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[techjunkie]

Hi: I'm new to this forum,but I'm thinking about buying JRiver and have a few questions.

 I'm using the DLNA feature on my Yamaha RX-A1000 for my music and wondering if JRiver would be better than this option? If yes why? Due to my living space my PC is at the opposite end of my living room so it is not possible to run any cable from the PC to my Yamaha. I "stream" the music from my PC through my Asus (darkknight) router using Cat6(35ft) run to my Cisco switch and out to my PS3,Panasonic 230 Blu-ray player(using Cat6 to all devices. So would JRiver offer any improvement given my setup over say PS3 Media server in sound quality or flexibility? Thanks for any help!!!

[csimon]

Best thing is to download it, use it, and see if it sounds better to you. (it's unclear to me whether you intend to use it as a DLNA server, DLND renderer, or player).

[techjunkie]

Hi: I plan to use it as a DLNA server to replace both the DLNA feature on my Yamaha RX-A1000 and also PS3 media server. That is my main purpose with the program at leat to begin with,thanks for your reply!!

[csimon]

I assume you stlil actually intend to play music through the Amp's DLNA renderer?  Otherwise, what renderer are you thinking of using?

MC's DLNA server will offer much, much better flexibility than the PS3 DLNA server with regard to how you organise and categorise your media and arrange your DLNA menu structures. You can decide for yourself what the structure is, menu levels etc.

With regard to sound quality, if you stream a file unaltered via DLNA then the server makes absolutely no difference, it's the renderer that plays the file.

[techjunkie]

I assume you still actually intend to play music through the Amp's DLNA renderer? I gather the term "renderer" is device(sorry new to this stuff) if correct yes my renderer's are my RX-A1000, PS3, Panasonic 230 blu-ray player.

MC's DLNA server will offer much, much better flexibility than the PS3 DLNA server with regard to how you organize and categorize your media and arrange your DLNA menu structures. You can decide for yourself what the structure is, menu levels etc. Yes I noticed the play back(in terms of files is much more complete the the PS3 server is) and adding art work etc!! Again sorry for the newbie ? could you either provide a link which describes the increase flexibility or expand a bit on it would be greatly appreciated as there is so much to read and I'm going a little  ? over this software.Thanks for your help so far!!! One last question(4 now,LOL) can JRiver be used from a out of town location say on a ipad or similar  device? Thanks again!!!!!!

[csimon]

Go to Tools/Options/Media Network/Add or Configure DLNA servers, and you will see all the things you can customise. In particular, Customise Views allows you to create your own browsing menu structure.  Play around with it, there is little documentation!

[Arcturus]

I use to have my PC sitting about 35 feet from my screen/projector. You can buy a long HDMI cable and you can buy what almost looks like a trim board to hide the cabling so it's virtually invisible.  I got the cable online for about 50$.  As to your question of DLNA versus JRiver, That depends greatly on the equipment you are using but in my experience having many DLNA devices around the house having JRiver as your main rendering engine is superior. You have a lot more power and a lot more control and compatibility as well as the best sound/image quality since you are not relying on whatever abilities the DLNA devices have.

That said I have streamed content from JRiver Media Server to my TV's and tablets as well as a WDTV that I have about the house and it does do the job and is very serviceable its just you will be missing out on some Audio and HD goodness so I would say go the wired route.

That said some of that goodness maybe you won't even notice unless you are a audio/videophile and also depends a lot on files/formats you are using.

I think the final sticking point for me to use JRiver as the main renderer though is the control UI. My TV had the ability to play from a DLNA server and it also came with a separate blurry player that also had this capability and navigating my media library with the TV remote seems slow and clunky like most set top boxes in fact or TV with GoogleTV.  At least if you do decide to only use JRiver as a media server you could still use BubbleUPNP and other control point apps (Maybe Gizmo as well but I never tried it for this putpose) to send content from your server to your renderer which beats the hell out of whatever UI your DLNA renderer device might have.





 

[techjunkie]

Thanks for the useful info!!! Much appreciated!!! Reading up on this site going through information overload!!!LOL ....I have one more ? for now....using only a Ethernet cable to connect my PC with my network (no hdmi)would I gain any benefit using a USB Dac? If so where should I use it? Thanks for the help/idea's so far!!!

[InflatableMouse]

Thanks for the useful info!!! Much appreciated!!! Reading up on this site going through information overload!!!LOL ....I have one more ? for now....using only a Ethernet cable to connect my PC with my network (no hdmi)would I gain any benefit using a USB Dac? If so where should I use it? Thanks for the help/idea's so far!!!

I suppose that depends on how far away the pc is from the receiver. You could try a long USB cable but there's probably a maximum length to it, I don't know how much exactly.

Another solution you might want to think about is to use a smaller, silent pc near your receiver and use that to connect to your server. You then won't use DLNA server/renderer but JRiver's own library server and client. You can connect that pc with HDMI for instance and it will handle all the decoding of audio and send PCM to your receiver.

[davide256]

your DLNA renderer would have to be a PC for a USB DAC to be useful. Otherwise you would use
the DAC in the renderer or an external DAC connected to the renderer. Sounds to me like you could start
with streaming direct to the Yamaha from your PC using MC and the MC audiophile DAC option for DLNA.
 As long as you are hardwired for Ethernet connectivity I believe you will be happy with the results.

[techjunkie]

Thanks for the help so far will up date as I start to set-up my system with JRiver!!!

[techjunkie]

Hi: wondering if upgrading my sound card(it is a Sb Audigy) about 3 yrs old to an Asus sound card! would this help? Thanks

[davide256]

you don't use the sound card on the DLNA controller when feeding a DLNA renderer....the audio conversion is
done by the renderer