[zoroeyes]

Hi

Apologies if this has been covered already and please feel free to point me in the right direction if there are existing materials available on the subject.

So that you understand why I’m asking the question, here’s a little background: I’ve been using Kodi (OpenELEC) for my movies and tv shows for many years, streamed over the network from my server. However I’ve recently upgraded my entire home theatre and part of that upgrade is a much better speaker setup (Monitor Audio 5.2.4) with a high end disc player (Panasonic DP-UB9000). As a result I’ve become much more interested in getting the best sound quality out of my system and have become very aware (specifically for music playback) of the importance of quality DACs etc. The UB9000 contains a really good DAC that I’d like to use for stereo audio playback when listening to music. However, the UB9000 has an ugly interface and doesn’t have nice apps (Plex, Volumio etc.) that would let me access my music collection in the way I’d like.

So, finally getting to the point, I was wondering if I could use Kodi to catalogue my music, in any of the various ways that are available, but then push that music to an external player (the UB9000 in this case) from the Kodi interface? This would let me have the great media-centre experience that Kodi provides while taking advantage of the excellence audiophile hardware that is present in the UB9000. I don’t want to have to ‘pull’ the music to the player because that would involve using the UB9000’s aforementioned interface. My idea solution would be to use an IPhone/IPad app to control the music server and tell it to send music to the external player (over the wired network, not via airplay or any other method that could potentially interfere with the quality of the stream), I’ve seen Volumio do something similar, but as I already use Kodi I’d like to know if I can integrate such a feature into that.

The UB9000 is DLNA and UPNP capable so should be able to see the Kodi box and should also be visible as a ‘player’ to a server so it can push content to it.

I’m not in favour of any particular product (Plex, Emby, JellyFin, Volumio etc.), so feel free to suggest whatever you feel would work best. I simply want to get the best quality end result that most closely matches what I’ve said above.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Karellen]

I’ve been using Kodi (OpenELEC)

OpenELEC is a dead fork of Kodi that has not been maintained or updated in over 3 years. Switch to Kodi or LibreELEC.

I was wondering if I could use Kodi to catalogue my music,

https://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Create_Music_Library

but then push that music to an external player (the UB9000 in this case) from the Kodi interface?

UPnP (wiki)

[zoroeyes]

Thanks Karellen

I’m intending to switch to a later build of Kodi as part of this project, I’ve simply found OpenELEC to work so well that it’s not been necessary in the past. As I prefer a Kodi-only OS I guess that will be LibreELEC.

So from what I can figure from the link provided, the short answer to my question is Yes. I wonder if UPNP is an option if I choose to use some of the various music library plugins that are available to Kodi or whether this is limited to the standard music library inside Kodi?

[DaveBlake]

Does the UB9000 have a USB input? My audiophile use of Kodi has always been Kodi on RPi (LibreElec) and more recently on a Intel Atom based device running Windows 10, into a nice separate ARCAM DAC via USB. Just a thought.

[zoroeyes]

Hi DaveBlake

Yes it does have a USB port, and it can also stream directly from network, the problem is, it’s interface is horrendous and there’s no mobile app to control it (like Roon/Volumio etc.). Which makes it a pain to use.

My ideal solution would be something like Roon (without the subscription), but unfortunately Roon seems to need specific (certified) endpoints so I’m doubtful that the UB9000 would work with it (they really need to sort that, because the DAC in the UB9000 is better than most of the offerings by Topping et al and I’m loathe to spend more money on another, equally capable DAC).

I’ve been trying to get Kodi to play to my various DLNA/UPNP certified devices, but I’m missing the ‘Play With’ option on the context menu (I have a ‘Play Using’ option but this is just a choice of player interfaces that Kodi can use, not other devices).

I’m starting to doubt whether Even Kodi can do what I’m after in a nice, mobile-app base manner, but I’d be really happy to be proven wrong?

[DaveBlake]

I'm pretty sure I can't help you much @zoroeyes, I don't use upnp etc. perhaps someone else can.  But if your UB9000 can take USB input why not use Kodi on NUC as the media player (so using its libraries and UI or an app like Yatse or Kore to browse and control) with digital output going from NUC to UB9000 via USB. Once wired up in Kodi you should be able to select UB9000 as the audio output device (see settings>system>audio)

[zoroeyes]

I'm pretty sure I can't help you much @zoroeyes, I don't use upnp etc. perhaps someone else can.  But if your UB9000 can take USB input why not use Kodi on NUC as the media player (so using its libraries and UI or an app like Yatse or Kore to browse and control) with digital output going from NUC to UB9000 via USB. Once wired up in Kodi you should be able to select UB9000 as the audio output device (see settings>system>audio)

Really? As in, use the UB9000 like an external usb speaker? Is that possible? I hadn’t even considered that as an option.

Well, I’m not sure if that’s the route I’ll take, but I appreciate the information, thanks.

[DaveBlake]

As in, use the UB9000 like an external usb speaker? Is that possible?

Use it as a DAC plus whatever else beyond that. I don't know if it can take digital input via USB but my DAC can, means that Kodi isn't doing anything to the sound just streaming the bits (and providing the UI for choice of what to play etc.)