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[dknightd]

I'm wondering if jriver media center (hereafter, jr) might be a suitable replacement for itunes - for me,
I know everybody has different needs.

I'm currently running itunes 10.7 os x 10.7.5  as my primary music player
(and for day to day computing).

I have a separate boot partition with itunes 11 on it for when I have to interact
with my iphone. It is a pain to reboot, but I guess I've never learned to like
itunes 11, and I don't have to mess with my phone from my computer too often.

The reason I'm considering this is it does not look like apple will ever update
their itunes database engine to one that actually works quickly. When I search I want more or less instant
response. Itunes does not give me this - I've seen jr do this on a less powerful PC with a similar size library.

Some concerns/questions:

1) can jr import from an itunes database (presumably it would be from the XML version)?
   itunes stores ratings and comments in its database file - not embedded into the music file.
   I'd hate to loose my ratings and comments.

2) does jr support 0-10 star ratings? iTunes does (but it is hidden, as 1/2 star ratings - apple
   actually stores ratings as a 0-10 integer).
   I've actually use that quite a bit. Again something I'd rather not loose.

3) can jr export a library database in a form that itunes can later import? Again, I assume XML.

4) can jr stream to airport express and apple TV?

I guess my ideal setup might be one boot disk. Latest itunes version for dealing with iphone.
jr for daily music playing. The ability to go back and forth as needed.

Perhaps the obvious thing to do would be for me to try jr. And I will if it looks like
it *might* do what I want. But you are the experts, so I'm hoping you will tell me
if what I want is possible - yet - or if I should continue to wait and hope.

I'd love to find a good alternative to itunes - that would let me go back and forth as
needed to support ios things.

Thanks in advance for your guidance.

David

[mwheelerk]

I'm certainly no expert, just another learning user.

The ratings and play counts from iTunes will not transfer to JRiver.  Your comments will transfer.

[dknightd]

So I could put my ratings in comments, then somehow extract them.
That could work. I don't care much about last play date, or how often played
I just need ratings and comments