall the license if necessary.

If you can't access your audio devices, add your user to the audio group then log out and back in again.
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skifastbadly

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #21 on: April 27, 2016, 04:03:06 pm »

Don't run as sudo.
In a terminal as the user that's running MC in your home directory, fix your MC data files ownership:

chown -R whateveruseryouare:whatevergroupyouare .jriver

Then reinstall the license if necessary.

If you can't access your audio devices, add your user to the audio group then log out and back in again.


I think I follow what you're saying but I'm having difficulty in the execution.  It's clear that somewhere along the line, the license got installed under the superuser.  I have made no new accounts on the Pi so i'm running as the user "pi".  From what I can gather, the group is also "pi".  So, from my home directory, I entered "chown -R pi:pi .jriver"

It doesn't seem to make a difference.  I re-installed the license, and it says "license installed" but when I try to run MC, I get "Trial is over".  WHen I run sudo MC, then it runs.

I am definitely missing something, and I didn't run into this on the Pi 2.  I appreciate your patience, I know I'm close.  What's the best route, completely start over installing from scratch?
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skifastbadly

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #22 on: April 27, 2016, 05:21:27 pm »

After I reinstall the license, I get one of two results.   If I run MC as Pi, I still get a message stating that my trial has expired.   If I run sudo mediacenter21, I am now running under a trial license.  In other words, the license install appears to have no effect.  Any idea?
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bob

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #23 on: April 28, 2016, 10:01:21 am »

After I reinstall the license, I get one of two results.   If I run MC as Pi, I still get a message stating that my trial has expired.   If I run sudo mediacenter21, I am now running under a trial license.  In other words, the license install appears to have no effect.  Any idea?
Are you installing a MC21 linux license?
When you install the license you aren't doing a sudo are you?
You can simply install it from the GUI when it popups saying the trial is expired.

Other possibilities are that your ownership for the pi user home are screwed up or the filesystem is read-only or MC's settings files are corrupted.

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skifastbadly

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #24 on: April 28, 2016, 01:41:11 pm »

Are you installing a MC21 linux license?
When you install the license you aren't doing a sudo are you?
You can simply install it from the GUI when it popups saying the trial is expired.

Other possibilities are that your ownership for the pi user home are screwed up or the filesystem is read-only or MC's settings files are corrupted.



I was installing a MC21 Master license.  I was not using sudo.

You know what finally worked?  Starting fresh with a new SD card.  I don't know if it was the permissions or what, but bought a new card, started from scratch, and everything's working.

The mysteries of Linux and licensing.
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jwc2919

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Re: New RaspberryPi 3 - what do you think?
« Reply #25 on: July 04, 2017, 02:30:58 pm »

Hello People,
I'm sure you've seen the news on the new Pi (http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/02/raspberry-pi-3-has-wi-fi-and-bluetooth-64-bit-chip-still-just-35/)

I wonder how it'll impact the Hifi use and JRiver?
They say the current 32 bit software - will work on the new Pi.

I welcome the addition of on board Wifi and Bluetooth but wonder if it'll generate noise for audio applications? I Imagine it'll be possible to turn them off if needed?
Will the new processing power help MC? Perhaps allow running convolution on the Pi?

Lastly, I'm using the HiFiberry Digi+ board now to get coax and optical out - I'd love a version with proper BNC connection.
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