Inovato Quadra - $29 Squeezelite player

[chicks]

Got one of these to play with as a Pi alternative. Squeezelite installed without issue, shows up in LMS as “Inovato”, and “just works” using HDMI audio.

Plugged in a Topping D10s, repointed Squeezelite, and 24/192 test works nicely.

[chrisinparis]

Host for LMS?

Viable for use a server (just LMS)? Looking for a long term solution of a low power server just for LMS. Currently - temporarily - using a power hungry Windows desktop as server (besides power consumption, fan is often on...).

Although I am in Europe, so shipping will make it less attractive.

[Apesbrain]

Squeezelite installed without issue ... and “just works” using HDMI audio.

Nice! Can you describe how Squeezelite is installed? You mean "USB audio", right?

[slartibartfast]

Nice! Can you describe how Squeezelite is installed? You mean "USB audio", right?

I assume you can SSH in and do it from there.


Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[Paul Webster]

Nice! Can you describe how Squeezelite is installed? You mean "USB audio", right?

It does have HDMI

https://www.inovato.com/product/inovato-quadra

[castalla]

Viable for use a server (just LMS)? Looking for a long term solution of a low power server just for LMS. Currently - temporarily - using a power hungry Windows desktop as server (besides power consumption, fan is often on...).

Although I am in Europe, so shipping will make it less attractive.

The inovato firmware can be installed on tv boxes using the Allwinner H6 chip - about 50 euro on amazon.

Alternative but more expensive would be a fanless Windows mini Pc - about 150 euro.

Or, a raspberry pi 400 with piCorePlayer - about 100 euro.

[chicks]

Nice! Can you describe how Squeezelite is installed? You mean "USB audio", right?

On the Quadra desktop, open a terminal window, then:

sudo apt install squeezelite

Audio, by default, is via the HDMI port. I plugged headphones into my HDMI desktop display, music came out, zero config required after the install.

It has a full desktop installed, so can be used as a very basic PC. However, sshd is enabled, so can also be run as a headless server.

There is a micro-SD slot, so LMS could likely be installed on an SD card. I didn't try. There's also about 8GB of room left on the internal flash drive, so...

[Paul Webster]

Seems to be similar processing power to RPi3B+ (Quad Core A53)

[chicks]

Viable for use a server (just LMS)?

Yes. Downloaded the latest ARM .deb of LMS, and it installs with a minor hitch, easily fixed.

dpkg: error processing package logitechmediaserver (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
logitechmediaserver
[email protected]:~$ sudo apt install libcrypt-openssl-rsa-perl
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libcrypt-openssl-rsa-perl : Depends: libcrypt-openssl-bignum-perl but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libcrypt-openssl-random-perl but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).
[email protected]:~$ sudo apt --fix-broken install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
libcrypt-openssl-bignum-perl libcrypt-openssl-random-perl libcrypt-openssl-rsa-perl
The following NEW packages will be installed:

[Apesbrain]

Plugged in a Topping D10s, repointed Squeezelite, and 24/192 test works nicely.

Thanks for the reply regarding Squeezelite install. What was involved in getting Squeezelite to output via USB?

[chicks]

Thanks for the reply regarding Squeezelite install. What was involved in getting Squeezelite to output via USB?

Use aplay -L to find the hw: entry for your DAC
Edit /etc/default/squeezelite to enter the data
sudo systemctl restart squeezelite

https://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?116887-Inovato-Quadra-streamer-option-to-Rasp-Pi-for-USB-DAC

[chicks]

With LMS and squeezelite both running, playing a FLAC from Tidal, Quad-core CPU is about 96% idle.

[chicks]

I've been mucking about with this box from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B46D9VCP

It's also $29 (shipping included), but adds a remote control and TOSLink optical output.

I downloaded the Inovato build of Armbian to an SD card, and it boots up just fine on this box (haven't yet tried to burn it to the device's flash).

Here is the keycode map I made for it. I expected it to match the tanix_tx5max, but it doesn't. Named it snt... from the mfg name on the box. Here is a great primer on installing the keycode maps and using them for evdev and python-evdev: https://www.sigmdel.ca/michel/ha/opi/ir_03_en.html

[[protocols]]
name = "snt_tx5max"
protocol = "nec"
variant = "necx"
[protocols.scancodes]
0x2fe40 = "KEY_POWER"
0x2fef3 = "KEY_MUTE"
0x2fe10 = "KEY_VOLUMEDOWN"
0x2fe18 = "KEY_VOLUMEUP"
0x2fe16 = "KEY_UP"
0x2fe51 = "KEY_LEFT"
0x2fe50 = "KEY_RIGHT"
0x2fe1a = "KEY_DOWN"
0x2fe13 = "KEY_OK"
0x2fe11 = "KEY_HOME"
0x2fe4c = "KEY_MENU"
0x2fe19 = "KEY_BACK"
0x2fe4e = "KEY_1"
0x2fe0d = "KEY_2"
0x2fe0c = "KEY_3"
0x2fe4a = "KEY_4"
0x2fe09 = "KEY_5"
0x2fe08 = "KEY_6"
0x2fe46 = "KEY_7"
0x2fe05 = "KEY_8"
0x2fe04 = "KEY_9"
0x2fe00 = "KEY_SUBTITLE"
0x2fe01 = "KEY_0"
0x2fe42 = "KEY_DELETE"

To enable the TOSLink, sudo armbian-config / system / Dtc, and add the following just below the sound_hdmi entry:

        sound-spdif {
                compatible = "simple-audio-card";
                status = "okay";
                simple-audio-card,name = "Onboard SPDIF";

                simple-audio-card,cpu {
                        sound-dai = <0x6f>;
                };

                simple-audio-card,codec {
                        sound-dai = <0x85>;
                };
        };

        spdif-out {
                #sound-dai-cells = <0x00>;
                compatible = "linux,spdif-dit";
                phandle = <0x85>;
        };

Scroll down to this entry, and change status from "disabled" to "okay".

                [email protected] {
                        #sound-dai-cells = <0x00>;
                        compatible = "allwinner,sun50i-h6-spdif";
                        reg = <0x5093000 0x400>;
                        interrupts = <0x00 0x15 0x04>;
                        clocks = <0x04 0x63 0x04 0x62>;
                        clock-names = "apb\0spdif";
                        resets = <0x04 0x29>;
                        dmas = <0x24 0x02>;
                        dma-names = "tx";
                        pinctrl-names = "default";
                        pinctrl-0 = <0x2f>;
                        status = "okay";
                        phandle = <0x6f>;
                };

Working on expanding my WiiM display to add the remote control functions, but will also (eventually) look into using this as an LMS / Squeezelite display, assuming WiiM never gets around to adding Squeezelite support.

[Apesbrain]

I've been mucking about with this box from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B46D9VCP

Since it ships running Android, you could install a Squeezebox player app such as SqueezePlayer or SB Player. If you want S/PDIF output, probably still need to make the configuration changes you suggested.

[chicks]

Since it ships running Android, you could install a Squeezebox player app such as SqueezePlayer or SB Player. If you want S/PDIF output, probably still need to make the configuration changes you suggested.

Spdif works out of the box, and Squeezeplayer works too. Just a clunky (IMO) UI, which requires navigation to the app every power cycle, and defaults back to hdmi audio as well. With Armbian, you can fully automate everything, including screen turnoff when playing is done / turn on when playing starts.