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[Rod69]

Please forgive my ignorance, but I have some VERY basic questions with regard to using JRiver.  I hope I am posting this in the appropriate forum. 

I have downloaded the free trial version of JRiver onto my desktop PC (a recent Dell "All in One").  I have a Sony Bravia TV in another room, connected to an ATT Gateway router.  Also connected to the router via ethernet is a Roku, and a WD TV Media Player.  I enjoy the Roku interface, but I've found the WD TV is better for streaming local media from the PC:  mostly family photos, videos and music.  I've experimented with several servers on the PC:  Plex worked, but it doesn't allow for creating playlists for music, as far as I could tell.  I then tried Logitech Media Server, but I couldn't get my WD TV to recognize it on the PC.  Then I downloaded JRiver, and it worked pretty well.  The WD TV found it, and I streamed both videos and music, and I figured out how to create playlists.  There are a few slight buffering problems when I stream video, however.  I would like to figure out how to eliminate those.  One good thing about Plex was that it seemed to stream videos to the WD TV without any buffering issues.  But JRiver seems to offers so much more than Plex.

I am thinking of getting a NAS, and connecting it via ethernet to my ATT router, I guess.  I think I want to organize and manipulate the media, create playlists, etc., on the PC, and then copy those files, wirelessly, to the NAS.  And then stream them, via the ethernet connection to the router, to the WD TV.  Would this perhaps help eliminate the buffering problem?  I have read a bit about Synology NAS's.

Newbie questions:   So JRiver, as I understand it, is a media player, but it also includes a server, and that is how I'm using it presently, right?  But I have to say that I like the interface so much, I'd like to use it as a player, rather than the WD TV:  could I do this by getting some sort of minicomputer and putting that in place of the WD TV, and loading JRiver onto that?  If I did that, is there a way of using JRiver as a player and viewing it on the TV, by means of some sort of television remote?  Or does one need a keyboard or tablet?  And with regard to the NAS:  Synology, as I understand it, has its own server software that has to be on its NAS.  So could I, as I suggested before, send the media files, wirelessly, to that server from JRiver on my PC?  And then the Synology NAS would serve it to the minicomputer, with JRiver on that, and then I would control it on the TV? 

Does any of this make any sense?  (And if so, which part?!)  Help!  Thanks to anyone for any advice you can offer!

[JimH]

Welcome.  You're doing pretty well for a "beginner".

This wiki topic and the links at the bottom of it will get you started:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=57770.0

Your "mini PC" idea is called an HTPC (Home Theater PC).  MC can be used on two machines and one can control the other.  This feature is called Tremote.  It also has a wiki topic.

When the WD is playing from MC, MC is acting as the DLNA Server.  Bandwidth limitations may be causing the stuttering.  MC's server has conversion options that might solve the problem.

[Rod69]

Two questions:

First, and here's proof that I'm a duffer:  my WD TV is erratic in recognizing the presence of JRiver on my PC (which it refers to as 'generic DLNA device on PC' or something like that).  This morning I couldn't get it to show up.  The PC is on.  I opened up JRiver.  Plex showed up on WD TV, but no JRiver.  Is there something simple I'm not doing?

Second, and more to the point of my previous post:   I've just started to read that thread you referred me to, and it seems like the one thing that's different in my hypothetical setup is the Synology NAS, which have a Synology server on it to serve content to the miniPC, which would run JRiver as a player.   My desktop PC, in another room, also with JRiver on it, would only occasionally be used to copy files wirelessly to the NAS.  I just put the NAS in there because I don't want to bother going in the other room to turn on the desktop when watching things on the TV.  But does the non-JRiver server on the NAS complicate things?   Or should it still work?  It seems like I remember that JRiver cannot actually be on a NAS anyway.  Is that right?

Thank you so much.  I will read more of the thread you referred me to before posting further. 

[JimH]

If you use a NAS instead of MC, you're using a different DLNA server. 

The most recent builds of MC might be more reliable in maintaining visibility on the WD.  Try the one at the top of the MC19 board.