Speed up starting piCoreplayer

[Johan Vromans]

On Tue, 9 Aug 2022 22:01:44 +0000, Greg Erskine
<Greg.Erskine.aowu9b (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com> wrote:

> My advice is "throw piCorePlayer and the Raspberry Pi away".
> Ask the wife/family what they want and buy that.

LOL...

Unfortunately my wife is disabled and uses a special tablet application to
control things like playing CDs. So whatever alternative, it must have a
decent API to control it.

[[email protected]]

Speed up starting piCoreplayer

Hi,

I use an RPi1 with piCoreplayer connected to an amplifier to play LMS music.
Network connection is an USB WiFi (RealTec8192cu).

This has been okay for many years. But there is one thing that is still
bugging me: it takes a long time (60 seconds or so) for the RPi to become
ready to play. Even the RPi3 requires 25 seconds or so.

I can live with that but other members of the household do not understand
that you cannot switch it on and then hit play...

Are there ways to speed up the boot time?

-- Johan

[Paul Webster]

Speed up starting piCoreplayer

How about side-stepping the issue and instead consider it like your TV and leave it always connected to the power?
Depending on how your amp is connected to the Pu for the audio signal, you might need some user rules or scripting to handle the amp being powered on.

[mherger]

Speed up starting piCoreplayer

> Are there ways to speed up the boot time?

Consider getting one of Philippe44's SqueezeAMPs ;-)

[[email protected]]

Speed up starting piCoreplayer

On Tue, 9 Aug 2022 13:44:52 +0000, Paul Webster
<Paul.Webster.aow7an (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com> wrote:

> How about side-stepping the issue and instead consider it like your TV
> and leave it always connected to the power?

Very few devices in our home are always connected to the power.
Most notably not the main media centre (tv + set top box + router +
amplifier + RPi (kodi) + chromecast + hdmi switch) and audio center (RPi
(piCoreplayer) + amplifier).

The startup time for the media center (mostly the set top box) is two
minutes but that is not considered a problem. Maybe because it clearly
indicates when it is ready.

Can LMS play an audio signal when the piCoreplayer becomes ready?

-- Johan

[[email protected]]

Speed up starting piCoreplayer

On Tue, 9 Aug 2022 16:07:30 +0200, Michael Herger <slim (AT) herger (DOT) net> wrote:

> Consider getting one of Philippe44's SqueezeAMPs ;-)

Definitely an option. Thanks for the pointer!

-- Johan

[RobbH]

....
Can LMS play an audio signal when the piCoreplayer becomes ready?

-- Johan

Look at the "Tweaks" page in piCorePlayer's web interface. (I don't know if it's necessary to enable Beta mode in order to have access to this page.)

About 1/3 of the way down the page is the "Auto start tweaks" section. You can select one of your Favorites to be played automatically when pCP boots. I have never tried this, so I am not at all certain that it will do what you want, but it appears to be worth a try.

[Man in a van]

Look at the "Tweaks" page in piCorePlayer's web interface. (I don't know if it's necessary to enable Beta mode in order to have access to this page.)

About 1/3 of the way down the page is the "Auto start tweaks" section. You can select one of your Favorites to be played automatically when pCP boots. I have never tried this, so I am not at all certain that it will do what you want, but it appears to be worth a try.

This does work, at one time I had a rpi / LMS / squeezelite / usb dac . Digital pre-amp into active speaker (with input auto-sensng).


All plugged into a power strip

Switch on the power and after a few seconds, music

ronnie

[[email protected]]

Speed up starting piCoreplayer

On Tue, 9 Aug 2022 18:35:46 +0000, RobbH
<RobbH.aowkpz (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com> wrote:

> the "Auto start tweaks" section.
> You can select one of your Favorites to be played automatically when pCP
> boots.

Excellent! It even works as documented.

-- Johan

[[email protected]]

Speed up starting piCoreplayer

Hi Ronnie,

Hope you are doing well.

On Tue, 9 Aug 2022 19:39:37 +0000, Man in a van
<Man.in.a.van.aownon (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com> wrote:

> This does work, at one time I had a rpi / LMS / squeezelite / usb dac .
> Digital pre-amp into active speaker (with input auto-sensng).
> All plugged into a power strip
> Switch on the power and after a few seconds, music

Almost the same here. Except that it still takes substantially more than 'a
few seconds' .

The music I play is a short jingle so the wife knows the player is ready.

Regards,
Johan

[Greg Erskine]

My advice is "throw piCorePlayer and the Raspberry Pi away".

Ask the wife/family what they want and buy that.

[Man in a van]

Hi Ronnie,

Hope you are doing well.

On Tue, 9 Aug 2022 19:39:37 +0000, Man in a van
<Man.in.a.van.aownon (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com> wrote:

> This does work, at one time I had a rpi / LMS / squeezelite / usb dac .
> Digital pre-amp into active speaker (with input auto-sensng).
> All plugged into a power strip
> Switch on the power and after a few seconds, music

Almost the same here. Except that it still takes substantially more than 'a
few seconds' .

The music I play is a short jingle so the wife knows the player is ready.

Regards,
Johan

Hey Johan,

"Mustn't grumble" as we say


groetjes

ronnie

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