Pi 2 Design Mercury Streamer and JRiver Media Center: An Audiophile’s Treat

I recently contacted @Michael Kelly, owner and designer of Pi 2 Design, to ask him if the Mercury streamer is compatible with JRiver Media Center. JRMC is well regarded among audio enthusiasts for its powerful audio engine and robust feature set, and I’ve personally used it for more than a decade. I’ve been wanting to add a streamer to my audio setup, but I’ve hesitated because most products would require me to leave the JRiver ecosystem.

Michael told me that Mercury is currently preconfigured for Moode, Ropieee, and Volumio, but in theory, Mercury should be able to support other Raspberry Pi operating systems, as long as we can get the hardware and the software talking to each other. Michael had never tested Mercury with JRiver Media Center, but we decided that I would take a crack at it.

JRiver sells a Raspberry Pi-compatible version of its software called IdPi. This includes JRiver Media Center, Raspbian Linux, and Engen. IdPi comes preconfigured on a microSD card for $39. JRiver does not offer a free version of its software, but the company provides consistent updates, innovation, and support for its users.



After tinkering around under the hood, I’m delighted to say that Mercury and JRiver Media Center are new best friends. This pairing provides the superb audio playback that we’ve come to expect from the Pi 2 Design products, along with the audio processing and features that have made JRiver a leader in the industry. IdPi also operates as an endpoint for Spotify Connect and Apple AirPlay.

I’ve assembled a guide for anybody who would like to use Mercury with JRiver Media Center. Out of the box, JRMC is not configured to recognize Mercury’s audio circuitry. Raspberry Pi HAT drivers are part of the Linux kernel and not part of the JRMC program. You will need to edit the config.txt file on the microSD card to enable the appropriate driver (HiFiBerry Digi Pro). The same applies for other Pi HATs whose drivers do not utilize the boot rom for auto configuration.

This may sound daunting, but it’s actually quite simple. Prior to this, I had never edited a config.txt file in my life. Take a breath, take your time, and you’ll be fine. If I can do it, you can do it.

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1. Purchase JRiver Media Center IdPi.
You can buy the IdPi software on a microSD card here. You will receive an IdPi license via email.


2. Make a backup image of the microSD card prior to editing.
You will need an SD card reader, like this inexpensive option on Amazon. Mac users can make a backup image with the built-in Disk Utility; Windows users can use a program like Win32 Disk Imager. You can save the backup image as a file on your computer.


3. Open the microSD card on your computer.
The microSD card opens to the boot directory. In the boot directory, open the Overlays directory. This contains all the device tree drivers for various HAT cards. Look for the file hifiberry-digi-pro.dtbo. This is the compatible driver for Mercury.

If the driver is not listed, then your IdPi software does not support Mercury. You will need to purchase a more recent version of IdPi. As of September 2024, the MC32 build has the HiFiBerry Digi Pro driver in the Overlays directory.


4. Open the config.txt file in the boot directory.
You can open config.txt with a text editor, like TextEdit on Mac or Notepad on Windows.


5. Enable the HiFiBerry Digi Pro driver.
Go to the bottom of the document and add the following text:

# Enable HiFiBerry Digi Pro driver
dtoverlay=hifiberry-digi-pro​

6. Enable the front panel LEDs.
Add the following text to the bottom of the document:

# turn on red led to indicate power on
gpio=17=op,dl

# move act led (green) to gpio14
dtoverlay=act-led,gpio=14,activelow=on​

7. Enable proper operation of the front panel power switch and power hold function.
Add the following text to the bottom of the document:

# Hold power on after we boot
gpio=27=op,dh

# Trigger shutdown when switch is in off position
dtoverlay=gpio-shutdown,gpio_pin=23,active_low=0,gpio_pull=up,debounce=5000​

8. Save the edited config.txt file.
Make sure that your editor uses the EOL 'End of Line' ASCII character for Linux LF 'Line feed' instead of CR/LF 'Carriage Return/Line feed' to end each line of text. TextEdit on Mac and Notepad on Windows do this correctly.


9. Eject the microSD card.
Always eject your microSD card before removing it from the reader to avoid corrupting the file.


10. Insert the microSD card into Mercury.
Make sure that the microSD card is firmly seated before powering up.


11. Boot up Mercury.
Power on the device by pressing the front panel power switch.


12. Set up network access.
IdPi will broadcast an access point like Id-XXXXXXXXXXXX. Connect your computer or phone to the access point and enter the credentials for your network.

If you prefer a wired setup, you can connect an ethernet cable to Mercury.


13. Access the IdPi main menu and GUI.
You can access these remotely with a VNC viewer. On a Mac, you can use the built-in VNC viewer. Go to Finder, click on the Go menu, and select Connect to Server… The address will be vnc://Id-XXXXXXXXXXXX.local. On a Windows computer, you can use a program like RealVNC Viewer. The default password is remote.

If you prefer a wired setup, you can connect Mercury to an HDMI monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Mercury connects to wireless peripherals via WiFi.


14. Confirm that the driver is active.
Go to menu option 10 (Show audio device information), and you will see HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro listed as one of the devices. This means that JRiver Media Center is recognizing Mercury’s audio circuitry.


15. Enter the Id license key.
Go to menu option 18 (Enter the Id license key) and enter the key that was emailed to you.


16. Select the audio device.
If the GUI is not loaded, go to menu option 1 (GUI).

In the GUI, go to the Tools menu and select Options. In the Audio tab, click on the menu under Audio Device to reveal many device options. Select the option listed as sysdefault:CARD=sndrpihifiberry [ALSA] snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi, HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro HiFi wm8804-spdif-0. Default Audio Device


17. Configure output format for your DAC.
In the GUI, go to the Tools menu and select Options. In the Audio tab, go to Settings and click on DSP and Output Format. In this menu, you can configure the output format to ensure compatibility with your DAC.


18. Import media.
You can import media by storing files locally, mounting an NAS, or linking to another JRiver library (Library Server). All these topics and more are well documented in the JRiver Wiki.

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Congratulations! You’ve successfully configured Mercury for playback with JRiver Media Center!

Here's an image of JRiver streaming from my laptop to Mercury:



And here's an image of IdPi playing the file on Mercury:



This is a DIY project, but I’m happy to answer questions and help with general troubleshooting. Many thanks to @Michael Kelly for trusting me with this project!

 

Wow this is awesome, I have been using Moode to stream from JRiver. Will this work with the Mercury V2 as well?

 

I will need to come up with the proper config information, because Mercury V2 doesn't require the LED changes, but does require the power switch. It also requires Enabling USB and Wi-Fi for the compute module 4.

 

Obvious choice if you want to run JRiver with Hifiberry Digi+ Pro for example, and this is no video version of JRiver, which is the reason I stopped upgrading. Just have no use for it. JRiver is maybe the only low cost player that has DSP comparable with Roon

 

I

installed it and it does support hdmi output for the gui. The menu shows video support but I haven't tried that yet.

 

# Switch to external antenna.
dtparam=ant2

#enable USB for CM4
dtoverlay=dwc2,dr_mode=host

#Hold power on after we boot
gpio=22=op,dh

#Trigger power off when switch is in off position:
dtoverlay=gpio-shutdown,gpio_pin=24,active_low=0,gpio_pull=up,debounce=1000

 

lol this explains why I could never get idpi to boot my mercury beta up way back when I tried it

 

What was the issue?