Arch Linux

latgarf

Member

Registered: 2012-12-14

Posts: 32

[Solved] How to make WiFi speakers (DTS Play-Fi) work with Arch?

I wanted a wireless speaker, preferring WiFi over bluetooth.  Having read "Which Wireless Audio Technology Is Right for You?", I bought Polk S2R speaker.  It uses DTS Play-fi proprietary streaming technology, which makes audio equipment from many manufacturers interoperable - an attractive aspect for me when my home audio setup expands with additional devices in the future.

Play-fi supports Android/iOS/Windows, but not linux   My parter downloaded this Android app and started streaming music within minutes.  However, I am a linux-only user: Archlinux on my laptop and Sailfish OS on my smartphone.  My goal is to be able to wirelessly stream audio from my archlinux laptop to this WiFi/bluetooth speaker.

Where do I start?  It seems that I should be able to specify in some configuration (in ALSA, perhaps) that I want my laptop's audio output to be directed to my network speaker instead of the built-in speakers.  Here, someone was able to successfully configure their Bose speakers with arch. However, I don't see anything like Polk Audio here:

# cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7d18000 irq 29

I only see my laptop's single sound card in alsamixer, and

$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC269VB Analog [ALC269VB Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

The Polk speaker exists on my home LAN - I see its MAC address on my router's admin page, and some data bytes get transferred.

The speaker's specs list
Wireless Technology

• Bluetooth

• Wireless

• Wireless Protocol 802.11n - 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz

• DTS Play-Fi (App Required)

I wonder if some software that implements DTS Play-Fi is required or optional for wireless audio streaming on linux?

I haven't figured out yet if the libdca DTS decoding module (the first open source implementation of DTS), by VideoLAN project is relevant to my problem or not.

I've also tried to connect via bluetooth. I got stuck here:

Connection Failed: blueman.bluez.errors.DBusFailedError: Protocol not available...

My conjecture is that the protocol here refers to a (possibly proprietary DTS Play-fi) protocol implementation needed to stream audio to the speaker. Probably, the software that implements this protocol is not installed on my arch laptop, or it may not even be available for linux at all?  If this is the case then I'd probably want to return my newly purchased speaker
Edit: Making progress here:

# bluetoothctl
[NEW] Controller C4:85:08:47:12:6E itf [default]
[NEW] Device 00:1E:7C:3C:23:01 Polk S2R BT

I haven't yet tried the option to set up using a web browser because I've never done direct WiFi conections (shouldn't be hard).  Is this worth trying?

I've emailed customer support to see if they can provide any info that would be helpful for making the speaker work with linux. I plan to post their replies here.  In the mean time, any advice to get me moving would be hugely appreciated!

Last edited by latgarf (2017-03-28 07:13:22)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,626

Re: [Solved] How to make WiFi speakers (DTS Play-Fi) work with Arch?

Pulseaudio provides a Bluetooth audio implementation, you will want to use that if you attempt to use the Bluetooth support. I wouldn't hold my breath for the proprietary protocol. You will want to read through: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bluetooth_headset

Last edited by V1del (2017-03-27 14:26:42)

latgarf

Member

Registered: 2012-12-14

Posts: 32

Re: [Solved] How to make WiFi speakers (DTS Play-Fi) work with Arch?

I was able to make audio streaming work via bluetooth (for now).
Here's what helped:

1. Ensuring that the following packages are installed:
pulseaudio-alsa, pulseaudio-bluetooth, bluez, bluez-libs, bluez-utils, bluez-firmware.

2. Creating file /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf
with this line:

Enable=Source,Sink,Media,Socket

(to allow A2DP Audio Sinks).

3. blueman-applet for graphically (dis)connecting to/from audio sink.

4. Pavucontrol for specifying desired speakers for audio output on a per-application basis.

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,354

Re: [Solved] How to make WiFi speakers (DTS Play-Fi) work with Arch?

I was able to make audio streaming work via bluetooth (for now).
Here's what helped:

1. Ensuring that the following packages are installed:
pulseaudio-alsa, pulseaudio-bluetooth, bluez, bluez-libs, bluez-utils, bluez-firmware.

2. Creating file /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf
with this line:

Enable=Source,Sink,Media,Socket

(to allow A2DP Audio Sinks).

3. blueman-applet for graphically (dis)connecting to/from audio sink.

4. Pavucontrol for specifying desired speakers for audio output on a per-application basis.

In other words - setting up bluetooth as mentioned on the linked wiki page.

Please mark your thread as solved

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latgarf

Member

Registered: 2012-12-14

Posts: 32

Re: [Solved] How to make WiFi speakers (DTS Play-Fi) work with Arch?

Yes, the bluetooth_headset article helped a lot, thank you.  I've marked the thread as solved.  My practical problem is solved - I've made the speaker minimally usable to me, albeit via bluetooth, not via WiFi as preferred.

I'm still quite clueless about how to approach setting up audio streaming via WiFi, which is the original title of this thread.  From this end, it is not solved.

When making my decision to buy this speaker, I superficially thought that since the speaker will be just a device connected to my WiFi network, it should be doable to stream audio to it from my linux laptop and smartphone, which are just other WiFi devices on the same network.  Upon receiving the speaker, I realized that audio streaming via wifi requires an implementation of a (proprietary?) protocol.  It's supplied as an app by the manufacturer, but its availability in linux is unclear.

Now that I'm using bluetooth's A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile  aka Bluetooth Audio Streaming) rather than play-fi's (proprietary streaming, synchronization, authentication technology), I wonder why would I need play-fi at all?  Perhaps, using play-fi technology allows me in the future to buy more speakers (say, for a 5.1 or 7.1 home theater setup), which may come from any of the over 20 manufacturers of the play-fi consortium.  WiFi speakers can be linked together and controlled remotely as part of a coordinated multi-room audio system.  Because they are on a network, they can directly connect to cloud-based music sources and Internet radio stations.  My several family members can stream from multiple devices.  I found this and this comparison of BT vs WiFi useful.

It looks like configuring wifi speakers with linux might be an ongoing struggle for me going into the future.  I wonder how to convince the play-fi guys to start supporting linux, at least minimally? Suggestions? - I'm emailing them now.