Max2play Image for Raspberry Pi 4 Beta Version

bencat

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In case any on here are waiting and not spotted it Max2play - www.max2play.com have released a Beta download for the new Raspberry Pi . I use this software as a nice simple interface for Logitech Media Server and have my USB HD Library connected to a single Pi running the server only .

I downloaded the new Beta version this morning and flashed it to my Raspberry Pi 4 4GB unit . Everything was very smooth using Balena Etcher to write to the card .Card loaded fine was able to get the max2play interface open striaght away . Then just a matter of loading all of my normal settings , mounting the USB drive and installing and starting LMS . I did all of this before i replaced my current Raspberry Pi 3+ which is my current server .

Full load and scan of my Library (50049 tracks) has taken about thirty five minutes but this is a one time set up so this was the same if not longer for all the previous Pi incarnations I have used. Speed and smoothnes for the new Pi4 is very noticable . Adding plugins , loading an updated version of LMS takes a fraction of the time it used to and when restarted the LMS is very quick to reload and be available somehting i could never say about the previous versions.

So far all the plug ins I have tried (Material World , Radio Paradise , BBC iPlayer ) have all worked faultlessly and there have been no drop outs or glitches I could find or hear. Currently playing John Martyn from a Random Mix while I type this and I am now going to say something that I am sure i will regret the sound seems to be improved . Yes I do know this is very subjective but it seems to me to be more solid and stable . Now given that it is just a digital file transfer there should be no differenc but perhaps the true 1gb Ethernet chip is just making the exchange better. This si not huge differences but it does make music easier to listen to so will take it .

 

hermano

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Good write up and very helpful. I have tried max2play (and predecessor) a few times over the years but always had difficulty with it managing larger library.

Like you I have HD attached to Pi and use as server/player. Have always found max2play struggle with larger hard drive (currently 4tb drive with 11500 albums@ 120k tracks).

I used Runeaudio for a while which managed (mostly), but for last year or so have been happy with Volumio. Manages the larger numbers much better.

 

bencat

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Good write up and very helpful. I have tried max2play (and predecessor) a few times over the years but always had difficulty with it managing larger library.

Like you I have HD attached to Pi and use as server/player. Have always found max2play struggle with larger hard drive (currently 4tb drive with 11500 albums@ 120k tracks).

I used Runeaudio for a while which managed (mostly), but for last year or so have been happy with Volumio. Manages the larger numbers much better.
Hi Hermano

I think the issue over larger than 2 TB USB drives is that they had be be partioned at 2TB as this was as large as the Rpi 2,3 etc could see . Not sure is this has been addressed with the RPi 4 . In my case I use a 2 TB USB drive and it is only just over half full with around 3560 albums and about 50049 tracks . This seems to work fine with max2play at present but not sure what will happen when I have to get a bigger USB drive .

 

bobovox

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I believe the 2TB limit relates to the operating system being 32bit - although the Pi hardware from 3B onwards is 64 bit, Raspbian or anything derived from Rasbian is 32 bit as the Raspberry Pi foundation have decided to sacrifice any performance improvement in favour of compatibility.

 

hermano

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Hi Hermano

I think the issue over larger than 2 TB USB drives is that they had be be partioned at 2TB as this was as large as the Rpi 2,3 etc could see . Not sure is this has been addressed with the RPi 4 . In my case I use a 2 TB USB drive and it is only just over half full with around 3560 albums and about 50049 tracks . This seems to work fine with max2play at present but not sure what will happen when I have to get a bigger USB drive .
hey there,

Never had to partition hard drive and can see all 3.5 tb's of music using Volumio. Over the years  I found Max2play unable to manage such a large number of albums/tracks, either some not showing up or being very very slow to scroll through etc. meanwhile, Volumio has been a dream. Cannot say noticed any difference in sound though.

 
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bencat

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I have tried the max2play on my pi4 but the set up I found very unclear, with quite a few that I had no idea what they mean.

In the end I waited a couple of days till the volumio version came out. Been working very nicely indeed, and even though I know it's my imagination, seems to sound better.

https://forum.volumio.org/experimental-volumio-build-for-raspberry-t12640.html
Confused about this post as the max2play image is simple with little issue . Cou;d you please identify what your problems were ? I have recently loaded an image on to a 2Gb Rpi 4 and from start to music tokk 14 minutes total . No issues , no requests to ad or change anything . That server has now been running fior 78 hours no problem so what did you find to be an issue ?

 

bencat

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The Max2play is working well for LMS but I notice that the temperature for the unit is running quite high 73. I have done a full update of the firmware which is supposed to help but if anything it is running hotter rather than cooler .

Any software , update suggestions ?

 

Man in a van

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Hi Andrew

If you want to stay passive then I would wait a little while.

Have a read of this thread and note the comments at the end

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=243500

Here is a link to the Flicr blog

http://blog.flirc.tv/index.php/2019/07/24/cases-shipping/

At the moment I'm using the pimoroni fan shim

pi@khadastoneboard:~ $ ./my-pi-temp.sh
Fri 26 Jul 08:00:56 BST 2019 @ khadastoneboard
-------------------------------------------
GPU => temp=45.0'C
CPU => 44'C
pi@khadastoneboard:~ $


It's not totally silent in a quiet room, but nothing that bothers me.

ronnie

 

bencat

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Thanks Ronnie

Have had one of those Flirc cases on order since April but only just been collected for delivery which should be by the end of July . Will keep an eye on the Temp till then . May just order a couple of heat sinks to get a little heat reduction in the mean time .

 

bencat

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Right out of the blue my brand new Flirc Pi 4 case arrived . Unpacked and very impressed at the quality of the case which is cast aluminium . All you need to do is apply a small patch of heat paste strip on to the main chip (for once this is obvious as the case has a large rectangular pop up which the paste needs to be under .

The pop the plastic base unit over the sd card socket on the Pi and drop the Pi 4 in to place . Four screws and the whole thing is solid and looking very smart .

Then just a case of rebooting Max2play and setting the LMS server working . Before the new case when just playing music on a single player the temperature would be around 70 - 72 which given that at 80 the CPU would throttle back and reduce speed was a little worrying . After the Flirc case was in place this has dropped to 41 which is a very decent drop in temperature and means that my Pi 4 is never looking like getting even close to the top rated temperature. The biggest load on this Pi 4 being used as server only is a full Library Update deleting all previous items and doing a full rescan . Even doing this the Temperature never go above 55 so for a small cost for the case a problem has been solved and my mind is put at rest.

 
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