JimH, great spiderweb analogy. Reminds me of this recent article by a former MS Office developer.
If the product starts to grow complex — and you can predict that fairly directly by looking at the size of the development team — then costs will come to be dominated by that increasing feature interaction and essential complexity. Project after project has demonstrated there is nothing about language or underlying technical infrastructure that changes that fundamental curve... So “free code” tends to be “free as in puppy” rather than “free as in beer”.
https://hackernoon.com/complexity-and-strategy-325cd7f59a92 I've been a JRiver Media Center customer since MC15 in 2009, and like many here it is one the programs I use it on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. Thank you all for all your hard work. Also, thank you for soliciting input from customers so frequently. It's hard to think of another software company that is as responsive as JRiver.
A few thoughts on my current use:
-In the past 8 years, many other media managers either have come and gone, or have changed interface significantly every 9 months as part of a business model (Google images, for example.) I'm so glad you all don't reinvent yourself every version by building a totally new software interface, and I'm sure a lot of other people think this too and don't say it. Thanks!
- Because core interface and functionality of JRiver has remained basically the same since 2009, many of the skills I picked up in the early days via Interact are still very useful. For example, I learned how to build new Views from Marko's threads in 2012, or setting up servers based on Glynor's system descriptions and diagrams in 2009. Hilton's multi room audio systems and awesome computer builds. Or anything posted by MrC, man I miss that guy. Basically yabb.jriver.com is a fantastic corner of the Internet. Thanks for building this forum and keeping Interact a great place to post and learn.
-My main use of JRiver is as a digital media file catalog, organizer, server, and player. Main focus is music, I've got an semi-audiophile system, a couple kitchen sink systems, a music production computer, and a bunch of phones. JRiver gets used on all of them. It's hard to think of any area or system which it doesn't serve very well.
-Media Files are complicated. People who get this, immediately get JRiver. I have recommended the program to a lot of people who need advanced file management features and tagging capabilities for video, photos, or media. Most of them now have JRiver licences.
Thoughts on my future use:
I'd love to see better PDF tagging. Then I could use JRiver to tag sheet music and pair sheet music, chord charts, and scores with recordings. Right now saving tags to files on pdf doesn't seem as straightforward as with audio files. JRiver tags sometimes appear in other programs, sometime don't. I'll start a new thread if this is an area of interest. Haven't seen a lot of interest in PDF tagging and organizing on this forum, but it seems like a logical extension of the JRiver toolkit to me.
Big picture-wise, I think streaming is here to stay. Everybody I know gets their media from multiple sources. This has definitely changed how I use JRiver, and I imagine this will continue to change. There are a lot of choices now and I use a pastiche approach.
In our house, that means Amazon Video, Google Movies and Youtube via Chromecast, and Pandora. We don't watch any broadcast or cable TV, unless you count SNL on Youtube. Sports are mostly commercials (I get bored fast.) News...oy. There was a short time when I thought I would just use Theater View for all media, but the Chromecast and Amazon video won for me in the end. I only watch movies and videos once, so a local archive isn't that important for me.
So in the past year I've explored ways of making JRiver + Engen + a few other programs the "brains" of a multi source media system and eventually control the entire house. Like this:
https://youtu.be/I4fLwMEhyts?t=38m23s 
But ideally, you would hit play on any source and zone, input, volume, lighting, and beverage of choice would just magically appear. I've gotten close by using .bat scripts and Eventghost triggers to send IR commands and switch Engen devices. I'll update how I currently do this in a post when I have time. Still working on the beverage of choice...
There are a couple of things that could make the "House Brain" work better:
-Flawless Zone Sync, with millisecond audio clock adjustments aka Hilton's Airplay via Tuneblade. With the WDM driver taking audio inputs and zone audio sync, the PI ID system could effectively replace an expensive Sonos with stereos of choice. It seems like a big market and there is no choice for zone sync other than custom wiring or Sonos.
-Conditional triggers in Engen (I have a hunch this is in the works), based on a sensor's state or even on a computer event.
-Customizable HDMI CEC and IR blasts to control other electronics and set inputs etc. JRiver does some of this but I use Eventghost to get full customization. Engen IR blaster, for example?
-Some way to display MetaData for songs from streaming sources (I'm sure this is possible...but probably very difficult/expensive)
-Simple controls that allow custom single button presses (for example, in the kitchen I don't want to use a phone, all I want is a big button to start a smartlist and another to stop playback.)
-Engen Scene and Smartlist Integration...so music plays in the pool when Clive James jumps in for a swim.
As far as MC23, many fantastic suggestions abound in this thread. I'm personally looking forward to seeing what comes next. Thanks for all your efforts, and thanks for listening!
