[PROBLEM] Airplay 1 Setting

[varunach]

Hi @Tim Curtis

After the latest update I dont see the option to set Airplay 1 as a setting specifically (Vs Airplay 2). It is a generic 'Airplay' setting now under 'Renderers'. Airplay 1 is 16bit/44.1Khz whereas Airplay 2 compresses everything to Lossy 256Kbps. Most IOS/MAC devices (sender) out there use Airplay 2 and thus if the receiver (Moode) is Airplay 2 as well, the quality gets degraded with lossy compression. Wondering if there is still the option to set Airplay 1 somewhere. 

Here is more detail on the Airplay resolution - https://darko.audio/2023/10/apple-airpla...its-lossy/

[Nutul]

Hi @Tim Curtis

After the latest update I dont see the option to set Airplay 1 as a setting specifically (Vs Airplay 2). It is a generic 'Airplay' setting now under 'Renderers'. Airplay 1 is 16bit/44.1Khz whereas Airplay 2 compresses everything to Lossy 256Kbps. Most IOS/MAC devices (sender) out there use Airplay 2 and thus if the receiver (Moode) is Airplay 2 as well, the quality gets degraded with lossy compression. Wondering if there is still the option to set Airplay 1 somewhere. 

Here is more detail on the Airplay resolution - https://darko.audio/2023/10/apple-airpla...its-lossy/

AirPlay 1 has been abandoned in favor of AirPlay 2 also because the procedure to allow switching between the two wasn't stable and could lead to parasitic modules installed and/or non-working setup.

If you really need it there should be a way, but it:
1. will be totally manual (be prepared to some Linux console)
2. will not be easily reversible (and again done by hand... but I think you won't be looking back, will you)

Bear in mind that I could be totally wrong in this very moment, as maybe, due to lates OS / dependencies updates it could indeed be non-feasible... it's already been a while.
Surely someone (maybe mr @Tim Curtis) could give you some directions.

[Tim Curtis]

The AirPlay version switch feature proved to be too unreliable, especially going back to 2 from 1 so it was scrapped.
Here's a thread that discusses that.
https://moodeaudio.org/forum/showthread....=airplay+2

Thats not to say a dev couldn't create a new, more reliable way to do it but there hasn't been any interest so far and my plate is already overflowing with TODO items :-0

As far as AirPlay itself goes it looks like version 2 provides benefits to Apple's IOS users by (1) greatly reducing audio glitches by using AAC compression and a more efficient non-realtime packet delivery scheme, and (2) delivering multiroom sync audio capability right from the phone. Their users prolly really like this assuming the app they are using is sending AirPlay 2 format.

In doing this Apple made it almost impossible to know whats going on with the format of the audio stream, and users that want to know are forced to refer to some spreadsheet of apps, os's and protocols to figure it all out assuming the information is even correct.

For example I've read that Apple Music on a Mac using the OS level AirPlay still sends the AAC (lossy/buffered) stream to an Airplay 2 endpoint. Thats not true at least for shairport-sync. I can see in the shairport-sync log that the stream being received is "AP2 Realtime Audio Stream" which is the lossless ALAC format.

Another aspect of the AirPlay 2 system is the rehashing of the old "lossy vs lossless, can you actually hear the difference" arguments on audio forums...

[varunach]

@Tim Curtis yeah, i do agree this is largely on Apple. Having said that this is not just about compatibility between OS versions and old Windows versions of Apple music etc. This is more from an audiophile community stand point (who i suspect the moode users mostly are) where Airplay 1 is the best way to get close to high-res from Apple music. And that last resort ends with this update which essentially means Moode users cant/wont use Apple Music for their high-res needs. I suspect that crowd is negligible anyways because audiophiles want bit-perfect and they've probably long moved to other music services because of this. Thanks for the quick response.

[Blue566]

Hey there, if I can add my voice - I too would like a way to force AP1 in Moode, exactly because of this issues, I'd be happy with proper lossless 16/44 and I'm using apple music. If there was a script to force this with clear instructions I'd be happy to try - otherwise I love Moode!

Thank you,