More > JRiver Media Center 21 for Windows
Idea: JRiver Music Player?
archfrog:
Hi,
I just bought JRiver Media Center a few days ago for use with my Denon PMA-50 on a Windows 10 PC. As far as I know, this is the only way to get full support for the hardware features of my PMA-50.
To be honest, I find MC bloated beyond belief. I know most of you probably value each and every setting and option and feature in the program, but all I need is a high-quality SACD/DSF/DSD and 24/192 FLAC player. I am aware of Foobar2000 but it doesn't seem to support native playback of DSD files on my PMA-50. I want those files sent to my PMA-50, not converted on the PC itself. The PMA-50 supports DSD natively and there's no reason to bypass this feature.
I was wondering if it would make sense for JRiver to make a simple music player who had only a few basic features (not even a File Open menu!):
1. Shell/Play item(s).
2. Shell/Queue item(s).
And then a tiny program window, perhaps like Windows Media Player/Ctrl-3, that shows the artist name, album name, track name and decoding info such as "DSD 2.8" or "FLAC 24/192".
The program could be sold for $19.95 or something, for those of us who are without any interest in advanced media library managers and video playback and all those extras that make little sense in my world.
I always organize my music as folders on my harddisk (Artist/Album/Track) and don't want no program to interfere with this organization and definitely don't want it to download all sorts of trash like covers and the like.
No playlists, no multimedia library support, no excess features. All it should do is to play music, using the optimal settings for the DAC/PowerDAC, and nothing else. Perhaps I am using MC incorrectly, but it seems to me that I have to manually switch output mode to DSD in the DSP Studio when I want to play DSD files. When I then play a FLAC file, I have to switch back or playback becomes corrupt. I think JCM should do that automatically, looking at the file type and selecting the most optimal mode for the available hardware.
I hope I'm not starting a war or am going to get bashed beyond belief. I just want a simple yet sophisticated program to play my high quality music with. I don't care about pictures and movies, and I definitely am not the least interested in maintaining a huge library of covers and all that stuff. My music doesn't get any better because there are pretty pictures associated with it.
Cheers,
Archfrog
glynor:
--- Quote from: archfrog on August 14, 2015, 06:51:23 pm ---Perhaps I am using MC incorrectly, but it seems to me that I have to manually switch output mode to DSD in the DSP Studio when I want to play DSD files. When I then play a FLAC file, I have to switch back or playback becomes corrupt. I think JCM should do that automatically, looking at the file type and selecting the most optimal mode for the available hardware.
--- End quote ---
It does and you do have it set up incorrectly.
The Output Format DSD setting should generally not be used, unless you have a DSD-only DAC, where you need MC to convert all file formats to DSD. That setting re-encodes audio to DSD as part of output (hence the labels in the DSP dialog).
If you want it to send DSD to your DAC and let it decode the files, then you need to enable DSD Bitstreaming:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/DSD
If you are enabling it in Output Format, then it has been:
* MC decodes the DSD files on the fly to PCM
* The Output Format DSP re-encodes the files to DSD
* Your DAC decodes the DSD files and plays them.
Which is ridiculous and counter-productive.
archfrog:
Thanks for you reply. I don't know what went wrong in my end, but my setup is (now) as you say. Now it works as it should when I switch forth and back between DSD and FLAC.
astromo:
--- Quote from: archfrog on August 14, 2015, 06:51:23 pm ---To be honest, I find MC bloated beyond belief.
--- End quote ---
You're entitled to your opinion. Personally, I disagree. I started out wanting an audio solution to my media concerns and then expanded my thinking given the capability of the software at my doorstep. I'm glad that my decision had a healthy dose of serendipity mixed in.
Take a look at the Wiki, especially:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Simplified_Interface
You're not the 1st person to want a minimalist offering. The beauty of MC is that it has so many ways that the user can customise it.
If you haven't already, there's a wealth of info here:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Audio_Setup
That's a good one to tap into and there are a number of threads to chase down.
All the best .. ;)
blgentry:
First of all, welcome here, and I hope you end up enjoying JRiver Media Center. It's arguably the most powerful, most capable, longest developed media player on any platform. Period. It definitely has a LOT of features and the interface is complex compared to a simple media player.
To use a car analogy, the product you are asking for is a go-kart. The product you have purchased is a high end Porsche. They both have their uses and their target customers. There's nothing wrong with either one. But asking for one to be transformed into another doesn't make much sense does it? If you want a go-kart, they are definitely available. Do a search for "simple windows DSD player" and you'll find several.
Again, I'm not trying to discourage you from using JRiver MC. In my opinion it's the best and you should get to know it and embrace it's great features and powerful interface! Again to use a car analogy: You'll gave to get used to turning a key instead of pushing the big red button to start the car. There are a lot of controls like the air conditioner, the windshield wipers, the fancy 12 speed automatic transmission, and man even the seats have 5 controls! But once you learn to operate these controls, I think you'll like driving your Porsche a LOT more than driving your go-kart.
A lot of the power of a modern music player is in it's meta data and the presentation of that data. As you said, seeing pretty album covers and a well organized, easy to use presentation doesn't make the music sound ANY better. But boy does it make navigating a large collection MUCH nicer and much easier to find what you want. The file system is a decent organization tool. In fact, file system organization is the BASIS of a well organized library. But it's not the END of the process. It's the foundation. If you ignore the library features of modern players, you ignore more than half of what makes them so nice to use.
Finally, the sophisticated Queue (Playing Now) of JRiver is definitely worth getting to know. The Playing Now queue is where a lot of the flexibility and power of it's playback lies. If you know how to use it, you can very quickly build yourself a queue of music for an evening, or even several and tweak it and modify it as you go if you so choose. It's powerful *and* flexible. It's worth learning.
Just my opinion.
Brian.
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