Native DSD on Raspberry Pi

    Is there any way this can be done w/ libreelec? I know it's not a hardware issue as it works perfectly with volumio.

    I found this thread,

    Raspberry Pi 4 + LibreElec + Music Player Daemon + WavPack DSD

    ...but do not understand how to use MPD. I installed the add-on and it's "enabled" but i dont' really understand what to do from here. is there some sort of setup that needs to be done so that kodi uses mpd (mpc?) as the player when playing music?

    sorry if this question is painfully noob. if it's a RTFM situation, I'm having trouble finding the manual for how to use mpd (mpc?) with libreelec

    Note: I've confirmed my device (amanero combo384) is in the quirks.c list

    Edited once, last by fliz (December 8, 2023 at 10:38 PM).

    Home > Add-ons / LibreELEC Add-ons / Audio decoders / SACD ISO support

    IIRC this ^ also provides DSD file support to Kodi (so no need for MPD) though this is not referenced in the add-on info text. If you can confirm I'll send a change upstream to add mention of DSD to the add-on.

    DSD files are converted to PCM by Kodi/Libreelec with or without that addon installed. I'm trying to get Kodi/Libreelec to not convert to PCM and just send the dsd to my amanero, which can handle anything up to dsd512 (22.4Mhz 1-bit). I know it's not a hardware limitation, because volumio can do this, but I MUCH prefer Kodi/Libreelec

    Edited once, last by fliz (December 10, 2023 at 2:32 AM).

    I have some ffmpeg patches which change the DSD -> PCM "conversion" routines to convert to DoP instead. Then a USB DAC would be able to get the RAW DSD bits. I can share those patches with you and maybe you can roll your own build?

    Thanks iucoen!

    I'll take a look at the patches and see if I understand them.

    Ideally, I wouldn't be using DoP though as that's limited to DSD64 because DSD128 (and 256 and 512) would need to be converted to something that's higher than 384khz to be passed "over PCM"

    truly native DSD up to DSD512 should be possible, as volumio can accomplish this for dacs that support it (eg the amanero USB to I2S board, which is in the quirks.c list)

    Most USB DACs made in the last 3 years should be able to handle up to DSD256 with DoP, transported over 705.6kHz PCM. (Most DAC chips can only handle 384kHz like you said, but the USB 705.6 kHZ PCM mode is there just for DoP.)

    • New

    Bump.

    Has anyone heard more information about this?

    When I play DSD64 tracks via the latest Kodi nightly build (as of like 26 March 2024) on a Raspberry Pi 5, it converts DSD to PCM -- and I hear an obvious change in the audio for the front-center channel. For example, when I play the "Ride Across The River" DSF file (extracted from the Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms" SACD) over my network on my Oppo BDP-103, it bitstreams native DSD and it sounds *great*. But when I play the same file with Kodi, the front-center channel volume is much lower and the channel has a ton of reverb / echo.

    Kodi on RPi5 can stream DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD (be still my heart!) so if I can get it to bitstream DSD (and FLAC) it will officially be my Holy Grail of high-end audio players.

    Does anyone have any recent info on DSD/DSF streaming with Kodi on Raspberry Pi?

    -PolarWeasel

    • New

    Da Flex --

    Thanks for responding. Yes, in the "System" settings in Kodi I have "Allow passthrough" ON, I have my "Passthrough output device" set to "ALSA: vc4-hdmi-0 (vc4hdmi0), MJI marantz-AVR on HDMI", and I have all the "... capable receiver" options ON. I have the "Audio output device" set to "ALSA: vc4-hdmi-0 (vc4hdmi0), MJI marantz-AVR on HDMI", "Number of channels" set to 5.1, and "Output configuration" set to "Best match".

    When I play "Ride Across The River" over my network through Kodi, my Marantz AV7701 preprocessor indicates it's receiving "MULTI CH IN PCM 192kHz 3/2/.1" and when I play the same track over my network through my Oppo BDP-103, the AV7701 indicates it's receiving "MULTI CH IN DSD 3/2/.1".

    Oddly, the BDP-103 is only capable of outputting DSD/DSF on its HDMI2 output, but that's the one I'm using -- connected to one of the HDMI inputs on the AV7701. I'm using one of my Raspberry Pi 5's 2 HDMI outputs connected directly to a different HDMI input on the AV7701. I thought perhaps only one input on the AV7701 supported DSF/DSD, so I tried connecting the Kodi HDMI output to the HDMI input normally connected to the BDP-103, but that had no effect.

    Is there a DSF/DSD decoder add-on I need to add to Kodi? It sure seems to me that it should be working Out-Of-The-Box, but I'm willing to try pretty much anything.

    I'm running a recent nightly build of LibreELEC (LibreELEC (official): 11.95.1 (RPi5.aarch64)).

    Thanks again ... any suggestions?

    -PolarWeasel

    • New

    I've received feedback from a developer. There are no plans to implement native DSD support.

    I want to keep things sorted:

    • users with questions about the MPD add-on, post here, or use the Kodi forum, where add-on developers are
    • users, who want to apply the above FFmpeg patch, read this, and post here in case of questions

    This thread is closed.