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[JimH]

This is a response to user elo's post about other platforms.

"... will JRiver seek to be available on platforms like Android TV , Apple TV , Roku etc as perhaps a paid app? In other words continue work on the stream server/client. To me it seems that focus has been more on the TV than on the streaming.
Or will JRiver  continue to develop as a tool, for a more specialized group of users"

[JimH]

IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS WINDOWS
JRiver Media Center began as the audio only Media Jukebox in 1998.  It was Windows only.

When we added video, we renamed it JRiver Media Center.  That was version 9.  Still Windows only.

OTHER MAJOR PLATFORMS
Around 2012, we began porting it to OSX (Mac).  That took a while.  We introduced MC18 for Mac in 2013.

At the same time, we added a Linux version.

If you're interested in looking at the evolution, you can see the whole in all its pain and glory on the Old Versions board here:

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/board,20.0.html

To sum up, by version 20, we had versions that ran on Windows, Linux, and Mac.

The fourth version was a derivative of Linux for the Raspberry Pi.

Then we built special versions for the JRiver Id.

In case you're not counting, that's FIVE so far.

CUSTOM VERSIONS
Along  the way, we made about 20 special versions for music services that came and went.  These included versions for Best Buy, MTV, Televisa, multiple cable companies, and Neil Young's Pono Music.

Now we're at about TWENTY FIVE.

MORE PLATFORMS
We did an ARM version this year for Mac.

We did a Black Box version last year for Stream Unlimited.  This requires no user interface and can be configured remotely.

We did JRiver for Android, a major port of MC to support Android and Android TV, aka Google TV.  This runs on NVidia Shield and Chromecast with Google TV.

REMOTES
About ten years ago, we built Gizmo.  It runs on Android and acts as a remote player or remote control.

Because we added API's for developers, several developers have built remotes of their own.   One of those was the original JRemote for iOS.  We bought it and have continued its development and done two Android derivatives.

Panel is our web app that MC itself provides.  It runs on browsers and requires no installation.

OTHER PLATFORMS
As elo points out above, there is no shortage of other devices we could support.  In fact, with DLNA and UPNP, we probably do now support more than 1000.

Devices like the Roku and FireTV are more proprietary, so we haven't tried to support them.  We try to stay with fairly open standards and even they aren't easy.

We've not chased Apple because they have slammed the door in our face in the past.  We had a similar experience with NAS drives (QNAP).

NOT INCLUDED ABOVE
All the major and minor versions of OS's and their development tools that have caused us time, money, and headaches.

If you toss in all the drivers and security changes, it's a very long list of work, so please forgive us if we don't support your favorite new platform.  We may some day.

[fitbrit]

A quick note about Panel, since you mentioned it. I have to admit that when it first came out, I felt such an anti-climax and was quite disappointed that this was what the Pretty Face project had led to. I largely ignored the ongoing development of Panel as I felt it would never be of any value to me.
Cut to today, and I got a sixty-something customer of mine to try Panel. I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to configure and get started, as well as the clean but "pretty" enough interface as well. I think this was the right tool for the person I recommended it to. Great work on improving the look and feel of Panel over the years.

[JimH]

Chromebooks are doing well.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/demand-for-chromebooks-is-going-through-the-roof/

[lise]

I don't have a bunch of customers, it's just me. But I started using Panel (over Gizmo) lately and I absolutely adore it.
The problems it solves:  Listening to tunes or watching something on a surface Pro or tablet at night in bed, or just accessing the database on a different computer during the day.
I don't have to install MC on the other computer/tablet. I don't have to load the server's library.
I just have to open my browser, go to Panel, pick the tv show or movie or music I want to listen to and bam, I'm done.
Love it. Rely on it. Best new discovery even though it isn't new.

[elo]

Sorry for late reply but I have been on a mountain hike , cold, lonely, beautiful and gives the feeling of mastering afterwards. Good to get back to my music ...

I think my point or question got a little lost... which was: what is the strategy-the way forward. Also I think it is to bad that the very good player is not available for more mainstream users through for instance Android TV, Tizen etc. (Looked at the list of versions but could not find Andorid TV platform?). I do appreciate the effort needed to support one or two such platforms and also the difficulty of getting paid...but this is where the majority of users Will be in the future.

It's also fine to stick to the enthusiast strategy and to offer high quality, configurability through a slightly more complex GUI like it is today.

I am also questioning the last years' effort to support TV which seems to only benefit customers in the US and to some extent the UK, or am I missing something).

It is no doubt in my mind that streaming will be the dominant form of accessing media content going forward and JRiver should reflect this one way or another. As a minimum, perhaps to renew the GUI of Gizmo/JRemote to offer better search capabilities, metadata availability, subtitle control, stability when using over the internet, control of used bandwidth to avoid playback problems etc etc ....

But again I want to point out that I am not making criticism to the JRiver team as they have managed to keep the product alive for a long time and at a very high technical level. .. /Ole (Elo)

[elo]

I don't have a bunch of customers, it's just me. But I started using Panel (over Gizmo) lately and I absolutely adore it.
The problems it solves:  Listening to tunes or watching something on a surface Pro or tablet at night in bed, or just accessing the database on a different computer during the day.
I don't have to install MC on the other computer/tablet. I don't have to load the server's library.
I just have to open my browser, go to Panel, pick the TV show or movie or music I want to listen to and bam, I'm done.
Love it. Rely on it. Best new discovery even though it isn't new.

I also like Panel but again it lacks configurability and since a major portion of the word do not talk English -> how can we get the subtitles displayed/controlled?? The question has been asked several times in this forum but there is no answer...
(See Jellyfin GUI when opening a clip and playing the clip attached)

Please also not Chromcast availability (i guess also Airplay). These are hovewer on JimHs list for MC27 which will help a LOT!!
 

[elo]

Further as pr. JimH post https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,122878.0.html there is work on several of the apps that has been mentioned in this thread. And I wonder:

• Will a better configurability be implemented and especially wrt subtitle ctrl . That is to introduce subtitle control in the sense of choosing from a default preference or browse as in the main MC player
• Will Chromcast and Airplay support be included

If this happens and/or it is possible to install MC27 for Android TV in smart TVs ruining on Android TV i the JRiver universe will have advanced considerably against good products for the streaming future (which more or less is now)