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[Yaobing]

I am starting this topic to help users who have been using WMC and are trying to learn about JRiver.  I invite users who are familiar with both to contribute to the comparison.

Here are some differences that I know of.

1. Setup.  Television setup in JRiver Media Center is done in Standard View.  It will require using a keyboard and a mouse.  This is a one-time procedure.  Once it is done, you will only need to occasionally revisit it.  Once set up, you can run television in Theater View, using a remote control or keyboard or mouse.

2. EPG setup.  Microsoft has its own source of EPG data and the guide data come directly from their source.  JRiver has several options for EPG data.  One of them is mc2xml, which is integrated into MC.  We also offer other options for user who cannot use mc2xml, or who do not choose to use it.

3. Remote control.  Some functions are mapped to remote control buttons differently.  Here are a few examples:

• Enter/OK button is pauses or resume playback.  WMC uses it to switch to previously played channel.
  
• "Live TV" button on MCE remote control.  While TV is not playing, pressing it brings you to live TV, on the channel you used the last time you played TV.  If during the same live TV session you change the channel, pressing the "Live TV" button will bring you back to the previously played channel.  This button therefore does the same function that OK/ENTER button does in WMC.
  

[Yaobing]

I would like to dedicate this thread to comparison of different ways the two applications accomplish the same tasks.  I should have made it clearer, this is not a feature request thread.  Everyone should limit their posts to listing things that MC can do but does it in a different way from WMC.  Feature requests should go to other existing threads, or new threads.

[ErikN]

I was WMC user since about 2005. Here are things that come to mind beyond what you listed:

- Media is group by tags and rules instead of simply by type. WMC by default had images, movies, shows, and recorded tv. Sub-groups were fairly rigid. This threw me off when I first imported. JRiver's process is ultimately far superior but does require either careful import or some hand tagging and rule creation to get stuff grouped nicely.

- In WMC newly recorded tv always ended up in a top-level group. Maybe I missed it, but for JRiver I had to explicitly create a "Recorded TV" group with the proper rule to get the same effect. Otherwise shows would only show up (1) along side my archived stuff of the same name, or (2) in some random 'unassigned' bucket, or (3) nowhere that I could find from theater view.

- Both let you create subscriptions. WMC provided a 'series' area where you could edit and manage subscriptions in "theater view". For the most part, JRiver requires you to go back to display mode to edit  existing subscriptions.

- Minor but searching was a more forgiving in WMC. I find that I have to include exact punctuation in MC. For example "Peoples" will not match "People's" and the apostrophe is a pain to get to.

That being said, everything important in WMC is 100% reproducible in MC. Plus MC lets you do loads more -- without even getting into the audiophile targeted features, zones, etc.

[DeaneG]

One more remote control difference: With JRiver and using an MCE-style remote while watching live or recorded TV, the skip forward/back buttons ( >>| and |<< ) do not skip forward/back. In live TV, they increment and decrement the current channel. To skip forward/back in JRiver, use the remote's left/right direction buttons instead.

[Yaobing]

One more remote control difference: With JRiver and using an MCE-style remote while watching live or recorded TV, the skip forward/back buttons do not skip forward/back. They [insert actual behavior here]. To skip forward/back in JRiver, use the remote's left/right direction buttons instead.

">>" does fast forward.  One press, FF at 5 times (approx.) speed.  Two presses - 20x.  Three or more presses - 100x.

Similar behavior for "<<" button.

The ">>|" or "|<<" button is the same as Next or Previous button in the player control area.  For TV it switches to the next (or previous) channel.

[RoderickGI]

">>" does fast forward.  One press, FF at 5 times (approx.) speed.  Two presses - 20x.  Three or more presses - 100x.

Similar behavior for "<<" button.

I've been meaning to mention that the OSD buttons, << and >>, don't act the same way as the remote buttons, which has been a source of annoyance in our household.

As designed, for one click they actually perform a >>| or |<< Next or Previous jump, even though the button image is consistent with FF and REW. That is no use at all in a TV recording which doesn't have Chapters defined in it. The function only works for real DVDs with Chapters.

Holding the << or >> doesn't work like the remote buttons either. It does Fast Forward or Reverse, but it doesn't use the x5, x20, x100 technique, instead just slides ahead a bit with a frozen screen, then plays from the point it gets to when the button is released.

It would be nice if those buttons worked just like the remote buttons. I don't even think the >>| and |<< functions are needed in most video playback, except for DVDs, and I guess videos with particles defined.

Any chance we could get some consistency here?

[JimH]

Here's a nice comment from user Bytecrawler :

"That was all I needed to sort this out. I originally looked at MC simply as a Windows Media Center replacement, but the more I use it, the more layers I'm discovering."

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=100729.msg699129#msg699129

Thanks, Bytecrawler.

[DeaneG]

For me, so far, JRiver Media Center is replacing Windows Media Center, PowerDVD 15, Media Converter 8, and Handbrake. It's nice to have all this capability in one program.

[DeaneG]

Another item to include in this thread which took me a while to discover coming from WMC: to play live TV directly from the guide, press the "Play" button on your remote, not the "OK" button.

[jwsadauskas]

- In WMC newly recorded tv always ended up in a top-level group. Maybe I missed it, but for JRiver I had to explicitly create a "Recorded TV" group with the proper rule to get the same effect. Otherwise shows would only show up (1) along side my archived stuff of the same name, or (2) in some random 'unassigned' bucket, or (3) nowhere that I could find from theater view.

How do I create a "Recorded TV" Group and where do I put a rule to deal with the recordings?  What does your rule look like?  I suspect a lot of WMC migrants would like to do that.

Can I have the rule create a separate Group for each subscription (if it doesn't already exist) like my ripping rules make new folders?

Thanks!

[muzicman0]

here are some screen shots of how I have my 'Recorded TV' set up.  I record in .ts format, so I remove any .jtv files since they would in effect duplicate the show in the view.

This is set up in Options under Theater View.  I added my rules under Video.  I also added a Guide view under Videos for convenience, but that took a bit more work. 

the first screenshot is the 'set Rules for File display' button.  You will want to edit the path to show what makes sense for your setup.  In my case, the path was D:\Recorded TV, and was the only imported path that included 'Recorded TV', so this was an easy way to restrict to just recorded TV.

The second shot is the Series info (I clicked the edit button to get to this screen).

EDIT: Added a few images to show the result.