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[robydago]

Because I tried hard to find another program with at least comparable features, but I had to give up and buy MC: nothing was at the same level.

During the past years sometimes I had the idea that more specialized programs (audio or video or photo only) could be better than MC, so I tried again but nothing... in the end I kept buying MC upgrades.

Very recently I thought that given the right amount of time I could find a photo organizer program that could be better than MC at just managing\showing\tagging photos.
Nope, not close... I just bought the upgrade to MC21.

 

[jctcom]

I guess it was around version 17.  I was looking for 2 things at the time.

1.  I wanted something that would pass the audio untouched to my receiver whether it be stereo, Quad, Surround etc. etc.

2.  I was using another program at the time which seemed to run slower and slower and I was looking for something faster for tagging and organizing my music.

I downloaded the trial and after playing around with it for about 4 hours and realizing I had not even gotten close to exploring it's potential I purchased it (And every update since).

It is blindingly fast with almost not lag at all.  All my media is on a NAS server and it sees and works with it as if it were on a local hard drive. 

I am still only now getting in to the video aspects of it and haven't played much with the photo aspect.

The ability to use expressions to do things it a bit daunting at first.  But with the excellent help from the folks in the forums the possibilities are endless.

Before I got JRiver I had other solutions.  A few of them I had been using for years.  But I was always on the lookout for something better.  Since I purchased JRiver I have not even had the urge to look for anything else for the functions I use it for (Everything to do with Music and now starting to use it for most of my video playback stuff (Need to create a new group of expressions for Video stuff renaming / moving etc...)

Still haven't gotten into it much for photos.  But then I don't do a whole lot with photos once I get them onto my cloud server.

Well I could go on and on and on but it's time to settle into a movie now.

Carl.

[lossleslie760]

Simply because i got so much for so little. It's been a lifesaver. Thank you! 

[dreandre]

I got turned on MC because I was looking for a tag organization solution.  At that time i was organizing tags in one program, moving things around in another program, and then playing the files in a third program.  Having all these things on one place is what first sold me. 

After that, I discovered the endless ENDLESS wealth of knowledge that has been built into this program, along with the VERY responsive active forum.  I learn CONSTANLY by using this program and for that I'm sold.  No need to shop around or look for anything else.  I'm even learning how to code for crying out loud. 

I think it's fantastic!

[Hitashi]

As a fanatic hifi lover,  i were always under the impression that Computer and Hi-fi  weren't compatible,   i knew that either it was a CDplayer or a turntable if i wanted that distinct perfect sound.  But randomly i stumbled over some forum where a guy were saying that there existed a program called JRiver that were pure magic, he talked on some  Direct pathing ASIO and stuff i honestly didn't know anything about, but just on a whim i started looking into it.

And i came to find, that JRiver had better audio quality than my  NAD Cdplayer, and my turntable combined.    The best part is the Asio direct connection and the 64bit Internal volume control, that allows me to go straight out the DAC into a set of active monitors,   Skipping the whole preamplifier !  These active monitors only have  Power amps that are always running on 100% volume,  so normally i were forced to run from the DAC into a Preamp stage, and then into the Monitors. Skipping that physical preamp stage, gave me an insane amount of improvement in sound quality, even though i were using a pretty expensive Marrantz preamp.
 normally i have ZERO faith in Software volume controls, but this JRiver internal volume control  is perfect in all ways.

JRiver is so cheap and gives such a large improvement in sound quality its ridiculous,  if you wanted that same amount of sound quality improvement  by buying some insane high end CD player it would cost a fortune.    Before JRiver all i knew about PC audio was Foobar ( without ASIO direct connection )   and that sounds like a 2D flat piece of plastic  sound stage wise.

and it appears to me that this  Red october  Video thing,  also gives better images than any other   Video player I've ever seen.   Beats  VLC  and windows media player

How can it be that this JRiver isn't more mainstream? it's so far superior to anything else,  i haven't had anything but The best of best experiences with this program,  it changed everything about listening to music,  it's like hearing my entire music library for the first time 'again'     I have gained huge amounts of respect for the peoples behind this program' they really knows whats up, i wish them great success.

[brett]

Hopefully an end to my quest to replace Windows Media Center. I tried both Windows and Linux versions of Kodi/XBMC with various back ends (primarily for TV) and either the performance was abysmally slow and/or buggy, or it couldn't do must haves like time shifting. Then there is the endless hours of messing around with poorly documented software. I also run Plex Server and Logitech SB Server on Linux boxes, along with PlayOn, so it will be interesting to see what I ultimately end up with.

[kieran]

Similar to brett, I'm here because of the potential TVPlus add-on.  I'm still using the free trial license.

Honestly, if TVPlus doesn't happen, I probably won't continue using JRiver MC.  I've been using Kodi/xbmc since it was running on my original Xbox hardware.  I like Kodi and it does everything I need it to do, except for the live TV / DVR thing. 

Kudos to the JRiver team for really making a great product with respect to setting up a live TV / DVR system.  Even without the DRM-capable TVPlus add-on, JRiver is IMO #2 in this realm behind Windows Media Center (which kind of makes it #1 since WMC is no longer available for Win10 and beyond). 
That said, Windows7 will have support for several more years (I think until 2020?) and Win8 for several more beyond that, so WMC is a viable solution as a DRM-capable diy DVR, for the foreseeable future, so long as one is happy having Win7 or Win8 running one's HTPC... which many of us are not.

JRiver MC seems to be able to do everything that Kodi does for me also, but at a price.  If TVPlus comes to fruition, that price will be worth it to me, for the potential to have only ONE media application to open on my HTPC.

Other than that, I don't see much benefit of JRiver MC over Kodi for me.  It's a very nice program, and I'd be willing to switch to it.  But all the bells and whistles it offers above and beyond Kodi are not enough to bring me over.  For example, If I want bit-perfect audio or reference quality video, I plop the physical disc into the tray of my Oppo Blu-ray player, and play the media directly to my receiver &/or TV.  If I'm not seeking reference quality, my MP3 music and MKV video collections on my NAS are played just fine via Kodi.

[DOLOMITE73]

'cos it's freakin' awesome.

It's the only player that feels like

it's developed by people who actually want to use it not just sell it
+
there's a genuine understanding that users don't want to be forced to using the vendors partners for related services

rock on jriver.

[leperlord]

Yes for all the reasons you stated plus

The cost is perfect, if much more $ I would not be able to or would not purchase it.

IMO no one else, even for more $ can match this program.

I dont know where to even start.

The interface, wow, it's like having my entire collection at my finger tips ,without being buried in my cdss/sacds etc.

The indexing/cataloguing/search functions. So flexible. Extremely flexible. File support is unsurpassed.

Under the hood it's just brilliant, and I still am not close to understanding it all.

I'm intrigued to suss this talk of a remote out. So this is a physical IF remote that i can control
JRiver with? Where can i purchase this?

I've tried cell phone/software apps etc, but all were headaches for me.

Cheers

[imeric]

Mostly for SOUND QUALITY and its incredible versatility for different sound config outputs (in my case an Exasound DAC + Moon AMP for 2Channel Stereo, And a Cambridge receiver for Video and Dolby Digital sound.) I can also use the JRiver virtual sound driver to direct non ASIO capable apps through JRiver..This is great!!!!

You know the audio is untouched (and when it is you also know about it!) Definitely the differentiator with Foobar for Sound.  Yes foobar has ASIO and DSD support but IMHO it's not up to par with JRiver...  Yes I still use foobar because I like it for lyrics, the GUI looks nice and the more advance crossfading (continuator) but for serious listening...I always go back to JRiver!  
Tagging and library cleanup in MC, once you get the hang of it...IS just great!! (Yes I still use dbpoweramp, MP3 tag for tagging and ripping or conversion sometimes but that's just me...You can do EVERYTHING perfectly as far as secure ripping, tagging and conversion go within JRiver flawlessly...

I still use Sage for TV but the amount of work that's been put in TV in recently will eventually mean I will kiss my beloved SageTV goodbye. I really can't wait for this moment to happen!!!

Handheld sync, not perfect but definitely does the job no matter what type of device you throw at it and once you get the hang of it!

All of this to say JRiver truly is a COMPLETE All-in-one media solution.
Support may seem a little disorgnaized at first but it works and those MC folks and community are very responsive!
Amazing work guys keep it up!!!

[Audio Adrenaline]

I really enjoy using the jriver product I never would have believed that a pc could do a better job of transferring data to a dac than a high quality cd/dvd player but your product certainly proved me wrong. It is an amazing piece of kit and I'm having fun learning more how to tweak it every day-I've already spent a fair bit on my hi fi system and really couldn't afford to spend the big $ needed to get an improvement once you have a good pre-power amp etc but your software gave me a substantial and affordable upgrade in sound quality I would not have been able to afford other ways-thanks

[JimTheDj65]

I bought into JRiver at MC15 for its ability to allow me to play my music the way I want to. Also it is highly configurable for many different scenarios.... It doesn't tie me to any hardware and in my opinion nothing comes close to it..

[Ark :D]

I invested in JRiver MC because it's an outstanding all-room solution for a family like mine that has a CableCard-equipped "main" HTPC with satellite HTPC's in other rooms.  The guide is great and all the functionality we need is there.  Great product!

[stewart_pk]

I can't really remember why I chose it some years ago but I know why I've stuck with it.
It has a set of functionality not offered by any other product and for such a good price.
My digital entertainment life would be incomplete without it!

[CubicZirconia]

I have used XBMC for quite a while before buying MC20. Recently upgraded to MC21 (MC20 was working alright except the TV-EPG was hosed). Here are a few reasons that I choose to buy JRiver:

1. plays everything in one package, including liveTV. LiveTV in XBMC is a pain. I tried the WMC backend. not quite stable.

2. plays live TV with madVR. XBMC+MPCHC plays video files with madVR but JRiver is the only way I know to do liveTV in madVR.

3. Composer tag support in Music, good for the classical portion of my collection. In XBMC I had to turn on display by folder and play tricks with folder names

4. MediaServer, I can connect, listen, watch away from home.

Previously I used RemotePotato for this but MediaServer is much easier to set up. I do believe every time I connect remotely, a JRiver server is involved to direct my session and facilitate a handshake between my device and my computer at home, but I don't mind this.

5. Quality audio playback. play from memory, bit perfect streaming etc. Again, XBMC can do these, but one has to install 3rd party external audio players and set up rules to switch to the external player. This integration in XBMC is far from smooth, even auto play the next track  is tricky to set up right which makes it useless for music albums.

6. Audio DSP capability, native convolver support etc. You can do it in XBMC, but requires external player and see #5 above about the lack of usability of external audio players in XBMC.

7. Zone and ZoneSwitch. This is partially possible in XBMC but one has to edit some xml config files. JRiver has integrated interface to set up zones and rules to automatically switch to a zone.

8. Playing From feature: can directly access library on another machine in another JRiverMC. Admittedly, I have not tried this feature a lot and I believe I was confused about whats playing where a couple times, but still this is pretty neat. Again, compare to XBMC. one can share library from one XBMC to other DNLA devices including other XBMC instances, but the access has its limit, like no subtitle, no show info etc. Also XBMC does not have a server mode, so you have to keep an XBMC GUI up or minimized and with time, it eats up a lot of memory and always eats about 8% CPU load on my machine. XBMC team is pretty clear that they intend XBMC as a front end only.

9. On the down side, which are minor and overweighted by the fact that JRiver is one integrated application that plays all formats I watch or listen with high quality.
a. I still miss the fancy eye candies of XBMC Aeon-Nox (theme music, capability to hide all text and show full screen fan arts with a down arrow remote key...).
b. I still miss the program guide in WMC7, which feels more like a cable box. JRiver Guide has some quirkiness I feel. In many cases, JRiver takes more remote clicks to start play videos than XBMC or WMC7.
c. I still use WMC7+MECBuddy to do my recording. MCEBuddy is able to retrieve show information and rename the recorded file with episode title, and is a bit more flexible in file renaming and has many more options to customize record behavior.

[fdewit]

Simple, a German magazine 'StereoPlay' wrote about it, and scored it as best. We tried it and liked it

[jachin99]

I tried a few other media centers, and for the most part I like them but jriver worked with my gyration remote out of the box, and It has MAD VR, and Red October.  For fifty bucks, that made it worth it, and I guess I'll see if I stick to it.  Another big attraction so far and its user friendliness.  

[yukemuri6]

JRiver is good sounds, and easy way to up convert DSD .

And especially best match for blue coast records DSD version .

Fiona Joy"Into the Mist"(bluecoastrecords.downloadsnow.net/fiona-joy-into-the-mist)
is a great HD ,and real sounds , I love it .

[soundslikehollis]

With all else held constant, it sounds better than iTunes.

I found MC through hardware reviews, and people I highly respect (Bob Katz, Tyll Herstens) use it, which is a very strong (and subtle) recommendation. I spun up the trial and I was almost sold, but I needed one more feature.

It lets me run VSTs.

Mainly, the VSTs I already own and use for audio production. I was able to replace equalizer APO with Ozone 5. Which was no contest in a comparison of quality. I'm addicted to EQ for attacking room resonances, and attacking a little channel imbalance in my he-500s.  Once I found I can just leave Relife turned on, and it extrapolates the peaks of clipped/over-limited content I dont think I could go back.

Now I'm running it into my new multibit DAC and cant be happier. 

[PhDSM]

I've started long time ago with MediaJukebox. and stick with it for about 15 years and promote it.
Why :
Initialy : support many formats
            Tagging capabilities / customization (important with classical music)
            View  customization (also important with classical music)
            Open:  Can export /save customization
                      have an API (I 've linked it with Excel for my movie database
Now I will add:
 Stability of the company.  Using the same software for handling 70k files of medias for 15 years is Great !
 It allows huge leverage, no need to redo things every new software
 You stay ahead of the game in terms of files support and technology
On the top of all that , I enjoyed, Theater view, Gizmo, Web Renote , DLNA support, multiple renderer support
and the Forum & regular updates !

Great Job !

Philippe

[davewantsmoore]

Audio DSP

[highks]

I first heard of JRiver on an audiophile forum, and because I had just added a HiFi USB DAC to my system I became interested.
From what I read, the WASAPI support in JRiver seemed to be better than in any other software, just like its DSP filters which are on par with professional audio software.

The price seemed very fair, so I bought it and replaced foobar as my main audio player. Now I am so glad I took this step because I have since then been using more and more of JRiver's powerful features like tagging and also JRemote on Android which is a great remote control. I am still using it for mainly audio, but I do watch an occasional music video or concert dvd in JRiver, just because the audio quality through WASAPI is so much better.

Although my main focus was (and still is) on playback quality, my music collection has gotten a lot more organized and better looking with JRiver. Before JRiver I always thought I don't need all that tagging and rating, but in JRiver I discovered these are really helpful tools.

What I generally like about JRiver is that it is 1. simple to use and good looking, but 2. it also has tons of powerful options and settings for the more advanced user. I wish more software could be as versatile as JRiver!

[Dan69]

1. It may sound weird or trivial, but I loved the fan art downloaded and sized to screen in theater mode. Competing platforms I was looking at at the time allowed for fan art, but it had to be very specifically sized or customer added. I don't have time for that, and crowd sourcing images, like JRiver does, is a *way* better solution.
2. Great library and tag management.
3. Great sound
4. FLAC playback

I originally purchased JRiver year ago to drive my HTPC, and it does that nicely. Since then I have begun using it more interactively as a player on my desktop as well and am discovering new things I love about it every day.

[Thouston]

The audio sound quality. Ability to work bit perfect with my DAC.

[Agent86]

As a MyMovies (MM) user for 7 years, it was surprisingly easy to decide to switch to JRiver. Best for me are:

• The MM Collection Manager is a separate application with is a PITA.
  MM is dependent on Windows Media Centre. With no WMC in Windows 10, MM is in trouble.
  I could never get reliable resolution switching or stutter-free playback in MM.
  MM's abilities to tag movies is extremely limited.
  I only have 650 movies but loading MM in WMC took too long
  MM database backups take several minutes.
  MM made a significant change to the way it copies movies/disks which, despite being very unpopular, was forced upon users until the developers eventually backed down. Somewhat too late.
  JR seems to bring a lot more features and is extremely responsive to user requests.
  The technical capabilities and depth of JR is in a different league to MM.
  JR integrates movies, audio, pictures, TV is a way that just isnt possible with MM.

I could go on but you get the idea. After 2 weeks using JR, I can tell you this is an exceptional product and service.

Agent86.

[skifastbadly]

Initially, I was looking for something that would support FLAC files, didn't keep changing its interface like iTunes, and wasn't at the mercy of the junior product managers at Microsoft.

My trial lasted 2 days. When I realized that I could send a direct digital file, unfiltered or dithered directly to my Adcom DAC, I was hooked.

And that would have been good enough.  That would have been worth the 50 bucks.  But then:

I found out that the support forum is one of the most useful forums full of the most helpful people I've ever experienced.

I learned about Gizmo.  I've dreamed for years about controlling my music from my phone or Kindle, and I had no idea I could before I put down my cash.

I learned that using Gizmo or JRemote, I could play my music from my server anywhere in the world that I had internet.  (Ok to be fair I've only tested it in the bar, but still....)

Then I learned how to run MC on the Raspberry Pi, which is cool as hell and opens up all kinds of possibilities.

I learned about DLNA and how I could play music in different places using my phone to control it.

Including my new DLNA enabled Yamaha receiver.

It's like marrying a woman because she's beautiful and finding out she's got a great personality, is worth a fortune, and likes to cook.

I couldn't be happier.  And I pray my wife doesn't see this post.

[Wull]

For the DSP studio..... simply awesome 

[yukemuri6]

I think JRiver is my best . Because DSD is best choice for me. Of course up conversion to DSD is
good sounds , and DSD to DSD is MORE !! Especially Blue Coast Records original DSD recordings
are GREAT !! I recommended Blue Coast Records Special Event 43(bluecoastrecords.downloadsnow.net/special-event-43),
It is a natural acoustic guitar and vocal sounds , they bind folk , jazz, american roots music . I recommended DSD version,
it is s best .

[altae]

I chose JRiver Media Center because my favorite software, Winamp, isn't maintained anymore. And because of the fact that MC has got native support for the Hifi output modes like ASIO or WASAPI. All other players out there either rely on third party plugins or do not offer bitperfect output at all. Or they offer those features but I don't like their UI. Now that I've become accustomed to MC I am perfectly happy with it, it covers all my needs for audio playback. But I cannot tell anything about video or image support since I use other programs for video playback and for managing my image collection.

[CWNashvegas]

At my house, we have little sets of speakers scattered about. You know, the powered, mini-plug stereo sets often sold for use with computers. My roommate and I plug our iPods into them when we're cooking or doing dishes and such. Well, I got this idea to take a cheap Android tablet and turn it into a WAN/LAN music interface. All my favorite internet music streaming services and access to my entire music library on the local network. It would spend most of it's time connected to my bedroom... speakers, but I could hook it up wherever there were speakers handy.

Yeah, okay, "speakers" in this case is my Alesis powered desktop monitors connected to a Behringer distribution amp*, connected to the tablet via a mini > 1/4" adapter. We're sort of musicians, we've got this kind of random gear all over the place and I like using what I've got on hand when I start a project.   Not exactly the highest quality sound, but it ain't so bad.

Anyway, I already have an HTPC / media server that was working fabulously for video / live TV. Kodi + Plex, with MediaPortal for TV, faithfully served us day after day with no problems. But music... That's a different animal. I'd been using iTunes on two computers and MediaMonkey on the other, keeping it all in sync with a fairly painless workflow, if you can believe that. I thought I'd just use MediaMonkey for my music server, as it has the organizational / presentation granularity I desire need. The problem was that, once it was all set up, I would lose connection to the server every four or five songs. Tried multiple DLNA clients, so it wasn't that. Wasn't the firewall. Wasn't any one of the dozens of things I've tried and I just got fed up.

So, what other piece of software lets me present my Old Time Radio and other "specialty" collections with their own custom-designed views? Yes, MC, and here I am. I installed the trial, set up my music library, got the server going and just started playing a long playlist. A few hours later, it was still playing perfectly and I yelled, "I win!" and threw my dollars down.

Over the weekend I'll be migrating all the other stuff over, because even I can't justify running 4 different servers on one machine when MC can handle all of it perfectly fine. I already set up live TV and I've started on the video content. I'll keep itunes on my laptop for my iPod, Since I manually process my audio files before they end up in anything, it's pretty easy to just do an iTunes import of the new files before I send a copy to the main music directory on the server for MC to pick up and import into the library.

That is why I chose JRiver.

*In case anyone is curious why the Behringer is necessary... I can't fiddle with touchscreen EQ settings. I just can't. Some of the stuff in my collection is a bit muddy or otherwise "off" and if I'm sitting here at the desk, it's just sooo easy to reach up and tweak the treble / bass knobs a bit. That thing can also pump a shocking amount of gain out before it sounds bad, especially considering the audio source is a $40 Android tablet.

[RoderickGI]

That's great! 

I'll keep itunes on my laptop for my iPod, Since I manually process my audio files before they end up in anything, it's pretty easy to just do an iTunes import of the new files before I send a copy to the main music directory on the server for MC to pick up and import into the library.

Read http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=97847.0 and http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Sync_Handheld and some of the links on those pages. While you may still want to use iTunes to send music to your iPod, MC can handle that as well (well, depending on your iPod version I believe), and then you don't need to manage an iTunes library of your whole collection.

I just sync what I want on my iPhone to a directory on my PC, converting the files if required, plus adding Volume Levelling adjustments, and then drag and drop the result into iTunes and sync to the iPhone. All original music is maintained in MC. MC also maintains a cache of converted files if I want to reuse them later, and of course I have the copy of converted files on my PC if I need to resend them.

If you want to do significant adjustments to the music before sending it to the iPod, you can use the Convert Format tool to process the files, including adding any DSP you want, and save the result to a directory on your PC for later syncing with the iPod. (Just don't convert [re-encode] low quality MP3s to add DSP, which would reduce quality due to the lossy format.) Lots of options.

[CWNashvegas]

Read http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=97847.0 and http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Sync_Handheld and some of the links on those pages. While you may still want to use iTunes to send music to your iPod, MC can handle that as well (well, depending on your iPod version I believe), and then you don't need to manage an iTunes library of your whole collection.

Thanks for that. I actually bookmarked the thread for MCiS yesterday, but I use the laptop copy as a full just-in-case backup of my music collection so I'm not sure how much I'd gain if I still needed to keep a full local copy on there anyway instead of using MC as a client. I definitely need to explore it a bit more to fully appreciate my options - I hadn't considered DSP processing, for example. Definitely something for me to think about.

And to keep in the spirit of this thread - I now have another reason why I chose JRiver: It doesn't make my graphics card cry. All this time I just thought it was my GT-520's battle cry. I mean, Fermi the Indestructible has been through a lot over the years so a little growling and complaining isn't an unreasonable thing. But no, apparently it was just Kodi causing it to make strange noises when HDMI was connected. Quite the mystery, but all is quiet now.

[Scothoney]

Ok, I'm a novice.  I have been using ITunes for a couple of years and now that the Classis is gone and my Classis was having issues, I was looking a the FiiO X5 as a replacement.  This brought on the next topic of how to transfer my 6K+ songs in my library to the FiiO.  A few posts on the Web raved about JRiver and it's capabilities.  I tried the free version and was blow away at how easy it was to transfer my library.  I also had it automatically transfer all my pictures, both personal and business and it's so nice to have the pictures arranged so I can find them easily.

Back to the audio part.  Once I had the songs transferred, I tried JRiver out on my Audio-Technica ATH-M50X headphones.  I couldn't believe the difference between the sound quality of JRiver and ITunes.  More than night and day.  The sound was so open and clear, even with some of the songs I imported from CD.  When I bought the headphones, I was told that they were on par with much higher cost headphones, but they just sounded average.  With JRiver, the sound is WAY better than I expected!!!

After listening to JRiver for about a week, I bought it.  Probaly the best money I've spent to date on anything audio and now have pictures too.

In the sceme of things, what's $50.00 for a great program. 

Don't think about it, just buy it and you won't be sorry.

[dhensley]

Started with MC when it was in the single digit versions. Absolutely the best tagging, analysis, renaming, organizing, viewing and overall management support. Nothing came close and nothing still does. CD ripping is seamless and online library has gone from unusable to almost infallible. I'm about to start using it for photo access, as soon as I find a clean paradigm for using it in conjunction with Lightroom. It's incredibly powerful and I've found that if I need to do something I almost always can. It doesn't impose a paradigm on how I tag and organize like virtually every other product does. I'm approaching 18K tracks in flac and I trust it to manage my library with no hassles.

I'm probably using 20% of the functionality in the product and I'm still blown away by it. Looking forward to getting a stable media network and theater view sometime this year.

[JohnnyFire]

i choose J.R. for those reasons:

1.Sound-Video Quality=this app give you truelly the best posible experience both one audio and video!
2.Theme Engine=if you are a themer you gonna apriciate this engine. easy to create whatever you think
3.Simplicity=every part of this app is easy to use and manage
4.Customizable=you can turn the app look inferface to your needs
5.Support=the team do their best with frequently updates and forum support!
6.you need more???

[robertisonline]

On PC's I use JRiver for sound quality, DSD and FLAC capability, and I love how easy the Media Network sets up. I don't post much, but that doesn't me I don't thoroughly enjoy JRiver's forum. Whatever level of music you're on, this community is full of people that are engaging and willing to help. It was a while back, but I remember reading this thread about multi-channel decoding and the guy asking the questions just couldn't get it figured out. The thread went on for something like 6 or 7 pages. I thought for sure the person helping who was going to give up. I was laughing so hard I was slapping my knee at certain points, but the guy stuck with him, and finally the other guy understood. It was one of the best instances of support I have ever seen.

[Solderman]

Very new user here (< 2 months.) I'd heard of JRiver for years, mainly on Audio Asylum and diyaudio.com.  I am a 99.9% audio guy. For years I've been running my system "active" with anything from a DEQ2496 or two to a MiniDSP 2x4 or both for EQ duties. Recently I got aboard the PC as DSP bandwagon. Of several Windows based softwares, I select JRiver as the best "reasonably priced" player. My main need is for the Parametric EQ and ability to output > 2 channels. I'm impressed by how relatively easy it is to set everything up. I have only used a fraction of JRiver's capabilities -- and its likely I won't need most of them -- but what it does is amazing. Thank you for a great product. You should be proud!

[Riverbear]

I first chose JRiver back when it was media jukebox version 3 or so (1999?). I chose it because of flexibility. I liked the customized tag options, the smart playlists, and generally the powerful organizational features. I have purchased many versions over the years, but I have been becoming more and more lost due to a lack of any cohesive manual or tutorial. So many features have been added over the years that I fell like I only utilize about 5% of mediacenter's power. And that is despite using jriver consistently for the last 16 years or so. I feel like jriver has left me in the dust. So please, take a pause from new features until you create a manual. I'm still trying to figure out 2005's features.

[proton32060]

The answer for me was very simple.

I tried all of the media players out there but in the end it was JRiver's Spectrum Analyzer with their bouncing Album Covers that made me spend the money.

Most of Media Center's functions I never use.
All I use the program for is to watch videos and listen to music.

And while I tried them all the one thing Media Center had was their Spectrum Analyzer with their bouncing boxes. That was the reason I bought their program instead of going with a free one.

I am sure JRiver put this post up to see why people are willing to spend money on their program instead of going with the free alternatives out there. I hope this one comment proves instructive.

You may never know exactly why some people are willing to spend $50.00 for your program when there are free alternatives available. It could be one small feature you see as trivial that some of your customers see as "worth every penny". And yes, that one visualization your program had the others lacked made it worth fifty dollars.
To me anyway.

So the moral is not to make the same mistake other software vendors have made.
Adding new features are always welcome but think hard before you eliminate any.

I used Media Center 18 for years and realized it was time to upgrade so I spent the money. But I never would have done it if the one feature that made me buy the program in the first place had been removed.

The fact you still had the Spectrum Analyzer with the bouncing album covers made me willing to spend the money and upgrade.

There is a long list of software companies who thought they could eliminate everything familiar and force something "new" down their users throats with no option to keep the familiar aspects that made users want to use their products in the first place.
Microsoft tried it and has been in a war with their customers ever since who don't want Windows 8 or 10 but the familiar desktop they have both gotten used to and fond of.
Firefox also tried it by forcing their new interface down peoples throats and all they got was a user base abandoning their software for other alternatives.

If you had gotten rid of the Spectrum Analyzer with the bouncing boxes I would have stayed with Version 18. Like I said, I only use the program to watch videos and listen to music. All the new features might be great but it is not likely I will ever take advantage of them.

I bought the upgrade because I wanted to support JRiver and it still had the one feature that made me buy it in the first place. I  doubt I will ever use any of the added features.
I am a customer with very basic needs.

But the one feature your program had the others didn't made it worth the price.
If you had eliminated it I would have stayed with version 18.

The same way I am still using Windows 7 to type this instead of Windows 10.

[Snarglefarg]

After reading the other responses here, I see that I don't use many of the features available. But when there's something I need to do, I can always count on there being a way. I like the continuous upgrades. It gets better and has more to offer year after year.  The community is fantastic and my questions never end up going into a blackhole. So for me, perhaps the number one reason is support from the community and from JRiver.

[slerch666]

Why do I use JRiver?

Audio. Quality.

It's pretty simple. Back when I first got into digital audio in a big way, there was this little company doing something everyone called "amazing" and it's only gotten better.

There may be prettier options available. There may be simpler solutions. There may be something more amazing out there. But you know what? MC does everything I want, and I find that when I'm dipping my toe into other things to try (like DLNA to my Oppo BDP-103), I already have everything I need to get started. And I am an IT person for a living, so tweaking, turning knobs, pushing a lever, and just playing are what get me excited, and JRiver has all those things. And if you don't like doing that stuff... that's perfectly OK since you don't NEED to do any of that tweaking!

I've been with MC since 2011 and version 16. My only problem is, what took me so long?

[luker0]

I use Media Center now because of the following:
- I have a large-ish collection of music
- iTunes "enhancements" over the last several years have basically broken how I use a library tool
- iTunes has messed up about 5,000 songs worth of metadata during one period of ripping my CDs. Did not notice till I started using non-Apple devices
- I was a HUGE Winamp Pro user, had to abandon when I got an iPod Touch then iPhones
- I like to control my library the way I want it, not some developer from far far away who has maybe 30 songs in a library
- incredibly feature rich product that will help keep the library in shape and will work on multiple devices/computers. This may solve my library sync issues.

So far this product has been the cat's meow to work with.  The UI could use some help though.

[Awesome Donkey]

The UI could use some help though.

There's a feature requests topic here where you can post specific UI enhancements you have in mind.

[blgentry]

- iTunes has messed up about 5,000 songs worth of metadata during one period of ripping my CDs. Did not notice till I started using non-Apple devices

MC might be able to help you with this because it has powerful expressions.  Start a new topic about this and post some examples of what's messed up and how you want it fixed.  Maybe we can help. 

Brian.

[JoeyGS]

For hi-end audio playback supporting all audio formats.

[Gedeon]

I'm glad you ask this, so thanks.

Four main reasons, the order matters.

- The parametric equalizer and room correction options (still waiting for a feature to easily import parametric equalizer parameters)
- The sound quality
- Audio & video integration
- Tons of customizable features

[Whistler Fred]

Hi y'all!

I'm new to JRiver and am still learning its features.  I'm primarily interested in music and have an embarrassingly large music collection on my computer, mostly classical, but with some jazz, rock and folk thrown in for good measure.

I've tried several other music players, including MediaMonkey, Foobar, Clementine and AIMP.  All have their strengths and weaknesses, but what I'm finding with JRiver is that it combines some of my favorite features (comprehensive tagging, library organization, appealing visual options, and solid CD ripping) into one program.  Add the ability to play, rip and categorize DVDs and the deal becomes even sweeter. 

One feature I particularly like is how the ripper will check for file name lengths and give you the option of shortening them before ripping.  I've come into grief several times when a file name was too long and a music player couldn't load or even find them.  Having the option to fix this problem before the disc is burned is saving me a lot of tedious file-by-file search and rename trouble.

I'm still experimenting with options and I suspect that I've only begun to tap into JRiver's potential.  Can't wait to see what else it will do!

[Shail]

*) excellent Library management
*) flexible tagging
*) brilliant sound quality (though differences at top end of competitor products is now small)
*) server support
*) iphone remote

[BigGuy]

I am a fairly new to JRiver MC. I'm still learning about it and experimenting with its capabilities, which appear to be endless. The primary reason I purchased it though is because of all the VERY GOOD REVIEWS I read about it, from USERS; i.e. folks who actually bought it. I don't put much credence in what 'reviewers' that get PAID for their opinions write, since their motivations can lie in ANY direction. REAL people (like us) that write honestly and truthfully about their experiences with a product and who actually purchase the product they're writing about, those are the opinions that mean the most to me.

Like I wrote above, I'm still very new to JRiver, but just from what I've learned about it so far and from the quality of the SOUND (DSD playback, in particular) it produces, I'm WAY more than sold. I recently upgraded to MC22, and it's not even out yet! That should tell you something about my faith in JRiver MC and that I'm certain it'll continue to get even better!

Cheers!

[Audio Adrenaline]

The reason I chose JRiver was I was looking for a replacement for WMC for my tv recording and it came up on a google seach as a recomendation. I am also a big fan of high end audio and was amazed how well your software could use my marantz recievers dac etc it really gave me a big improvement in sound and picture i simply wouldnt have been able to afford if I had to buy a new dvd player to get the same improvement I never thought a computer could be better than a good piece of audio equipment boy was I wrong when your software is used:-)