Very newbie question: how do I tell if minimstreamer is runnng?

[simoncn]

(06-11-2023 20:10)nickc Wrote:  Thanks for this very helpful explanation.

If I've understood you correctly then, the quality of the DAC chip in the computer where I'm using VLC is an entirely separate matter from the capability of the software rendering VLC delivers to the DAC? (And thus the discussions that go on re the quality of DACs are focused on different issues?)

Yes, these are different. In practice, there is very little variation in the output sent to the DAC by different software renderers. There will be much more variation in the electrical noise generated by this rendering and between the quality of the digital/analogue conversion performed by different DACs.

Quote:It's not practical for me to use my desktop running VLC as the primary source feeding our two main sound systems in the house, and I tend to agree with you about the benefit of streaming and rendering on different devices. It was reading your comment about that elsewhere in the forum that helped me decide to install a second RaspberryPi to do the rendering (using Volumio), and that has definitely proved a good move. For me, living in France, it's had the added benefit of being able to run a VPN on the original (streaming/decoding) Pi.

From your explanation I'm still not clear though what happens to those BBC streams on my system (MinimServer/Streamer on RPi > Volumio on on RPi > Arcam SR-250) when I don't ask MS to do any transcoding. The reason I tried the stream in VLC was to get the hard info on the stream that so far I can't find a way of doing from Volumio or the Arcam.

As I understand it, your setup is:

internet stream -> RPi1(MinimServer) -> RPi2(Volumio) -> Arcam SR-250

If this is correct, how are the RPi2/Volumio and Arcam SR-250 connected?

If MinimServer on RPi1 is not doing transcoding, the stream is going through the following processing stages:

internet stream: HLS -> RPi1 decodes HLS to AAC -> RPi2 converts AAC to LPCM -> Arcam converts LPCM to analogue audio

If MinimServer on RPi1 is doing transcoding to WAV, the stream is going through the following processing stages:

internet stream: HLS -> RPi1 decodes HLS to AAC, then transcodes AAC to LPCM -> RPi2 passes on LPCM -> Arcam converts LPCM to analogue audio

Quote:Obviously I need to experiment and see if I can hear a difference if I add decoding to MS. (I have to wait a suitable opportunity as I'm not the only listener in the house.) My ears are not as good as they were once!

It is worth trying this experiment. I will be interested to hear what you find.