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MC for Mac and MC for Windows Compared

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glynor:
We get these kinds of questions here from time to time, and I hope this post can help clarify things a bit. One word of warning, I'm a long-time customer and visitor here on these forums, but I don't work for JRiver and I can't see the source code, so I'm going by what I've learned here.*

The first thing to understand is that JRiver Media Center for Windows, Mac, and Linux are all built from the same exact code. JRiver is not so much "porting" MC to Mac and Linux, as they are writing the entire application in a cross-platform way.  Unlike many similar efforts you may have seen, they aren't writing the application using a special "cross platform system" (like Xamarin) or language (like Java).  Media Center is essentially 100% pure C++ code.  They have just written their own frameworks, even for things like Window drawing, and not used OS-specific code and APIs wherever possible (which is really pretty amazing).  This process started a long time ago, well before any of us saw any fruits from their labors.  However, MC was originally a Windows application, so this process is ongoing. Over time, features which do have serious OS dependencies are re-written, and done so in a cross-platform way, and those features then move to the other versions.

This also means that as new versions of Media Center are released for Mac, the changes list included with each build may not be completely comprehensive. Those change lists include Mac-specific changes and fixes, and they try to include major features developed between builds on the Windows side, but some things might get missed.  If you read over the change logs between builds on the Windows board, along with the Mac board here, you'll get a more comprehensive list of changes between versions.

This is not meant to be a comprehensive list, but it should cover most of the major points.

Things that are exactly the same, or functionally equivalent, on the different OS versions of Media Center:
* The entire Library system, including Media Views, Smartlists, Playlists, and library and settings backup.
* The Search Language and Expression Language.
* Library Fields and metadata, file management tools, tagging, and the various Library Tools.
* Zones and Playing Now.
* The audio engine, including DSPs and file format support.
* The Import and Auto-Import systems (including Carnac and Automatic Metadata Lookup).
* Media Network, including JRemote, Gizmo, Webgizmo, Tremote and the entire MCWS API.
* The MC Core Commands automation system, when called from MCWS.
* Standard View, Display View, and the skinning system.
* Handhelds

Things that are not available on the Mac Version:
* Theater View Theater View was added to MC22!
* Video Playback Video support was added to MC20!
* Image support Image support was added to MC21!
* General data file support, including Send To External and Open With External Application support.
* Red October and any third-party DirectShow filters used.
* Media editors
* The COM API, which includes many older third-party plugins and utilities.
* The Command Line launcher (though MCWS can execute these commands, except startup ones, and the entire MC Core Commands system).
* Television
* WDM Virtual Audio Driver and Loopback System
* The File Explorer View under Drives & Devices in the Tree
* Detached Displays
* DVD and BluRay Ripping
* IR and Windows Media Center Remote Control Support

Things that are available on the Mac version, but independent of the Windows version in some way:
* The audio engine is not identical, and is based on Apple's CoreAudio API (as opposed to WASAPI and DirectSound on Windows).
* The video playback engine is not identical or feature-for-feature identical to the Windows DirectShow based system. JRiver is writing an entirely new video playback system for Mac OSX, with the goal of providing high-quality playback comparable to MadVR on Windows, but the task is not yet complete.  Video playback works, and is high-quality, but some rendering-based features of the Windows version are not yet available, such as Subtitle support. Subtitle support was added to MC21!
* Only the Cover Art Display Plugin is currently available for audio playback. Others, including Visualizations and Track Info Pages are not currently supported.
* Web Media support, including YouTube - I'm not sure this is identical in every way, but YouTube support works the same. Hold Command and click on YouTube links within MC to get the downloader.
* Retina and High DPI support. This is one place the Mac version of MC is actually a touch ahead of the Windows version, but there are some differences in the way it interacts with the OS here.
* Other things that directly interact with the filesystem, OS, or hardware that need to be unique.

* If I'm wrong on any details, JRiver-folks, please correct my post.

glynor:
Fixed a mistake. The Mac version does indeed have Handheld support. I pasted my link into the wrong list.  :-[

jimm2:
Is Standard View on the Mac really exactly the same or functionally equivalent to Windows?

In the Playing Now view in Windows, you can skin the track info area or add user developed track info skins in the Visualizations/Track Info directory. I don't see this functionality in the Mac version or am I missing something?

glynor:

--- Quote from: jimm2 on May 03, 2015, 09:31:07 pm ---Is Standard View on the Mac really exactly the same or functionally equivalent to Windows?

--- End quote ---

Well, Standard View is the full UI of MC, and encompasses all features (including the Menu Bar accessible Options and everything), so if you interpret it like that, then Standard View can never really be "equivalent" to the Windows version.  Same goes for Display View.

What I meant was the important components of Media Center in Standard View, basically as covered in the wiki article.  They both have the same Tree, the Panes and Categories work the same way, columns and column presets, view styles, all work identically. They both have the Library Manager, Play Doctor with the Radio buttons, Services & Plugins, and Drives & Devices. I listed it separately, but it also has the same Playing Now system (it has the same conceptual list system, it shows under the tree and Zones work the same way, it has a file listing area and a Display Plugin area).  The components of those components aren't all necessarily identical, of course. It doesn't have Images support, so Images doesn't show in the Tree.  Same goes for the Skinning Engine.  It doesn't have Mini View or Theater View, so it doesn't support those skins either.

Track Info Pages, while accessible via Playing Now, aren't really part of Playing Now itself. They are one of the Display Plugins, and you're right, the Mac version is not equivalent in those.  It also doesn't support many available third-party Display Plugins currently, like those from SoundSpectrum. I'll add Display Plugins to the list of non-equivalent things.  I realize there is a lot of gray area in here, but that is kind of a separate feature.  Playing Now is one way you can access Display Plugins, but they can also appear in the Action Window Display, and in Display View, so they're not really "part of" Playing Now, in my mind.  Like I said, it wasn't intended to be comprehensive, and I'm not "the word" down from on-high (I'm just this guy, you know).

But, I agree, that's worth adding.  I didn't think of it.  If I'm wrong about anything else, or missed anything, please feel free to discuss.  By the way, however, let's keep this "clean".  Any other discussion around what JRiver should do, or what you want, or whatever, will be moved or deleted.

chriswimlett:
Thanks for this, a very interesting and useful read.

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