I am treating the pc as a stereo tuner of sorts for my private entertainment center. It has no wi-fi card or lan connection, in lieu of a high quality hi-fi card. As mentioned, i have spent decades building a collection and do not want viruses, updates, security software, etc, etc to be in the mix. This is for both security of my files as well as smoothness of operation, i.e. no windows updates required, no viruses, no issues with security programs (as was suggested earlier in this thread), in effect a standalone player that just works, without having to constantly deal with changes in the operating system, etc. My needs are more simple, and i really don't need a product that tries to do everything. But JRiver seems so promising, as it's customization would allow me to use only the portions i want and ignore the rest. I suppose i could still just use it as a music player, which it is very good at (looking past the UI navigation issues) but it's unfortunate that i will need to use a separate program to view home movies, etc.
- Tom
PS - I encountered issues with the music player as well, but was able to overcome them by installing a new driver for 3D rendering (directx error), so i am hoping that i can do something similar for videos....