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[kayleigh07]

Have you guys really been playing with the beta versions of Media Center 12? How reliable do you find them? And do you install a new beta version by the time they are available on this site? I have installed a few and they are kinda good. I hope a final version of 12 will be released soon that is stable. I hope they do away with plugins having to be downloaded separately and include them in the installation program so people don't have to go through the trouble of downloading them afterwards. How many of you guys find Media Center 11 and 12 betas more reliable that Yahoo! Music Jukebox? I love the Interface of Yahoo! Music Jukebox but Media Center 12 is much better with both features and interface. What do you think? Please respond soon!

[glynor]

I find MC12 very stable with current builds.  The feature set isn't necessarily stable (they're adding new things regularly still), but the application itself is quite usable.

Of course, I'm a pretty hard-core "beta tester" and I tend to visit the forum multiple times every day (okay, I admit it, one of my computers pretty much always has Interact loaded).  I download and install pretty much every single build they release.  I wouldn't count on the "final stable" release (which is never really final anyway) for a few months.  Historically, JRiver tends to "officially" release new versions in late-spring/early-summer.

I've never used Yahoo's player.  I looked at it once a long while ago but it didn't offer anywhere near what I need... I'd be pretty hard-pressed to move away from MC for any reason.

[kamiller42]

As a subscriber to Yahoo Music Unlimited, I use the Yahoo Music Jukebox a lot. YMJ doesn't have nearly the features MC has. The only features YMJ has that I wish MC had is support for AAC out of the box, Y! Unlimited and Launchcast Radio integration. Keep the rest. YMJ is slow to open, takes more resources (listening to Launchcast Radio, YMJ is currently running across 3 process), and requires more money on top of subscription fees to access premium features.

YMJ is an ok player to support Yahoo music services, but not something I would use to manage and play my music/media collection if I knew MC and many others players were available.

[modelmaker]

If you're using MC12 mainly as an audio player and tagger, it's as stable as MC11. Most of the changes/improvements are concentrated in the portables and video areas of MC12 (although all areas of MC12 have or are receiving some attention). I haven't had any stability issues at all and I've been using MC12 for about 4 months now exclusively.

No other media player seems to be able to handle the huge libraries that MC can.

All the plugins that MC needs to operate are downloaded and installed when MC is installed. The rest of the plugins are optional and can be added by the user to his or her taste. Why load up the program with all the plugins just to use a few? That's one MC's major strengths, the abillity to customize the app to your personal requirements.

Media Center was designed for the serious media collectors, if all you're doing is downloading low rate mp3s then maybe one of those other players is more suited to you.

[Magic_Randy]

I suggest you go for it.  It's stable.

Some of us download updates as they come out.  Mostly small adjustments and new features.  You can really vary this based on your preference.  If you have no problems (and you probably won't) you may only want to periodically download the latest version.