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[shuvro]

I am in the trial period now.

I have a library of 200k tracks (mp3, m4a, flac). All residing on a NAS (8 TB HDD plugged into router). All my music is organized in folders (based on my own genres/categories) I have been a long time iTunes user and then MusicBee.

Heard good things about JRiver audio, hence here I am. I intend to buy, but I am afraid of the learning curve ahead of me.

My needs are very simple and that I think is the problem. I am finding JRiver to be too complicated. I am quite lost between the Views and Panes and Now Playing and the config options. I can't get it look the way I am used to or what I want.

I almost never play my music locally. So I don't need JRiver to feed the onboard/USB DAC. So none of the sound settings matter to me because I cast it to a CCA DLNA renderer plugged into a Parasound preamp.

On iTunes i used airplay. On MusicBee I used a BubblePnP plugin to cast to the CCA.

I have succeeded in doing the same with JRiver. I will always use JRiver to stream to a renderer.

I am a folders person. Software comes and goes, folders are forever. I use playlists to create favorites only.

I don't need much of the bells and whistles in JRiver.

I just need the folders to show up well, be searchable, sortable and groupable etc. Basic stuff.

When I doubleclick on a track it should play. Now its random. Sometimes it plays on the laptop sometimes on my floor-standers. Very confusing.

I am hopeful that with the community/forum support I can get myself up to speed.

[wer]

What is it that you are hoping to get out of JRiver Media Center?

You're right, it MC is complicated. In your configuration, it won't change your audio quality. You don't want all the bells and whistles. It sounds like you want a simple DLNA server or controller. 

So what is it that you want from MC that makes you want to switch away from Itunes or Musicbee? What is it you are looking to improve, or what deficiency in those other programs do you want MC outperform?

[shuvro]

I have been out of itunes for a while, don't want to go back to it. Been on MusicBee for a few years now. It works well with the BubblePnP and casts to my CCA. However it does not work that well with a USB DAC/headphone setup. That may or may not be a MusicBee issue, not sure. The DLNA plugin is not supported anymore in MusicBee and the remote is bad. Library management is okay and functional. Its free software and I cant expect it to do a lot.

From JRiver I expect the following:
1. Superior sound quality across the board. ASIO, DLNA/CCA and a desktop Topping DAC/Amp that I am eyeing
2. Library management. I set it up once and then it is on autopilot. I don't have the need to tinker with it everyday
3. A remote to control the media server from my phone
4. An UI/UX that is expected from commercial software aimed at sensory consumption
5. Deal with images/videos -> stream from NAS to projector via Chromecast/Roku. Get off Plex!

What is it that you are hoping to get out of JRiver Media Center?

You're right, it MC is complicated. In your configuration, it won't change your audio quality. You don't want all the bells and whistles. It sounds like you want a simple DLNA server or controller. 

So what is it that you want from MC that makes you want to switch away from Itunes or Musicbee? What is it you are looking to improve, or what deficiency in those other programs do you want MC outperform?

[wer]

I'll try to address a few of your points. Maybe that will help you.

1. Superior sound quality across the board. ASIO, DLNA/CCA and a desktop Topping DAC/Amp that I am eyeing

First, MC doesn't support Chromecast Audio. BubbleUPNP does. MC supports DLNA.

If you will "always use JRiver to stream to a renderer" as you said, MC will have zero impact on your sound quality, unless you are converting or otherwise processing the audio on the fly.  Now you're throwing in a Topping DAC, so if you connect that directly to the PC running MC, then sound quality might come into play.

2. Library management. I set it up once and then it is on autopilot. I don't have the need to tinker with it everyday

I don't know what you mean by autopilot. MC can be setup to automatically import new music that you rip or otherwise deposit on the filesystem. Maybe that's what you mean. But MC is tinkerer's software. Most people tinker.  Does it break if you leave it alone? No. But personally I find it unlikely that all your music will be perfectly tagged when you first download it or rip it. Tinkering with metadata is almost always a necessity if you want good metadata in your library.

3. A remote to control the media server from my phone

JRemote is a quite good remote control app.

4. An UI/UX that is expected from commercial software aimed at sensory consumption

This could mean anything. I demur at discussing your UX expectations or ideas on whatever "sensory consumption" might be.

5. Deal with images/videos -> stream from NAS to projector via Chromecast/Roku. Get off Plex!

No Chromecast, as I said before.  For video, Plex streaming works better than MC streaming, in my opinion.  MC can use a NAS as storage. If you want to "stream from NAS" without a PC, you will need a DLNA server running on your NAS. Getting MC to run directly on a NAS box is technically complicated.


I don't know if this helps you. My suspicion is that MC is more complicated and "tinkery" than you would prefer. There is no easy "getting started guide" nor will there be. 

You repeatedly mention streaming, and that you want to stream music to your renderer, and that for video/images you want to stream to a Chromecast or Roku.  MC will not improve your video quality in any way whatsoever if you stream your video via a Chromecast or Roku device. If you want MC's superior video quality out of your projector, MC must be directly connected via the graphics card in the PC: no streaming. You are not describing any use cases which take best advantage of MC's abilities.

For someone with "very simple needs", for a DLNA only setup, for streaming only without tinkering, perhaps you should just stick with Plex.  You will have to decide for yourself if you like MC or if it is too complicated for you.

To get you better acquainted with interface and the concept of views, I recommend you look at these links:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Standard_View
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/View_Schemes

To learn a bit about customization of views, look at Marko's excellent tutorial:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=68960.0

Lastly, there are a view videos that have been created a while back:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,111775.0.html

Good luck to you...

[shuvro]

Thanks a lot, wer! Very helpful! I will go through the tutorials.
This is a journey for me and I am on the MC stretch of it. I do want to see how I can make the best of it.
Would be great if you have some suggestions for me.
1. For DLNA, does BubblePnP work well with MC? Is there a better/recommended option?
2. Are there recommended lossless/bitperfect settings in MC for USB DACs?
3. For tagging does MC support extracting tags from filename/folder patterns using some sort of an expression notation?
4. What are some use cases/setups that bring out the best that MC has to offer? In terms of sound quality and library mgmt?

Thanks again!

[rec head]

MC does not stream directly to a CC but using Jremote2 on Android I am able to cast music to a Chromecast. I'm pretty sure video works too. FWIW I am using an old regular CC for music only. For some reason my CCA always has connectivity issues. But if your CCA is working then it should be OK for you.

If you post a pic of what you want MC to look like you might get some responses on how to make it look like that.

[dtc]

You can now play to a Chromecast Audio (or regular Chromecast) with MC,
using the latest version of BubbleUPnP Server released yesterday to make your Chromecast Audio a DLNA renderer, then use
MC to play to it:

• Install BubbleUPnP Server 0.9-update13, or update to this version
  
• in the web config, go to the Media Renderers tab
• select your Chromecast Audio in the list and check 'create DLNA renderer'
• in MC, select the newly created renderer in the 'Playing Now' section of the left pane
• play something
• music on Chromecast audio !

Eventually, look at the doc for more info on features and some limitations.