I know it’s not strictly within the device main features, and thus might not be supported officially, but there are some smart people here with good experience, so i’ll try to ask.
I’m trying to use mpd on my Vero 2 box for music playback, since Kodi’s web interface is sluggish and not very convenient if you have hundreds of albums. It all worked perfectly until a few days ago. The setup is as follows: mpd on the Vero 2, fixed to an IP address, and i’m using Cantata on the client side, and MPDroid on my phone/tablet.
Since monday, the mpd service freezes and music playback stops after a few minutes, or sometimes doesn’t even start at all. I have not changed any configurations prior to this issue, and have not installed any updates manually. The same problem exists with other client apps, and with any source material (local files or online stream). Restarting the mpd.service doesn’t help (it restarts, but music still doesn’t continue playing), but if i wait a couple of minutes, playback resumes for a few seconds, then stops again, and so on.
Here’s a pastebin of the mpd.log, if it helps (i replaced the full paths with (…) for readability): http://pastebin.com/XWLWgbrV
Firstly, I don’t know anything about MPD, but thanks for the log. It shows that your audio is stopping most likely because Kodi is also trying to open the audio sink (either to play menu sounds, notifications or actual audio). The Vero 2 SoC can support dual audio from two different applications as it exposes two sinks.
I would recommend as follows:
Ensure Kodi is configured to output to ‘SPDIF’. Audio will still be routed over HDMI, but this will guarantee you can benefit from passthrough if you use it.
Install alsa-utils (sudo apt-get install alsa-utils). Use aplay -l to list your sinks. Configure MPD to use the Analogue sink. The audio will still go via HDMI, but the sink will not be looked by Kodi or MPD and they should be able to co-exist.
At the moment the hardware setup is like this: HDMI cable goes to the TV from the Vero 2, and a coaxial cable goes to the DAC, which can send the sound to either the speakers or headphones. The reason for this is much higher quality audio, than through the built-in analogue output or HDMI.
It is possible that Kodi is trying to send audio to the same sink, i’ll have to check that out. However, it worked fine for months, until now (even when i only paused a video, and started music via MPD). Maybe i need to find a way to mute Kodi, unless there is a movie playing. Maybe that would free up the SPDIF sink.
Well, so far it seems that the suggestion was solid gold Although i had to switch the sinks, and leave the SPDIF for MPD (otherwise there is no ssignal on the coaxial) and set the analogue in Kodi. This way it seems like the two live happily side by side. I’ll keep testing in the next few days, but hopefully the problem is solved!
Thanks for the great support!
@paulwebster: Thanks for the tip. The problem is that if i had to flip between about a 1000 albums with the remote, i’d go nuts pretty quickly. The webUI is better, but the refresh speed is far behind of what i can get with Cantata or MPDroid.
Not exactly sure how this passthrough works (or if i’m using it at all), have to read up on the topic.
However the DAC i use is only a stereo device, supports PCM and DSD for music listening, but no DTS or Dolby. So at first glance, it doesn’t seem that useful for me.
Although i had to switch the sinks, and leave the SPDIF for MPD (otherwise there is no ssignal on the coaxial) and set the analogue in Kodi. This way it seems like the two live happily side by side. I’ll keep testing in the next few days, but hopefully the problem is solved!