Hi
My 2 Penneth
I am about a year in using JRiver and still learning .
I have one library (around 32k files) with all genres combined so navigation can be quite a challenge , I am a mad 70's rock fanatic who loves Beethoven Bach etc... the split is around 50:50.
I split genres into a lot of detail , not just classical / rock but Organ , Piano , Piano Duet , String Quartet etc... and similarly for rock , hard rock , progressive etc
I use Theatre View almost exclusively for play back with my HTPC , other views just to manage content on my Lap Top, prior to transfer to my HTPC.
There is one customisations I find useful especially for Classical music,
I have created 2 Custom Tags -- BoxSet and Disc (Name), then I created a custom view "Box Sets" based on the Disc Names. Add >> BoxSet- Disc which shows me a series of Box Set names and thumbnails , a single click shows me the individual discs, another click the track names.
Now take for example Beethoven Piano Sonatas , I have 5 individual sets (OK I may be obsessive BUT) where the Box Set is named Beethoven Piano Sonatas - Kempff Mono so when I select the Box Set> Beethoven Piano Sonatas - Kempff -- I see 8 (say) individually named disc thumbnails. Named > 1 - Opus 2 , 2 - Opus 7, 10 etc . Now I can play each individual CD in effect. It was a bit of effort naming tags etc to set it up but I think it pays dividends.
I find this a great short cut for navigating to whatever I want. When I originally ripped my collection there were a lot of Box Sets 60-70 + which I struggled with , this fixed it.
Originally I took a box set and named the Album Beethoven Piano Sonatas - Kempff Mono for all discs with Disc# set as 1..9 etc , now when I select the album , I get 100 + tracks to navigate , the box set route makes it almost like selecting a CD from the box. I still see the 100 + tracks in the standard Album view so all is not lost, if you want to play all 100 + tracks sequentially.
On the Rock / Pop front it works too with say Tamla Motown Chartbusters 1 - 6 as a Box Set "Tamla Motown Chartbusters" (OK no judgement , I am very old
) and then see the individual named discs, and hence to tracks.
As an aside , on the rock front , I modified the standard Albums view to show the Release Date. Originally I toyed with [Date] - [Album] , but I have settled the other way , [Album] +[Date] so that albums sort alpha with there date as a suffix, I found "1973 - Houses of the Holy" more difficult to navigate (as it sorted albums by date not by name) , than "Houses of the Holy 1973", equally if there is no Release Date in the Tag it just shows the Album name and sorts right. I started with (1973) and eventually dropped the brackets as it looked better with no date specified.
With classical , box sets often comprise several release dates so you have make a call or this technique splits them up a lot
Just a few ideas that have made my life a bit easier.
As a final thought , you simply can't customise iTunes like this , I don't even have it installed I manage my iPod with JRiver . Long Live Media Centre 19
Mike