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[avjunkie]

HI folks,
I have i all my music in iTunes on network drives. I have really not been that happy with iTunes. I want to good music Media Center. Is JRiver a good place to start?

I just acquired a Teac AI301DA and I have it on my desk next to my mac. Looks nice. I plan on a player so I came looking for input.

thanks,
The AVJunkie

[Buddha Boy]

I've tried a multitude of media players and even wrote my own (I'm a software developer).

I'm very pleased with the JRiver features, customization & stability.  It really can't be beat for music quality either or distributing music via DLNA or smartphone players like JRemote.  Very powerful stuff to make your music life more enjoyable. 

I even use it with TV tuners for playing TV .. awesome!  And just recently started cataloging/playing my photos, videos & movies.

I don't use the iTunes store so I can't compare things like downloads, but JRiver has interfaces to HDTracks and Amazon so that's good enough for me.

IMHO JRiver simply blow iTunes away!

JRiver IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

[Absinthe]

HI folks,
I have i all my music in iTunes on network drives. I have really not been that happy with iTunes. I want to good music Media Center. Is JRiver a good place to start?

I just acquired a Teac AI301DA and I have it on my desk next to my mac. Looks nice. I plan on a player so I came looking for input.

thanks,
The AVJunkie

I am (unfortunately) an iPod/iPhone/iPad junkie and only recently moved from the iPad to a Surface Pro.  However, I have NEVER cared for/used/appreciated iTunes.  Its lack of handling of industry standard codecs frosts me and its lack of customization is a deal breaker for me.  Added to this is the realization that iTunes cannot identify a large number of my discs due to limited pressings, age or obscurity and it left me with a library full of holes.  In the list of media managers, I put iTunes near the bottom in its capabilities and features.  On the other hand, Media Center has by far the most robust tagging system and the highest level of customization when it comes to use as a HTPC or digital jukebox.  My only con is its lack of native handling for IOS devices.  Also, beware if you use separate media managers to sync your IOS devices and Media Center.  The robust tagging library of Media Center will often not be recognized by the other manager and your ratings (and some other tags) will not propagate from one to the other cleanly

[SandsOfArrakis]

It's a solid move. To me iTunes looks like a lot of screaming advertisements. Media Center has a much cleaner and easier to use interface.
iTunes also doesn't want to play FLAC files. Which is also a big no-no for me. Coupled with that I'm also running Media Center as a server on my Mac mini, so I can listen to my music on my mini Windows 10 laptop or my iPhone.

[uniman4]

Not if you are using Apple products it isn't

[ballpein]

I'm using JRiver on Mac for the last couple of months, and I'm quite enjoying it.  It's stable, it sounds great, it lets me really get on top of library management and multiple devices, and has excellent support for multi-device and multi-room scenarios.   

The software is extremely deep and customizable.  That's great, but it demands a learning curve up-front, and the will to keep learning as your needs change.   So, you need to be the type of user who enjoys learning new software and doesn't mind some head-scratching and forum-diving.  If that's not you, keep looking. 

JRiver also demands some ongoing time from the user in terms of library management.  That part becomes a lot faster though.  I can ingest half a dozen new albums, make transcodes for devices, tag and organize, in just a few minutes.  I listen to tunes while I do this and it's actually quite enjoyable - but it's still relatively slow compared to something iTunes.

The software isn't perfect, but it's very strong.  My quibbles are minor, and I haven't found any significant problems or scenarios that can't be worked around.  And most importantly: it's getting me more pleasure out of my music.  My lossless collection is more under control, more organized, more accessible.