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[rafverhoogen]

After using MediaCenter since the first versions on Mac, i finally decided to stop using it.
i was quite an intensive user, and even made my own version of web gizmo, had an extensive music library (+65k songs all in loss less) which always works like clockwork
i loved the fact that i could customize the library with additional tags, and that i could view all this information in my own version of WebGizmo.
but in the end the fact that i could not synchronize my portable devices (apple) to take on the road made me decide to switch back to (snif snif) itunes, which i hate in functionality but which allows me to synchronize the devices, for moments i'm not on "a" network.
i tried a lot of work arrounds but of course if the rating does not update and you have lots of songs it this becomes much more important
I've waited so long because :
1. i really thought JRiver was in the end going to tackle this problem and make it a standard feature (and please do not come with the same thing again that apple is not giving information)
2. all my music 'intelligence' is in the jriver database, and this is going to be a big loss since i will now have to pack this all into the tag comment :-(

raf

[jmone]

Given what happened years ago when Apple deliberately "broke" the ability of progs like MC to sync directly with iOS devices, I understand why JR have decided not to throw good dev effort after bad.  Like you, I too posted at the time that they should keep pursuing direct sync but I see their point.  Why support an org that does not want you to play?

That said, I do see a soln.  I've (and many) argued that if the current crop of JR "remotes" were expanded to support an off line playback/cache functionality, then it would effectively free all MC users from the constraints of iOS (and Android).  One day...

All the best with iTunes.

[JimH]

It's possible to use both.  Just import the iTunes files from the same location where iTunes uses them.

[rafverhoogen]

I've tried to use both actually, but ran in the following issues with this :

1. my library is constantly changing, the tags, the locations, all these things are changing
2. i cannot find a way to synchronize the ratings of my synchronized songs
3. i have a Devialet 400 and the issue there is that the air (not airplay) technology does not work very well with MC and it does with iTunes.

If ever the third problem would be solved i would gladly move back to MC, since i really love it so much. 

What i love about mc is :

1. the possibility to include lots of additional information about the songs, mc was becoming my encyclopedia of music in 2 years time
2. the concept of the trees in browsing information made playlists in the traditional way completely unneeded but it made browsing so much more dynamic and interesting and truly dynamic
3. the remote connection to mc (even over 4G and internet) made it so portable, however, i get stuck on holidays and business trips

[BartMan01]

1. i really thought JRiver was in the end going to tackle this problem and make it a standard feature (and please do not come with the same thing again that apple is not giving information)

Sorry, but it IS mostly Apple's fault here.  Years ago, MC did actually sync directly with iPhones.  JRiver spent quite a bit of money developing this functionality, and then Apple started intentionally breaking things. JRiver tried jumping through the hoops for a while and eventually threw in the towel.  I think it was a combination of cost of trying to stay compatible + the potential for a very costly lawsuit for circumventing Apple's protections.

Today, JRiver could build in a database sync between MC and iTunes.  Not sure how costly that would be, and they are pretty much gun shy of spending scarce resources (time and money) chasing Apple again.  It is not impossible to imagine that Apple would change the API's for iTunes or abandon iTunes completely for a 'new and better' program like they have with many of their products in the last few years.

The reality is that ANYONE can build the integration to/from MC and iTunes.  There are open and known API's for both programs.

Another thing to keep an eye on is the 'JRemote' app.  That was written by a third party and then that person was hired by JRiver.  One of the promised features there is the ability to cache files for offline use, and last I heard that is a pretty high priority behind a few more critical features being finished first.

[rafverhoogen]

Believe me i would absolutely love to continue with MC, i've created a very rich library in the meanwhile which will be completely lost in itunes, since i will need to copy all the non standard tags to comments, where they will be useless (except as pure information).
I had set up a very specific structure for classical music which worked perfectly for me, and even a special Gizmo now playing screen where all this info was displayed in an overview

indeed if JRemote would have the capacity to play music without connection this would solve all of my problems, i am certainly not addicted to the ios music player either (i find JRemote even better and more flexible)

so i will keep following the development on this.
As for the Devialet, i could keep the server connected to it by USB (which works fine) until the problem with devialet air and jriver has been solved (seems to be the case in air 2.1.4)

raf

[glynor]

The reality is that ANYONE can build the integration to/from MC and iTunes.  There are open and known API's for both programs.

There is one for Windows, by prod, and it works well.  That's what I use.  It would be nice if someone would build one for OSX, but I don't think JRiver is going to do it.

Offline caching support for JRemote is the way they should go, and I believe they've previously said that it was planned, but that there was no firm "due date" at this point.