HQPlayer in Roon

HQPlayer

Overview

HQPlayer is an advanced, up-sampling media player. It offers some of the best software-based up-sampling and sigma-delta processing available on the market today, as well as convolution, channel mapping, and networked audio output solutions.

Roon can be configured to turn a copy of HQPlayer into a Zone. If you have multiple instances of HQPlayer running in your home, you can configure Roon to use each one as a separate Zone. Be sure to have purchased, downloaded, and installed HQ player prior to setting it up in Roon. 

In all these configurations, HQPlayer owns the final connection to the device, and Roon is just passing along a stream of bits from your media files. This allows you to enjoy the processing benefits of HQPlayer and the library management capabilities of Roon at the same time.

Roon can stream directly to HQPlayer, whether both applications are running on the same machine or if they're on different machines on your network. 

Note: HQPlayer 3.12.0 or higher is required.

Setting Up Roon and HQPlayer

To set up Roon to output to HQPlayer follow these steps:

Step 1: In order to connect to HQPlayer using any address other than `localhost` or `127.0.0.1`, you must enable the "Allow control from network" feature in HQPlayer. This is the globe icon on the far right-hand side of the HQPlayer toolbar:


Mac


Windows

Step 2: In Roon, go to Settings/Setup/HQPlayer and click "Add HQPlayer".

Step 3: Enter the network address where HQPlayer is running:
  1. If HQPlayer is running on the same computer as your Roon Core, leave the default `localhost` value, then press Add
  2. If HQPlayer is running on your network but on a *different* computer, enter the local IP address of that computer, then press Add.
You can find out your IP address by following the instructions here -- just make sure to use your local IP address, as opposed to your external/public IP address. The local address will most commonly look like `10.x.x.x`, or `192.168.x.x`.
  1. Finally, choose HQPlayer from your Zones menu 


Notes for Roon/HQPlayer

  1. When controlling HQPlayer from Roon, use the transport controls within Roon. If Roon detects that you've manipulated transport controls from HQPlayer, it will stop the music and release control of HQPlayer.
  1. HQPlayer has multiple options for displaying the playtime:  “time”, “remain” and “total remain”. You will want to select the first option of "time" in HQPlayer for the playback bar to properly progress in Roon.
  1. An HQPlayer instance can only be controlled by one external piece of software at a time. This is an HQPlayer limitation. If you attempt to initiate control from another piece of software, Roon will lose control of HQPlayer.
  1. HQPlayer filter settings can be adjusted from within HQPlayer. This works best if you first press the "stop" button in HQPlayer, then make the adjustments you want, then proceed with using Roon.
  1. If you're using a device in HQPlayer, make sure that the device is disabled in Roon's audio settings. Both Roon and HQPlayer expect to have exclusive access to the device, and they might conflict if you configure both at the same time. 

If you're having trouble getting HQPlayer setup with Roon, login at our Community Site using your Roon account and let us know the details of your situation.

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