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[crótach]

Hi folks,

I've re-installed my HTPC and decided to give JRiver a try, since it's getting a lot of good feedback on AVS forums.

My initial impressions are somewhat mixed, and I'm still nowhere near having a HTPC setup with JRiver. So let me ask first, because I couldn't find it, is there an install guide for JRiver as a HTPC front-end?

The install process is fairly simple and fool proof, but the setup seems to have endless options. Ideally I'd like to have something as close as Media Browser on 7MC as possible.

So here are my initial questions:
1) How do I get my library to look like the Media Browser one? JRiver picked up my files and created a library, but it's almost 10000 video files, instead of TV Show > Season > Episode type of thing. Same goes for Movies and other videos (music, sports etc)
2) How do you change the aspect ratio, for example for watching old 4:3 videos on 16:9 screen
3) How do you switch audio streams and subtitles, for example when playing Anime to switch to Japanese language and English subtitles
4) How do you get rid of the trial splash screen at startup, or how do you confirm it using a remote? I have to get up off the sofa and use the mouse to click "continue" when the HTPC boots.

I'm sure there will be plenty more, but this should be enough to get me started and see if the solution is wife-proof

[imugli]

Welcome to JR, and to the learning curve 

I'll try to answer a couple of your questions -

1. You'll need to create a view scheme under Tools > Options > Theater View. The best part about JRNC is the customisability of the view schemes. You can sort it any way you like.

2. Aspect Ration can be changed by using the up/down arrows while playing, until you get to the appropriate menu, then left and right.
3. Don't know the answer to that, other than right-clicking during playback (which is obviously not what you want)
4. Purchase it :-) Seriously though, I don't have an answer for that one. Ther is an option to disbale the splash screen under Tools > options > Startup but I don't whether it works in the trial version...

[CountryBumkin]

.3 When you are playing the movie you right click on the screen (I use the diNovo mini remote/keyboard - so I don't know which key it is on a regualr remote) then a popup box comes up where you can select things such as langauge, subtitles, aspect ratio, etc. If your movie rip has multiple sound tracks you can pick the one you want.

[lepa]

2/3. Using arrow keys or remotes left, right, up, down. up/down will cycle through items (aspect ratio, voulume. language, subtitles etc.) an left/right changes the value of the item in question (volume, subtitle language etc.)

[MrHaugen]

Your biggest problem might be that you need to have a few tags on your media.

Sort the files on Path if you have them grouped up logically. Mark all TV Shows as TV Show under Media Subtype, mark all movies as Movies under the same library field and so on. Once you have checked all of this you should starting by checking Names of movies, names, Season and Episode on your TV Shows and so on. MC16 should do some of this work but I suspect that a completely new library needs a fair bit of job before it works as intended. If you have your files named in a consistent way, the "Fill properties from filename" tool, will be very helpful. Even each show or season have a different type of filename, it will not take THAT much time once you know how to do it.

Once all your files is tagged correctly, you can start enjoying the wonders of MC16. If you don't want to do the work with your tags, MC will be hell to use.

[BartMan01]

Once all your files is tagged correctly, you can start enjoying the wonders of MC16. If you don't want to do the work with your tags, MC will be hell to use.

Before this scares you off > check out 'Right Click > Library Tools > Fill Properties from File name'.  If you have any logic to your directory structure, you can fill your tags based on directory path and file name.

[rick.ca]

If you have any logic to your directory structure, you can fill your tags based on directory path and file name.

And even if you haven't done that, you can still use expressions anywhere in the Theatre View configuration to pull data directly from the filename.

[crótach]

Well, I've made a backup of the installation so that I can go back to it at some later date.

I was getting too much aggro from the wife and not enough time to invest in figuring this out fully.

Please don't get this wrong, but for a paid software I would expect a proper setup guide, unless HTPC applications aren't the "main thing" this software does, but more like an added bonus.

A good example of what you should get are the XBMC and WMCE guides on AVS forums. Step-by-step, with screenshots.

I wasn't looking to stream to other devices, or rip, or bitstream audio.. just to play the media that's already organised and flagged with metadata.

[imugli]

unless HTPC applications aren't the "main thing" this software does, but more like an added bonus.

A little bit, yes. The REAL power of MC is the database side of things - tagging, sorting, stacking blah blah blah...

Theater View, while extensively customisable, is more of a layer that simply sits on top of all of that. Great if you wanna spend the time setting it up JUST the way you want it, but not so much if you just want to import your media and have it display in nice little category or view schemes out of the box...

[MrHaugen]

Problems with setup guides for MC16 is that almost every thing can be done in a lot of different ways. A guide that works for someone can be wrong for others, depending on their setup. MC16 have come a far way when it comes to ease of use, but there is much to be improved before total newbies can use it out of the box, to it's true potential. Another thing that scares people, and even the developers I think, is the thought of writing the guides and only to see that the guides have to be rewritten every 4 months because of all the changes and the rapid development to certain areas.

This is probably the main reasons there is not so many step-by-step guides on this forum. We have kind of gotten used of just helping individuals, or small groups of people, when they have some problems.