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[DwestSeattle]

Has anyone (either JRiver marketing, or in the press, or on this forum) written up a thorough analysis of the differences between Windows Media Center and J River media center?

I live near Redmond, WA and I know what my Microsoft friends will say when I show them my JRiver theater view awesomeness.

"Media Center can do that better, XBOX, XBOX, bla bla bla"

Not that I'm down on Microsoft, they make some awesome stuff, but I know their media center can't do all that J River can.

I was initially drawn to JRiver by my HiFi friends who were talking about its support of USB DAC's, lossless FLAC ripping, and 96/24 stereo audio support.  Then I found that it worked well with my Synology NAS, and from there I found it could play any video file I threw at it without any configuration (particularly in version 17 it got much better).  Now I have it in the living room on Theater View and I'm ripping DVD's to it and watching TV on it.

[Metalman]

Well, i believe WMC is basically the same as WMP, but with the added ability to do DVD/TV without third party decoders. The magazine The Absolute Sound (TAS) did a 4 installment series on computer music audio quality, and in part two, the December 2012 issue, they do have some references to WMP11, the latest version of WMP vs MC See charts on pg 40.

[MrHaugen]

That would be like reviewing an old Lada and compare it to a new Koenigsegg. But it would probably be a good read
I've seen some very rough reviews of different MC's. But not any good and detailed one.

[fitbrit]

Ha! Can any one individual even list all the features of MC? I challenge even JRiver employees to do so!
Name all the features in MC.
A feature in this respect can be defined as something, if removed, someone will complain about because they use it.

[Metalman]

Well, even though DwestSeattle was asking for differences, (comparisons??) i guess i was pointing him in the direction of a written article showcasing MC's superiority over WMC, which it has in spades, not only in sound quality, but its features and library functions too.

[BartMan01]

"Media Center can do that better, XBOX, XBOX, bla bla bla"

I know they are probably drowning in their own koolaid, but the XBox is a  HORRIBLE media device.  It is the MS equivalent of the AppleTV, a closed ecosystem with very limited out of the box support for any popular media formats.  The only 'media' thing the XBox is really good for in my house is as a cable box replacement, and the Ceton extender will finally give us a decent replacement for that.  If they would uncripple the XBox and give it comprehensive codec/container support and make it a proper DLNA device then they would have a decent media portal on their hands.

[DwestSeattle]

I know they are probably drowning in their own koolaid,

The streets run blue with Microsoft colored cool-aid out here :-)

Lots of apple fanboys here too.  There are some really geeky street fights.  Imagine West Side Story with wifi.

[GadgetBoy]

I would love it if MC supported the Ceton card.

I have a Windows 7 box with 4 Xboxes attached to it just to support the Ceton InfiniTV card.