01-30-2025, 03:18 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-30-2025, 07:07 PM by Tim Curtis.
Edit Reason: Wrong sub-forum for a "problem" thread
)
I'm lifelong IT geek with a basement full of tech and IOT gear. I stumbled upon this project when researching a way to use some of that old IOT equipment as a modern streaming solution at my BJJ school, who only have an ancient receiver with RCA/Analog inputs and Bluetooth (that can only remember like 5 devices, so you're always having to re-pair).
The hardware I'm using is a RPI 3B with a Pi Touch (1st generation) 7 inch display. I started with Moode but ended up going with Volumio mainly because the display interface was a lot smoother, better UI (displays album art, etc) and I was trying to keep it low cost without having to add a DAC. Also, I learned that to use the onboard analog audio out with Moode, I had to switch the integrated audio to using the legacy firmware mode, which killed my options for display out. Unfortunately, the Volumio solution on the Pi 3B has proven a bit buggy. Disconnects from Airplay and Spotify Connect happen quite a bit and when multiple people try to connect to airplay it crashes the service. I have a 12.5 watt power supply and strong wifi so I know neither of those were the culprit.
So, I'm back to Moode! I was going to go with an HDMI to VGA adapter that has analog audio out but I bit the bullet and got a HiFiBerry DAC clone off of Aliexpress. My initial testing shows Moode is much more stable... and well thought out... has options for what to do when multiple users try to connect to airplay at the same time. My main issue now is the display is super laggy and often displays artifacts. Hoping there is a way to improve this, appreciate any tips
. Worst case scenario, I do have some RPI 4Bs I could switch to but my hope was that the 3B was enough for this singular task.
Also, anyone know the reasoning behind audio renderers not displaying album art? I saw that Spotify Connect just recently started displaying song art and metadata which is awesome. As I understand it, Shairport-sync does support requesting metadata and art. Would love to see that displayed behind the Airplay connected render screen overlay.
Didn't mean for this intro to be a tale of troubleshooting and feature requests but I guess we gotta start somewhere.
The hardware I'm using is a RPI 3B with a Pi Touch (1st generation) 7 inch display. I started with Moode but ended up going with Volumio mainly because the display interface was a lot smoother, better UI (displays album art, etc) and I was trying to keep it low cost without having to add a DAC. Also, I learned that to use the onboard analog audio out with Moode, I had to switch the integrated audio to using the legacy firmware mode, which killed my options for display out. Unfortunately, the Volumio solution on the Pi 3B has proven a bit buggy. Disconnects from Airplay and Spotify Connect happen quite a bit and when multiple people try to connect to airplay it crashes the service. I have a 12.5 watt power supply and strong wifi so I know neither of those were the culprit.
So, I'm back to Moode! I was going to go with an HDMI to VGA adapter that has analog audio out but I bit the bullet and got a HiFiBerry DAC clone off of Aliexpress. My initial testing shows Moode is much more stable... and well thought out... has options for what to do when multiple users try to connect to airplay at the same time. My main issue now is the display is super laggy and often displays artifacts. Hoping there is a way to improve this, appreciate any tips
. Worst case scenario, I do have some RPI 4Bs I could switch to but my hope was that the 3B was enough for this singular task.Also, anyone know the reasoning behind audio renderers not displaying album art? I saw that Spotify Connect just recently started displaying song art and metadata which is awesome. As I understand it, Shairport-sync does support requesting metadata and art. Would love to see that displayed behind the Airplay connected render screen overlay.
Didn't mean for this intro to be a tale of troubleshooting and feature requests but I guess we gotta start somewhere.
