Resurrecting htpc libreelec to Win10

J

jlm86

Audioholic Intern
I've been running Librerelec/Kodi for long time, playing mp3/flac , mkv etc.

Now looking more into Hi-Res audio, Fooba2000 and some other audio apps that run on win10 mostly
SACD ISO, DSF files

This unit is 6 years old, and wondering if it would still be up to the task with WIn10 install?
Thanks

Current small form factor
AMD A6-6400 RIchland 3.9Ghz, Dual Core
Gigabyte motherboard/4G DIMM
60G SSD HD
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
I've been running Librerelec/Kodi for long time, playing mp3/flac , mkv etc.

Now looking more into Hi-Res audio, Fooba2000 and some other audio apps that run on win10 mostly
SACD ISO, DSF files

This unit is 6 years old, and wondering if it would still be up to the task with WIn10 install?
Thanks

Current small form factor
AMD A6-6400 RIchland 3.9Ghz, Dual Core
Gigabyte motherboard/4G DIMM
60G SSD HD
It'll be just fine. The 4Gb of memory is what will hold you back a bit, but the SSD should help close the gap.

I've got a laptop with worse specs than yours running Win 10 that was upgraded from 8.1, and it works just fine. Slow, but fine.
 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
Hi-res audio does not really take that much processing, not like video. If you were using kodi for video as well and had files that need transcoding then an upgrade might be in order, but for audio you should be ok. 8GB of RAM would put a little less strain on the SSD if multitasking.

I'm still running an Intel core i5 on Windows 10 and have Playstation Media Server, Plex and Roon all running with few hiccups. I have a lot of mkv files and they play fine except for some subtitled content. Most mkv files will play back natively, but anything with soft-subs (like anime) that requires transcoding to insert subtitles can require more processing power.
 
S

softdome

Audiophyte
Need help resurrecting a Voodoo Aria, I received the HTPC absent the Windows XP media center Edition 2005 operating system. Need advise to which Os are compatible. I don't wish to go online with it and wish to convert an extensive LP collection for use as a music server. Please help.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
Need help resurrecting a Voodoo Aria, I received the HTPC absent the Windows XP media center Edition 2005 operating system. Need advise to which Os are compatible. I don't wish to go online with it and wish to convert an extensive LP collection for use as a music server. Please help.
Lots of things on this one.

Windows XP media center is ancient, but that hardware will likely work OK for libreelec. Maybe. You won't be playing any videos since the hardware is too out of date.

Converting LP to a digital file is a waste of time unless you have a VERY good setup. You will have a drastic reduction in quality.

I keep all my audio in the digital domain unless I'm listening to something that's analog. Then it stays analog. MUCH easier to deal with.
 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
Need help resurrecting a Voodoo Aria, I received the HTPC absent the Windows XP media center Edition 2005 operating system. Need advise to which Os are compatible. I don't wish to go online with it and wish to convert an extensive LP collection for use as a music server. Please help.
I would be tempted to try and find another copy of Windows XP with Media Center. The challenge will be finding drivers for something that old. The Aria was pretty expensive and not a big seller when it came out but you should still be able to find drivers for the GeForce 7800GTX video card. You may not be able to get the TV tuners working, but for audio playback that should not be an issue.

In choosing your OS, I would look into what software you want to use for audio. For converting LP to digital there will be Windows apps available, but can you find something to do the job under Linux? Linux will require less CPU power and memory to run but requires a lot more research in setting up. Nice thing is that there are many different distributions available for free that you can try out.

If you really want to convert LP to digital you may need to buy commercial software to do it right. The commercial software will have options for pop and click removal. You can remove loud pops by recording to WAV files and then editing manually with WAV editing software, but that is very time consuming. If your LP collection is extensive as you say, I would think long and hard about making such a commitment. Not only do you need to record to WAV and then convert that to FLAC or another lossless format, but with LPs you will need to break each side of the LP into individual tracks and add track info to every file. It is a very time consuming process.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
I would be tempted to try and find another copy of Windows XP with Media Center. The challenge will be finding drivers for something that old. The Aria was pretty expensive and not a big seller when it came out but you should still be able to find drivers for the GeForce 7800GTX video card. You may not be able to get the TV tuners working, but for audio playback that should not be an issue.
You could install WIndows 10 on that box without issue, but the hardware is so old it won't run well. Nothing that has good media playback capability will, the hardware is just too old.

A 7800 GTX was a heck of a card in it's day, but that was too long ago. Modern video codecs were in their infancy when that card was released and from what I'm finding, might not even be hardware compatible. Driver support ended years ago, but you can still download them. If you stuck an nVidia 1030 in that PC (assuming it has a PCIE slot) then it might be able to do a good job as long as it has enough RAM, but even then, it might be too slow.

I'm all for repurposing old equipment, but sometimes it's not worth the headache.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Need help resurrecting a Voodoo Aria, I received the HTPC absent the Windows XP media center Edition 2005 operating system. Need advise to which Os are compatible. I don't wish to go online with it and wish to convert an extensive LP collection for use as a music server. Please help.
Lets start with the CPU - AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 - 517 Passmark score - not great by today's standards, but I was running Kodi on Atom 330 which scores even lower at 371. - Ie: You should be fine with the cpu
Video card: panteragstk is absolutely correct here (he and I are two of the most senior IT guys on these forms) -
It's just way too old - it offers only DVD (mpeg2) decoding in hardware. Without at least support to decode H.264, this box would be utterly useless (it will try to do H.264 decode by CPU alone and fail miserably - it will be not a video but a slow slide show). GTX1030 would go a long way to enable HD video playback.
2GB Memory should be ok for LibreElec.
 
jinjuku

jinjuku

Moderator
Need help resurrecting a Voodoo Aria, I received the HTPC absent the Windows XP media center Edition 2005 operating system. Need advise to which Os are compatible. I don't wish to go online with it and wish to convert an extensive LP collection for use as a music server. Please help.
With hardware that old you are likely to run into geriatric issues with regards to simple hardware failure. I would scrap the idea entirely and consider that the box has met it's useful lifespan.

If the internals are standard ATX/ITX then you could refresh with a new mainboard, power supply, RAM, SSD.

Doesn't have to get expensive either:

ASRock Intel Embedded Mainboard $97
8GB RAM (2X 4GB Modules) $50
256GB SSD $53
Seasonic Silent ATX $53
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
With hardware that old you are likely to run into geriatric issues with regards to simple hardware failure. I would scrap the idea entirely and consider that the box has met it's useful lifespan.

If the internals are standard ATX/ITX then you could refresh with a new mainboard, power supply, RAM, SSD.

Doesn't have to get expensive either:

ASRock Intel Embedded Mainboard $97
8GB RAM (2X 4GB Modules) $50
256GB SSD $53
Seasonic Silent ATX $53
PSU and motherboard caps would be questionable at this point, I didn't think to point that out, but it is worth knowing. Re-capping wouldn't be worth the effort.
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
Talking about old hardware, are there still PC that has 5.1 or at least 2.1 RCA outputs? I am thinking of one for to try Dirac Live DLBC for one of my 2 channel system. I use windows based software such as JRiver, to play 2.0 music but again would like to try 2.1 now that DLBC is available.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
There are plenty of older desktop PCs that have 5.1 analog audio outs. Quality-wise, these are unlikely to be stellar in most cases due to cheap DAC implementation - i.e., noisy.
You would need 3.5 stereos to RCA Y-Cables like these to connect your amps:

 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
Talking about old hardware, are there still PC that has 5.1 or at least 2.1 RCA outputs? I am thinking of one for to try Dirac Live DLBC for one of my 2 channel system. I use windows based software such as JRiver, to play 2.0 music but again would like to try 2.1 now that DLBC is available.
There are plenty of older desktop PCs that have 5.1 analog audio outs. Quality-wise, these are unlikely to be stellar in most cases due to cheap DAC implementation - i.e., noisy.
You would need 3.5 stereos to RCA Y-Cables like these to connect your amps:

A lot of PCs come with optical and coax out too if you want to keep things digital and not use HDMI. I opted for an external DAC and have been quite happy with it.
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
A lot of PCs come with optical and coax out too if you want to keep things digital and not use HDMI. I opted for an external DAC and have been quite happy with it.
Me too, but I just want to test the capability/features of the AVM70 at the moment.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
Me too, but I just want to test the capability/features of the AVM70 at the moment.
Ah. I had not realized you had upgraded. Must have missed your thread. ;)

I'd probably just keep it simple and use optical then. Analog out from a PC just doesn't sound good IMHO. I know on-board audio has come a long way, but it had a long way to go, so there's that.

Depending on the PC, you may have certain configurable options in sound for DD and DTS encoding, but I doubt it since that was a pretty niche feature. Optical on most motherboards support 192/24 so that should cover you and let you see what the DAC in the Anthem can do. Test analog out too, just be sure it's not a headphone jack and is an actual line out. Some motherboards have both, but it's been a very long time since I've used on-board audio.
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
Thank you for the suggestions, but for the purpose of testing Dirac Live DLBC, I need a real 2.1 output, so it is not about HDMI vs optical/coax, but about to get that .1 channel.

That would have worked if I had kept my Denon AVR and Marantz AVP and use it for 2.1, but they are gone, traded in for two AVM70.

I just read somewhere, that if I run DLBC on my Macbook pro, it has a way to output a virtual .1 channel so there is hope and now I just need the time to figure out how it is done. If that doesn't work, then I may consider the 5 channel dacs such as Toppings. Those are unnecessarily (since I only need 3 channels) expensive. The only other possibility is the Motu M4 that is much more affordable but is probably difficult to setup as it is not really intended for such purpose, it is more for recording.

M4 | MOTU.com

If you guys know of other affordable alternatives (<$400), please do let me know. Oh yes I do want something with high enough SINAD such as >=100 dB. I am not concerned about THD, but noise.
 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
Thank you for the suggestions, but for the purpose of testing Dirac Live DLBC, I need a real 2.1 output, so it is not about HDMI vs optical/coax, but about to get that .1 channel.

That would have worked if I had kept my Denon AVR and Marantz AVP and use it for 2.1, but they are gone, traded in for two AVM70.

I just read somewhere, that if I run DLBC on my Macbook pro, it has a way to output a virtual .1 channel so there is hope and now I just need the time to figure out how it is done. If that doesn't work, then I may consider the 5 channel dacs such as Toppings. Those are unnecessarily (since I only need 3 channels) expensive. The only other possibility is the Motu M4 that is much more affordable but is probably difficult to setup as it is not really intended for such purpose, it is more for recording.

M4 | MOTU.com

If you guys know of other affordable alternatives (<$400), please do let me know. Oh yes I do want something with high enough SINAD such as >=100 dB. I am not concerned about THD, but noise.
Have you thought about an add-on PC sound card? Something like a Soundblaster Audigy FX5.1 is only $50. There is a 7.1 version as well. Requires a PCIE x1 slot. You would need 1/8" stereo to RCA adapters as the outputs are 1/8" jacks. SNR rated at 106dB.
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
Have you thought about an add-on PC sound card? Something like a Soundblaster Audigy FX5.1 is only $50. There is a 7.1 version as well. Requires a PCIE x1 slot. You would need 1/8" stereo to RCA adapters as the outputs are 1/8" jacks. SNR rated at 106dB.
Yes, I did look into those options, but I don't want to use desktop PC so for sound card it would have to be external ones for use with laptops. Also, I want DACs that can play 24bit/384 kHz or at least 24bit/192 kHz, and DSD up to at least DSD256. Not because those sound better but because many of my digital files are at those bitrate/depths.

Actually for testing, I will just use my HT system. If I like it though, then I will need something for permanent use in my 2.1 system.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
I think Peng, I do not fully understand what you are trying to archive. If you want to play with room correction on AVM70, which is ARC, then all you need is a USB cable from your PC or MAC.
Playing audio files that have a bass channel (.1) on pc/mac - I assume they are either SACD, DTS, or DVD-A os similar. If the player software converts it to multichannel PCM (similar to WAV), then HDMI out.
Optical/Toslink is limited to 24/192. More info on it here:
Is DLBC is software-only solution?
 

Latest posts

newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis
Top