INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 31 for Windows => Topic started by: JimH on March 24, 2015, 06:05:35 pm
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I had a long talk with a sales and marketing person today. It made me realize that I can't say clearly why people choose to purchase JRiver Media Center when there are so many free options. What I said was that it:
1. Plays everything.
2. Works well with networks and remotes
3. Has a nice ten foot interface (Theater View)
4. Delivers high quality audio and video
5. A great forum with a lot of engaged users
I said what I've said before, that we're trying to let you play any media, anytime, anywhere.
So help me out. Why did you choose JRiver?
For complaints, please use this thread (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=96470.0). I may move, remove, or edit anything off topic.
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Why did I first try JRiver? DSP. Full stop. I was unhappy with my hardware crossover/DSP solution for a pair of active speakers, and I couldn't find another software solution for less than $400 or $500 that even came close to what JRiver does. JRiver is really unique in this regard, and once I figured out what I could do with it, it seemed like a steal at $50.
Why did I stay? DSP again, and the database and server functionality. Between the DSP and the network functionality, I wound up replacing (and reselling) three or four hardware boxes by loading JRiver onto a spare computer (with a little help from the forum community). Now I couldn't switch back if I wanted to ;D
The remotes, theater view, and the high quality video playback were nice surprises and make me glad I came and stayed (they also help a lot with Wife acceptance), but in all honesty, if it hadn't been for the DSP capabilities, I probably would have never made the switch.
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Complete flexibility in cataloguing, indexing and browsing your media library, the way you want it, not in limited ways that are dictated by the software that you're using. That is the precise reason that I found MC. Now that I'm here, I find the audio processing invaluable (esp the output format bit) and the ability to switch between different settings and output devices for different purposes .
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I would like to clarify that there are programs with several of those five points, but none with all of them.
Considering that everything has a discussion group/Forum these days (even Mercury Fillings), it's no surprise that all other media players have a Forum with engaged users.
The main distinguishing point of MC20 is that it has top quality audio and top quality video.
I first came across JRiver MC when, in another Forum, someone suggested it as the front end for a free audio player with no Media Library support. When I tried JRiver MC, and made some careful comparisons, I found that the audio sound quality was actually slightly better than any of the free audio players.
I was using a free video media player with the motherboard's integrated graphics at the time, and later, adding a graphics card allowed me to use madVR with JRiver's Red October HQ, which also improved video quality.
JRiver MC also has a number of helpful features, including ZoneSwitch, digital parametric EQ, and a variety of DSP settings.
Home Theater PCs are fiddly enough that paying the small fee is easily warranted - especially since it goes to a small business rather than a huge multinational corporation.
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Well that's quite simple really. Doing a side by side comparison playing various wav files listening through my studio monitors (neumann kh120's + Adam sub8), JRiver simply sounded better to me. So I said goodbye "windows media player" hello JRiver!!!!!!!
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1. Library management and tagging is unsurpassed. This is the number one reason for me but this combined with the following. (enables better management and easier to find what you want)
2. Supported formats - in particular multichannel Hi-res FLAC and SACD - (It just plays everything from one application.)
3. DSP and support for DTS-HD MA decoding of Blu-ray (my receiver doesn't)
4. Theatre view for movies (easy for the whole family to use and watch or listen to whatever they want)
5. Multi-zone support (centralised control and playback to multiple devices)
5. JRemote control and playback (this was a huge plus when it was released and is more important for the control and usability of MC than just about any other feature)
6. Playback on multiple devices and Operating Systems including new form factors, ie Id NUC, Stick, Pi2.
7. Flexibility, there's not much you cant do if you set your mind to it.
JRiver Media Center is much much more than the sum of it's parts.
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I joined MC almost 9 years ago as it solved two big issues for me at the time:
- Flexible Direct Show Video/Audio codec support for Video files
- DVB-T support
Both of these of course have now been solved by a large range of other programs... but the vision of "play any media, anytime, anywhere" is enduring and evolving...and MC does it better than anyone else. Unfortunately & Fortunately, the environment keeps changing so this vision will never be fulfilled but supports keeps expanding.
Also happy to provide my personal list of the gaps in the current state of "play any media, anytime, anywhere" in MC! ;D
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- Ability to work bitperfect with DACs.
- DSP
- Interface and remotes
- the fact that other knowledgeable souls were doing so (hype?)
- It does work with windows infra-red remotes.
JimH split: What I don't Like (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=96470.0)
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IMV the combination of top quality A+V delivered by a "video aware" DSP engine is the USP for me, it's enables a level of sound and picture quality that takes many thousands of pounds to even approach. This isn't just the USP mind you, it's almost the entire reason to use jriver as the UX side of things is quite bad in many ways. Sound & picture quality wins in the end though.
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The database and flexible View system.
iTunes literally cannot handle my music library, and even if it could, stuff would be impossible to find and keep organized. My video library is bigger and even harder to manage.
There is no alternative that handles large media libraries so well. Full stop.
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impossible to touch library management and tag/database power. and we can use all that power for video, audio, and images...and even other file types? Sweet. Plus it's really fun to geek out and try to make something work, MC can be a hobby on its own
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Also happy to provide my personal list of the gaps in the current state of "play any media, anytime, anywhere" in MC! ;D
Let's talk about that here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=96470.0
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4. Delivers high quality audio and video
The Internal Volume and DSP works much better than any other audio player.
The Media Library is smart and does everything that i need, i really love that!
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When I first started out:
Directshow codec support for video files
Library management
A default standard view that was similar to my ideal layout in Foobar2000 that I wasn't prone to fiddling with every other day
Handheld sync autoconversion (a la MediaMonkey)
Interact
Why I stayed (Built a server/HTPC):
Theater View
Red October/Videoclock (never having to see reclock's ui again...priceless)
Library Server (access key model for internal/external IP is awesome)
Auto-import analysis and cover art lookup
Linux support
Interact
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I had a long talk with a sales and marketing person today. It made me realize that I can't say clearly why people choose to purchase JRiver Media Center when there are so many free options. What I said was that it:
1. Plays everything.
2. Works well with networks and remotes
3. Has a nice ten foot interface (Theater View)
4. Delivers high quality audio and video
5. A great forum with a lot of engaged users
I said what I've said before, that we're trying to let you play any media, anytime, anywhere.
So help me out. Why did you choose JRiver?
1. JRemote
2. Multiple platforms, Mac in particular
3. DSD playback
In that order. ;)
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This isn't exactly the same question, Jim, but I thought it was worth answering.
Why do I pay for Media Center, when there are free alternatives available?
Well, I think MC is best at many functions. But, even if you ignore all of that, the biggest reason I don't mind paying for MC? Because now ten years have got behind me, and you're still here, still making it better every day. The incremental improvements MC has made over the years have been nothing short of astounding.
But, to me, one of the biggest "features" of MC is actually the fact that you:
* Charge a fair price
* Are still around, and MC hasn't suddenly become something else, or disappeared.
Of the applications I was considering as alternatives when I settled on MC way back when (before iTunes got purchased by Apple, I'll note) none of them still exist at all anymore. Seriously. I can't think of one. Winamp? RealJukebox? MusicMatch Jukebox? All gone. Even with more modern stuff, if they still exist in name, they bear essentially zero relation to the original product. And you know what? Most of them were free.
I like that I pay you, and you keep making good software, and keep making it better. You improve MC incrementally, without the (marketing/investment-driven) need to "revolutionize" the interface every few years, or tear up and throw away the business model to embrace this years new fancy trend. It doesn't get all mucked up with ads and malware and junk. And the person running the open-source project doesn't decide to re-write the whole thing in node.js and then get distracted half-way through because "ooh something shiny over here".
We get cool toys, but more importantly, I've had a stable platform for what? 13 years? 14? I don't even remember anymore.
Your sustainable business model where you do the "crazy" thing and build a nice product and charge a fair price for it is a beneficial to me as a user. The price is a feature, not a bug.
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• Red October HQ: I can have a new system set up with madVR, LAV Filters, VideoClock(≈ReClock) in less than five minutes with Media Center.
Even as an advanced user that tweaks things beyond your defaults, it's 95% of the way there out of the box. No messing around.
• Integrated Volume Leveling
• Built-in VST plug-in support and powerful DSP - and the fact that it all works with video playback too, rather than being limited to music playback
• It's one program that can manage my entire media library without feeling like a compromise in any of those areas
There are plenty of other reasons why I use MC in preference to anything else now (library management tools, split view & tabs interface, Zones, JRemote, ease of setting up client PCs) and why it's always what I recommend to people, but those are the reasons why I switched in the first place.
And while the majority of my use is on Windows, the fact that you're branching out into OS X/Linux support is a big deal.
I had to get some work done on a 9 year-old Mac earlier in the week, and in less than 60 seconds I was listening to music streamed to it from my main PC library.
It's fantastic, and that experience alone has made me change my mind from simply renewing my Windows license with the inevitable MC21, and planning to renew the master license instead.
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The primary reason for looking at MC was its multiple zone capability. My focus was on audio, however this changed very quickly once I started using it & now it manages all audio & video into 4 zones + handhelds
Steve
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There are certainly many reasons to buy jriver over the free alternatives.
Overall for me is that jriver is a true media center.
I can capture/organize/view just about any media.
What made it easy to buy jriver though. Was because of what i saw of the forum.
The development team was good at listening and communicating with it's users.
At first I payed for JRiver just to support the developers. Even before i switched to using it completely.
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For me it is the class leading sound and picture quality combined with the ability to tweak everything to work exactly the way I want it.
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This topic should be restrained to a poll with the 5 reasons you've asked.
1. Plays everything.
2. Works well with networks and remotes
3. Has a nice ten foot interface (Theater View)
4. Delivers high quality audio and video
5. A great forum with a lot of engaged users
My N° 1 answer : Number Four / Delivers high quality Audio (video ? not that much use)
TC
p.s come on guys, who would invest 10 to 50 k into a complete Hi-Fi system and not use JRiver on the top of it ?
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That awesome Monkey's Audio creator/developer is part of your team! ;D
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I had a long talk with a sales and marketing person today. It made me realize that I can't say clearly why people choose to purchase JRiver Media Center when there are so many free options. What I said was that it:
1. Plays everything.
2. Works well with networks and remotes
3. Has a nice ten foot interface (Theater View)
4. Delivers high quality audio and video
5. A great forum with a lot of engaged users
I said what I've said before, that we're trying to let you play any media, anytime, anywhere.
So help me out. Why did you choose JRiver?
For me, it was mostly number 4. I wanted the best audio and video available.
It was also important to me that the program be updated often when changes/improvements are made (such as updates/improvements to LAV and madVR, or internal improvements).
I also wanted a program were all the components (audio, video, TV, file system, etc.) are designed and integrated to work together.
I like the idea that the program provides "developer" support when I have a problem or question.
Lastly, I wanted a program that doesn't require the User to be a computer/htpc expert to setup and use.
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For me, I came because:
1. Tagging, Organization
2. Networking, Library Server
3. HD audio support
I came from a box that was never going to go in the direction I wanted, and found that JRiver did everything I wanted. Organizing audio and video files quickly from a single source and sharing that library all through the house and on devices was a dream come true.
However, I stayed because of:
1. High quality audio
2. DSP
3. High quality video
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For me it was the fast flexibele database that I could present in anyway that I wanted with view schemes that first attracted me to jrmc.
My use of jrmc evolves constantly. Right now I use it for tagging and for its DSP through the wdm driver in our stereo setup. I do have it setup on all pc's as a player.
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Was an XBMC user, but had problems with some Blu-ray playback on their platform. Went looking through various audio/video forums and gave JRiver a try. Mostly an audio guy even with that.
JRiver played everything I threw at it and the audio quality sealed the deal. Bought it after the trial.
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It's awesome dats all I can say for now,DSP got me going crazy,fab filter,t racks,izotope
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I started with MC9 and was still using the trial when MC10 was released. At that time I was looking for a good media player that supported lossless audio.
1. Lossless audio - ape (all files since the beginning have been ripped with Monkey's Audio)
2. Database & Tagging which leads to Views
3. Constant development
4. Hairstyle (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=12106.0)
Chapeau!
I regret that I used JRiver for several years before ever joining Interact.
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The reason I picked JRiver?
Tag support and views for classical music. Panes views! Support for Composer tag in Panes
I explored a number of programs and no other program met my needs.
reasons I've stayed? (lots)
support for ASIO, Wasapi, higher res. than 16/44.1
General support for user defined tags and user defined views
Flexible underlying database
Tag editing features - I get editing tasks done quickly and with accuracy
Active development - many music player programs have been developed and abandoned. When new possibilities appear, JRiver supports them. Bugs get identified and fixed.
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I liked the word 'River', gave me the impression of software flowing like water - taking the path of least resistance to get the music to my ears and the good looking UI on my eyes. (the black UI of course). And from just reading it was the windows player to have for high end audio. My gut told me it was the right choice.
Everything else I learnt post installing :) I knew from the word 'River' and the first image I saw on the home page of the black UI, that it was the player for me. Simplistic I know, but powerful to those to respond to visual cues first in that blink of an eye when you see something and draw your first opinion of it.
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Red October HQ was what hooked me, suddenly I could watch high quality video without all the issues relating to managing directshow filters (and all the crashes!).
After months of using JRiver in the same way I had used products like WMP and MPC-HC (file and folder based) I started to discover the true power of the library and the ability to customise views. Then I discovered the server client capability and Theaterview. The product enabled me to embark upon the "Big Rip" which took all my discrete media sources and put them in one place and manage them all effectively. I could now also listen to them anywhere I wished.
Did I mention the sound quality? It was a revelation from day one but now I have worked on it with the dsp facilities over the years it is AMAZING!
The forum remains a very valued source of information and on occasions entertainment.
I wouldn't choose anything else now and for what it does I think it is very reasonably priced.
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I use it to hear bit perfect music.
I use it to record tv.
I use it to organize photos.
I chose JRiver because it does all of this better than iTunes and windows media center.
I chose it because even after two months of using it I still don't know about all its features.
I choose it because of all the helpful people on Interact.
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I didn't specifically but JRiver at all, I bought Media Lobby, which had a nice interface but used JRiver behind the scenes. That was in 2003!
Long abandoned Media Lobby, but I keep using JRiver because the database can be easily configured to suit my (mainly classical) music collection. (Of course, if Gizmo worked properly with classical music it would be even better!)
This isn't exactly the same question, Jim, but I thought it was worth answering.
Why do I pay for Media Center, when there are free alternatives available?
Well, I think MC is best at many functions. But, even if you ignore all of that, the biggest reason I don't mind paying for MC? Because now ten years have got behind me, and you're still here, still making it better every day. The incremental improvements MC has made over the years have been nothing short of astounding.
But, to me, one of the biggest "features" of MC is actually the fact that you:
* Charge a fair price
* Are still around, and MC hasn't suddenly become something else, or disappeared.
Of the applications I was considering as alternatives when I settled on MC way back when (before iTunes got purchased by Apple, I'll note) none of them still exist at all anymore. Seriously. I can't think of one. Winamp? RealJukebox? MusicMatch Jukebox? All gone. Even with more modern stuff, if they still exist in name, they bear essentially zero relation to the original product. And you know what? Most of them were free.
I like that I pay you, and you keep making good software, and keep making it better. You improve MC incrementally, without the (marketing/investment-driven) need to "revolutionize" the interface every few years, or tear up and throw away the business model to embrace this years new fancy trend. It doesn't get all mucked up with ads and malware and junk. And the person running the open-source project doesn't decide to re-write the whole thing in node.js and then get distracted half-way through because "ooh something shiny over here".
We get cool toys, but more importantly, I've had a stable platform for what? 13 years? 14? I don't even remember anymore.
Your sustainable business model where you do the "crazy" thing and build a nice product and charge a fair price for it is a beneficial to me as a user. The price is a feature, not a bug.
+1 to all that. I'm sure that JRiver 9 would still do most of what I want, but I keep upgrading for all of these reasons.
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To start with probably hype & reputation.
Like any software you cannot possibly evaluate it the 30 day trial period(I have come across developers who hate Resharper , when questioned deeply they never got past stage one of using it before the trial ran out !!! After many years I still find surprises. MC is the same )
The more interesting question is why stay and why buy a license every year (however often it is ?)
Value for money (have you seen the price of some developer software !!)
Database management
Flexible Views - The ability to create your own view using custom tags eg Box Sets of classical music.
Hi quality music output -- must be a given
Gapless Playback ( a biggie for me - I have a Mede8er that blips at every track change simply because it's single thread stops playback when it refreshes the Image rendered on the screen , hence even if gapless track you get a split second silence eg Pink Floyd)
Theatre View & Remote Control -- I am lazy ;D
AND the biggest -- JRemote , the ability to be working in the kitchen and being able to select and control (esp Volume) what I listen that has changed how I listen.
"Agile" , the speed at which releases add new stuff or fix stuff that's broken
Keep up the good work
Mike
Mike
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Obviously the sound quality and user interface. I do believe I could find other programs that do what I need in those areas.
To me it's the automation features (MC20.exe) that keep me with JRiver.
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Ability to work bitperfect with DACs.Classé CP800.
plays ISO "audio".SACD, HD Audio.Compressed files.
Simply the best sounding software.
Excellent layout.
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I spent a couple of months evaluating software for my first foray into HTPC. XBMC came close, but I am picky about the way I organize my library, especially TV shows with lots of specials and other items that don't fit into normal seasons. Nothing would allow me to organize how I wanted it to display until I found JRiver.
Secondary to library management is bitperfect bitstreaming. Also, theater view looks better to me than others. And MadVR is a godsend for my extensive SD DVD collection! JRemote and nMedium, plus the ease of connecting multiple HTPCs and devices are also indispensable.
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Long time MC user, but it all started because I needed a solid solution for my music collection. MC was the only thing that did everything I needed - secure ripping, tagging, a central library, smartlists, playlists, and so on.
I don't think video even existed in MC when I started using it. Once I put together my WMC box as a Cable DVR (both encrypted and clear channels), I played around with a few video solutions (like XBMC) until I finally realized that MC did everything I 'needed' (but not wanted) as long as I had a PC at both TV sets (WMC box on the projector and older laptop in the living room). I still use other solutions (mainly Air Video HD) for device/remote viewing of video since MC is far from bullet proof in that area.
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I chose JRiver in 2009 based on favorable reviews and posts on computeraudiophile.com. I had just purchased a USB DAC and wanted digital bitperfect playback. I got that and so much more from my purchase of this program.
In 2010 I embarked on a huge digital music archiving project, during which I ripped about 1200 CD's to FLAC lossless and upgraded about 1000 128k mp3 albums to 256 aac using Itunes match. It was a huge project, but fun and I don't think I could have pulled it off without the database management and flexible view schemes of JRiver. Once that was done I happily deleted iTunes from my PC forever!
In addition to the stellar feature set, the best part of JRiver for me has been Interact. It is one of my default locations online for computer information, it has the best Knowledge to B###S@@@ ratio of any forum anywhere, and a community of very generous and interesting contributors. I've never been on the beta boards, but I love seeing the hints here and there of upcoming features, plus the semiannual "State of the JRiver-Union" addresses/emails. When it gets quiet on the Interact board it is almost like the day before Christmas, because MC Current Version + 1 is on the way.
I hope you don't mind me mentioning this here, but it is a source of daily inspiration for me to see how the company and Interact community came together over the past year to support Matt Ashland and his family.
I am grateful that JRiver is a good company run by good people. Thank you for your hard work and continued excellence.
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In time order since around MC 10 or 11
1/ Quality Audio with tagging and view scheme flexibility
2/ Network support for streaming
3/ Library management of audio, video and images (I use it for everything except my ePub books)
And originally the iPod support before Apple made it difficult. Still use MC to manage. and another utility to just transfer.
4/ Ability to play ISO DVD images
5/ WebRemote then the awesome JRemote
6/ Zones for the entire house
Although my usage and needs and evolved over the past 2 decades, the reason I continue to upgrade, use and support JRiver is: -
1/ Unequaled library management (Tagging, organization, DB look-up, file structure)
2/ Customization of the view schemes so I can organize the menu how I or anyone else wants to find or play music.
3/ Audio Quality and CODEC support
4/ Automation / integration using MCWS and JRemote for "ease of use"
That, and as others have mentioned, you are still here after decades of development and I could not have done most of what I wanted without the awesome community support in these forums. (it really is a family)
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That, and as others have mentioned, you are still here after decades of development and I could not have done most of what I wanted without the awesome community support in these forums. (it really is a family)
!!
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Complete flexibility in cataloguing, indexing and browsing your media library, the way you want it, not in limited ways that are dictated by the software that you're using.
Same for me. That, plus the dedicated non UPnP remote app, even if not perfect ((Web/)Gizmo).
Waiting desesperately for JRemote on Android :-)
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Same for me. That, plus the dedicated non UPnP remote app, even if not perfect ((Web/)Gizmo).
Waiting desparately for JRemote on Android :-)
You can get it now. http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=96349.0
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I was new to dedicated HTPCs back in 2007. I'd installed codec packs and was seeing conflicting information everywhere. I was in codec hell. I read about JRiver MC12 over at AVSforums, and I asked whether it could play the h264-encoded mkv files. Jim wrote me a private message and said it could play anything DirectShow could play. I tried the free trial and was impressed with the way one could set up the codecs and filters (This was wayyy before Red October). So I stayed with MC and bought it. Then I saw the forums, and the first person I noticed was glynor. He was so helpful, that I knew I had the right product and support forum. I promised him that within the year, I'd be helping others too. 7 1/2 years later, I think I only know about 25-33% of what MC can do, but am now a Beta team member.
In summary: I love the constantly improving program, but the extended JRiver family even more.
But also because Jim promised to release the family, unharmed, if I downloaded the MC12 free 30-day trial. :)
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ok my turn ... after a brief stint with winamp I moved to Media Monkey, then foobar very briefly, then JRiver
the question is tricky, because why I chose JRiver then (guessing here its been since version 14? not sure might have tried 13 ..) are not the same reasons I would (still) choose it now. Its a great renderer of course. The bit perfect thing was (and still is) important to me, but that's no longer as unique as it was before. DSPs I only use for corrections or for adjustments mostly so at that time, I avoided any change on the source like the plague. Now I know better and listen to my music more than my system ... well that's a story for another post :) So, why did I choose JRiver then
1) Library management: amazing capability to manage large libraries, fast. Not just manage but allow for a virtually unlimited customization based on Vorbis Comment tags.
2) Meta-data (tags): the capability to handle multiple artists, genres, and most other tag fields as multiple entries per tag, allowing them to be split or combined. AND the ability to construct views that interact with the taxonomy of MY collection, not forcing me to adapt to the UI of the program.
3) Tweaking: although not "open-source", for a proprietary program the latitude that the company gives us to tweak the metadata and individual hardware configurations, to are own specifications, is nothing short of astounding - you have to have a pretty esoteric system for JRiver not to work. Sure there is a learning curve. Tough beans as my mum used to say.
4) Client to server tagging -- lots of people are not always pleased, but I am ... ok sure it would be nice to load a server version onto a NAS and have client versions auto sync and auto this and that. But I know NO media software that allows you to tag and re-organize a media library from remotely like JRiver does. There are two maybe three things you can't do ... no problem, Teamviewer is free (other software options too). Name one media suite that you can do all of that from a client.
5) Theater View -- maybe in need of a freshening up, but it is powerful stuff.
Now to that list if I were to have chosen JRiver in the last year or two I would have to add:
6) Zones - not just the idea that you can stream stuff to distinct location, but that I can have a classical zone with no crossfading, a pop zone that can still bit perfect with different transition settings; that I can have a random playlist and add DSPs, keeping my "audiophile" fears at bay by swapping zones when I want some "serious" album listening; that I can control the volume with so many bits of headroom, that there is no way that that kind of digital "dsp-ing" affect the source signal -- its so below the noise floor no worries. 64bit dsp processing Headroom! hip hip hurray ! Not to mention that I can have multiple devices configured by via zones.
7) R128 standard volume leveling options -- finally I can listen to a playlist without cringing and can listen to recent over-compressed masters along with low level old stuff without it sounding like a bad podcast
8) JRemote -- euh enough said
9) WDM driver - game changer for streaming
Now lastly why would I choose JRiver if I was going to totally change my stereo (yep I'm hardcore, two-channel hardcore oldschool guy)
10) the DSPs -- usually not that important on my main system. However, if I had the money to start from scratch .... my silly priced Linn analogue preamp and active analogue filters --> ebay time. Convolution and parametric filters for crossovers, no need for an analogue preamp other than for my Vinyls -- 2500$ analogue preamp? nope ... the money would go into my speaker budget right away. now I can concentrate on spending the bucks on the analogue side; JRiver can do the rest. If I want to go more on the video I'd probably look into a Sternberg or a MWilliams special of the week :D
I also use video, but frankly its just there to learn it so I can help out others that want it all combined. And now with the wdm driver most of the time I just stream what I want to watch.
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Top media database structure,
Top media DB management,
Top renderers,
Flexibility,
Long term commitment by a core team obviously having fun surrounded by a great community,
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1. Great sound
2. Plays all formats
3. Great selection of DSP options including being able to compensate for less than perfect listening spaces
4. Ability to sync my flac files to MP3 (or other formats) on my iPad
5. Active development program - I have a Mediamonkey gold license, and its an OK application but development is moribund
6. Good integration with a iPad based remote
7. Great library management & tagging
8. Easy ripping that's fully integrated, and almost always gets the album art, and metadata right
9. Ability to stream to iPad and other devices like my Sony TV
10. This forum!
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In no particular order
- library management incl tagging
- plays all formats
- awesomness of forum support
- sense of loyalty after 15? years
- independent company
- ios app
- speed (main reason why dumping iTunes all together years ago)
- everything I potentially might leverage in the future
- fascination for how the SW release just works - speed of cloud releases for on-prem solution that simply works
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Please stay on topic. This is extremely useful. Thanks.
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I've looked at Plex in the past, and in all fairness I am reinstalling a Plex server .. maybe they made significant improvements. When Plex first came out at least, it did not offer anyway near the "library management" and manipulation of metadata that JRiver offers. Maybe I'm wrong, I'll try and check this weekend.
Yes, that was the problem with Plex when I was first looking for something. The cataloguing was the nbr 1 reason for me why I went for MC.
However, losing current "library" functionality would be much worse for me personally than gains in comfort/simplicity as almost everything can be achieved now on a local network using a PC; just not on a NAS.
The NAS thing is a red herring really. It's what I'd like to do, have a low-power NAS unit just as a server, that's what NAS's excel at anyway. I just use it though to illustrate the concept of a pure server, quite separate from client functionaility, which can be installed anywhere, and all cleints connect to. It could even be a low power Windows machine .The key thing is that it can be hidden away, 24/7, on a machine dedicated to serving-type tasks, and all functions, whether library management or playing, are done on client devices which are "in the open".
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This isn't exactly the same question, Jim, but I thought it was worth answering.
Why do I pay for Media Center, when there are free alternatives available?
Well, I think MC is best at many functions. But, even if you ignore all of that, the biggest reason I don't mind paying for MC? Because now ten years have got behind me, and you're still here, still making it better every day. The incremental improvements MC has made over the years have been nothing short of astounding.
But, to me, one of the biggest "features" of MC is actually the fact that you:
* Charge a fair price
* Are still around, and MC hasn't suddenly become something else, or disappeared.
Of the applications I was considering as alternatives when I settled on MC way back when (before iTunes got purchased by Apple, I'll note) none of them still exist at all anymore. Seriously. I can't think of one. Winamp? RealJukebox? MusicMatch Jukebox? All gone. Even with more modern stuff, if they still exist in name, they bear essentially zero relation to the original product. And you know what? Most of them were free.
I like that I pay you, and you keep making good software, and keep making it better. You improve MC incrementally, without the (marketing/investment-driven) need to "revolutionize" the interface every few years, or tear up and throw away the business model to embrace this years new fancy trend. It doesn't get all mucked up with ads and malware and junk. And the person running the open-source project doesn't decide to re-write the whole thing in node.js and then get distracted half-way through because "ooh something shiny over here".
We get cool toys, but more importantly, I've had a stable platform for what? 13 years? 14? I don't even remember anymore.
Your sustainable business model where you do the "crazy" thing and build a nice product and charge a fair price for it is a beneficial to me as a user. The price is a feature, not a bug.
What glynor said.
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Why did I buy Media Center in the first place? Because I was looking for something that had a better library management system than iTunes that would also sync to my iPod. Media Center v11 did both of those things for me and so I was a happy bunny :)
Why am I still here 9 versions later? Two reasons I guess. Firstly because it's an amazing piece of software that does all I need and a lot more. Secondly because I have absolute faith in the JRiver team to develop useful new features and to keep up to date with all the latest technologies before I even know I want them.
Finally I cannot stress how important the openness and speed of the development process is to me. I always pony up my money as soon as a new version is available, not because it necessarily has some new feature that I want but because I simply want to show my support to JRiver.
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when there are so many free options.
To echo Glynor's comments here: Free = here today, gone tomorrow. Development continues (usually) until the developer gets bored, gets tired of dealing with people on the internet about the free software, or gets a 'real' job/has a family and no longer has that elusive thing known as 'free time' to spend on their pet project.
I would much rather pay a reasonable amount for a product in active development by a company dedicated to doing so, than hop from one free solution to another every few years.
In case someones thinks otherwise, iTunes for OSX/Windows is not really a 'free' product for comparisons sake. It is subsidized by computer/device sales and has been radically changed every few years as apple sees fit to meet the needs of the iPhone/iPad/iPod/etc.
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Why I choose JRiver:
- Wanted to move from a multiple device audio gear environment to a software defined AV architecture for growing with software updates (Decision why I choose JRiver with Devialet - 30 W more power only by a software upgrade)
- JRemote (It's brilliant!)
- Integration of digital assets in audio library and JRemote (Digital booklets) - I believed in it that the feature was coming soon or later
- One audio engine for all type of AV (TV, Video, Audio, with WDM I can also listen to HIGHRES files (e.g. HIGHRESAUDIO) through the same audio engine before I buy them)
- Network capabilities
- Theatre View (All my friends like the feature showing pictures from the artist during playback :))
- Sound Quality :)
- Management of all my digital assets (I have ripped > 1000 CD's , totally I have currently around 50 000 files including photos stored on my NAS)
- With the autoimport feature its easy to import HIGHRES buys in my library
- No separate ripping tool required
- Zone's (one can configure a zone for concerts with DSP effects and a second zone for music without DSP effects, also on different outputs like RCA/SPDIF or Ethernet/AIR)
- Red October HQ (PQ is really stunning on my 4k OLED screen)
- DSP effects
- A/V sync - if audio and video are not in sync it is very easy for me to correct it
- In memory playback
- Room Correction
- DSD playback
- Display Seetings allows me to define how e.g. 1024p@24 Hz has to change refreshrate
Best Regards
Manfred
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A long time ago I used MediaBrowser to watch my recorded episodes of Charmed.
And searched for a program that supported ASIO with a descent database/library for playing my music
on my Pro Audio DAC. Used Foobar2000 for this.
Used XBMC for the nice looks.
Then a fairy came along with a lot of money, and I spend it all on a home movie theater and video/photo gear.
I searched and searched for a software who could do everything I needed and stay in ASIO.
That would be easy as the most software I used was like Steinberg and ProTools,
finally I found JRiver Media Center which did almost all I wanted, tried it first, was a little bit intimated, difficult, and
searched further. After finding Interact and the good help of users, I bought a license and never looked back.
Now I use JRiver for 90 percent of my daily computer time. The other 10 percent is for ProTools, Photoshop and Office.
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I chose J River by accident, previously just used windows explorer to browse and winamp to play.
I was wary at first as I'd never heard of the program, and that no other program I had ever tried before seemed useable to me, so it seemed too good to be true but I gave it a shot.
I installed the trial but didn't use it too much. I'll admit I bypassed the trial limitations a few times before my first purchase mostly due to the daunting task of manually tagging my music, I never actually explored even a fraction of what MC could do, so initially it seemed like any other program to me. Then I started reading the wiki & forums put in my first feature request (html color hex codes in thumbnail text), it got implemented basically straight away. I then had to purchase and have been doing ever since.
The forum is chalk full of intelligent enthusiasts who willing to help and explain and even add to your ideas for a feature request.
For me namely MrC, he has given bucket loads of his time helping me out with weird and wonderful variations of expressions that probably only I'd use. Considering his depth of knowledge, his time must be worth a lot and that was given freely (Haven't seen him active on the forum for a long time, hope he's doing ok.)
The greatest aspect of this community is the respect between us consumers and from the devs towards us consumers (despite a few bad eggs (on the consumer side, never the dev side), I've had a fair handful of my ideas implemented, I'm educated in IT but I'm by no means a programmer. Many of my ideas may have been unworkable but I've never felt belittled for requesting something that obviously is not possible.
Sometimes I see people getting worked up on the forum feeling they haven't been heard or are misunderstood but that's the nature of communication, it will always be miscommunicated or misunderstood at times and that's no ones fault. Sometimes a post will get lost without reply, many of mines had but all you can do it try again later and hopefully spark someones interest.
Some people need to remember that the community gives it's time freely to help so one can't expect instantaneous responses or even a response at all. I feel lucky if a dev responds to any of my questions/threads because they have a lot of forum reading, planning and developing to do.
But don't get me wrong I do have many issues with the program, things I'd change and features I really want, I'll bump those threads or re-explain when I feel the time is right, I might be agreed with later on, who knows?
Some people get annoyed that their opinions aren't taken on board, they feel dismissed that that the devs are wrong for disagreeing with them. These users need to think of mc at a hotel room, you'd never pay for a night for a room and demand fundamental changes just because you paid for the room. It's their room, your only renting it and if it's not your style, you don't need to rent, simples.
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- Because it's the player which has endless configuration possibilities ! (views - library - queries - functions and on and on and on)
- It holds audio features that you cannot believe are included (such as DSP - asio - VST)
- It has wide automation capabilities for using with integrated remote controllers as RTI or Crestron (MCWS - user key (resources.xml))
- It is a solid server - client platform.
- It can be controlled by pretty much everything.
- It has a brilliant implementation of HD Audio formats
And still Jim, it would be interesting to know FOR WHAT use (Regular Audio, HD Audio, DVD or BD playback, streaming - TV/youtube etc...) new clients choose JRiver....or what features regular users use most. This could hint the company on what features to further build on.
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I bought it on a friend's recommendation. Hate iTunes, love FLAC and desperately needed a library management system for over 100 000 music files.
Thought JRiver was the answer to all that iTunes and Foobar couldn't provide.
It is, though I still battle with some of the tech. But all the good things that have already been mentioned. ;D
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I am in agreement with everyone. The real keys for me were:
- comprehensiveness as to formats, features, customization, etc. for audio, video, streaming, TV, etc.
- database/tagging support with customization able to support very large libraries
- madVR
- JRemote
- the most widely recommended by credible reviewers
- very large user base
- documentation (it ain't perfect, but I have not seen better)
- support
- business model with paid subscriptions at reasonable prices to keep it growing and evolving
- professional approach to software development, bugs, new releases, etc.
Since selecting it, I have been surprised that it did even way more than I thought. It has enabled me to get rid of my HT prepro, universal player and TV cable box together costing many $thousands, coupled with additional tools that generally integrated easily. These include Dirac Live, ExaSound e28, HD Homerun Prime. It is the cornerstone of my HTPC setup for well into the future. At the same time, my sound and video have never been better, and I expect that they rival what I could obtain on the best, state of the art prepros available at a fraction of the cost.
True, I have lost a few nice to have features in the process, like direct SACD disc playback(I rip them instead), Comcast On Demand, etc. And, use is a bit flakier and somewhat less stable owing to the PC, software and networked platform. But, the playback quality of the result easily makes the tradeoffs worthwhile. I also believe that I will be better insulated from technical obsolescence as home entertainment media continue to evolve and improve.
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I just found this topic.
There are many SW's to offer great functions, but the reason I paid for MC is that I found MC listens (or company listen) user's voice while developping the product. That is a big thing for my satisfaction. :)
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I chose JRiver in 2009 based on favorable reviews and posts on computeraudiophile.com. I had just purchased a USB DAC and wanted digital bitperfect playback. I got that and so much more from my purchase of this program.
In addition to the stellar feature set, the best part of JRiver for me has been Interact. It is one of my default locations online for computer information, it has the best Knowledge to B###S@@@ ratio of any forum anywhere, and a community of very generous and interesting contributors.
I followed a similar track to the Doc at about the same time. Started with a plan to digitise my music with the critical OS constraint of working with a Windows platform and ended up at the CA forum. Rather than evaluate extensively, I applied some blind faith in a group who gave the impression that 2nd best was not an option. So, went straight to JRiver. Blossomed from there.
In addition to the forum, which has the invaluable feature of direct access to the developers. Pretty cool to have the ear of the CEO or CTO and you see them actively engage with suggestions for improvement to their baby. It's a business strategy that deserves a management school case study.
The other critical feature that got me solidly in the JRiver fold or "on the bus" to paraphrase Gizmo, was the TV functionality. Didn't know this was an option when I paid my first subs but when I found out, I ditched the Windows M$ product straight away. Critically, this came with a high WAF. My significant other had a similar aversion to MCE as myself. We had a period in the wilderness when I had hardware issues. This got sorted and we got back to TV via JRiver. My +1 was applauding that day as much as me. So, MC has been used daily ever since and when I get some time alone, I can actually enjoy my music (the original reason for starting this journey) .. ;)
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Hmm,
i wanted a simple multimedia pc, with control over tablet or smartphone.
I didn't need much. I wanted to choose between genre, playlist and folders by music and film or series by video. This can be done by others too, but gapless is very important for me, a thing which didn't work an many others.
My music is only flac, stereo from 44,1/16 till 192/24, also by multichannel and all runs perfect.
Connected over hdmi to my surround amplifier. I don't use any dsp or something other. I just send the data to my amplifier as they are.
JRiver satisfied me most.
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Hi,
I used it long time for listening to music, then with using the internal convolver (full active system), but now I use it for my homecinema mainly because foobar sounds a little better at the moment in my system.
In my cinema the combination of Theater View, Remote controllable, convolving and madvr are the keys.
So I want to fully use a pc instead of an media player and surround receiver with better quality then both before (even when they are high quality devices).
BR
Erich
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JRiver just has a much more complete feature set than the free competitors. It's great to use one program for ripping, over-the-air recording, photos, and hi-def music.
I moved over from mediaportal, which is a good, free program that does a lot of what JRiver does, but isn't nearly as polished and is more difficult to install.
And the forum is very active and helpful.
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I've been a MediaJukebox and MediaCenter user for probably 15 years. My first purchase was for MediaJukebox 7.2. :)
I chose MJ and MC for the great features.
But I chose JRiver because of the qualifications, openness and interest of its staff. I remember being in Minneapolis for business several years ago. I asked Jim if he would mind me visiting them. He not only accepted but had all the staff meet with me so they could ask me questions about how I used MC and what I thought should be added to it. And all of this over a nice cold beer. ;D
I chose JRiver because they simply are really good people.
Michel.
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many players at the time could not handle large Libraries like I Had\have with over 200,000 files, Heck most of them would choke on 1,000 files.
Music match went Utters up.
Never liked Win Amp
I have been here for a very long time, and plan on staying.
Signed A Devoted Member.
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High quality audio and video with DSP convolution that works great with multi-channel systems using speaker & room correction software.
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I first looked for best audio compression tool > found APE and learned about Matt & JRiver
Then I looked for audio only library management > ended to MC 9 after a few test
Audio went up the audiophile way
MC then triggered my interest to Video > ended up to buy new TV, MCH amps and media player (Oppo)...
I am now into multi-channel and convolution through MC20 and a 15 Tb storage unit
Thanks to JRiver my ears and eyes (and friend's) are pleased with what they received and I am not looking to switch to any other software.
It is part of my everyday life, at home, on the road or office, wife use it, friends are jealous (!), I'm addicted (spend too much time on it...)
That being said, the all-in-one MC20 is far from what MC9 was years ago. Why would I follow the same route?
APE? no more (sorry Matt), Jim being rude sometimes? no ;),
Recommendation on audiophile websites/magazines? yes, Community/friends recommendation? yes, library management? may be (did not review or test others since years)
Substitute to iTune? YES!
Keep it a high-end/audiophile part of the sound chain. I am ready to pay more (I did it more than 10 times already) for MC to stay alive and keep up with new format, new hardware, new fashion.
My 2 cents.
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It's been a while but i seem to remember coming over for the lossless support; it just worked, without any drama or plugins.
I stayed for the media library. When I first started with JRiver I used Quintessential Media Player which had a minimal library. That got me thinking that just using explorer was limiting but found qmp frustrating. JRiver did it better.
Then I started a little journey of discovery. I would wonder how to do something with either audio or video. I would look for a program but then learned to ask if JRiver could do it. I frequently found that JRiver not only did these things (tagging, video, etc) but most frequently did them better.
I think I have a handle on all JRiver can do. I stay with JRiver not just because of all it can do now but for all it still promises to do. I trust JRiver will be all over any future changes in media playback. I'm staying on this journey with JRiver because I have trust in and respect for the company. They not only produce the best media software around but they treat their customers with the kind of respect I find altogether lacking from most software companies today. JRiver offers fair licensing terms as an example. I hang out at the forums enough to get a good sense of the people behind the company. While I can't say that "I know somebody that works there" I do know that if I have a question or concern raising the issue in the forums will result in somebody in charge or with the ability to help seeing the issue; a resolution is soon to follow.
So I came for ape and flac. I stay for the people and the company.
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Originally for one reason only: the fact that it was very similar to XBMC (now Kodo), i.e. it had a theaterview interface to play audio, video and images, but unlike that program played video without any hick ups.
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When I started to built up my digital music library almost 20 years ago I was looking for a "one size fits all" solution. After some tests I very soon ended up with the Jukebox Version 6 if my memory serves me right. I think this was 1996. Since that time I looked from time to time to other programs but I didn't find any alternative. So actually that's the reason why I am still using this program now in Version 20.
From my point of view JRiver manages to be always one step ahead of the competition. I do hope that this will continue. I would really hate to change after that long period of time.
Sometimes it was hard to find always the right hardware to get the maximum sound quality. Especially in the beginning when the D/A conversion was done in the PC.
My primary focus is still on music. Everything works fine now after initial streaming problems with my Marantz net-receiver. But Video played from the MC server via Gizmo onto Chromecast TV is not bad either and works far better than direct streaming on my Panasonic TV which does not accept every format directly.
So please continue with the MediaCenter. I love it.
Greetings from Austria, Thomas
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I got it as MJ, for free, and always loved, it. so always loved what I was paying for when they got bigger and better. It plays, and works even between computers, bla bla bla
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hello, i'm a french user, i've tried many multimedia solutions.
I own something like 4k CDs, 3k dvd and BR.
All music ripped in flac format on a NAS, all movies on physical optical discs (because bought ones) with "fake" files on an external HD to catalog in JRiver
I've been using JRiver for something like 10 years.
Why did i choose it ?
1 - easy to use for my family
2 - easy to catalog movies music, anything else of any kind
3 - hd music, dsd, dac driving.
4 - strong and fast
5 - no need to restart from the beginning, re-install ,use new template or search for a cabalistic add-on at each windows-/software update.
6 - usefull and easy to play remotes
7 - network storage
8 - easy to create "fake" files to catalog BR, Dvd, ebooks, CD etc.
9 - a full mutimedia player that works on a simple workbook.
At the beginning i bought JRiver to use with my PC...
last month i bought a PC to have JRiver in my theater dedicated room!
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The need for a multi channel convolution engine made me choose JRiver. (Audiolense User Forum pointed me to JRiver)
The big focus on development and continuous improvement impressed me. Especially that there seems to be a good (and short) channel for users to influence the development.
Audio quality and user friendliness is of utter importance, so I stick with JRiver :)
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I'm still fiddling with various streaming appliances: Squeezebox, Apple TV, Raspberry Pi, Oppo BRD player when it's not playing disks. I have yet to find any HTPC configuration that plays nice with my audio/video system, though I'm realizing now dumping Windows 8 may help. If anything is capable of taming it, JRiver is. I bought JRiver mostly for its ripping and tagging capabilities. It is by far the best software for that purpose, free or otherwise. It would be worth the money to me for that alone. I find tagging tedious, and classical music tags that come with downloaded files or on databases like Music Brainz to be an inconsistent mess. If it weren't for JRiver I probably wouldn't bother with them. It is also more than respectable DVR software that plays nicely with my Silicon Dust tuner, no need to think about trying anything else.
Now that JRiver is available for Linux, I may install Ubuntu on the HTPC and give it another chance.
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A lot's been said already, but I think I have something to add that's relevant:
I evaluated 6 or 7 different media players for Mac OSX trying to find one that worked how I wanted it to. I initially didn't look at MC at ALL, because it was listed on head-fi forums as "JRiver is currently developing a version for OSX. ". That told me that it wasn't available. But it is!! If someone could get that changed, I'd bet there are a good number of people like me that would try it instead of not even bothering. Here's the thread I'm talking about. (http://www.head-fi.org/a/mac-os-x-music-players-alternatives-to-itunes)
I'm SO glad I decided to try it! The big things for me are:
0. FLAC playback.
1. Beautiful album art display to make visual browsing easy and pleasing.
2. Queue based play (now playing) that's flexible, easy, and full featured. There are a number of queue based players for OS X, but they all have odd limitations or "gotchas". JRiver has this down really well. The presets are just one example of why the queue is so mature in JRiver.
3. Finding and adding album art is easy and works very well. This totally kills any other program I have personally tried on the Mac for maintaining album art. In fact, as I was demoing at least one other player, I kept coming back to JRiver to add album art!
4. POWER. This software is incredibly feature filled and powerful. From day one, I could see I was only scratching the surface. Custom views. The expression language. Multiple DSP options. Etc, etc.
It really hit home for me how much I was into MC when the 30 day trial expired. After it was over I realized I hadn't used another player in weeks, and I didn't want to. I keep wanting to show it off to friends, which is a sure sign that I'm a convert. :)
Brian.
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What initially got me in about three years ago was the dsp functions, mainly high pass filters needed for my portable subwoofers. I needed something to enhance the very limited hardware hp filters in the pro crossover I was using (only second order).
Then I was hooked with everything else MC does, now I can't live without it. One of a very short list of software packages ever purchased in my pc lifetime (~21 years), worth every penny and then some.
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In short, is the best and most comprehensive media center I've ever tried (i tried powerdvd, total media theatre, meedios, xbmc/kodi, media portal, plex, etc.) and that's what I was looking for. High quality audio and video (madvr) together, with a great library and a beautiful interface. Flexible and suitable for newbies and for those who expect more (convolution, parametric equalizer, room correction and more and more). Great support and developers who listen to users. I wonder why it's not more popular than it is.
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A great program and does what I need it to do. Plays my music and DVDs.
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1. Handles multiple monitors well (when I push CTRL+6 to detach display, it remembers that i want it full screen on my TV in a separate window. Lovely!
2. The community responds very quickly to posts when I have a problem. If this was not the case, I would have moved to something else long ago.
3. Fantastic library tools to manage renaming, moving, find and replace, fill properties from tags, etc. Awesome!
4. Remote control and ability to program it (I use this to rate songs on the fly and also to engage custom Preview Modes (i.e. start 30 seconds in, play for 2.5 minutes). Although the fact that you have to program this in base 2 confused me since I'm not familiar and I had to rely on the community to help me.
5. Customized library views so I am a power user for my database of media.
6. Smartlists.
7. Syncing smartlists to my phone with ease.
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Because it's simply the best!
I don't know when I started using MC, your sales department may know better. Before MC I had iTunes for half a year and did not like it.
There is no single feature that is the one and only reason. It's the combination of all of them.
Most probably the one outstanding feature, the unique selling point is MC's service. They always listen ...
Volker Gottwald
www.d800fotos.de
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I used another media player when I first started with MP3s. The player was on its way out and its forum was chattering about it possibly being bought out by JRiver. So, I went to check JRiver out and found out what a real Media player was. Never looked back!
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- Visually appealing, I really liked the purity and Noire skins included with MC. An application I run often, has to look good.
- A good desktop media player, and a decent "theater view" mode. There are competing software with more advanced and better "theater view" features. But no other software combines a decent desktop and full screen mode.
- Lots of advanced options/features
- A friendly helpful community (with free/open source software, there is no obligation for anyone to help you, and often you end up spending time wading through poor documentation).
Basically most things that MC does, can be done with free/open source software. However, no other options really offer everything MC does in one package. Some people such as myself, just want a stable and easy to install solution that works right out of the box. MC is not the best for everything, theater view for example is very basic compared to Kodi. And while you can make foobar to function/look close to MC, it takes a lot of effort to do so.
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i started to use JRiver (back in the 11.1 days) because it let me organise my files the way i wanted to, with a good database and without moving them around at its own will, and because of the great sound. the rest was bonus (back then 8) )
:)
gab
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For all JRiver's upgraded bells & whistles that just keep adding up through the years and I'm sure that alone attracts a younger crowd to JRiver, my only JRiver use is audio only, specifically 44.1 only as that's what makes up my 15,000 album library and it's too late in the day to change and take advantage of all that JRiver has to offer. But that in no way diminishes my love of this audio player.
Audio quality, first and foremost which has only gottten better with JRVAD and Fidelizer 6.6. Then there's the ease of downloading, capturing albums & their covers. Then there's the ease of modifying the Media Center's layout to my liking,, that alone rates just below superior audio quality as a reason I converted totally to PC audio & JRiver Media Center as my only audio source.
Other than a lack of skin option for the minplayer that I no longer use for that reason, I have no complaints nor do I have any reason to look any further than JRiver as my only audio player. But I do miss the amped2 miniplayer skin that disappeared after around MC16.......
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I have owned projectors since 1999 and enjoying using them is my hobby.
A few weeks ago I purchased a new computer with aim to create a Media Server. I tried setup with several programs some of which I had used before and some new.
JRiver did everything I wanted, did it better than any of the others, and brought it all together in a way that is unique. I wanted MadVR support because I use the 3DLUT calibration function. I've only used a tiny portion of JRiver's audio options but I have really enjoyed the results.
Comparing JRiver to any other program really doesn't make sense. Yes, there are similar programs but nothing quite like JRiver. It works so solidly.
I wouldn't recommend HTPC to anyone unless or until they spend at least a week with JRiver.
-Brian
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I was looking for a better experience than iTunes was offering. Note: I was a huge iTunes "fan" (for a lack of better word).
- One of the things that bugged me most was the awful remote app on the iPad. It is/was slow to connect and lacking features I wanted. JRemote is a killer iPad app. As app developer myself, I can safely say it's the best app I've ever seen.
- I wanted software that also worked well with my (at the time) new and humongously expensive Android phone.
- I wanted to have better control on sound quality and audio routing to my Marantz receiver: Bit perfect playback. I wanted to get the most out of my audio device. iTunes does not offer the features or the control to do that.
- JRiver offers a number of features iTunes does not. Mostly in the network department such as remotely playing from the library to another device at the office or even on the road.
- JRiver offers superior speed, more and better control for my music library.
- It plays FLAC files.
I haven't found a musical store as good (= easy to use, quality files and large catalog) as the iTunes store. So I still use it to buy music there. I'm still hoping for Apple to offer high res files one day. Looking at what they did at the time with the 128kb/sec DRM to 256kb/sec file transition, they will probably offer an easy upgrade path.
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Nothing out there beats its HQ Audio and Video.functionality.
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I couldn't find anything else that runs on a mac.
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Main reason I switched to jriver is for the zones. Once I started using it I realized how much faster and smoother it is than Mediabrowser3 (now known as Emby). Interface is simple, cataloging is easy, and overall jriver is very customizable. I love being able to control my client through the Gizmo app as well. Haven't had a chance to try jremote yet. Having an all in one solution for audio, video and Live TV is great, especially with the end of Windows Media Center.
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The main reason is force of habit
When you use a software for 11 years or more it is hard to switch and the JRiver team is smart enough to make small improvement every year. But when adding small to small it has become something that no other software can match.
At the beginning the reason to use jriver was audio quality and tagging. A tip was given in a foobar2000 forum in 2003 or 4.
But now that we have all this streaming and inexpensive services I don't listen anymore to my 1500 cds but then I use the wdm new driver of jriver to use it's DSP together with the Qobuz streaming service.
I don't know any other software with convolution DSP and video image sync.
JRiver has also become my television video recorder . It is so easy to use.
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Bit perfect playback through WASAPI
Stayed for:
Volume Levelling
Tag Editing
Library Management
I've invested thousands of dollars on my audio setup and I am interested in investing in software that is being actively developed to get the most out of that investment.
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I have a HUGE audio library in ALAC and had been running Itunes for years. I was looking for a player that could play FLAC files and after trying winamp and Foobar I quickly latched on to JRiver. Right off the bat I loved the layout options. Then, I bought a DAC (DacMagic 100) and got into high-Res FLAC. I was hooked and bought a license (running on my 2 Windows PCs). I use the WASAPI option running through my AudioEngine A5+ speakers with volume leveling on. LOVE it. It reduces the harshness of the high DR files and brings up the volume on the perfectly mastered files with low DR. For volume, I use the Control Freak by Emotiva. I'm using an Asustor NAS to store all my music and this player works perfectly. And, the KICKER was the JRemote app for my iphone. For years I've tried differnt apps/programs. Simplify Media, Audiogalaxy, Audiotap, Plex, Subsonic, and the list goes on and on. FINALLY, I can stream my whole library (which is 90% lossless) to my phone. I do use the transcoder at 320kbps and it converts all files (including 24bit) flawlessly and to my ears it sounds audiophile in my car. It's far and away my favorite app and I used it throughout the day. Thankfully, Sprint's unlimited data plan lets me do that.
Bottom line, I found this on my own after searching online and after years of trying different programs and apps - this one is head and shoulders above the rest. Thanks to all you folks at JRiver for a job well done. I've recommended this program to many friends (who apparently aren't as crazy about music as I am?!) and will continue to do so. Keep up the good work!!
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I've been building up my music collection for nearly 20 years now. And during that time I've used all kinds of media players for Windows. Winamp was the first, Windows Media Player, Mediamonkey and a bunch of others which dropped off the radar many years ago.
Nowadays I'm using both Windows and Linux. Both OSes use different media players. And I was looking for one that would work on both. Tried using a few Windows media players through Wine in Linux. Only Foobar2000 did work nicely. And although I like the way it works. I went looking for something else.
I've stumbled upon JRiver MediaCenter rather by accident. Decided to give it a try in Windows. And after noticing that it also has a Linux version, that made me decide to buy a master license.
Now both my laptops run JRiver. My big laptop runs on the 10074 Preview Build of Windows 10. My small laptop in the living room runs Debian 8.0 Jessie. The Linux one acts as server so I can listen to music through JRemote on my smartphone while doing the dishes, or when I'm cooking in the kitchen :)
JRiver is the second media software that I've bought a license for. Mediamonkey was the first, I own a Gold license for that one. But since discovering JRiver I haven't used Mediamonkey anymore.
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I originally found JRiver a couple of years back when MC18 was the recommended version. I was impressed with some of the audio effects then (still am, medium wide stereo effect is nice with movie soundtracks), and was most impressed with Red October HQ video processing which I have not seen in free video players, nor could I make other players "match" JRiver's settings. The upgrade to MC19 for free (since I had bought a license in July) was a nice touch to not leave me with an "outdated" player so soon after purchasing. I typically only purchase software if its REALLY good compared to other things I've tried first, so you guys made an impression on me!
I upgraded to MC20 this past year and don't regret it. :)
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Chose JRiver for many reasons -
Great audio quality and audio options, and you guys listen to audiophiles on features we like to see in future versions.
Able to play every video file I throw at it in excellent video and audio quality.
Customizable library.
Excellent support.
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I chose JRiver about 3 years ago for the following reasons:
1.) Allowed me to leverage the bit-perfect set-up I have with my good hardware.
2.) Highly recommended and rated (e.g. Computer Audiophile)
3.) Love this forum and the service if one needs support
4.) Nice, customizable interface
5.) Syncs up with HDTracks
I do only use a fraction of the options and capabilities of the software, and still even (gulp!) use iTunes for purchases, but use JRiver for playback. When at my PC, I only use JRiver. I also use to clean up some incorrect tags.
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Hi guys , new to the forum, had MC since version 17 which was about to change to 18 , I am now on 20.
Like many of you I was looking to digitize my ever expanding cd collection and needed a system to organize and catalogue and also produce cd quality reproduction.
I was also looking to play directly from my pc through to my surround sound system
I started with windows media player , reasonably versatile to arrange , sounded good through my pc , crap through my amp no matter what I tweaked.
Further research led me to XBMC which I thought looked fantastic , I just couldn`t get the hang of its complex system.
This led me further to connect my PC to my then 42 inch TV , now 60 inch Panasonic as I wanted to add my dvds into the equation , nothing if ambitious I thought.
Still couldn`t get quality sound , which was my ultimate goal. Tried Plex but just couldn't get it to work the way I wanted even though it looked great.
Then..... I discovered JRiver media center and WOW !!!!!!!
It worked virtually straight away out of the box so to say. Looks good , simple enough to import my music collection , then began the organizing and I was a bit overwhelmed at first but once I got the hang of changing tags I was on my way and never looked back . Everything I have is now organized and easy to find within MC including video. Such a versatile programme of which I`m using a fraction of it`s possibilities . I`ve got a couple of zones set up with 5.1 on one of them. The DSP in MC is fantastic which |`ve tweaked over the years due to having tinnitus and everything I listen to goes through MC which helps a lot.
Theatre view is wonderful on my tv , just makes selection and playback so easy
I am constantly cleaning up files and tweaking tabs
I am a convert to MC and have never looked back , I`ve even been boring my family and friends to death with endless accounts of what MC does and can do.
Happy to finally join this forum and here`s to the future with JRiver
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I chose JRiver because it is simply the best player out there that I have ever tried. It has all of the features I could ever ask for (and more) and the sound quality is amazing.
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I think it was MC10 version that I encountered while looking for a solution for burning a compilation of mp3's to a CD, it solved a problem of retaining the playlist order with the option to insert the sequence number into file name.
Then came the tedious problem of tagging files where I had several tagging programs that had their various strengths and weaknesses, but then I discovered that MC had the most powerful and elegant tagging, file renaming and cataloging solution of all.
I was using MusicMatch as my library organiser/player at the time and as my digitised media collection grew past 6000 tracks it became very sluggish and a frustration to use while I noticed MC was handling it effortlessly. One of my needs that will never change is the ability to manage a large library of media files, now approaching 200k, where any single item can be instantly found and played and this is the No1 reason for me sticking with MC and recommending it to my friends.
The ability to handle multiple audio paths and zones is another
Remote access and control is another
Control over PC connected displays is another
The ability to create powerful Smart Playlists and discover music in my library is another
It's one thing to have a large library of music but if you can't rapidly drill into that library and display its content in meaningful ways it just becomes a frustration and a burden, JRiver Media Center remains the go to answer for that problem, while providing a plethora of other useful functions, many of which you didn't know you needed until you've used them.
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There are four reasons why I chose JRiver MediaCenter:
1. It is recommended by Stereophile for non-Apple product Hi-res playback (and its features have grown).
2. It isn't made by Apple.
3. It isn't iTunes.
4. The GUI and some of its features remind me of my favorite mp3 player back in the day: MusicMatch. I like to be able to see my entire library at a glance in one scrollable view.
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If your marketing team is having difficulty boiling down the complexities of what separates JRiver from the free (and paid) alternatives I would summarize what everyone has said here to a single word: Power. MC is powerful software on every level, and for the media enthusiasts that want their library to perform exceptionally, it's the best solution I have seen, bar none.
I was originally drawn to it from iTunes because I was tired of being frustrated by it's limited features. And with each passing version Apple seemed to be making it dumber, not smarter. I wanted better tagging and organizing options. I needed more tagging fields to properly sort an immense music library with smart playlists. I wanted it to play more formats. I wanted a server option that would allow my family to easily share from a single source of media for all our devices. And I didn't want to be locked into Apple's walled garden.
MC delivered on these features exceptionally, but it wasn't until I went beyond my immediate requirements that I realized how powerful the software really was. The amazing DSP options. The astounding video rendering engine. The superb JRemote add on that let you remote control using your tablet, and take your library on the road. Every time I said "I wonder if..." I found there was a way. I am still learning how to use some of the deep features of the software.
MC, however, isn't for everybody. Not everyone wants to deal with managing a large personal library. Many folks want something fast and easy like iTunes, Spotify or Pandora. MC makes them look like Go-Carts at NASCAR. MC is for the enthusiast that craves power, and it would be to them that you should directly market your wares.
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Been using Media servers since XBMC was made for the XBOX, Went to Windows Media Center + Media browser for a while then to PLEX. I originally tested MC cause the VIS plugin I have from SoundSpectrum supported it.
The first thing I did was fall in love with the standard view.
Then I tried Gizmo and was sold on it. Not having a 10 foot interface and instead having a dual screen is so much more fun and quick to access my content. I always found those 10 feet interface pretty but for me only slowed down access to my content.
All the audio and video options were the icing on the cake and the practically maintenance free metascraping just sealed the deal.
I wish JRiver the best of luck and a long life cause I see nothing on the market that would be an acceptable replacement.
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The very straightforward & intuitive way of organizing music files and building playlists. IMO better than anything currently available. Indeed Media Center is the ONLY reason I run Parallels on my Mac. I love the ability to edit virtually all of my music, e.g. equalization, separation, etc. I am considering purchasing MC for Mac (so I can finally get rid of windows).
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1)Great internal volume for straight connection to DACs
2)true bit perfect and ASIO support
3)dsp and convolution engine, great for active speakers
4)integration with madvr
5)lots of features and settings personalizations
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1. Management of High quality audio (lossless)
2. Built-in file conversion capability that's easy to use.
3. I am only using for audio now, want to ultimately integrate this to multizone whole house music system, with use of iphones as remotes for audio control, think it can do it.
4. database management- I was getting to the point where I had multiple copies of same file all over the place causing repeats in syncing and playback...
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Usability - I was using foobar2000 before, and I got sick of its interface. Not exactly the most user-friendly player out there.
Equalizer - Best-sounding EQ I've heard, boosting the bass doesn't make the sound as boomy as it does on most other EQ's I've used
Functionality - Has so many ways to tweak the player, but at the same time, is more user-friendly than foobar2000
I've used a bunch of other players out there, but each had some quirk that irked me; VLC tended to crash on me, and I just plain didn't like its interface, I hated foobar's interface and equalizer, Windows Media Player, well, the less said about it, the better. JRiver has most of the options I want, while also having a nice interface, so I decided to just give in and drop the money on a license.
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1 - database that handles large libraries and has a query language for advanced searches.
2 - generous licensing terms, awesome for people with multiple computers (like myself).
3 - good (and always improving) support for album art. I can always find a way to play my music files that sounds okay (to my ears and cheap speakers) but managing and viewing album art is key for me. I guess I'm just a visual type of guy.
4 - file rename/move/copy capabilities - these really help with organization!
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While I love much about JRiver including the high-resolution audio performance and the Theater View interface, the unique feature that drove me to purchase JRiver was the ability to feed two audio zones with programming stored on my hard drive.
Jeff
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I chose it because it plays DSD and I needed a way to play those before I get a DSD DAC. I don't have 1k to drop on a Sony DSD Desktop DAC right now, so I looked into players. I found JRiver and wasn't sure I liked it at first, then I kept using it and now I'm never going back. It's just worlds better than any competition I've used. (Audrivanna makes me want to cringe tbh, I really dislike the interface, but that's just me). Glad I found MC!!
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Oh man...how long has it been...?
It's hard to remember, but I'm pretty sure I chose JRiver Media Centre 13 because it was the only jukebox media player I knew of that was capable of playing every file format in the known internet out of the box. If it couldn't, its DirectShow compliance ensured that it could be configured to do so regardless.
Since then, I have adopted, abandoned, and re-adopted the use of its various features, depending on my setup. Its UI and media management flexibility is the best out of any application of any type I have ever seen. I am known to be quite meticulous about databases and tree structure, almost to the point of alarming obsession. The fact that I can do this...
IfElse(IsEqual([Media Type],Audio),Music\[Album Artist (auto)]\IfElse(Math(IsEqual([Release Type],Compilation,)|IsEqual([Release Type],Full-length,)|IsEqual([Release Type],Live,)),Delimit([Release Type],/ Albums,),IsEqual([Release Type],Collaboration),Collaborative Albums,1,Delimit([Release Type],/s,))\If(IsEqual([Release Type],Compilation),/(FormatDate(yyyy-MM-dd)/),/(FormatDate([Original Date,0],yyyy-MM-dd)/)) [Album]Delimit(ListBuild(1,/, ,If(IsEqual([Version],Standard Edition,),,[Version]),If(IsEqual([Channels],2,5),[Channels]/ Channels,),IfElse(IsEqual([Date],[Original Date],),,IsEqual([Release Type],Compilation),,IsEqual([Version],Standard Edition,),,1,FormatDate(yyyy-MM-dd))),/),/ ()\If(IsEmpty([Disc #,0]),,Delimit([Disc #],,/Disc/ )),IsEqual([Media Type],Video),Videos\ListBuild(1,\,[Franchise,0],If(IsEqual([Franchise,0],[Series,0]),,[Series,0]),IfElse(!IsEmpty([Season Modifier,0]),If(Compare([Season Modifier,0],<=,9),Delimit([Season Modifier,0],,/Season 0),Delimit([Season Modifier,0],,/Season/ )),!IsEqual([Season,0],Specials),Delimit([Season,0],,/Season/ ))Delimit([Season Name,0],/),/ ()\If(!IsEmpty([Sequence,0]),If(Compare([Sequence,0],<=,9),Delimit([Sequence,0],/.,/0),Delimit([Sequence,0],/.,)),Delimit([Episode,0],.,))/ [Name,0]))
Delimit([Track #],.,) [Name]Delimit([Track Version,0],/),/ ()Delimit(IfElse(IsEqual([Date],[Original Date],),,IsEqual([Release Type],Compilation,),FormatDate([Original Date,0],yyyy-MM-dd),1,),/),/ ()
...and have it mean something and perform such a function as moving files around my HDD exactly as I want it performed without the player's reference to the file location breaking (I'm looking at you RealPlayer!) is absolutely amazing.
I love that I can add, customise, and remove library fields, some to add additional levels of categorisation, others for more comprehensive and defined sorting options.
Theatre View has been a godsend to me recently, with my entire home theatre system and its navigation being built around it. It was especially relevant when I bought my Panasonic TC-55VT60. The accompanying Gizmo app is simple and very easy to understand.
MadVR integration via Red October HQ has enabled me to achieve the best I possibly can in video playback. It took some tinkering and investigation, but I figured out just last night how to get it to deactivate deinterlacing for everything but my DVD rips, which, combined with fullscreen exclusive mode, granted a tremendous boost to performance while still allowing me to achieve Jinc3 on a system using an AMD Kaveri 7850-K APU, without a discreet GPU. You might think that such praise is directed more towards madVR, but it really does highlight JRiver's commitment to integrating, in any way they can, with the latest and greatest, all at a market-defying price point.
Speaking of Red October, its existence allowed me to finally be free of the use of codec packs, which were never good for stability at any rate. What a relief that was!
I join others in praising JRiver's business model and Interact forum. I love that I can talk directly to the developers, give feedback on features I want changed or added, and gain feedback from them and the community about whatever issues I have. I haven't always had all of my questions answered, but none of the above would have been possible without your help, and for that, I am deeply grateful.
...So grateful, in fact, that I feel guilty for using cracks to activate MC during my days as a teen with no income. It is not as if I have no conscience, but that doesn't often happen. I am proud to say today that I am a paying customer, and will never cease to be so for as long as I use this software. You have my apologies, and my thanks. :)
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I was just getting into ripping all of my CD's onto my computer and playing them through various device in my HT/Music center in the living room. This included Music and video files I have three go pro units and record many of my fishing trips. I want one software to control everything that also worked with DLNA devices without issues. I also read reviews that it was a good software solution.
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I've been using this since Media Jukebox 6 or 7. Originally it was for one simple reason, I wanted a way of cataloguing (not ripping) my huge CD collection so I could search for tracks and then find the album and play it on my CD player! There was no other software at the time that would remember a disc's details and add it to a database just be inserting it.
That's the thing with software like JRiver, it's the little unique features that draw people to use it.
After that, and once I'd stopped being a snob about ripped music, I continued to use and upgrade MC because on the Monkey Audio support.
Then I moved heavily into HTPC and continued to upgrade MC because of TheatreView. Unfortunately, this was never quite as good as the competition, but by that point I couldn't live without the tagging features so I've been using MC and my library manager ever since.
I've since stopped buying CDs (and thus ripping music) and have concentrated far more on HTPC frontends so I'm afraid I haven't upgraded since MC19, but I ALWAYS come back to check on the new features being implemented!
Thanks for over 15 years of good service! ;D
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My #1 reason is responsive and engaged software developers, who listens to customers and addresses their feature requests/bug reports.
Everything else (features, quality etc.) falls in place if you have that in place. That is the main reason I keep buying new versions of MC each and every year - even though I may not benefit from all the new features each year.
Osho
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Why did I install MC? The promise of greatly improved sound, even with very average speakers and no music system -only my computer - and the possibility of a working integrated video player. My needs are simple in that regard.
Why will I buy a license? The sound quality is truly wonderful, even with the speakers I have - I'm very happy ;D The video works great. Tagging is somehow much easier, encouraging me to fix up my past slap-dash-this-is-too-tedious tagging sins of the past, so I can get the best out of MC's library capabilities. (something I found too tedious to bother with in other media players, and abandoned the library system altogether by just playing albums from computer file structure).
I have needed help as I have been finding my way around. I've only had a computer of my own for a few years, and am only just getting used to the 'forum' way of getting support for software. They all have different tones, and I am relieved and happy to discover how prompt, helpful, informative, friendly, and polite people are here. Not just to me...seems to be the general tone of the forum.
Oddly enough, and completely unexpected, it was Neutron music player, an android app - that taught me good sound was possible with average gear. It also incorporates it's own unique way of processing sound. So I started to seek out the possibility for Windows. Some may be miffed that I would even consider mentioning an android app, sound quality, and MC in the same way. Am just mentioning it in case it's helpful. Thanks to all who have made my inistallation of MC such a positive experience. Jay
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DSP, audio related features and audio quality in general.
Using it as a pre/pro replacement drove my initial purchase decision and it is still the most important factor for me.
Some after the fact bonuses -
I absolutely adore the level of involvement and commitment from the developers and the community on this forum.
Seamless madVR integration is a huge plus.
Library and remote control options are great.
And it's your relentless constant improvements and upgrades that keeps me updating to newer versions.
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1. The satisfaction that you know you have a very good recent product.
2. The support : you pay for a product and you get support.
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My reasons are quite simple. My first mp3 player years ago came with JRiver software that i loved. around 2003 i bought an iPod and used Itunes for years. Recently i built a new HTPC and i realized how much i hated Itunes dull gray uniform interface and i really really hated how many extra programs it installs and adds to startup in Windows. Even though Itunes worked perfectly it doesn't make it easy to customize it your way.
JRiver Media Center has way more options than it used to and a metric ton more options than Itunes.
Flac playback and a tv tuner were what i needed for my HTPC so i did research which lead me back to JRiver.
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Hi everybody
Well, to be honest, for a kind of overall good reputation, especially concerning audio quality : bit-perfect, many formats, 24/96... I'm a member of French HC forums, and many people spoke in favor of JRiver, there. I was also appealed by the Red October concept (some people may have fun crawling through LAV, MadVR and others, but ...).
Database capabilities look impressive, but I'll need time to master the whole thing.
I won't use DSP in the short range, because I'm just plugging my PC into a Denon AVR.
I'm a newcomer, I freshly bought an MC20 license, so, it's too early to say why I stayed :-)
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Biggest reasons why I went with it initially:
- Completely flexible cataloging, tagging, browsing, and metadata management. What others have said about being able to implement your own system instead of conforming to one. Files go where I want them, have the tags I want (including custom fields), and I browse them in a view I want with the columns I want.
- An API I can use to automate tagging, playlist management, backup, and syncing. (I use the REST API on Mac)
- Openness. Overlaps with other points on this list, but you give me an API and .XML export. I will enjoy using MC for now, but who knows what the world will be like in another 20 years? In the unfortunate case MC is no longer there, I can at least take that music and metadata on with me to my next platform.
Second biggest reasons:
- I can use my library remotely with the native app, no web interfaces! I can connect to my library running on an old mac at home, from work! And then do things like tweak tags, edit playlists, and everything. Just like I'm at my home PC.
- Easy XML export of my entire library and metadata. If my MC database ever becomes corrupt or something crazy happens, I know I have a copy of my metadata in XML that I could use to reconstruct whatever I need. Sure, backups and whatnot, but after spending hours and days cataloging and tagging your library, it is just peace of mind to have all of that in a plain text, human readable format like XML should you ever need it.
Bonuses that seal the deal:
- JRiver remote is awesome. It's rock solid and again lets me edit playlists and lets me efficiently browse my entire library. I love the custom views (grid of artwork, list with artwork, list with no artwork).
- Transcoding to a directory (sync to folder). I was using this to push all my media to Kodi media center for a while.
- Built-in DLNA server with detailed options so it actually WORKS with my picky TV from 2007. I wasn't able to get any other server working.
- You have been around a while. You actively update your software. You're active on the forums.
- You are real people working in the USA.
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- It is the only supported software with stable, full-featured TV support
- It is the only product where TV, video, audio, picture, remote, etc. work out of the box -- no requirement to install other packages to get one or more features to work properly
- 10-foot interface is very responsive -- scrolling and transitions are consistently smooth/quick
MC stands out before accounting for tagging/rules, multi-user support, zones, etc.
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Allez, j'y vais de mon petit commentaire en français, pour les futurs utilisateurs qui arriveraient ici par hasard avec Google !
J'utilise JRiver mediacenter depuis la version 10 je crois (me souviens plus ;D). C'est de loin le meilleurs logiciel pour ces fonctions pour au moins les raisons suivantes :
- stabilité, convivialité, multitude de paramétrages
- de loin le plus complet pour renommer, trier, classer, etc... gérer vos milliers de photos de familles, vidéos diverses, musiques facilement, rapidement, avec plein de traitements automatiques sur les noms, chemins de fichiers etc
- la lecture via le réseau sur mes lecteurs, le pilotage par téléphone, c'est du bonheur ! ça marche à tous les coups :D
- l'incroyable gestion sonore
Il y a sûrement bien plus à dire, mais je manque d'idées là ... le prix de la licence est tout à fait raisonnable.
Merci et bonne continuation !
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I think it was anythingbutipod's review of mediacenters couple of years ago when I first read about JRiver Mediacenter. Few years passed and just out of curiosity I decided to give the little finger to the "devil" ;) Downloaded MC19 trial version and immediately fell in love with it's eyecandy UI and features, especially when those features are so polished and work great. JRiver MC is way better than those other big players like Nero, Roxio et al. that just cram features for the sake of features without giving them much thought.
I still use foobar2000 for some minor tasks e.g. masstagging, file integrity checking, moving & renaming because I'm so used to them and they work great. Maybe it's time to dive deeper into MC21 capabilities...
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Great audio
Nice interface
Great tagging capability
MOST IMPORTANTLY: the ability to control "gapped" playback. I DJ and like having the ability to set an exact # of seconds between tracks. This is a fantastic feature!!!!
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I have been using JRiver since version 17 and I run version 21 now.
JRiver has glowing endorsements from the audiophile media and community, such as computeraudiophile.com, including that it produces superior audio.
JRiver provides superior and quick technical assistance and answers to questions on the forum (no one does it better or faster).
Confidence that JRiver will just keep getting better and better thanks to active company support.
So many superior features and versatility compared to the competition. Just too many to list.
Met Matt at an audio show. Could tell he was one of the good guys and a great geek! He is a great JRiver ambassador.
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I have two main reasons for choosing JRiver Media Center and two "opportunities," one of which is merely a personal preference.
Favorites:
1. Most everyone on this thread said sound quality; I do as well. Noticeably better than others, such as WMP.
2. I only saw one other reply reference gapless payback, which I will go one step further and call it intelligent cross-fading. I HATE dead air, and this is possibly the best cross-fade I've heard, with minimal settings. Radio quality cross-fades excite me. (I live a sheltered life)
Yes, MC20 is my default media player. Quality plus. Well done, JRiver.
Mark
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Primary reason - audio functionality!!! Secondary - Bluray functionality.
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I somehow ended up on the website when I was searching for multi-zone playback software. This was before ZoneSwitch, btw. And the website make it look rad so I tried it.
Oh my. Didn't I discover it could do so much more?
Originally I needed a high-quality, second zone audio-only playback software. And it needed to be light weight. It ran in the background of WMC for my back porch speaker setup in my old house. After cutting the cord from the local cable company (never again paying them a dime) I plugged in the trusty old SiliconDust HDHR and have been rocking clear QAM or antenna-based TV in every home since. I needed something with a high WAF since I'm gone or deployed months at a time. Also, we move every 2-3 years in the military, so I needed a setup that would transport well from rental house to rental house. That's where a NAS and a very simple networking diagram came in.
My wife was able to move in to a new house with two kids, plug the NAS into the router, and access the library from her computer. Boom. Instant win.
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With JRiver MC the most important attribute for me was the ability to catalog my entire library in the alpha-numeric convention I had set up long ago when I started rippings my vinyl, tape, cd and soft digital archive. No other program could handle the 17,000 + LPs I threw at it in a timely fashion. Media Monkey finally, and simply, gasped at the thought. I have tried them all and MC works best.
Add to that the sound quality via my DAC/audio setup or the handy DSP controls which tuned the listening arena and I felt I'd found the right product. Moving on from there I discovered Gizmo (though I use EOS most of the time) and was able to take everything with me anywhere, including the same sonic quality.....plus the remote feature works well from the only chair parked in the the sweet spot when I'm hunkerd down.
I have yet to use many of the features of MC...I don't tag too much besides rating, don't use DNLA features in my home, don't zone, don't smart, don't have it hooked to a TV....just started a video library, and don't use it for photos. But, I'll tell you this: it is entertaining studying all that it can do. I'm a musician and coder and think it may be the best piece of application software I've ever used.
I visit Mlps. often and was disappointed that your office appears to be in a skyscraper on Washington with nowhere nearby to park or I would have stopped by to offer my kudos and see what cool swag you might have....I'm an MC lifer.
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If your marketing team is having difficulty boiling down the complexities of what separates JRiver from the free (and paid) alternatives I would summarize what everyone has said here to a single word: Power. MC is powerful software on every level, and for the media enthusiasts that want their library to perform exceptionally, it's the best solution I have seen, bar none.
As above, and additionally:
Unlike a lot of users, i use MC exclusively for video, rather than audio (other than WMD driver). I use MC mainly due to (in no particular order):
1) Red October HQ and combined video features - single most important thing to me is having the "best" sound and "best" video available, without having a bunch of additional installations and needing to get everything talking properly.
2) HTPC features - has all the features i want: Other programs like XBMC, MB (currently) look prettier but lack substance. I enjoy:
- Unsurpassed HQ audio/vidio
- easy bitstreaming
- Theatre view is lighting fast compared to my expereinece with others .
- Relatively few crashes or issues compared to others i've tried.
- Ability to "play there" is nice
- Ability to easily "re-tag" incorrect files
3) WMD Driver - i use Spotify predominantly, and i IMO this was the single best addition made to MC since i originally purchased it. Additionally, i appreciate ASIO, Wasapi etc. etc.
4) It costs (reasonable) money, which in my experience with this particular program, means that things are actioned appropriately and that desirable user-requested features are usually implemented within relatively quick timelines.
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For me the choices narrowed as I became more knowledgable of audio, and invested more in equipment.
My progression was Real Player, WinAmp, Monkey Audio Player, and then tried FooBar and went back to Monkey for couple years.
Then in 2007, I found JRiver on a post in Head-fi and it made a lot of sense.
It had the cataloging of Monkey and FooBar, plus better tagging and indexing then Monkey except it was the only program that did not crash on my now > 50K music files.
Once I upped my headphone rig from hundreds of dollars (headphones, dac, amp and cables) to thousands of dollars, the list of options that worked for me got narrower.
Although FooBar had ASIO support, the catalog and index functions (for playlists, and tagging) just were not mature at all and the program felt like unsupported freeware.
JRiver has always felt and operated like a quality software application (I am a software designer/developer by trade) and I have had the least amount of rustration with your app than any other.
I only use your app for Audio, and I only use it while programming (10 hours a day) and I get extremely irritated if a program is not functioning correctly.
So I guess my main reason is the reliability of the application with the acceptable amount of audio features I need to enjoy my music frustration-free.
BTW - I am listening to Amy Winehouse - At The BBC as I write this on my Audeze LCD2 headphones to Aphrodite29 Quad-Silver cable, balanced XLR to my fully discreet, balanced Audio-GD 10 watt headphone amp, connected to my balanced Audio-GD 32Bit Sabre DAC to my dedicated Media Center/SSD/Fan less PC to 32Bit/384K Audio-GD ASIO Driver to my sweet, sweet JRiver Media Center 20 software application which has ripped the Amy Winehouse CD I am enjoying now.
Just logged on to see how to pay for the upgrade to MC21. I have Master License for 20, and have bought each edition of MC since 14. I am extremely loyal to this product because of the effort put into it and although I do not use any other media sources except Audio now, I still appreciate the effort put in to make a great app nonetheless.
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I was originally using MS Media Player. When I bought a new Sony Blu Ray player, model BDP S7200 it would Not play files served up by MS Media Player. My older Sony Blu Ray BDP-780 & BDP-790 worked fine. I tried to use Foo Bar, battled it for a few days, never could get it to play either.
Downloaded JRiver to test, it just worked out of the box. Also found that Forcing the DLNA server to output PCM 16 bit fixed the issue I'd always had with MS Media player. When I pushed music to the Sony (with it working just as a DLNA Render it also did PCM 16 bit, where as MS Media player always did MP3 mode).
Interface is Beautiful, with cover art and full resizing of that art......
Gizmo on mobile phone and Nook looks great and works perfectly. Ah, MPDroid, and native "player" in my Bryston BDP-2 are ugly (no real cover art display). And, have a ton of GUI issues making them very hard to use. They have a number of things that work on a PC browser, but, not on Android devices.
Support forums provide solutions! Contacting Sony and opening tickets on their BDP-7200 never got a resolution. No work arounds. No fixes to the issues identified in a software update for the player.
It plays WMA Lossless! Also plays and Easily converts to just about any format.
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I use MC because:
1. I have the possibility to play SACD Isos.
2. All the possibilities in connection with my Music Database. The tagging, the graphics etc..
3. Convolution
4. The Integration of my Movie database.
5. The Masterlicense. The possibility to install MC on a Raspberry Pi.
6. The Price
All the above points are my favorites.
There is constant improvement.
MC is simply a great product.
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1) I chose JRiver primarily for the data and sonic integrity.
2) The ability to use convolution processing! Great!
3) The ability to insert a high quality stereo plugin for equalization.
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It's really sad that I can't honestly remember much about the specifics of why I chose JRiver over the free alternatives. I do remember there wasn't really much in the way of options when I started using JRiver. I remember how powerful the database was, and how it allowed me to manage my music in ways that other programs couldn't (and still can't). I think it was the only program that let me easily rip my CD's to a lossless format without having a college degree at the time. I think I paid about $30 for the program way back then, which was more than I'd spent on any other software up to that point. I've paid for upgrades to every version since, and still feel like I've not paid enough for the value I've received.
I started using MC before images or video were things that MC managed. It was audio only when I first purchased. I remember all the struggles of getting direct show filters to work right, and what a revelation it was when Red October was first released. Good times!
Actually, out of curiosity, I just looked to see when I first registered, and I've been registered for nearly 13 years now (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?action=profile;u=2496), which is longer than JimH (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?action=profile;u=3)(which I can't believe, but seems to be accurate)! Somewhat unsurprisingly, it seems Matt has been registered since his birth (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?action=profile;u=336)!
I've seen this program go thru so many great changes, I'm really thankful I discovered it when I did, and I still look at Interact pretty much daily, even if I don't post that often.
Keep up the good work guys!!
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There are free alternatives? No. No, there aren't.
None of the free applications out there do what MC does -- a single AV "toolkit" that will do almost everything you need as an enthusiast/audiophile/videophile.
I originally came to MC in version 12 (or was it 11?) primarily because it offered a way to rip CDs to FLAC and play them back within a single application that had good cataloging and search (the panes view).
But other apps came along soon enough that did the same thing. What ultimately locked me in to MC was multi-zone support with remote control via mobile apps. Nothing else does that AND has DSP AND Video AND live TV with DVR. My whole house AV system is built around JRiver. I even custom wired my house during construction specifically with JRiver multi-zone in mind.
To accomplish my goals with any other system would cost thousands of dollars more, and not be any easier to use or more stable in the end.
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Number 1 use for me watching TV OTA Live, recording TV and playback of recorded TV. Then BluRay and MKV files.
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The DSP options including convolver for FIR XO is a very strong point for JRiver. And this comes as an all in one solution. No need to download, install and integrate extra plugins. The WDM driver is also extremely handy.
And of course sound (and picture) quality is high - that is the prerequisite for all the rest to matter.
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I don't really need JRiver MC, but I continue to pay for it every year. Why?
It's the best media cataloging program available. I have a large collection of music, movies, and TV shows stored (and backed up) on 12TB of storage. MC handles all of them very well, including episode descriptions for my old Avengers shows, etc. The integration with IMDb for movie metadata is something I don't want to be without.
Additionally, when I'm using the catalog and want to play something, MC handles everything as well as my standalone programs. For many years I had an M-Audio Audiophile 192 sound card, and MC supported ASIO playback from it as well as any hi-res audio files I played.
I have a lot of media players. I've used foobar2000 since the beginning, and still use MPC-HC (with LAV and madVR) as my primary video player. I have PowerDVD and the Nero Blu-ray player for accessing extras on my discs. I tend to navigate directly to files and folders on my hard drives and right click to choose a player. I have a Smart TV for things like Netflix, and my TV is connected to my PC if I want to watch a movie on the TV instead of on my monitor. MPC-HC handles that arrangement just fine.
Still, I find MC indispensable enough to pay up every year. I don't use it for the TV features, the DLNA server, JRemote, or any of the other HTPC stuff, and I live alone in a small apartment so I don't need features like Zones. I like the fact that they're there, though, in case my needs change.
Most of all, I want to support the talented and supportive staff at JRiver and the great work they do. My annual upgrade costs me about as much as a good restaurant meal, so I don't at all mind the cost. Keep up the good work, folks, and I'll continue to stand behind you.
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It's been so long since the first version I purchased MC, it was v14 I think, that I can't really remember the version and exactly why I purchased it. (I just remember wondering years later, "Why did I use APE for all my files instead of FLAC until one day I reinstalled the old version of MC and realized it had no FLAC support, hehe). I do recall having a dream of a HTPC setup that would play my entire CD and DVD collection from a network storage device. Back then, there just wasn't anything with the power to do that except a full size PC with a hella video card (better than I had on my main system). So, that dream died.
Fast forward to 2010ish and it's revived and in full realization! Currently, I have two Intel NUC i5 systems with more than enough horsepower to do what I could not do then and they are so small, quiet and efficient that it's just mind boggling. Add to this FreeNAS/NAS4Free with massive NAS hard drives and I have the network storage I needed then.
When the upgrade discount came up for v21 I bit, fast. Later I upgraded to a universal license for my Ubuntu pleasure (my mac is dead, sniffle).
I mainly use MC for my music collection. For bitperfect playback of my flac, DSD, hirez flac files, etc. to my Schiit stack, it's my go to.
I like MC a lot. I want to do more with it, I want to know HOW to do more with it. I'm grateful for the work put into it, and for the upgrade discount.
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I had a long talk with a sales and marketing person today. It made me realize that I can't say clearly why people choose to purchase JRiver Media Center when there are so many free options. What I said was that it:
1. Plays everything.
2. Works well with networks and remotes
3. Has a nice ten foot interface (Theater View)
4. Delivers high quality audio and video
5. A great forum with a lot of engaged users
I said what I've said before, that we're trying to let you play any media, anytime, anywhere.
So help me out. Why did you choose JRiver?
Edit -- for complaints, please use this thread (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=96470.0). I may move, remove, or edit anything off topic.
Currently, for me it is #4 "Delivers high quality audio and video".
The reason I chose MC initially was the ability to integrate with Russound CAV6.6 and send metadata to the keypads of my whole-house a/v system.
Thanks to hyslopc's plug-in discovered through AVSforum.
I've been with MC ever since (MC12 ?)
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I work as a DJ on the side, around three gigs each month. I Use MC for library management and Serato DJ for playback in live situations. JRiver saves me about a day each month of work due to automatisms. That may be considerably higher with a more active DJ.
- Custom tags like genre, supergenre and Dj-Rating in conjunction with custom views allow me to automatically generate crates, which I use for track selection during gigs
- Filename management allows me to automatize putting files at their right place
- File Tagging interface allows me to quickly and correctly tag new Files before migrating them to the library
- Custom views allow me to keep a "chronology" of newly imported tracks, also extremly helpful during gigs (what's new?)
Seriously, MC has been better for my workflow than all other tools I use combined. I have infected a few of my colleagues, and they all say the same. Any DJ will profit from using JRiver if he climbs the initial barrier (getting to know MC).
Thinking of it: Serato offers built-in support for iTunes libraries (which I don't use). Maybe talk to them about including MC? I admit iTunes is a different beast in user numbers, but who knows.
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Because I like a bloody good arguement in the forums.. ;) ;)
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Bring it on.
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Started back with Media Jukebox 7, upgraded to 8.400 and stayed there until y'aa came out with MC for Linux. Then upgraded both Windows and Linux. Took advantage of the deal on the master license. Like the whole program, palylists, smartlists, reliability, and being able to burn cd's and dvd's in both .wav and compressed music files.Do not care about the look, but am very partial to the ease of operation and the great response to problems on the forums.
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I think the main advantage for me is that it works right out of the box.
No need to search for addons or tweaks.
It is pretty easy to use. Especially since it has some pretty advanced features.
It looks nice too. Everything is where it should be and if it isnt you can move it.
JRemote is a great cross platform remote.
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This was a great question, Jim, and I'm glad that you asked it and are still listening to the responses.
I suspect there are a couple of main types of users: those who are using it interactively in standard mode as their desktop media software, and those who are using it for an HTPC. They are very different use cases and have different needs, and it's a testament to your product that its able to do both so well.
I use JRiver as my desktop software now too, but my main purpose, and the one for which I originally purchased it, was for HTPC use.
There are two and only two reasons why I bought it:
1. A good 10-foot interface
2. Flexible cataloging and views, so that the music (and video) can be organized and presented the way _I_ want it.
Those two things are absolutely essential, and it's surprising how many competitors don't excel in both. Everything beyond those two things is gravy.
Lots of people like the DSP, or the wide format support, and things like that. To me, they are nice but non-essential. If I needed more sophisticated DSP than JRiver supplied, there are external devices you can buy to do whatever you need. If you have content in the "wrong" format, you can always convert it. Lots of things, you can work around if you have to...
But the 10-foot interface, and the flexible presentation are critical: if you don't have those for HTPC use, there is no substitute, and you're left out in the cold.
JRiver's organizational capability is unmatched. Nothing else even come close. The 10-foot interface is good. (It could be improved, but it's pretty nice.) Maintain focus on those two things, and you can't go wrong.
The commitment to audio and video quality, with your internal processing engine and inclusion of MadVR for video, is the icing on the cake.
Thanks for the great software!
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I am using JRiver now for a couple of years and I am using a normal laptop HP DV6 with a 1Gb videocard with HDMI. I am streaming videos from a normal (not so fast) NAS (Readynas NV+ from Netgear) over a wireless connection. And with all other programs I used I had trouble with the performance of the video streaming (certainly the large Blurays) and I had great trouble getting DTS or DTS-HD to work properly.
Well long story short, JRiver Mediaplayer is playing everything as it should. Audio and video with great quality and with no performance flaws. For me there is not an alternative to this mediaplayer for this price that can compete with it.
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Mainly for the Audio quality and Video playback is a huge bonus. Unfortunately something has changed in the bug fixing/builds/version since V19, as V20 and V21 just don't sound as good. In pure direct, no DSP volume etc, V19 best for audio quality with my .ape lossless library. subtle, but noticeable enough.
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Very simple for me, and I don't think I saw my reason in previous posts. I picked JRiver because it was the only media server/player software I could find that did not insist on re-sampling the file on its way to my amp. Windows Media, VLC, MPC-HC all resample.
What's the big deal about resampling. I CAN HEAR IT. I have about 1500 songs in my library. About half were from when I digitized my entire record collection, before I sold my turntable. I digitized them at 192k/24b. I am playing these files through my new Yamaha Aventage RX-A3040 receiver, which has (arguably) the world's best D/A converter, the ESS Technology ES9016 SABRE32 Ultra DAC. This DAC is amazingly neutral and natural sounding, which means things like resampling are very audible.
The JRiver Media Center was the only product I could find that did an untouched pass through of these files. Thanks JRiver!
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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.
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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.
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Simply because i got so much for so little. It's been a lifesaver. Thank you! ;D
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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!
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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 :P
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.
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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. :)
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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.
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'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
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there's a genuine understanding that users don't want to be forced to using the vendors partners for related services
rock on jriver.
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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
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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!!!
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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 :)
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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..
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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!
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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!
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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.
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Simple, a German magazine 'StereoPlay' wrote about it, and scored it as best. We tried it and liked it :)
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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.
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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 .
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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.
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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
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Audio DSP
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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!
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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.
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The audio sound quality. Ability to work bit perfect with my DAC.
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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.
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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.
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For the DSP studio..... simply awesome :)
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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 .
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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.
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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. ;D 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.
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That's great! 8)
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.
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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. :D
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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.
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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.
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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???
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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The UI could use some help though.
There's a feature requests topic here (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=104907.0) where you can post specific UI enhancements you have in mind. :)
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- 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.
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For hi-end audio playback supporting all audio formats.
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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
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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!
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*) excellent Library management
*) flexible tagging
*) brilliant sound quality (though differences at top end of competitor products is now small)
*) server support
*) iphone remote
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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!
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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:-)
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I didn't choose JRiver but MediaCenter for playing HighRes audio files from a computer that solely is there for audio playing (MacMini). As a Mac user you don't have many options if you choose to play outside the Apple world. I went to FLAC files which is nativly not supported by Apple, so I had to look for a third party programme. I tried a few but for me MediaCenter had the best file managing solution including smart lists, different playing zones, DSP, etc. and the server solution for remotely usage with my iPad.
As I don't use it for video files (no advantages to other solutions I have), so I could be happy with the Ponoplayer, but I thought it fair to pay for it.
Selecting MediaCenter wasn't easy for me as the usage and GUI are far from what I am used to use. I am hoping for advantages here.
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I started with Media Jukebox, 20 or more years ago. It was free then. I feel like we get what we pay for, if $20 or $50 is what I have to pay every 3 or so years, I think I am getting a great deal. I am sure there are people that know much more and use many more of the features, but it works for me. I am looking to learn about Limiter Compressor abilities (for a FM station at Burning Man this year), the interface on the 2 new Android remotes I saw, and I really want Milkdrop visualizations!!!!
Keep up the good work
Tarrapin
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I was looking for a TV tuner so I could cut the cord. The audio part was simply an added bonus for me. In short, I chose JRiver because I felt like a "paid program" would receive more attention in the way of enhancements and bug fixes than an open source project ran by volunteers.
If forum rules allow, you can read about my personal experience here: http://sinebotchen.blogspot.com/2015/12/dumping-dish-how-i-cut-cord.html (http://sinebotchen.blogspot.com/2015/12/dumping-dish-how-i-cut-cord.html) (if not, then Jim or somebody can remove the link :P )
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As I'm new to both JRiver and these forums, I might as well start here.
I chose JRiver because an audiophile friend gave me a Centrance DACPort, an obsolete but very nice USB DAC. As it would be wasted on my desktop computer, I decided to put together a music "server" (player) for my audio system. After I ripped my CD collection to FLAC, it could replace the CD player as well as the iPod that had served as an Internet radio tuner.
Having used Winamp for many years to play audio files and Internet radio on my desktop computer, I thought I could use it for the new music server. I tried several remote-control options for Winamp before settling on MonkeyMote, which runs on the iPod. When I saw an Acer Cloudbook 11 laptop on sale at Fry's, I decided it would be the right hardware for my server. It's underpowered (Dual-core Celeron CPU, 32GB of SSD, 2GB of RAM), but that should be enough to run Winamp (and nothing else) with Windows 10. More importantly, it has no noisy fan. So I bought it, along with a 1TB external (USB3) hard drive. I copied the media files from my desktop computer onto the external drive, installed Winamp, plugged in the DACPort, and everything worked.
Then I discovered that I should be using WASAPI Exclusive mode or ASIO for best audio quality. Winamp doesn't support either one natively, but several third-party plug-ins exist. Sure enough, they provided audible improvement. Unfortunately, these plug-ins are beta software at best. After several weeks of tweaking and fiddling, I concluded that none of them were stable enough to use. I tried MediaMonkey, which natively supports WASAPI. But playing Internet radio streams in a playlist hung it up every time, requiring a restart. Not acceptable.
Almost out of desperation, I downloaded JRiver for a trial on my desktop computer. The user interface is far better than Winamp or MediaMonkey. The MonkeyMote remote control actually works better with JRiver. And it natively supports the DACPort in WASAPI Exclusive and ASIO. But with all the video, television, and numerous other features I wouldn't be using, I was afraid it would be too much for the underpowered laptop.
I installed it on the laptop anyway, started it up, and configured it to use the DACPort with WASAPI Exclusive mode. It worked immediately, and sounded noticeably better than Winamp! When I opened up Task Manager, I was amazed to find that JRiver uses significantly less CPU than Winamp. After confirming that it all worked with MonkeyMote (including a playlist of Internet radio stations imported from my desktop machine), I went back to my desktop computer and bought a JRiver license.
I now have a "turnkey" music server on the laptop that starts JRiver automatically in Audio Only mode when I turn it on (a feature JRiver itself provides, with no need to put a shortcut in the secret startup folder). I'm using ASIO rather than WASAPI, as the JRiver Wiki recommends. And, of course, I can use JRiver to rip CDs and watch DVDs on my desktop computer.
Free software is often a good option, but not always. The cost of the JRiver license was money well spent.
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Because JRiver is compatible with my DAC AMPLIFIER when play movie with AC3/DTS audio tracks.
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Word of mouth. With free things, sometimes you get what you pay for.
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As one of the 1st posters said: "The main distinguishing point ...is that it has top quality audio" It will play most everything and do it well in a stable reliable fashion.
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i choose JR cause it came with plenty of settings to improve quality and stability of your sound!
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I have used JRiver for many years - three specific reasons are most important (besides must do things like bit-perfect, reliable drivers etc)
The library management (thumbnails, speed, oversight etc)
The DSP engine and the ability to use room correction filters etc..
The multiplatform
I also like the driver that makes it possible to pipe audio from Tidal to JRiver, but it is somewhat unstable.
In general I like it´s versatility for audio.
During a long period JRemote was very important for my choice of JRiver, since it by far was the best iPad, iPhone and later Android remote available. Then also JRiver server mode was important for me. Now I mostly use another solution, but now and then I do fall back on JRemote.
Many players can do bit perfect audio, and for example foobar2000 can do most of what JRiver do when it comes to audio, but it needs much more hands on, can be less stable with many plug-ins - and it is dull. And it is Windows only.
What I do not like: web shops, photo manager (there are better tools for this) Video and TV do I never use. I use JRiver only for audio. It tends to be slightly overbuilt for this purpose. JRiver also have a rather steep learning curve and some utilities are difficult to understand or learn.
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Hi JimH & team,
The reason I chose JRiver is probably typical of other users. Your main competitor is iTunes. I have been searching for an alternative to iTunes for quite some time, for very simple reasons;
- iTunes is incredibly clunky and slow. Airplay is notorious flaky and can stop working for no explicable reason. Getting album art work was a nightmare but has improved. I used to also own "Rinse" from Real networks to try to clean it up.
- With every new release features can disappear - especially on appearance and album especially with ie. non responsive to feedback or interested in competing because they think they don't have to
- Constantly being sucked into Apple's world if you want to improve quality. Not supporting FLAC files and must use ALAC if you want to move to high definition sound, movies
- The clincher for me was actually that J River can also drive my TV Tuner card who works fine but the software from the manufacturer (Compro) has been abandoned. ie. One library program that can replace iTunes, PVR, Photo Image picasa etc.
It's also very hard to find alternatives. If you do a search most of the information comes from Magazine/media reviews which do not include JRiver. It's not immediately obvious to most that if you have a networked AV amp you don't really need Airplay and therefore don't need to play in Apple's world. You can get a fast responsive, highly customised library that can share or broadcast files to multiple devices and handle hifi sound and resolutions.
Having said that though, JRiver has quite a steep learning curve to get it going and probably would not be able to set it up without referring to the forum.
- So a "migrate from iTunes" wizard or something would benefit where newbies could look up their iTunes library folder input it into the wizard and the rest is done in the background
- I still like the ITunes way of importing. If I have MP3s to add I will go back into ITunes to add them by simply dragging and dropping them, organising them by artist, album folders in the background. HD files I have to manually add into J River library folder
- I still like the iTunes library view where it is sorted by artist or import date or whatever - but it still has a 'recently added' section at the top of the library view.
Hope this helps
David
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Even though I'm still in the 30 day trial period.. I'm hooked and will be purchasing.
Why? Because....
Ability to play hi def files from my networked server via my HTPC w/o transcoding. Both Plex and Emby ( both free for the most part ) force transcode and I get sporadic quality. Files play fine when I launch them from within JR on my HTPC.
Library Management - infinite ways to sort and display my files.
Gizmo - haven't tried this yet but looks great.
Sound quality - Just sound betters than other packages I have tried.
I've dabbled in JR MC on/off throughout the years, mainly just for audio purposes as the llama has faded away, but never really dove into the video aspects. The theater view was totally a surprise for me last week when I decided to give it another try. I'm hooked!
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I Came over from Foobar. I am a reformed ultrafidelista/audiophile (I am a man of science now. ;) )
...lots of people were saying good things about it. I balked at the idea of "paying" for a media player (foobar, winamp, blah blah)
...but I decided , on a whim, to demo MC one day(v 16? I think) and have never turned back. the upgrade/purchase price is chump change for what you get.
the reason I stay? so many. My two little girls can migrate its menus easily(on their tablets/my smartphone/our laptop(s) with the local gui or gizmo). it is visually stunning, intuitive, unparalleled in DSP options, flawless audio performance(although...to be fair..I really want to rage when people say they can "hear a difference" from one player to another) , customizable beyond compare, well supported, modern, and ..hell, its a one stop shop for all media types. also... I *really* love that you can use VST plugins. I won't ever leave the MC fold, man. yall keep up the good work
..oh yeah. steep learning curve? pfft. my *DAUGHTER* (a 7 year old) got it set up on her laptop at her mothers house...without my guidance. aint no learning curve to it! :)
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Hands down for the database capabilities. I have loads of videos and nothing else even approaches the capabilities of Media Center to organize them My Way!!
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I don't have anything terribly unique to add, but here are my reasons:
- Bit-perfect playback using ASIO, Kernel Streaming, and WASAPI drivers
- DSP support for convolution that is compatible with Acourate generated FIR filters
- Automatic selection of convolution filter based on source file sample rate (so cool!)
- Compatiblity with the slick JRemote phone/tablet app
- The DLNA Renderer supports DSP convolution, making it possible to apply digital room correction to any DLNA input stream!
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DSP.
Mainly Bass management.
Although primary an audio user I also like the madVR integration (i.e. image quality "out of the box").
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I got lucky.
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1. Support of my PS Audio DS DAC, iOS devices and DSD as well as any other format
2. JRemote Support
3. Flexible custom fields and views by JRemote
4. Support of QNAP NAS
I wouldn't have chosen JRiver if one of 1.-4. wouldn't have been supported
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JRiver does everything for me. I currently have 1,400 albums burned to FLAC files on to a Hard Drive, and here are the important reasons to me that I use JRiver Media Center. There are other reasons, but too many to list.
• JRiver has excellent bit-perfect sound quality, and plays virtually all file formats
• JRiver has very good Sound Quality on my two systems:
o Windows PC>JRiver>DAC>Amplifier>Headphones
o Windows PC>JRiver>Wi-Fi DNLA Streaming to Xbox>DAC>AV Receiver>Floor Standing Speaker
• Great way to keep your albums in a Library with cover art, and the ability to sort by artist, album, etc.
• Rips and Burns CD’s, and auto adds to your Library in any file format you choose
• Plays DSD files
• Easily creates CD’s from your music files
• Interacts with Amazon, Pono, HD Tracks, CD Baby, and others
• Plays Podcasts and video
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JRiver gets the basics right. I wanted a simple media player that everyone in the house could operate from the couch with minimal effort. I tried almost everything – Media Portal, Kodi, MCE, and many others. All were too complicated or messed up on the basics.
What I like about JRiver is that most operations can be done from the couch with a basic remote.
When you hit the back button, the video stops. The other media players require you to hit the stop button. A small inconvenience you might say, but everyone wants to use the back button, and, they get flustered when they hit the back button and the video disappears but keeps playing.
In JRiver you can delete the media from within Theater View using a remote. This is a big one. We use the PVR mainly for timeshifting. We have no desire to keep media for generations to come. Once we’ve watched it, we want to delete it. The other media players make deleting files far too mysterious and complicated.
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honestly because its the best sound I've heard from my pc. was on iTunes. then musicbee, which was a big jump from iTunes, but jriver is the player I've been looking for. still on demo too.
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I own MC18, but I shall buy MC22.
Why ?
The WDM Driver, that is the ability to stream to it TIDAL, Qobuz or even Spotify :(.
I would be happier if in some next version I could handle both my music "on premises" and "on the cloud" with one tool (MCXX, of course, not Roon !)
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Was using foobar at the time and tried MC to compare audio quality. Altho according to logic digital audio quality should sound the same it didn't. MC sounded better using wasapi more focus and clarity. JRemote was a real nice addition as remote (from before the creator became part of the team).
- Server: Being able to stream to devices with jremote or even web access.
- DSP even tho i don't need it much atm
Dont use it much for video or tagging
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Word of mouth.
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My first post.
I use Roon as my basic audio player, Foobar2000 as a tagging and organizing software and Plex as my video library.
But I bought JRiver because it can do most of their tasks with 90% of the effort. For example Roon is perfect for browsing but it can't tag files. Foobar2000 exactly the opposite. But I can't use it without sitting in front of my computer since it lacks auto downloading artwork and it's text only interface. Plex can read multi part movies and auto download subtitles but it's a web interface and I can't use it for manage physically my library.
With JRiver I can do all of these with one piece of software.
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Today I have uploaded some well known flac albums to my JRiver server and went back to my main PC, where I´m using RME Babyface ( audio card ). Launched JRiver client and connected to the server. Selected the ASIO device in the dropdown menu and started streaming the music from the server onto my Beyerdynamic headphones. Holy crap! I hear more details in the tracks! Now thats what I call nice surprise. Uploading all my music to the server now.
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I went with jriver as a HTPC front end and audiophile PC playback platform several years ago after having ripped all my digital media, that is CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays, and jriver was, and in my opinion still is, the only "all-in-one" HTPC front end that does both audio and video (I use MadVR) right, and in addition it is highly customizable on that part. I still pay for every new version to support great work on that front.
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Never been a fan of MC's "sound signature" to be honest. Won't go into SQ digressions but let's just say I didn't like the way my setup sounded with it or at least A+ bested it in my opinion.
"Had to" go back to using JRiver as it seems to work the best with my current configuration namely DLNA to the PS Audio Directstream Junior's Bridge II.
Gradually becoming more accustomed to the sound and liking it more by the day -which is a good thing. Will continue looking at settings options etc to see if there's anything else I can do to get it closer to the way I like things to sound.
The product works a treat though! And I do appreciate spaces such as this one for learning and sharing. Cheers all.
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I use it for music only and it does what I need it to do. I especially love the ability to play all of my music through my DSD dac without having to play around with switching formats.
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It was recommended to me a few years ago, when I switched from CD to a PC as my HiFi source. I use it only for music.
I very nearly switched to Roon+Tidal a few months ago but after lots of listening I decided that JRiver still sounds slightly better. That may be psychoacoustics but sound quality is more important than anything for me so I stick with JRiver for now.
It works well with my HiFi system.
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I came from Musicmatch Jukebox back in the day. I liked it until Yahoo bought it. Yahoo destroyed it and it went out of business. That's when I found JRiver. Been here ever since.
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Word of mouth from another Tango DJ brought me to it.
It has everything. And it's well QA'd. And has great sound.
I'm still on 30-day free trial, but unless I die in a freak accident in the meantime, I'm buying it. ;D
I'm also impressed with the support level -- and support speed -- I got on this forum both from users and JRiver employees. Often my question was answered well within a few hours and in more than one way.
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I'm using JRiver because I can easily implement and manage the chain of DSP's that I want to use. No other playback software that I'm aware of can manage PEQ + 3 VST's that I want (need) to use to enjoy music over headphones in a way I was not aware being possible.
I'm also happy that you have a way to access the Lynx Mixer within JRiver although that's more of a set-and-forget feature, it's convenient nevertheless.
I was almost lost to Roon, but since they're militant about not adding VST support I'm sticking with JRiver for now.
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I started on MusicMatch way back in the late 1990s. I was particularly a Mac user by early 2001; I switched over to a little program called SoundJam MP (there weren't a whole lot of options for MP3 players for Mac then). Then Apple bought it and turned it into iTunes. I stayed with iTunes through all the good and bad changes and felt like they really had it together by version 10.6. Then, for some reason unknown in this galaxy, Apple decided to redesign iTunes "from the ground up" (beware that phrase from Apple). I've always thought that artwork is an important factor in digital music, since it was (and still is) a big factor in vinyl LPs. CDs kind of diminished the impact for a while, but iTunes had some features that allowed it to display art quite nicely.
What Apple did in v.11 was effectively remove a *lot* of artwork features. The view was smaller, there wasn't a sidecar window -- and they got rid of CoverFlow, the closest thing to album sorting on a computer. Apple simplified a lot of the features and in some cases removed them totally. iTunes now sucked big time to me. I began looking for some alternative.
I found JRiver MC through a iTunes forum suggestion for a different player. I initially used MC on the Mac in the early days of that version, but last year made my PC the main player (involving some changes in destination and XML files). I'm happy with both the Windows and Mac versions, and sometimes in my flirts with Linux I use MC. I like the versatility of media support and metadata options. I think the song/album cover art support, plus the playback, is great. I've tried other players as alternatives, but nothing quite like MC.
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Hi all, why did I choose JRiver ? simple really nothing I had tried before, whether free or paid gave me the complete package of usability, customization and utter sound quality of this program, plus the DSP has really helped in getting my sound where I want it
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Initially, I migrated to JRiver because the open source solution I was using needed too much hand holding and because it handled every media format I threw at it (I remember vividly when Avatar came out in bluray, not all media players supported it initially, jriver did).
I stayed because the lavf author was hired (nevcairel in the doom9 forums).
This makes media playing rock solid.
It's not perfect and I have some "complaints", but I'll post them in the appropriate thread :)
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For me, it was the cataloguing. I tried other programs - I even wrote my own utilities - but in the end, nothing came close to JRiver Media Center in this regard.
The DSP Studio is nothing short of fantastic, and to say my Audeze LCD-4's sound "alive" with MC and "dead" with everything else seems unfair, but it is very true! Add some parametric equalization to it, drop the pre-amp on the equalizer to compensate... and it sounds amazing!!!
Finally... the tree view. O... M... G... The customisation on the library fields; the expressions; and the tree view - I am in HEAVEN every time I want to tinker with my library. I have customised it soooo much that I am scared when you release a new version, but so far I was able to upgrade to MC22 and MC23 without issues. :)
I am sure I can think of more too... but that sums up the basic ones. :)
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I like the layout of the interface is my main reason. I find it intuitive and while this may sound silly when I was young I used to love making mixtapes/cd's and I find the layout of JRiver well designed this way in creating a playlist on the go with lots of options.
While I know in many way this part is subjective: after upgrading my AMP that has a built-in DAC that takes USB connection I did prefer the audio results from JRiver versus iTunes or Groove Music to my ears. Just having upgraded my amp/speakers after having the last set of audio components for 15+ years the $50 seemed very little in comparison in cost.
So my music is now running through JRiver, a Cambridge Audio amp, and a midrange set of Mission speakers from the 90s outside of when I play a CD through my Arcam CD player. The Arcam CD player still sounds more solid, detailed, and nuanced but this (JRiver and Cambridge Audio integrated amp/dac) are amply close for half the price.
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Gizmo... Android, and web. I travel a good bit on business and the ability to load my library from pretty much anywhere in a web browser or the android app and watch TV series, movies, listen to music, etc... while I travel from place to place on contracts is heaven. With flash ending in 2020 I sincerely hope we're working diligently on an html5 replacement.
Add to that the flexibility to customize the sorting, grouping and organization of 10s of thousands of media files through these mediums and I was hooked. Almost a years worth of continuous play movies and tv shows alone makes this a can't live without feature. Add to that almost 900 albums and as physical media the library is all but unmanageable. Endless hours of sorting and organizing and still you can't find what your looking for among mountains of disks. MC solves that problem very nicely.
DLNA is a major factor in this for me as well. Every tv, receiver, blue-ray player in the house is dlna compatible with support for flac and mkv which are my containers of choice. They all pull, or are pushed to, by jriver constantly. Other than sporting events and news I never watch live TV and don't miss it.
I like the look of theater view but without an easy way to fast forward/rewind/jump to a location in the video like web gizmo provides I sacrifice the lovely interface for the convenience of this level of control. I'll switch to theater view when I want info about what I'm watching ... actors, director, release/air date, etc... but for managing playback and finding media to play web gizmo wins with me still.
J is the hub and control center of all AV in the house, and on the road. Keep up the awesome work guys. Love it!
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I am a brand new user as of MC23. I had heard of your software, but balked at the idea of paying for a media player/server.. as silly as that is.
I come from Foobar/Kodi(dsplayer) and I run in audio only mode. The UI is an improvement upon Foobar out of the box(FWIW) and also offers even more flexibility it seems.
I won't dare ask my family to give up Kodi's interface. At least for me there is no competition in the video space due to this.
I was always able to have audio UPnP with transcoding over both WAN and LAN links.. however, the plugin for this in foobar became unmaintained long ago, and had bugs in my particular configuration that were simply a headache. I also developed the desire to want my music server to be Linux based, so honestly your multi-platform support was a big draw. It also "just works" no hacking things together -- pretty impressive. Aside from lack of RANDR on my end initially(search isn't the greatest here) the Linux build ran just as flawlessly as windows build.
In addition out of the box, DSP support(w/ VSTs) is light-years ahead of Foobar. I needed a para EQ and Foobar would have been a hassle. MC took 5 seconds, builtin.
I feel like I got more than a placebo boost in quality overall when switching from: Foobar w/ Replaygain and Advanced Limiter -> MC with output leveling + peak normalization --
This is more an issue of ignorance, though.
My HD650s sound the same to the same output device with OEM cables, these incredibly cheap ones I bought, Foobar, or JRiver.
JRiver is just a hell of a lot more pleasurable to deal with-- as is this really cheap shorter cable.
I purchased a MC23 Master License, and will almost certainly buy upgrade licenses because frankly this is an impressive (supported well/updated frequently--at first glance) product, even if I use 1/8th of it and upgrades may not apply to me whatsoever. Chalk up a recurring sale to the forum team/devs.
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For me it's Smartlists. I haven't come across any other audio software that provides as much control over the creation of playlists as JRiver does. This is the indispensable part of the application for me.
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I started using MC almost 10 years ago because I was tired of iTunes being the sore limited software it was.
As of today, MC still allows me to deal with my 50 000 music files with unrivalled ease...
- library management
- tagging
- layout, views
- plays all formats
- speed
- forum support
And as someone pointed out earlier, some kind of sense of loyalty. Good product made by good people for a good price.
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MC has so many features (you even forget they are there). We had some Italian friends stay and watched a New Zealand Movie called Hunt for the Wilderpeople (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4698684/) on Blu Ray. Great Movie, but it did not include Italian Sub Titles. No probs with MC "--> Get Movie & TV Info --> Subtitles" and we had the Italian Subs. Love it!
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I chose it for WASAPI/ASIO direct connection, multiple zone and a bunch of other features. There is nothing that compares to the excellence that was put in to it's development. If I were to complain about something then it would be Microsoft's negligence with fixing the Start Button that freezes every time I use exclusive mode. Microsoft.... This is very annoying.
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MC has so many features (you even forget they are there). We had some Italian friends stay and watched a New Zealand Movie called Hunt for the Wilderpeople (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4698684/) on Blu Ray. Great Movie, but it did not include Italian Sub Titles. No probs with MC "--> Get Movie & TV Info --> Subtitles" and we had the Italian Subs. Love it!
I too.
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Audio only: sound quality, DSP, formats, library management, DLNA server, tagging, synching to devices.
Having said that, I will not upgrade until SoX upsampling parameters are user configurable. Including SoX parameters over DLNA server. I have asked this before, not interested in upgrading until it is implemented.
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1) Best Sounding
2) Best file organization
3) Most intuitive interface
4) Can do just about anything you could ask of a Media Player and usually does it very well
5) Has a great Forum Community
6) Fairly Priced
7) Playes nice with my OS and computer (Windows 7 Ultimate)
8 ) Integrates fairly well with my pro audio gear, better than any others I have tried.
9) Never ceases to improve with time.
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I use both JRiver and Kodi . JRiver main plus-points for me:
(1)Library Management and tagging in Standard View.
(2)Expression Language feature
(3) Audio DSP
(4)madVR integration natively.
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DSP (eq parametric filters, convolution, format conversion ...)
tag management
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Excellent question
I like:
Culture:
Active development cycles
Independent business, that cares
Forums and support
Tech:
support for external DACs - with plenty of useful options
full DLNA support
tagging options
database scope
remote control apps
portable install
auto playlists
What I'd like next:
full 2 way sync of file tags for external devices - not just iOS
ability to customize theatre view presentation- when I play Talk Talk, I get images from UK business called Talktalk :)
integration with streaming service Qobuz
onward development of Panel - its good, but the experience on my windows phone is not up to iOS and Android app standards
exposure of more tags in mobile apps
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I've been around JRiver/Media Center since the dawn of time, or so it seems - trading ripostes with King Sparta, arguing over file anti-copying technology, etc., though mostly silent the last few years. My main reasons for loyalty/stickiness:
(1) Superior audio quality. I'm not able to parse subtle differences in audio quality like some (too old), but know what I want my music to sound like since I have a lot of experience hearing it live and in person. I go back to Miles and Coltrane in the mid- and later 1950s.
(2) All in one solutions for things like tagging, metadata,etc. I don't have the patience for hopping from one application to another for each separate function, and besides, there are few other programs out there that challenge JRiver's functionality.
(3) The forum - a spirit of helpfulness from other users that far outstrips the help/support we receive elsewhere, if we ever receive it at all. Case in point: At another unnamed site, it took me three emails over a course of 10 days, each written in vernacular English, to even get support to understand what my issue was.
That said, every now and then I sense an air of condescension from advanced audiophiles/technogeeks at some of the less advanced users and their questions. I count myself in the latter cohort, but since I haven't had occasion to invade that space in the last few years, I haven't experienced it directly. Media Center and its users are so advanced and sophisticated that it sometimes seems a bit less welcome to those who are still learning. IMO, anyway.
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been using windows media player / center since vista i became a tester for new versions but they hated 3rd party add on and made it basic it worked well but was left behind with no new features and the growing codecs and decoders it was being left behind. i originally used to have a my cd and dvd collection as iso and used to mount images to play for exceptional playback downside was space and hard drive size with this i looked for an alternative and alternative formats i decided at the time mp3 and avi was my way forward after decoding cd after cd and dvd after dvd it was painfully hard in media centre having to manually type information. so i looked again and found JRiver Media Center 16.0.100 Retail imported all my cd collection and dvd collection and it went crazy everything mixed up and renamed. i was thinking my years manually typing in to media player had been a waste of time but as if by magic it started to come together now i had along time to fix what JRiver Media Center 16.0.100 Retail never and over time really enjoyed JRiver Media Center 16.0.100 Retail so never wanted to upgrade.
Last December was my birthday my uncle brought me MediaCenter220095 i installed and let it do its magic :) all i can say is jriver have been busy with updates and tweaks and would like to say the programmers are superb the forum is magic and helpful and MediaCenter220095 is awesome.
I know 23 is out now and will upgrade soon but I'm 100% a jriver fan and would 100% recommend to music or film buffs :)
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The reason I went to jriver is when microsoft started to shut down its tv tuner support and other things I really wanted a better replacement I did my research and saw all the positive reviews for JRiver and I could not believe the sound quality improvement I got for such a small investment. My gear is only mid range it made a huge improvement! Best media program ever :-)
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- Audio quality above all.
- Ease of set-up/stability. I haven't really been in the guts of a system since the heyday of MSDOS 3.1, and I don't have the patience or time to dig too deep. Constantly tinkering with freeware isn't in my audio system objectives, I have little enough time to listen as it is.
- Forum / support. I can usually figure out issues in the forum content.
- Business model - it has created a stable company that supports and improves its product over time. Nobody likes paying for version updates, but the updates provide value, support the company and honestly are really cheap in the audiophool world
Not a real fan of the library system, but it's still probably the best out there. And I've never used the video.
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...
So help me out. Why did you choose JRiver?
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In no particular order:
- audio quality
- library management (i.e., a real database "behind the scenes" with an extremely usable interface)
- reliability, a.k.a., it just works
- flexibility of configuration, e.g., media center server and media center client, plus all the other access and control options I've not yet explored
- also does video
- depth and usefulness of features
- it's fun to explore new features I can use
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I don't know if I am allowed to reply to my own message here, but I wanted to add one important item that I missed in my original message...
That is the intuitive nature of Theater View.
A friend was visiting earlier this week and Media Center was active. OK, I was showing it off. :)
At one point, while MC was in theater view, I just gave the remote (a regular Inteset remote) to my friend. Well he started using Media Center Theater View quite easily. No special programming on the remote, no instructions to my friend, he just used the usual arrow keys and selection keys as he thought they should work.
He had no problems navigating and finding the music he wanted to listen to.
Kudos to those who brought the Theater View to the fore. And thanks!
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I love the links - added one for lyrics. Using the Wiki link for the artist provides hours of entertaining reading while listening. And I bring up tagging all the time to see composer.
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- Sound quality
- Library Management (customize views, library fields, expression language, tagging possibilities etc.)
- Possibility to sync handhelds
- Helpful forum
- Rich feature set!
Really, i don't know any software in this segment which provides a comparable all in one package.
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For me it was the ease of getting it up and running. I downloaded it, went through the set up and in no time I was watching live OTA TV. I imported my library's and now can watch all of my DVD copies and recorded TV shows.
I am now working on getting all of my music imported and tagged. So far the only issues I have had was when I upgraded my HTPC to Win 10. I ended up having to reinstall MC to get it to work. [Thanks to RoderickGI for his help and advice.]
I was a user of Kodi for a few years and was very tired of all of the issues, error messages, constant lock ups and a very unfriendly user forum. Seemed like I had to reinstall it every six weeks to keep it working. The people on here seem like they really want to help new users.
The wife was not sure that she wanted to learn a new system but she caught on very quickly and likes its ease of use. I showed her how I could now play music on my phone using Gizmo she now wants me to add Gizmo to her android tablet and phone so she can take her music with her.
I am using the free trial and plan on buying soon as well as JRemote. Another thing I like the way that standard view and theatre view are separated. Less confusion for a new user. My wife has no desire to get into organizing library's, importing or tagging so this works out best for us.
I have MC set up upon start up yo go directly to Theatre View so the user can than decide if they want to watch TV, or view a movie etc.
I have been studying the Wiki and there is just so much that can be done to customize MC. Thanks to all for providing a great product.
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The DB capability is amazing. With a few commands under your belt it cleverly leads to immense flexibility in displaying and sorting media in just about every way imaginable. This is great when you want ultimate control over things others may not be bothered about (e.g. bonus material, easily automating imports etc.)
It makes achieving perfect audio and best possible video reproduction about as easy as it could be. First time I've actually been able to view all my video media and been confident the experience matches and exceeds a good DVD or BR player taking clocking issues into account.
And.. The hope that things can be improved (theatre view) with gentle persuasion (theatre view) because with minor tweaks (theatre view) some things could be better (theatre view) :-)
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JRiver Windows my go to from way back with occasional updated versions along way. Always used JRiver strictly for audio file play/control. Purchased Mac version after adding a Macbook Pro to my stable.
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For the VST container + iTunes+++ functionality
IF a plugin is coded to be resizable you can resize it in JRiver MC. Icing on the cake.
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I choose JRiver as it was recomended by HiFi Choice as the best for Audio and have not been disappointed. Also tried Foobar and Winamp.
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It's not the only reason I chose it, but the large flexibility is an important reason, illustrated by it solving my problem, and saving me from buying a new amp here:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,114228.0.html
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Hi Guys
This is my first post. Why did I choose JRiver? A few years ago I wondered if I could digitise my record and CD collection. Knowing absolutely nothing about the subject I scoured the Net and learned. I chanced on JRiver one day and have been using it ever since, despite my son trying to lure me over to Plex ugh! JRiver does it better. IMHO.
I had a Hafler 100 pre amp doing nothing and an old Luxman TT plus a good quality Pioneer cassette deck all connected to an ancient EMac and using Vinyl Studio for file capture.
Works OK for me, I'm 78 and a bit hard of hearing so the quality produced is sufficient and iI am happy with it. Plays back through an 80s Hafler amp and pre amp and a couple of Cabasse Clippers. I have over 10,000 files now both sound and video and still going.
Cheers
Robin
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As it seems to play mostly everything although I had issues with two CD's I had ripped to my PC using Itunes.
I was using Itunes for years for mostly my imported CD's and Itunes purchases.. All that software ever did was give me headaches and stress. I tried JRiver and it seems to do everything I was able to do on Itunes but better and has various options for listening to music or video files. it is the best media player I tried yet..also Itunes updates...almost every time I updated, my playlists would still be there but I would go in and some tracks would disappear....Apple and Itunes = unreliability...Itunes also wanted to update almost every week. I also bought an Iphone and returned it as it crashed and frozen on me on first use (it was brand new in a box from 02)...my Sony phones have never done this in all the years I used sony phones....so overall I wanted away from Apple products and software...and even getting everything I purchased from Itunes was difficult to get as I had DRM on some of the music I purchased...even getting all those tracks without the DRM taken me nearly 3 months...and that is with using Itunes match...so Itunes didn't go without a fight and gave me issues right up until the end...that is the main reason I was looking for a new media player. I googled, found JRiver, did the trial and had to buy. For some one who listens to everything from a high end cinema AV receiver and Speakers JRiver seemed to be perfect for me and still does...but as I said I did have issues playing two CD's but I put that down to echoes from the trouble I had with Itunes which I had used to import those CD's initially..
P.S I am aware there will probably people who use Iphones but I had a bad experience with their products and software and on top of that my friend has just sent back her third IPhone in total as they had nothing but problems with it...like not being able to get on line, yet I am sitting next to her with my sony phone with super fast internet. Then the Iphone not ringing every time someone calls...so from my experience and my friends who will never get an iphone again...so yep from my experience and what I have seen apple = unreliability and headaches.
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What a fair deal.
I bought today the license for MC24 – the upgrade price is incredible fair. Especially, as we can use the same license for several computer machines.
I´m using MC just for listening music – at the end MC 20 would be more than enough for me. But I like to support JRiver for such a great work. I bought and will buy any new version.
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Have to agree that it's not a simple program to use or to find instructions for, but it's infinitely better than iTunes!
It's easy to convert file formats (when you know how). Select the files(s) you want to convert then go to the Tools menu and select Advanced Tools/Convert Format. that brings up a dialogue box with various options including ALAC.
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I wanted some way to copy all my multitudinous CD but seem to have chosen the FLAC (sp?) version and cannot use those with iTunes, and cannot find out if there is a quick way to convert them to AFLAC (sp?) or if I need to extract them all over again
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Convert_Format
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This is a good question. I started with media centre many years ago; not sure which version but maybe 15 or 16. I am a member and mod of an audio forum and we recently had a thread similar to this.
I use jriver as it is regularly improved, does most things audio very well, and sounds great with the right equipment. the competition is strong, no doubt, and many prefer the likes of roon endpoint via say an rpi. i have a rpi and although it is very good, jriver imo beats it, and is more flexible. great for headphones too as you can tailor it to suit the cans etc. looking forward to 24, and usually buy a new version as i like to show my support to the makers as this is a very good value product.
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It's kind of a Swiss knife for music lovers. Great piece of software!
1- Sound quality
2- Designed to bitstream well
3- DSD
4- Plays everything
5- Server library management - keep your music in one place, choose when and how to listen
6- J Remote App - listen to your music from everywhere
7- DLNA management
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There were two things I was looking for when I found JRiver:
- A flexible GUI that had both a list-style interface and a nice, customizable showcase-style one.
- A media server with internet streaming capability and an iOS version
The JRiver GUI is the best out there by a mile. The four display modes feel like they were made just for me. The streaming is also excellent.
When I found JRiver, the other aspect that sold me (as if I wasn't sold already) was:
- The library management and cataloging capabilities
... which answered a requirement I hadn't had the audacity to set. They are truly outstanding and I still get excited about them, many years later.
Since purchasing and using JRiver for an extended period, the other major thing that stands out for me is:
- The extensive DSP and routing options
... which have gotten me out of a tight spot on a few occasions.
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way, way back, I used MusicMatch Jukebox. Loved it. Then, they went belly up. At that point, I started looking for an equivalent replacement. Looked at lots of media players, and they all were lacking in one way or another. I then found JRiver MC 15. It was everything I wanted, and more. Now on MC23, and eagerly awaiting MC24. Keep up the good work, folks.
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JRiver is the best bang for the buck choice -
Great sound quality
Library
Streaming ease
File conversions
Plays just about anything
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1. Works w/the three major OS's (although i later found out we need some workarounds for android);
2. Plays all major file types;
3. Plenty of audio quality settings;
4. Good interoperability with a great variety of hardware peripherals (DAC's, Wifi Tx/Rx, Raspberry, etc.)
5. Each device can interact w/each other device;
6. Almost each device in your network can be either server/client/streamer/renderer depending on your need at any moment;
7. Private cloud-like facilities for on the move operation;
8. No recurring fees, only additional fees when additional 'products' are delivered (we don't like monthly bills!).
9. JRiver seems a serious party on this market, where everything keeps changing at ever increasing speeds. This gives me the confidence that my investment (in time and effort i mean!!) will turn out to be worthwhile for some time to come.
Probably still forgetting some items.
So, are there no alternatives that also offer these benefits? Sure, when you look around it seems there are plenty that offer (almost) the same, even at little or no cost.
So my reply to that is: i don't believe in free lunches. Number 9. is an important factor there.
In addition, number 8. is almost as good as a no cost option. I rather pay a fair price when what i get in return is well worth it.
Tx for your patient presence on this forum, gtz from Amsterdam.
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It was between JRiver and Sonic Studio. Sonic Studio's interface was horrible. JRiver's works great. As a result, I went with JRiver.
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The flexibility, the quality and the serious look of its audio engine. More simply, at that time, I was looking for a media center with multi-channels VSTs support and it was (it's?) the only one.
Same flexibility, quality and serious look of the video engine with quality customisable codecs and filters well integrated by default.
Then I discovered the scripting for display, DLNA configurations, Zones, etc... I am impressed by the possibilities.
In short, flexibility while it remains solid out of the box.
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Have left all others (iTunes, A+, Roon, Foobar) behind and now use JRiver alone. Well the Windows and the IOS version.
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I started with MC back with Version 10 because:
- Easy setup of Direct Show codecs/filters
- DVB-T support
- Excellent tagging and database manipulation
- Theater View
- Zones
- The AMAZING support via this forum from very supportive users (and developers of course)!
Richard
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The sound in the 24 version became simply chic, very dynamic and scrolled in space, just super!
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Hands Down - Sound quality
- Library Management (customize views, library fields, expression language, Renaming, Organizing, tagging possibilities etc.)
- Possibility to sync handhelds
- Helpful forum
- Rich feature set!
- Fantastic Smartlist/Randomizing
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After the real "death" of Total Media Theater I search for a good software that can play 3D bluray without problems. So that's it! And I found JRiver really fantastic and full of LOT of things I can do to see movies better than ever.
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Why I like no love MC Simply! it deliever everything that real network real player (back in the day) rather now Real One, Windows media player,, and WinAmp does but with so much more versatility of all the rest MC is just the "GTO" of Player and everyone else is Looking at Their Tail Lights. All diff formats - sound quality - plugins - steaming - routers - heck even tv - it's Just the Best Bang Bang for the Buck don't believe me watch any Blue Ray, video, heck even go to Amazon, or even google If u like youTube MC got ya covered this is it one stop shopping and you can even play your fav Song video or whatever if your system has the horse power you can have it all while gaming. I'm telling you over the few years I have brought them all. MC is the Real Deal absolutely the Best Bang for the Buck. and Support is Just simply amazing. personally I have open at least dozen windows with action from games to watching videos never once did my music miss a beat I was in a zone and Thanks to MC I was above the call of duty on my gaming. Just when you think these guys can't step up their game. Blam! Instance steaming and deals with radio station u heard about but couldn't get to. heck u got a fav station u got the option to add it to your fav. The Folks At JRiver are no Joke. As innovatively as these folks they set the standards in Performance and Quality workmanship. And No I have no stock in this company,I don't get a kick back, nor do I receive any other Perks. No association what so ever. and I Pay what everyone else pays. then why ? Because I'm trying to help u save time money and effort. if your an apple die hard yelp your covered and Linux and Mac folks yea you guess it your covered to. FYI I use to be a Linux guy. so yea I'm an android dude as well. Just trying to let any and all no from my experience. Best Bamg For The Buck. is at "J-Rivers Media Center". And Yes I Have been grooving to music and playing two games at the same time that I'm typing this .Why I like MC comment. And that's all I got today say about that.
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- Usability
- Ability to easily setup and play DSD
- Sound quality
- Same player for Win10 and Mac OS
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I was trying out MediaPortal when I came across JRiver MC. MP was unable to recognize and use my AverMedia capture card for connecting to my STB tuner.
I also like the fact that MC uses multiple sources for TV and Movie metadata - I was able to get the correct info for several shows that MP either messed up or missed.
I haven't tried out all of the features yet - but what I have used impresses me.
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This one is easy:
1. Fun to use
2. Fun to setup
3. Plays ALL multimedia files
4. Library Management is marvellous
5. Theatre View for use with HTPC is flawless
6. did I say FUN?
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I first thought of using JRiver to handle Movies & TV Shows...but I was going to leave all of my music alone on MediaMonkey. I know, right? I needed to have a theater view for the house and Kodi started giving me problem after problem, so I figured I'd try this 30-Day evaluation with JRiver. Now, I've decided to migrate my music library in JRiver for one stop shopping. My music library was about 130,000 songs (Lots of Bootleg concerts for my favorite bands) and I spent months getting it into shape with MM.
Migrating my music to JRiver has been a miserably slow process, but it's mostly my fault. One reason I decided to use JRiver for music was for the .cue/.flac (or .ape or .wv, etc) support. MediaMonkey doesn't support that natively and I feel like crying when I think of how many .flac files I had to split with CUE Tools so MM could work with the individual tracks - it's the only way it knows how, natively. I recently learned there was a custom script that would load .cue files, but by time I learned about that I had already made the decision to go with JRiver for my music too. And we all know there are no takesy backsies allowed. ;D
I'm starting to come around to the way JRiver works, but there are a lot of things I don't care for and/or have not gotten used to. Also, I have read so many posts on this forum here and elsewhere and people are talking about how powerful JRiver is and how you can do so much...but unfortunately, I can't seem to find any examples of these wonderful possibilities. I was hoping to find some videos on YouTube for Mid-Skilled and Advanced-Skilled usage of JRiver. The only videos I found were 15 minute videos explaining how to import music files or some other very basic functions that most people would have no trouble figuring out in 5 or 10 minutes.
I do believe that in time I will come to love JRiver. I know that it's hard to make major software switches. 15 years of MediaMonkey usage in a bit different than 15 weeks of JRiver.
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Split a reply to Cataloguing Fun (https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,117306.0.html)
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It was the VST support. Without the VST support I would have never bought something like JRiver. There's already a gazillion other free music players out there. Bought a couple of VST plugins years ago, and while Foobar2000 could run them it doesn't have something like WDM which JRiver has (as far as I know). I can watch Youtube or Netflix movies and have the sound processed through the plugins. I don't have to use Spotify's (or whatever player's) basic -- or non-existent -- equalizer. Well, for just basic equalizer use, I could use miniDSP for almost all my setups... but VSTs are so much more convenient and no new hardware needed. I remember trying Dirac (standalone without JRiver) but wasn't entirely happy with the sound so I'm sticking with my VSTs. Native video, photo, streaming and other features just happened to be extras I didn't care about AT FIRST as I originally just used "audio mode" exclusively for some time. I can't say JRiver is better for photos than other programs like ACDsee or Lightroom, but at least its very functional. There's always room for improvement in those other areas. In terms of just pure audio, JRiver is quite close to absolutely perfect.
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My brother spent tens of thousands on a very nice hi res music system. The Id seemed to me to be a cost effective high res music server. And it came loaded with MC.
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I choose JRiver because I was and am very picky about how my media is displayed. My music collection is expansive and so is my other media. I have an 8 disk (expandable to 12 disks) Snology NAS that currently has 37 TB, only 17TB is free right now, and it is full of nothing but movies, music, tv shows and everything. And YES I also subscribe to Netflix and the like but they don't have everything and I do not feel like subscribing to 18 different places just to watch an old Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode back to back with the latest Avenger's movie right after listing to a couple hours of Indi rock. I can do all of that with a couple clicks of JRiver and on EVERY TV IN THE HOUSE! And I have a lot of tv's!
I can choose the media art that is displayed, I can add additional info to the movies like a movie counter so I know exactly which movie I have and each movie can have its own independent identifier. I can rate the movies according to how I like the movie instead of how others like the movies. I can even make a play list for myself making binge watching more fun! Say on Halloween for instance, I can set up a playlist for all day to watch all of the Halloween movies in order OR I can watch just the classics, first Halloween, first Friday The 13th, first Chucky etc, and I don't have to click on anything, just let it run. Once it's set it's set.
I researched all of this before joining way back in the day and I have been a loyal customer ever since. NO one else has the system JRiver has and I have tried a lot of them. Believe me on this.
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My brother spent tens of thousands on a very nice hi res music system. The Id seemed to me to be a cost effective high res music server. And it came loaded with MC.
1. JRemote
2. Multiple platforms, Mac in particular
3. DSD playback
In that order. ;)
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To sum it up.
1)Recommended by HiFi mags.
2)Sound quality. Plays native DSD through Asio that my IFI iDSD supports.
After I got the trial version and downloaded it to my Asus Vivo Mini I discovered some other features.
3)Simplicity.
4)Loads of user-ability and boxes to tick. Easy to omit files and formats. Gapless and various fade out options.
5)Plays entire albums that my Network player Denon DNP-730AE has great pain with.
I couldn't be bothered with video codec hell.
I've used a good number of decent Media players including VLC, RealPlayer, MediaMonkey, Plex and Kodi. Started out as a PC-user and as storage became cheaper it was evident that PC could render music almost up to CD-player standard if one could kill that HD/fan/processor that always seems to work overtime.
Lap-tops and more noiseless processors made that possible.
I wanted flac so I got Media Monkey in 2010 to rip my cd's and stored them on a Qnap NAS.
Then I ditched my Vista PC and went over to MAC. Snow Leopard was clearly better than Windows 7 when it came to sound-quality.
I have 3 Macs now and I like the simple Midi window where you select output.
However Hi-res music has arrived. I'm a regular buyer of HDtracks and it came with a downloader from JRiver.
Since I have many HDtracks albums I thought they would benefit from MC 24 so I went out and bought a Windows 10 PC. And the first program I downloaded apart from the anti-virus was MC 24.
Now my old Vista PC is almost derelict and no longer supported. But the music collection is alive.
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Dearest JRiver, why did I choose you? Let me count the ways.
1. Originally because it played .ape files.
2. Music Library Cataloging - I prefer my digital music library to be organized and uniform - I love that I can F6 incoming music and easily format to my preference.
3. Because iTunes. Used it initially with the purchase of an apple product and hated the lack of custom functionality.
4. Because of this support forum.
5. I'm in love with JimH (hint: I'm right behind you)
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It's been 10 years, but these were or are the top items in no particular order:
- flac audio
- library server. I play to a copy of MC at work and JRemote in the car.
- Theater view
- Easy use of bluray rips with ROHQ that just works
- It's a REAL database, not an xml file or collection of flat files
- Multi-zone audio playback. I don't join zones, but there are 5 zones that I could be playing something at any given time.
- Transcode flac to mp3 to sync to portable devices
- The power of expressions and customizable database fields
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there was an evolution.
at first I used what came with windows, then moved to MusicMatch, that died and I also started hearing about hi-res.
so I did some research (and bought a DAC and amplifier) and there was basically foobar and JRiver, that was around v.20. I bought v.21 and was so happy with the sound quality, how customizable it is and it did all I needed eliminating other software (burning/ripping).
I think it's a fantastic program so I've stayed with it, upgrading every year. love the x64 version :)
I stick with what meets my needs and I really like, so why waste time looking around. JRiver does it!
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Audio Tagging. The tagging interface is hands down the best on the market of anything I've used. I don't even actually use MC for playback yet on my desktop but i still bought a full linux licence just to keep tagging.
My next step is to make sure i can sync play history between my MC servers / rhythmbox / ampache. I have about 14 years of music history which i sync between rhythmbox and ampache using SQL/Python/tsv files. This is all automated so I need the same thing to actually be present on MC when i go back and forth.
There are perl tools on the forums i need to work on but haven't had time to start.
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I stumbled across HTPCs on avsforum, and started learning about the various software platforms along with the hardware to support the application(s). I built my first HTPC using a Kanam HT200B case, gigabyte LGA775 motherboard, dual core pentium, dual tuner capture card p, and IR blasters for my two cable set top boxes! I was going to use SageTV, and I even bought license for it. Then shortly after that I came across XP Windows Media Center. Back then the only way you could get it was on a OEM system builders disc. I was hooked.
They used to have a monthly computer show at The Scottish Rite Center here in San Diego. First part of 2005 I bought the disc with some other hardware there and at another place called PCAlchemy through thier website. I put it all together installed XP Media center, and I was off to the races.
Shortly after that I discovered MyMovies. I used it mostly for cataloging because at that time hardrives where pretty expensive. Anyone remember that Nividia DVD codec you had to buy separately? I used to just stick a disc in the dvdrom to rip my CDs to MP3s, and Media Center would do the rest. I was shielded by a lot of the complexity of tagging and organization. I’ve been using Windows Media Center up until very recently with TMT.
Which brings me to JRiver Media Center. What do I like about it? The number one thing for me is the built in player for DVDs and Blu-Rays. It does playback with menus! Everything I’ve thrown at it plays with out a problem. The picture is great, and I don’t have to be concerned about codecs! It just works. I like theatre view, and I can pick different skins though I’m rather fond of MetroX. Unlike PowerDVD there’s no special command that I have to use to force it to close to give up focus to get back to media center.
It would be nice if we had a actual application for creating theatre view skins like SageTV had with Sage studio.
I’ve never really been a big audio enthusiast, but now that I’m discovering what JRiver can do. I want to better organize and re-rip my CDs 1:1 now. SACDs! I had no idea you could play them. The tagging and organization is great, and I’ve just barely scratched the surface. I like the ability to pick only the formats you are interested in.
Zones, and there is so much more. It’s not an easy application, but little by little I’m getting the hang of it. Now I want to run out and buy a DAC, receiver, and speakers. I haven’t owned a receiver in over 20 years!
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I just ditched Kodi that I've been using in conjunction with MPC Videoplayer.
JRiver is not an easy app though... getting through customization is a major task that requires a LOT of reading ;-)
However, iso support, HD Sound support, Harmony remote usability out of the box and not the least MadVR and custom filter support along with the fabulous Theater UI, is for me the reason I chose JRiver.
BR
Sky
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I like jriver because of it's feature to move bass to subwoofer which no other player like Kodi or vlc had.
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Initially chose this great program for DSD playback after purchasing a new stereo system and deciding to upgrade my digital music library from iTunes and MP3 to uncompressed and high-res audio. The learning curve was a bit challenging but the flexibility of MC24 is amazing in terms of library management, file playback and processing, and depth of features and functions. I've got separate outboard DACs (one handles DSD and my main DAC does not) and a range of channel formats and with MC24 I can choose how to downmix or downsample when necessary and create zones for different file types, create multiple library views. I'm sure I've barely scratched the surface of what this software does but I can't think of a reason to consider any other media player than JRiver, my most worthy software investment for sure.
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What led me to JRiver was the WDM Driver during my beginning steps into the audiophile world. I wanted system-wide sound that was Parametric EQ'd and I didn't like the other options available so I got to googlin'. I ran across a post on a website, that I can't recall, and the post more or less raved about how impressed he was about the quality of audio and video he was able to achieve and what stood out in his post was how switching tracks in was instant, so I was intrigued. I installed it and loved it. Even got a fellow audiophile interested friend to get MC.
Fast forward 1.5 years... I didn't have the funds to purchase during this period and I'm a lil ashamed to say I used a cracked version of the player, but I vowed to purchase when I had the funds. And now here I am with MC25 legit version. (:
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I came here by following LAV and being disappointed by Kodi.
I came from Doom9 to several A/V forums to read about LAV/madvr and HDR, HDR worked first on Nvidia graphics and of course I just bought AMD.
Tried some other media players to get HDR to work.. MPC-HC/BE worked..but lacked the library.
Then I read that Hendrik/nevcairiel worked on JRiver. So I checked it out...and bought it.
Mainly use the theatre view. I love it. Plays Blu Rays with menu. Lets me fine tune madvr. And the wife is satisfied with the easy controls.
Now I am starting to add some music and catalog it.
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Itunes had screwed up our tags at some point a few years ago, and after going through a bunch of alternatives, JRiver proved to be hands down the best, most flexible manager for me, particularly for use with tag management, keywords, etc. Also use the API to extract playlists and music information for use in Mixxx for DJ work we do. I wish Mixxx had an API as good as JRiver.
We were also going away from IPods...still wish Sansa made something as good as the old Clip+ which I still use. Everything else was hooky at best with managing non-Apple devices.
In fact, at some point the alternatives all seemed slightly broken if you wanted to do anything other than just play music.
Best money I spend each year upgrading....don't want you guys to go away!
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Hello!
I have recently dug up the PCM vs DSD problem for my personal thorough understanding, for there are a lot of articles, points of view and explanations that can be found on the web. Being an owner of a net player with the CS4398 DAC onboard (Marantz NA8005), which is a sigma-delta DAC, I realized and clearly heard that this DAC plays 1bit data (DSD) better than multibit ones (PCM).
I made comparisons between a 2019 recorded track (Steve Hackett’s Fallen Walls and Pedestals) encoded in PCM 48k24 (all my hi-res files are AIFFs 48k24) and DSD128, and clearly heard a better sound in DSD version! I also encoded and compared the track in question in DCD64, PCM 44.1k24 (original), PCM 88.2k24, PCM 176.4k24, and understood that DSD64 sounds poorer, and all others PCMs sound just like the first PCM ordinary and plainly.
It was clear at that moment that my DAC likes to eat DSD128 better than any other formats and that all my hi-res library needs to be converted into DSD128. The problem with space was minor however the resulting DSD file is approximately 5 times bigger than the original 48k24 AIFF, I simply added some “DSD air” to the music information and kept it on the USB flash drive. I was quite happy until I faced the problem with the gapless playback of the music. Every time the track ended I clearly heard the click between the tracks, and the louder was the ending the louder and more unpleasant was the click. You know that a DSD file is simply ineditable on home laptops, so I started to look for a proper converter on the web. The result was zero! All converters that I found (a dozen of free and paid) couldn’t eliminate the click between the tracks!
Then it occurred to me that the conversion can be made on the fly by a computer, and as the PCM to DSD calculations are quite CPU consumable, so the player in question should meet my very high standards. I tried several ones (free and paid) and understood that JRiver MC25 handles this on-the-fly conversion far better than others! The player sends data to the DAC in DoP DSD128. Both problems were solved – the minor – all my hi-res library files stayed the same AIFFs 48k24 and saved me from a purchase another terabyte drive, and the major – all music played now absolutely seamless!
A math comment – I know that DSD128 (5.6M) data should better be converted from 44.1k multiples, but comparing the two conversions (from 48k and from 44.1k) I heard no difference. Possessing 48k24 hi-res files it’s better to have a DAC that understands DSD128 (6.1M) but I don’t have one at the moment, and I don’t know if JRiver player has such an option, but that’s a minor issue.
My love to 48k24 AIFFs is also deliberate and explainable, but in another post if anyone will be interested.
So my answer is – JRiver MC 25 ultimately meets my high standards of music perception at the very affordable price and a widest technical support! Many many thanks to the JRiver team!
Regards,
Yuri
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Here’s why I bought JRiver:
I use all lossless music files (mostly AIFF and some FLAC) which are ripped from my CD’s and bought as hi res downloads from Pro Studio Masters (excellent customer service).
I read recommendations on the Steve Hoffman forums about JRiver and purchased a license and am so happy that I did.
First and foremost, the sound quality of my music using JRiver is stellar and the 64-bit MC25 upgrade makes it all the better, and significantly so. The sound is so clean, clear and natural, without artificial enhancements, I absolutely love it.
It works very nicely with my McIntosh MHA50 headphone amp/DAC.
The interface is beautiful.
The option of different skins is really nice. I love the Modern Cards Dark Edition skin.
Being able to enlarge my hi res album art to full size using Display View (with a nice black background, and very quickly with cntrl + 3, and easily back to player view with esc) is great and helps bring me back to the days of LP album covers.
Cover view is also very nice.
Being able to sort the albums by artist and then by release date is great.
Tagging is super easy.
Thank you very much and keep up the great work!
Next, I need to work on all of my photos.
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The catalyst was that I simply ran out of patience trying to get native DSD play using foobar2k (not that I dislike foobar). With minimal hassle I figured out JRiver native DSD and it's been a real joy!
Very glad I finally purchased, as I'm discovering what a truly great player this is, especially the DSP area and the mind-boggling amount of available options in so many different areas.
Now that I have a few different DACs it's truly an enjoyable experience setting different things up and seeing how they sound. And the sound....the sound is the best of any player I've used, from WMP to Winamp to Audirvana Plus for Win 10, Amarra, etc., etc. I also like that JRiver is reasonable in letting one install to more than 1 PC, in addition to probably THE most painless activation process vis a-vis the activation code installer.
Bottom line--money well spent for a program that will pay dividends for years to come!
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The options, Options.... OPTIONS! and the much better and more powerful UI and media management.
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I bought a Denon AVR that came with nearly useless software. No way to play audio files from my laptop on the sound system I dropped several thousand dollars on, despite the salesjerk having totally overlooked that little service gap. Denon tech support told me I needed JRiver, so I bought it.
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I started using JRiver when my cd collection became to large and JRiver supported Flac, also at the time I was into HA and the Cinemar Mainlobby music player changed. I started using JRiver for video when TheaterTek went away and I haven't changed since then. I have 900GB of Flac files and 10TB of video
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I'm surprised I never answered this. I chose JRiver because it worked with Netremote (I'd still love to have a Netremote (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MURCo10UKK0) like app for my PC). I've stayed because of all the options and excellent database management capabilities.
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To be honest, Ive dabbled with JRiver for about 10 years but never elevated it to my primary cataloging system. I meandered from WMP to MusicMatch Jukebox to Winamp and then finally to MediaMonkey. I like MediaMonkey, and still use it, but not as my primary server application. For that Ive moved entirely over to JRiver. I made this decision mainly because of its enhanced networking capabilities; its server-client workability and its "best in class" Theater interface. It works with my Global Cache IR remote system, it works with my Harmony Remotes, the theater screens are gorgeous and 100% customizable and it supports the encoding schemes I work with most. Added bonus that its uber reliable and cross platform compliant and then theres MCWS for those brave enough to tinker "under the hood"
The icing on the cake is this user forum, its jam packed with tricks, details and a massive knowledge base
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This app simply rocks! It can play just about every media file I throw at it!
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For AUDIO PLAYBACK ONLY:
- Stability
- WDM
- Max volume protection
- Lossless 64-bit internal volume control
- Convolution engine and digital XO support
- Various audio format and bit[rate|depth] support
- Multi-platform support (master license)
- Use on multiple personal computers
- 64-bit binary and low latency/low CPU utilization
- Memory playback
- Large library support
- Easy imports from external rips
Most new development appears to be focused on video related features. I have no interest in the video features, haven't and probably will never use them.
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So help me out. Why did you choose JRiver?
My first encounter with MC was when I dedicated myself to convolution filters and came across Ueli (I use Acourate to create my filters), who told my about the built in convolution engine. So I gave it a try. When I realized that the GUI is not really what I was used to on a Mac, and the uncertainty whether it would interact well with the iTunes lib, I compared MC to the other solutions (Audirvana, Pure Music, BitPerfect), but they all have their flip sides. So finally I chose MC.
- Convolution engine w/ auto switching
- With one license multiple clients can be used
- Superb JRemote
- Scripting, custom library fields, custom playlists
- Mac and Win support
- Price lower than other competitors
- Syncs well on iTunes lib changes (as I still use iTunes as my main lib)
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Media Center is most powerful multimedia database and organizing tool.
The user definable filters and views allow overview over thousands of movies, images and sounds stored on different locations. It helps me finding duplicates, allows sorting and storing in customizeable schema. Out of the box, it can do a lot - but more important: It allows it do your way.
The user interface is great. It is a bit more complex than spotify. But a Jet requires some more instruments than a car.
There are many tools around which make a lot of people happy. Mostly because they have no price. For users which care about privacy, users which like to own a song instead of streaming, and users which for whatever reasons won't go with rest - for these users MC is probably the best. Thanks JRiver!
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My media library is old (many decades like me) and is now very large and cumbersome. Worse yet - I never want to get rid of anything, even if I don’t listen to it anymore.
In the end, having tried everything else (everything available for PC), JRiver Media Center is the last true media player standing. It works extremely well!
I chose JRiver Media Center for the following:
• flexibility of playback options. It talks to my DACs anyway I wish!
• It plays and catalogs all my music regardless of file format. It even converts my old space hogging formats to better ones.
• It is powerful enough to handle more than 20 TB of music (all other platforms cratered much earlier)
• database querying and tagging capabilities - are fantastic
• point-and-click asset navigation is seamless, customizable, and very powerful
• Play Doctor helps me explore my library in a totally different dimension
• it has JRemote as a remote app for iOS and Android that works just great!
• in-home media sharing and client/server functions are powerful and flexible
• the forum, as a tech support vehicle, has been effective and rewarding
• platform continues to evolve, which makes me happy
In my opinion, the application/platform is worth (way) more than what they’re charging.
I have been a customer since version 18 and it’s only gotten better!
One happy customer.
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Keeping this thread alive
Strangely why I chose JRiver originally a very very long time ago was for creating Mp3.
It was the one program I found that had an uninterrupted workflow. Put CD in, it automatically digitised (to ogg or mp3 back then), looked up names, kicked CD out, you put the next one. I could keep going about my business and swapping CDs whenever I saw them, then after a session, go clean up the album details that were incorrect.
When you have 100s of CDs that was worth the price.
Why I kept it and upgraded after that, probably still all the library management, and then the DLNA support and jriver server.
I dont even scratch the surface all all the audiophile settings, or video or TV etc though I keep thinking I should
Why I keep upgrading every other version? Habit, support, and hope that perhaps this time around zone time delay settings will work and allow me to play both on my room GGMMs and on my local hifi...
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I chose JRiver for the audiophile capabilities only for my stereo hifi setup, signing on at version 23.
As support for Windows 7 and its included Windows Media Center is coming to an end, I have tried various alternatives to WMC, but none of them met my needs. It then occurred to me to use JRiver for that purpose, also. It required quite a lot of tweaking to get the 10-foot interface to work as I needed it to, but the work was worthwhile.
One of the best improvements over Windows Media Center, in my opinion, has to do with how the software handles recording two shows that are back to back on the same channel, when there are multiple tuners available. JRiver will use two different tuners, allowing each show to have the specified extra minutes of recording before and after the show, to be sure that the show will be recorded in its entirety. Windows Media Center uses one tuner for both shows, so that, inevitably, a minute or so will be cut off either the end of one show or the beginning of the next.
Summary: Although purchased for its audiophile abilities, my main use is now as a home theater PC application.
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I struggled for a number of years with Windows Media Player, then Winamp. Since I am viscerally opposed to anything pomaceous, I was in search of something that would allow me to fully digitize my library of compact discs at a fully uncompressed level that unlocks the full sound potential held within each album. I am quite certain that I am only scratching the surface of what is possible with MC (I don't use any of the video or networking features), but the connection between MC and my HT Omega Claro Halo (with Burson Audio Supreme Sound Opamps) is wonderfully seamless, and allows me to fully enjoy the high resolution FLAC files I occasionally buy from HD Tracks. I look forward to each MC early bird update, and I look forward to enhancing my listening experience for years to come. Thank you and keep up the good work!
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Will this work for a Pono.
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Will this work for a Pono.
Yes. I'll move this to a new thread on the Pono board here:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/board,41.0.html
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Here is a short list in order
1. Access to the library from remote connection is my favorite feature. Have my videos and music on the go while outside of my home is number 1.
2. Tagging capabilities which is the original reason I got JRiver over a decade ago.
3. The play doctor
4. DLNA streaming within my network, especially being able to change the quality of the video because I have a few devices that can't play .265 video.
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I started with iTunes and hated the sound. Next Pure Music-too much fiddling and never got the sound right. Paid a fortune for Amarra(£400+) always gave me problems. Every update was a pita. Sound was good but took some doing. They just stopped supporting it and now sell a very much cheaper version which isn't what I want.
I knew about JRiver cos I used it for headphone music on a Windows machine whilst using a knitwear design program at the same time. Used a dac too. Liked it.
Then found it was available for Mac. So I bought it. Very easy to use.
I also use Audirvana. I find I use MC25 mainly. There are some things about MC I don't like or cannot find.
The fact I use MC25 almost all of the time thru a system that is an Audiolab 8300CDQ, 6 Monitor floor standers, one Monitor centre and two subs by and a Pro-Ject Xtension 10 Evolution deck.
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Been using JRiver 24 for a couple years, but for awhile I was using Audirvana exclusively because of the simplicity of the GUI, Since being in lockdown due to Covid, I revisited JRiver and found some new features like Cloudplay and upgraded to 26. Still using Audirvana for Qobuz and Tidal, but have been using JRiver for my music and movies when on my PC.
Anyhow, I think JRiver is the most feature rich/value media player around...at least for my uses.
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I stumbled upon JRiver because I was never satisfied with other media all-in-one products I had tried until that point. JRiver was completely unknown to me. I loved the look and the organizational capabilities especially for Video files, mostly movies & tv shows. With my audio files, there was something different than what I was used to. I couldn't tell you exactly what, but I swore to people my music sounded better via JRiver than it did via MediaMonkey. Now, I loved MediaMonkey for many years but really wanted an all-in-one media solution. My media Libraries were getting bigger and bigger and I needed something that would laugh at the growing number of songs and movies/tv shows I had. JRiver just worked. And it worked very, very well. It was only after I convinced my roommate, at the time, that my switch to JRiver was permanent.
JRiver effortlessly delivers my content from my server. I am so happy with JRiver, at this point, I wouldn't even consider switching software, no matter what it features. There isn't anything I need that JRiver can't do for me. Well, there is ONE thing. I can't set Media Sub Type to "Extras" because it's not on the list. >:( :( I want to have my bonus disc material accessible from JRiver without it mucking up my 4K Content, Movies or TV Shows views. For now, I use "Other" and I hate it. I am very surprised no one ever asked for "Extras" to be added to Media Sub Type. I am very anal about the organization of my media. ;D
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Well, there is ONE thing. I can't set Media Sub Type to "Extras" because it's not on the list. >:( :(
We can probably do this for you. Thanks for the kind words.
Looking more, we added Extras in 26.0.9:
Changed: Added the media subtype of "Extras".
Make sure you're on the latest.
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We can probably do this for you. Thanks for the kind words.
Looking more, we added Extras in 26.0.9:
Changed: Added the media subtype of "Extras".
Make sure you're on the latest.
Are you kidding me? I am speechless. I can't believe you did that so quickly.
Thank you very much, Matt! Honestly, I'm sitting here confused...did that just happen?? :o :D
Wow! ;D
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So quickly, he did it in the past. Last December 4th.
Even time travel doesn't stop Matt!
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Yeah, I even seem to remember him mentioning at the time "alb is going to request this in the spring, so I guess I'd better add it now so he doesn't have to wait."
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So quickly, he did it in the past. Last December 4th.
Even time travel doesn't stop Matt!
No way, really? Wow...I hadn't been very active in the forums for several months. I guess I missed it. Wait...December? So, that would have been MC 25.x.x or was MC 26 already alive? I didn't even know MC 26 existed until about 3-4 weeks ago. :o
Yeah, I even seem to remember him mentioning at the time "alb is going to request this in the spring, so I guess I'd better add it now so he doesn't have to wait."
Oh, gosh...really?? And I missed it? Darn it. I could have been rolling in Extras bliss all of this time?! I can't wait to see what he adds for me next...I mean, I wonder what I'm going to want this fall. I should probably ask Matt. ;D :D :P
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I am a little late for this thread, but I answer the question per the subject:
The quick answer: MC26 is the most stable and reliable player I have ever used in terms of my music playing while I perform other activities on my computer. No other player that I have ever used is this responsive, reliable, and consistent while playing music.
I own a workstation class computer with plenty of CPU cores and threads available allowing me to do many tasks simultaneously. MC26 continues playing regardless without missing a beat whereas other players struggle to keep up for various reasons.
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The main reason for choosing JRiver was for a replacement to for my old Windows Media Centre PC.
I found windows media centre a great DVR and was disappointed when Microsoft dropped it.
JRiver was the best option. My existing hardware is over 10 years old, and I have only updated it to windows 10, and a SSD drive for windows and new hard drives for storage. JRiver works great on this level of equipment, records and plays back all my video media perfectly and quick.
Great option for anyone wanting a quick reliable DVR that works on old and new hardware.
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So after using JRiver for a while I decided to purchase it after seeing you guys add support for anime subs. I mean I had tried so many media-players and this one has everything I want, if good software isnt supported it goes poof and don't want JRiver to go poof.
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I chose JRiver because iTunes is (was?) the dominant music and movie library program for a long time. It's also glitchy as hell, and I've had so many issues with it over the years that I basically hate it beyond words at this point. I now use it to buy movies occasionally, and that's it. The iTunes store freezes up on me almost all the time now and it never displays the music or movie artwork correctly. Because of all the issues with iTunes (and because they have too much control anyway), I refuse to use any Apple products ever since (no Macs, no iPhone, I won't even use ProTools, etc) and I use an Android cell phone.
A few months ago, I did a search for alternate music library programs and after trying others without much success I came across MC26. Within mere minutes of using it, I learned that the sound quality, interface, and options of JRiver MC26 are superior to iTunes in just about every way possible. I use it exclusively to play my music library, but really don't use any of the "extra" features. I'm not into streaming at all, and using plain old Windows Media Player for movies is fine with me. In fact, on future releases if there could be a way to turn off those features and simplify the view/menus/options, etc that would make it even better for me.
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fjk1138,
Thanks. Take a look here:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Simplified_Interface
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It is the very best.
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I think I started out with version 11. I had started ripping my CD collection and quickly discovered how poor database libraries were back then, you really needed to edit the entries yourself. JRiver was the only media center where you could edit "Tags" simply and easily. Then I discover Rename, Fill Track numbers, Clean Properties & oh heaven 'Flip Flop'
What a really great set of Library tools.
Add your own Tag fields........ I have my own field for "Featured Artists", keeps all other Artist field and Track names clean
Gizmo plays my own library from anywhere!
DLNA links up with SONOS
And the latest best addition for me, lyric lookup. Now I don't have to search, copy and paste anymore!
Also Interact and its members, where I have found the answer to all those "I wonder how to do this" moments
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Because MediaMonkey didn't work in MacOS lol. My favorite feature is rename/move files by tags. It's brilliant. I also needed full control over my massive audio section and super stoked I can also sort pictures and movies as well. It's an amazing program... but paying $25-30 every single version is a bit old. I'd rather just pay monthly for it and always know I have the latest and greatest. <3
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I like the idea of well supported software that will be around and don't mind paying for that.
The sound is awesome and the ability to use Asio Drivers and control Windows from the App with different DACs are my primary concerns.
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- WASAPI/ASIO BitPerfect support
- madVR neuronal scaling with color management based on monitor profile
- 64-bit DSP, especially VST plugin support
The downside is that I find the interface has more features than I need and feels cluttered, but the good news is that just about everything I don't want to use can be hidden/disabled using the customization features. Once the new flat Windows 10 style skins were added some time back, it looks great when stripped back and simplified and does not overload my neurological impairments with too many options.
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I started to use Foobar2K to play my music and later heard about JRiver on a few forums. I saw that it had more features than Foobar2K, so I decided to try it. I started with MC25 and didn’t use it much. I upgraded to MC 26 and began to use it more.
When I discovered that I could play my music on my Bose Soundbar and Bose Portable Home Speaker without having to deal with the terrible Bose app, I was very glad I chose it.
Another reason is that I’m able to play my 24/96 vinyl rips on my Sonos speaker, so I can delete the 16/44.1 duplicates.
One thing I really like is the helpful, friendly forum. A big help with configuration questions and other questions. Forum searches have answered a lot of my questions, although it sometimes takes many searches to find the answers.
Although I only planned to use JRiver for my music, I’ve begun to think about using it with my photos. I doubt if I’ll replace PLEX for my videos, but I plan to explore the video feature.
There are features/functions that I want to investigate to determine if I want to or need to use them, and at the same time increase my knowledge about audio. An example is the Expression Language. I’ve seen examples and understand the syntax, but other than the Expression Column I don’t know other places where I can use the Expression Language. They are probably staring me in the face, and with more research I’ll find them.
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Began trying media players to learn my preferences. JRiver for Win was what I preferred.
Don't judge the time I've been with JR by how long I've posted on this forum. I was with JR long before posting on forum. Been through many versions of MC (separate Win and Mac licenses + a master license).
Tried streaming services. Not what I require. A jpg of cover art suits me. I don't want or need oodles of artist pics and info. I've read biographies and other docs on many artists I like. I prefer to research artist info myself, not have it spoon fed to me on Roon or whatever. I grew-up in age of LP's, so yeah, nice to have cover art and back of LP info, but that was then and this is now.
Bottom line, with close to 25,000 FLAC files - prefer MC in audio-only mode. Would give JR more of my money, but for a audio-only Mac and/or Win version. I'd pay for that.
Thank you JR. You have awesome coders.
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Hi,
I simply wanted the best playback and management tool for 100,000+ music tracks collected over the years...
I got one... the playback is awesome... but library management is good but for an end-user (I only use the UI) the library does weird nuts and duplicates track way too often.
But the quality was the driver for me.
So I do wonder how much more business there is out there if the UI was more 'dumb-user' friendly... great Power requires responsibility
Steve
Happy to talk.... if it helps
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Hi there,
And thanks for making this great piece of software!
With that out of the way, why did I chose JRiver Media Center?
This was somewhat of a journey for me...
In the olden days of the great CRT TVs (still love them) my first HTPC used PowerDVD. I was pretty happy with it for many years. Flat TVs came, the HTPC evolved, and got connected purely digital. Everything was good. But with PowerDVD 13.0 the troubles began. They ditched their custom scaling which I needed for some edge cases of DVDs with aspect ratio issues. I kept asking them for that feature to return, but they didn't care. I had a hard time even trying to get them to acknowledge that it was needed for these specific cases. Anyhow, I was stuck at version 12.0. No big deal, as it still played everything I needed.
Then, a new media type entered my library. A standalone video in *.mkv format. Until then, my library consisted entirely of DVDs and BDs, nothing else. With the *.mkv came the *.srt. According to the PowerDVD manual, one could add a language code to the *.srt filename to make selection easier in the GUI. But, after a lengthy session with their support I learned several things. First, this feature only works for Chinese and English subtitles. Not good enough. Second, they don't support PowerDVD 12.0 under Windows 10. Even worse. Third, they don't really care about their legacy customers. Really bad. On that day, I decided that PowerDVD had to be replaced.
Ideally, a single solution had to be found. Required features were:
- Very good image & audio quality
- Very good aspect ratio correction options
- DVD & BD playback with menus
- Support for other video formats & external subtitles
First, I tested WinDVD 12 Pro. I found no obvious issues with BD playback (that was to be expected from the other big commercial solution). But their aspect ratio correction capabilities were laughable, at best. So, I started looking into additional players for DVD playback.
I tested VLC again, after many years. And it was still bad, especially the image quality for DVD upscaling. A joke. In the past, I had liked the MPC-HC project, but that is more or less dead. The follow-up didn't really cut it for me. Next one was MPC-BE. It did work pretty good, especially in combination with LAV filters and madVR (madVR's image quality even made me upgrade the HTPC with a huge dedicated GPU after I just had shrunk it earlier this year because it didn't need large internal storage capacities anymore, thanks to TrueNAS). The preview image on the seek bar was also really neat. I almost settled for it. But it kept producing more or less rare random hick-ups, with playback halting for seconds, or minutes, sometimes recovering, sometimes crashing...
Also, I found some annoying audio issues with WinDVD 12 Pro during playback of certain BDs (reproducible crackling). Minor, but annoying. And no audio configuration options...
So, my requirements got more specific (i.e. madVR support was required). The hypothetical new media player should fulfill the following:
- Support for madVR
- Very good audio quality
- Very good aspect ratio correction options
- DVD & BD playback with menus
- Support for other video formats & external subtitles
I had seen JRiver Media Center before, but just now decided to finally give it a try. I knew about it from my madVR research. On madVR's list of supported media players, it was the only other promising choice after both MPC's failed me and most of the other software vendors didn't look trustworthy to me.
Although I just needed JRiver Media Center as a media player for the moment, I thought it deserved to get a chance. I switched it to Red October HQ, configured madVR as I had in MPC-BE, disabled a lot of features and activated the display view as the startup view (it would be great if it had a "video player only" mode, analogue to the "audio only" mode). I also set the audio device to WASAPI, and enabled BD menus. Then I tested it with the aforementioned aspect ratio edge cases (all good!), with several BDs, some with "odd" menus, and all worked so far (although I needed a keyboard or remote for some menus, the mouse emulation is not yet there...), and all was good. The crackling observed in WinDVD 12 Pro is also gone, as far as I can tell. Great! Also, no playback issues like with MPC-BE so far, using the same sources. Excellent! VideoClock easily improved on the video vs. audio clock misalignment issue. Wonderful!
I bought a license the very same day! I have not even looked at the much praised library function of JRiver Media Center, not for a single second. Just finally having a media player that does (almost) everything I need is well worth the license fee. Of course, just like with any other software, not all is golden or perfect (e.g. BD menu mouse emulation).
Going back to the requirements:
- Support for madVR --> OK! (In combination with VideoClock the playback is really smooth)
- Very good audio quality --> OK! (Even surpassing all solutions I had used or tested before)
- Very good aspect ratio correction options --> OK! (Passed all my test cases)
- DVD & BD playback with menus --> OK! (Although not yet perfect)
- Support for other video formats & external subtitles --> OK! (Although I cannot get the language code to work, in the GUI it is just part of the *.srt filename, but not recognized)
So, to summarize... JRiver Media Center exceeded my expectations (without even considering its vast library capabilities) and is now my ultimate HTPC media player! Thanks again for making and continuously improving this great piece of software!
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I've used many different music software over the years.
But what sold JRiver for me was :
- Easy to use.
- Was able to get all my tags done (finally)
- Works on Windows, macOS and Linux. Since I use all 3 systems that Master License sure is a brilliant thing :)
- Easy to use my Android smartphone to stream music through my network with the JRiver Remote app :)
And so far. It's never crashed one me, and I have been using the software for about 6 years now :)
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I've been using JRiver for 9 years now. My reasons for switching from Winamp back in the day was that it had very versatile cataloguing options and organisation and also looked slightly better than Winamp in UI aesthetics. Winamp was the nuts back then ;D ;D. They were a worthy opponent.
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Hey Everyone:
JRiver Media Center plays everything, even DSD/DSF, and is relatively easy to navigate & of course, it is a very nice looking player. ;D
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What JRiver can do that MOST could not:
Playing HQ video w/ audio passing through your DAC/Receiver (w/ upsampling, DSP, VST etc. -> in ASIO).
Others are great Audio Players, Video Players, TV Players...with Network, DSP functionality but very seldom they could do that above.
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I started to use JRiver 22 years ago I think. My original interest for it was Playback of Music and it still is my major reason for choosing MC. During the time passed the development has shown significant innovation and today there is NO player that can match MC with regards to versatility and ability to tune the listening experience from simple EQs to the possibility of advanced DSP processing. Also the ease of setup and the stability is in a separate class. Especially the LIBRARY system which is brilliant combined with the streaming options (in my home and to my friends and family).Further the playback and streaming options for Video is on a similar level..
I GLADLY PAY THE VERY FAIR PRICE to use the player and to support the team behind it.
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Hi everyone :)
JRiver just makes other options seem ridiculous. Perhaps some players are more "streamlined" in interface or something. But with that, comes the almost-necessity of dumbing down a program, or making it custom fit one specific purpose really well (usually an aesthetic ordeal at best for many instances).
The developers/company seem like normal people, not some sort of recluses. That really is a nice thing to see (even if they're at the receiving end of backlash sometimes unfortunately).
The program itself is really customizable, and I appreciate the breadth of DSP options it offers. They seem to take objective performance and technical operation as key, unlike some others that seem to just be selling blatant audiophoolery.
I never thought a program like this could exist for music (and funnily enough I see on the forums lots of people using it for video as well). Thank you so much guys.
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I wouldn't go this far as "JRiver just makes other options seem ridiculous". As all depends on what you need from your system/software.
But I've been with JRiver since MC16 and I've tested a lot of others like: (Albumplayer, AssetPNP, ffdshow, MediaMonkey pro, Mezzmo, Plex, Kodi, Serviio, Tversity, Twonky, Wild Media Server, Winamp Pro, Roon)
For me JRiver is one of the few that delivers a full package, without the need to load all kind of vague 3rd party addons and still meets all my requirements.
- Using JRiver only for Audio and with JRiver you have a lot of control to setup/configure it to your needs.
- it runs very stable
- Low impact on the system
- Great remotes both free and paid
- Fast scanning of library
- Great tools to create your playlists
- Excelent audio throughput
- Skinning
- Support forum
- Very flexible with the license policy
- Runs on all major platforms
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I keep discovering features that I needed, had not come upon myself but which were not so pressing as to motivate me to ask. Here's an example:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,128366.0.html
Cool.
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I started checking it out to sync to a legacy Cowon D2 I had. But I stuck around because It handles a massive library on a mapped network drive well. That would have been enough. But also, super useful tagging utilities. Play doctor is extremely groovy.
EDIT: After spending some more time with the application (and preferring if over my gaming backlog), I wanted to share a few visual examples of why I find it so groovy.
https://peertube.skinet.org/videos/watch/a3e11cc2-c58c-4d5b-9427-09af20fe5bcf
(https://static.skinet.org/images/mc/foo3.png)
(https://static.skinet.org/images/mc/foo5.png)
(https://static.skinet.org/images/mc/foo6.jpg)
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6. All of the Above
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i have been using JRiver - purely for Audio - as it was a big jump up from Media Monkey (which i also have a licence for.)
Been using JRiver since, i think version 22, and now on 27.
Chose JRiver because when i tried the trial i heard an instant improvement in sound. Over the years i have grown to really appreciate the versatility and how configurable each version has been.
It is at a good price point and i like that full version upgrades are offered at a discount to existing licence users and that you don't force people to pay a yearly subscription to use the product or limit the number of devices i can use it on (i have it on two laptops).
I never have any qualms about recommending JRiver to friends who want to explore audiophile quality in the digital realm.
JRiver Media Center has a good reputation for support and is always being developed to improve and extend its capabilities.
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I came up in digital audio with music match jukebox back in the old days. I really liked it, but it was bought out and ruined. Winamp was up next, and I had a lot of fun and great years with that program. In fact, I was still preferring it to JRiver - but I've since figured out it was because of my DAC more or less.
I switched to the RME ADI 2 DAC and wa la! It works great with JRiver. I've also used Musicbee and it's ok, but I prefer JRiver. Right now, I'm on JRiver 25. I'm trying to figure out if 27 is a worthwhile upgrade.
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I was a loyal winamp fan since my computer ran windows 98, but after a friend introduced me to JRiver on multiple occasions I was eventually won over a few years ago, never looked back once I learned how powerful this player is.
Features I now cannot live without:
- Remote library from another server computer running JRiver
- Ability to edit the tag data and update the files on the remote computer as seamless as if they were on a local drive, except for album art (feature request maybe?)
- Bit-perfect playback, and DSP showing the audio path in detail
- Built-in automatic Last.fm scrobbling
- A Dev team who responds to users and takes time to help out fixing issues no matter how weird or difficult.
- Audio -> Artists -> All Artists view is amazing, it's familiar to how I used winamp for 15+ years, but just so much more features I never knew I needed before. Making music discovery so much easier.
- Audio - Recent Albums view is also really nice to keep track of and listen through music I've recently added, and fix tags if needed.
- JRemote on Android/iOS. I don't have local music on my mobile devices anymore, because streaming them from my computer running JRiver is so seamless I forget it's not local files.
- Analyzing audio files and Dynamic Range, as well as R128 volume levelling. (Maybe a transcode/resampled file detection for lossless formats could be implemented in the future?)
- Runs on any platform I own, + many more I could run it on in the future if I wanted to.
- Extremely lightweight on Windows, works great even on a 7 year old ultra low power Intel Atom based Windows tablet.
- Customization of almost any part of the library views is incredibly powerful.
These are the ones on top of my head.
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I use it mainly at home because it plays everything and has a nice ten foot interface (Theater View). We recently started using it at work together with employee monitoring software (https://www.worktime.com) because of how good it works. It works so well with various networks and remotely.
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I found JRiver many years ago and was so delighted with the product. It does everything I want and more. Yes, there are many free products out there, but none that does so many things well.
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I chose JRiver (MC 27) because it met my needs for good quality audio playback and because of several features that it provides;
DSP (Parametric EQ)
DAC connectivity (after much experimentation & eventually using an IdPi 4)
Remote capability (JRemote & Panel)
Sound Quality
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I wouldn't go this far as "JRiver just makes other options seem ridiculous". As all depends on what you need from your system/software.
But I've been with JRiver since MC16 and I've tested a lot of others like: (Albumplayer, AssetPNP, ffdshow, MediaMonkey pro, Mezzmo, Plex, Kodi, Serviio, Tversity, Twonky, Wild Media Server, Winamp Pro, Roon)
For me JRiver is one of the few that delivers a full package, without the need to load all kind of vague 3rd party addons and still meets all my requirements.
- Using JRiver only for Audio and with JRiver you have a lot of control to setup/configure it to your needs.
- it runs very stable
- Low impact on the system
- Great remotes both free and paid
- Fast scanning of library
- Great tools to create your playlists
- Excelent audio throughput
- Skinning
- Support forum
- Very flexible with the license policy
- Runs on all major platforms
(Sorry of this is a bit longwinded, but I'd like to document the details of "Why" to save anyone else the time that I spent on this. Took me better part of a year, on and off.)
Recent convert as well. User of Windows Media Center but now it's necessary to ditch Win7. Apparently the "Law of Microsoft" is that once a product is perfected it must then be discontinued. I approached this methodically starting when Win7 support ended. I started by reading various articles with titles like "Best HTPC 2020/2021" etc. Four names kept recurring: Kodi, Plex, Media Portal 2, JRiver, usually more-or-less in that order of preference. So I went through them in that order.
What I can't figure out it why JRiver was never #1 on an anyone's list. I've encountered showstopping flaws with the first three, and right now I'm on my 2nd day of trial with JRiver without a single complaint. I will almost certainly end up buying at least 2 licenses. The others...?
First Test: KODI. What astonished me is, for as long as Kodi has been around, how remarkably unintuitive and unpolished it is. I spent about 2 weeks of evenings trying to get it "just so". Way too many rabbit holes to get a function to work only to end up with it (almost) working right (some) of the time. SHOWSTOPPER: When playing a DVD the chapter +/- buttons on my HP Media Center Remote ("|<" and ">|") don't work . Yes, I'm sure I could probably have spent several more evenings digging through pages and pages of documentation and learning all about remapping keys or whatever. But... WHY??? This is a no-brainer on all other products. (And YES, that works in JRiver)
Second Test: Plex. Set up a Plex server. Okay. Found out that to view on the same PC I needed "Plex Viewer" or whatever it's called. Okay. Until... SHOWSTOPPER: Apparently Plex has told all HTPC users to take a long walk off a short pier; Even though i download the "Theater" version of Viewer, it apparently doesn't work that way; my MC Remote was totally ignored, and there didn't seem to be a way to get it into "10' UI" mode.
Third Test: Media Portal 2 I wanted to like it. UI was a bit minimalist, but I'm okay with that. If they get the basics right, all else is just a "nice to have". But... SHOWSTOPPER: Sound quality on playing the CD's I'd ripped to my library was atrocious. Lots of "stuttering" and clicks and pops on playback, and no other program did this.
Fourth Test: JRiver. So far, so good. BONUS is that the sound quality SEEMS better than even my original WMC. Cleaner, Crisper, less "compressed". Heck, with WMC I'd even considered buying a dBX unit to help with that, but now I don't think I'll need one.
My HTPC setup: "classic" audio if a bit meager by today's standards. Stereo rather than "surround" which always seemed a bit distracting to me. HP Elite 800 G3 SFF desktop with "realtek HD Audio"; Yamaha M-35 Stereo Amp, Bose 301 series III speakers, Panasonic Viera plasma TV (Likely to be updated to a Sony Bravia OLED real soon).
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Why???
Well for the music got all my music on pc. Don't need a stereo if I got it all at my fingertips (or mouse pointer lol).
Good pc soundcard and boxes who need more :)
thumbs up for this program!
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Other than JRiver being a stellar media center, including everything that has already been mentioned in the posts above...
Believe it or not, the fact that Soundspectrum's visualizations 'G-Force' and 'Aeon' work flawlessly with the Music part of the program, was decisive in my buying it.
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I'm just a baby user, but my favorite features are:
Move, Rename & Copy
Smartlists
This forum is a good asset, too. I've gotten a lot of help here. I hope I can give some help back, too.
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I started way back in the aughts with JRiver Media Jukebox, and then at some point, when VST hosting became a feature in Media Center, I upgraded. Prior to using Jukebox, I had used many other well-known and obscure music librarians, and Jukebox was just the most feature-rich and responsive. I even sang its virtues in this blog post back from 2008: https://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/about_me/wordpress/?p=109
Having used JRiver products for so many years, I would say the main reasons I use Media Center are:
1) VST hosting. I use room correction plugins like Ik Multimedia's ARC System 3, as well as various HRTF headphone crossfeed plugins, professional EQ plugins, etc., and the VST hosting ability is by far the biggest reason. Very, very few other music librarians have this feature, and if they do, they are missing other features important to me.
2) Fast response even with a massive music collection (about 1 terabyte).
3) Smartists. This has saved me a ton of time in customizing playlists based on the exact parameters of my choosing.
4) Tons of features and customizations, but this is also a double-edged sword, as it requires a level of technical savvy.
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I was always interested in Music. And started using mp3 early, because only in this way I could get to know a lot of different types of music. But it was mostly popular music.
So I then purchased Bel Canto DAC 1.5 and S300 back in 2012 at Oslo HifiCenter, which highly recommened JRiver as the best digital player which provided bitperfect audio output. Since then I have purchased JRiver on a regular basis. Now in my older days I use it more for Movie watching, and it really it the best allround player that I know about. It delivers excellent quality audio and video experience. I am so glad that I found it early on.
And also the forum is excellent and tolerant with newbies and very helpful in a useful way, learning something. The last 10 month I have learned how to use JRiver more in depth (video/movieplay). Really glad I did it instead of just accepting the flaws of oled technology. JRiver was very helpful here. Vlc is not even near JRiver when it comes to interface and features.
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Because it is the most versatile Audio/Video Player for Windows.
Started to purchase MC 25 & have gone from there.
Very good Streaming Features(DI.FM & Radio tunes).
Very active Expert Community.
Own also a subscription to Audirvana Studio(Qobuz+Tidal)but nothing comes close to the possibilities of MC 28, It simply is the best & not to mention the cheapest.
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Hi, I choose MC because it is IMHO the best Audio/video player out the, much more configurable than its competitors(Roon & Audirvana) & the audio quality is as good as Audirvana Studio which I also have a current subscription on.
MC is by far the best player for audio, I don't use it for video(I use VLC & PotPlayer).
I have a relatively big library: about 168.000 FLAC Hi-Res & 16 Bit+ALAC Files at 16 bit(CD Quality).
I have a 4TB+1TB External HDD Drives containing my collection, I have no MP3 Files or AAC.
When I want to Stream I use Apple Music(ITunes)+Qobuz Studio+Tidal Hi-Fi Plus+DI.FM & who have not a Spotify account.
Thankyou to the Developers at MC for the absolute best player & for swift updates which I always enjoy. :)
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I decided to give JRiver a trial run in late October 2021. I acquired my second OLED TV, a 55" LG C1. Already having the best 4K UltraHD BluRay player in the Oppo UDP-203 hooked up to my 65" Panasonic GZ1000, I needed something that would drive my newly built HTPC for ISO/BDMV playback of my 4K/BluRay collection.
The trial went as planned, where I was able to confirm an almost replication of video quality compared to the UDP-203.
I setup the HTPC with an i5-6500, 16GB DDR4 2666MHz and GTX 1050ti. Kodi is configured to use MC28 as an external player. The setup is phenomenal and I often find myself browsing the library and clicking play to see the screen go blank, then onto the film via MC28.
The only thing missing is Dolby Vision playback. Yet I am happy to have this HTPC with optimal video playback, knowing DV support will likely never come to Windows. Great job JRiver / MC team.
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The only thing missing is Dolby Vision playback. Yet I am happy to have this HTPC with optimal video playback, knowing DV support will likely never come to Windows. Great job JRiver / MC team.
Dolby Vision is now available in MC29 JRVR.
Thanks for your comment.
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Dolby Vision is now available in MC29 JRVR.
Thanks for your comment.
I hope FEL DV implementation comes soon for disc (iso/bdmv) playback. I'm really impressed with everyone at JRiver. I brought a bug to their attention, and it was addressed within a week or less! Thank you
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Hi, because it is pure & simple the best player out there.
I use it for audio only. ;D
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TV Broke down, and spending more time watching Netflix on Laptop. My wife says we need to upgrade old CD player. Family not watching TV together, everyone using their own media. What to do?
What are these media players streaming music services? I see. Check the different ones from google search, and compare. monthly payment, no. monthly payment, no. Monthly payment, no. I realize JRiver does music and video, and it's pay once (at least for version). Okay, try it out.
Initially a bit confusing, so not sure. But I liked how it categorized everything. Set it up to my digital interface. Pity no Netflix internal, but I get why.
Then, whenever I explored deeper, I kept finding good stuff (burn our cd collection, Cloudplay music, DSP studio). Now I pay.
Keep exploring, set up virtual driver, set up VST plugins, realizing I really like this. Discover support forum and realize the community are all focused on getting real quality audio and video. I am in the right place, I realize.
Discovering on the net that JRiver is the best at audio and video both, as long as you can handle the clunky interface. I love it.
So it was the 50/50 audio video player, the pay once, that when you get into it, it does not disappoint, but delights.
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Thanks to user antenna for posting the following:
"To gain competitive advantage you have to do what no one else is doing or do whatever it is they're doing so much better than they are, that you're doing what no one else is doing anyway. The herd only provides the illusion of well-being."
Here's the complete thread: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,133201.msg922819.html#msg922819
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I have used many audio players throughout many decades in different OS's. In today's technological world, when higher resolution music, DACs and upsampling have contributed to a new enjoyment/dimension when listening to music -its now a unique experience. JRiver Media Center has evolved into that special niche of the demanding listener; it has maintained its ground. Just view a few youtube videos from the top content creators/reviewers in audio products (DACs, Headphones, IEMs etc...) and see what audio player they are using. They all use JRiver! In fact many viewers constantly ask the reviewers on this same point. Believe me, if these reviewers are using JRiver it's not just simply because of a whim. They only use and demand the best! To have the flexibility that JRiver offers in conjunction with other audio hardware is a sheer luxury -to listen to music as the artist intended or to hear how well known recordings have such a limited sound is just incredible. For me, a player that can easily cater for my 24bit collection is a keeper. It is the Swiss army knife in digital reproduction. It is vital when used in a chain of audio products.
Also, I recently needed help in adjusting JRiver's GUI because of my poor eyesight. My problem was solved not in days, weeks or months, but in just a couple of hours. When there are people who help you to this degree, you just have to acknowledge that they are great in what they do.
This why I use JRiver MC.
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My first stop on the way to JRiver was a streaming box with an attached hard drive. This worked well for me using an open source interface. However, I was away for a week and my wife couldn't use it -- being less computer-savvy and easily frustrated by them.
The next stop was Sonos, using a Wyred 4 Sound Connect. As this software was designed for consumers, my wife found it usable (and I found the sound acceptable). However, after a few years I started reading about JRiver and liked what I read. So I installed it on my PC, where I do most of my listening; I liked its sound and found it easy to use. As I used it I kept finding features that I liked. So I thought about replacing the Sonos Connect and bought an IdPi.
I hooked up the IdPi in parallel with the Sonos and began to use it. Anytime I encountered a technical difficulty I received help (thank you, Bob), and found both the tone of the forums pleasant and a lot of useful information that helped me over usability hitches just by reading others' experiences.
The next trouble spot I see on my horizon is the end of TiVo. We've gotten accustomed to having local copies of things that we want to watch (we're both wary of relying on streaming) and like being able to view a schedule to give us ideas. So I plan to begin reading about MC's video portion, hoping that it's being developed in directions that will work for us. And that the needed services and hardware suppliers are finding enough support to still exist when we're finally ready to switch.
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Very prosaic reason for me.
I was controlling itunes on a Mac Mini with an app on an Android tablet. Then the Android version was updated to one that wouldn't play with Macs (don't remember the details).
So I got JRiver MC.
Later I swapped out my iPod for a different DAP, so stopped converting everything to ALAC. As a result, it's too much trouble to go back.
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Now coming up to V 30, I have been using this since V22. It is the real swiss army knife of media centers for me.
It has now reached a stage of capability that as far as I can tell, every thing I want to do works perfectly. If I need something, I can usually find it built in within minutes.
I particularly like to be able to use it for Television and then switch to movie mode without changing product.
I find it fantastic for compiling music for events as well as playing same at the event.
For me, nothing I am aware of comes close.
Congratulation guys. Awesome scope and capability. nailed.
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Thanks for the question,
I've been a user before 64 Byte window was released, believe release 3 of JR MC.
At that time Window, Apple, etc only supported a maximum of 64k files, plus took days to load very a small amount of music into their library. Also, MC's abilities in managing library meta data is the best I've ever found.
Being a Database IT Professional, I loved the method JR built.
I have upgraded to each new release and now am waiting for the release of Release 30.
Love the instantaneously search capabilities, allowing me to find and play what I'm looking for.
Thanks, love your product, MusicGuy
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So help me out. Why did you choose JRiver?
6. As a Frenchman would say: C'est Magnifique!!
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I have been using JRiver since MC17 and would not want to be without it.
Use it for video a little but main reason is the great audio performance.
I love the ability to manage my music library, renaming, re-tagging and changing artwork when desired.
Ripping CD's and burning CD's occasionally as well is easy with great options and choices.
Stellar sound quality from FLAC, AIFF and WAV files keeps me using it daily.
Enjoy the DSP options although I don't implement a lot of the features often with the exception of upsampling .
Like the streaming options, especially Radio Paradise with it's great sound quality and amazing library. Having the ability to save Radio Paradise tracks to my library just another plus since so many of their tracks are not always readily available for purchase. ;D
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Simply the best.
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OK, my second reply on this thread....
A couple of things...
1) the quality of the reproduction of my media is most excellent.
2) the quality of the reproduction of my media is most excellent. (dare I say, unsurpassed?)
3) the Master license ability. I like to play with the software I purchase, and the Master license allows me to play. It does not get in the way. Indeed, it seems to almost say, "go, play, have fun."
4) the people behind Media Center seem to really care. It does not seem to be a job for them, it seems to be a goal, an aspiration. As a person who has managed Software Engineers in my career, I do not say that lightly. I can tell the difference. Media Center's developers love what they do.
5) let me repeat @2 again.... :)
Thank-you.
(OK, that was 5 things, not a couple. Forgive me if I gush here. It is a rare occasion when I do that. So that's maybe #6? :) )
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I have large collection of CDs in FLAC format. Was using Kodi installed on Intel NUC mini computers for years.
Older NUC models were equipped with optical audio output which was great for me as I was able connect this to my amplifier and use it internal DAC.
Modern Intel NUC computers don't have this optical digital output anymore. But then I discovered USB DAC ;-)
Finally was able to change my NUC to recent model and connect it to classic audio using USB DAC.
It was great progress... but I was still missing the right software... then I discovered JRiver and my UPGRADE was completed!!!
So, my road to JRiver take me many years... some wrong turns and dead ends.
But since I developed the final shape of the audio hardware and connected it with JRiver Media Center... I don't need anything else.
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I only use it for managing my music library (after giving up on iTunes), but it works amazingly well. A few kudos:
- It has never lost or messed with my music in any way without me explicitly telling it to
- Every time I think "I wish it could do XYZ..." I find out that it already does what I need
- It's very simple to use, even with so many options. I can manage my music collection much more efficiently than I ever could with iTunes.
- Love the tabbed interface and the ability to have different views of the same content in each tab.
Armand
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The reason i choose JRiver is only based on one thing.
Sound quality!
I have tried everything i could find and JRiver sound best with my gear.
Well i cant say JRiver is the most user freindly or best looking.
But when i play music to my stereo i can forgive the short comings and enjoy music that sounds realy good.
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Not exactly "Why did I choose JRiver", but more of a "Why Use JRiver".
In addition to the great features, there is the issue of support for the product, and the JRiver Developers / team do a great job of supporting their users. Yes, application features are great, but the level of support is astounding and a rarity in the software industry.
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I chose it fifteen years too late ;D
Grew up from Windows 286, beta tester for win98 to win 10. Old school database king of dBASE ,rbase and clipper. Visicalc suoercalc before excel.So know a bit about displaying data. J River rocks! And Wiki, YouTube and Amazon hardwired :o
Used Apple music until Win 7, then loved Windows Media Centre.
Got interested in DLNA for local streaming but ended up very frustrated circa 2012.
Stuck with Windows Media Player and didn't look elsewhere , then starting seeing good reviews for JRiver as I started investigating DACs.
WOW! The lights went on, but arrrgh the learning curve. So so wish I had started with it back in the day. It's a rabbit burrow experience trawling through all the posts dealing with so many issues over so many years. I guess if I used excel for the very first time today I would struggle.
Interestingly have recently setup a client with Home Media Server that has no help files but connects his PC and Onkyo 100% of the time. He was fed up with WMP.
Me I appreciate using my tablet, phone and laptop to playback via DAC, Wiimini and Bluetooth and hardwired speakers. So glad I found JRiver before Roon.
Finally I would comment that JRiver is allowing me to finally organise a digital music collection that dates back to 1992. Yes I have some very old MP3s in my collection.
Anyway enough about software, back to listening to music :D
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I’m new to MC…. really new, as in January of ‘23, version 30. A couple of years ago I got serious about getting away from streaming everything and rebuilding my music library. I found Serviio and was using that to bring the files to my Denon network media player.
Serviio is fine for what it is, but I really wanted more flexibility (especially when sitting in my theater), and I wanted something I could use on the desktop to organize, make lists, tag etc.
And that brought me to Media Center. I’m not gonna lie… it’s a hell of a learning curve, and that’s coming from someone with some coding experience. But it’s worth it. And I have the time, being retired now.
I’ve ready *many* old posts on this board. I see a lot of dedication from employees, volunteers, and users, and features that go beyond anything any user should expect, especially at this price point. I love having the ability to customize my own Track Info and Skins. The communication with my Denon is outstanding, as is the ability to use Core Audio so easily. JRemote is great while sitting in the theater or on the road.
Reading through the history both here and on the wiki has been fascinating. Keep it up for as long as you can, Jim, you’re a hero as far as I’m concerned.
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Because the guy from Roon is a total idiot, I have a $1000 dac, told me not compatible.
Installs JRiver instead, everything works.
I think Roon is possibly your biggest competition, they charge an arm and a leg and their stuff don't work.
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This...
...DSD playback
This......Sound quality!
This......It's very simple to use
This......Radio Paradise
This......the real swiss army knife of media centers
But mainly this......the level of support is astounding
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Primarily because it offered a drag and drop playlist feature that lets me create truly seamless killer movie nights (custom bumpers, trailers, shorts, feature, etc). Everything else it offers is just is the cherry on top.
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Explained elsewhere probably but JRiver on Windows is objectively, the *best* current player for high fidelity video presentation that doesn't sacrifice audio features or fidelity. Objectively, it will best *any* hardware player on the market for non DV content (though thankfully, JRVR handles DV to HDR or SDR) due to the utilization of MadVR. For someone whose been ingesting their Blu Rays, UHD BDs and DVDs for well over a decade, it's a match made in heaven.
There are shortcomings, there are certain things that make the integration of JRiver a little difficult (it needs a way to announce its 'state') but nothing else comes close to touching it for critical reproduction of video content.
JRiver, the right hardware, and the right configuration can 'replace' the functionality of extremely expensive PrePros with ultimately more control over the audio path and the ability to constantly evolve processing rather than stagnate with the fixed feature set of hardware. Other than a Trinnov, JRiver is superior, and a Trinnov still has it's own downsides / limitations.
There's guys (and I guess me?) who are utilizing JRiver with very nice multichannel D/A and experiencing utterly excellent results for far less than comparable hardware prepro solutions.
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I use JRiver as an external Video Player in Kodi because:
- it has support for madVR
- it has far superior audio customization and processing.
- it has audio channel mapping
- it has a night mode, which my old school receiver is lacking
I use Kodi as frontend because I like the UI. Feels more like a TV and I'm used to it.
I use foobar2000 for Audio because it and especially the library and search function is faster. For 2 channel Audio I do not need any processing although sometimes I am of the impression that JRiver sounds a bit better, which might be insane of course.
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I love JRiver so much that I built a computer just to run JRiver. It is the heart of my home audio system. This one piece of software does almost everything I need. For me, these are the most important features:
- Built-in convolution engine. JRiver is my digital crossover. I created the crossover filters using Acourate, and I use JRiver to convolve the audio in real time and send it to individual DAC channels, which go to individual amplifier channels, and then go directly to each driver with no passive crossover in between. This entails quite a bit of trust in JRiver, because it has the potential to destroy my speakers (for example, sending bass frequencies to the tweeters). That trust in JRiver is well earned. I have been doing this for 8 years without so much as a hiccup. OK, so the convolution engine isn't as easy to use, or powerful, or as feature rich as third party convolvers, but it does the job.
- VST plugin support. I use audio de-clippers, dynamic range expanders, crosstalk for headphones ... all kinds of VST. I love experimenting with VST's! Very few convolvers integrate VST support.
- ISO226 volume control. Again, this is a feature missing in most convolvers. It is also a PITA to switch from your player software to the convolver to control the volume. With JRiver, it is built in and convenient. Also, volume control is done in 64 bit floating point and then scaled down to 16 bit for output, which is better than simply lopping off bits at the end to obtain lower volume.
- The interface isn't the most beautiful I have seen, but it is good looking enough. I love the touchscreen option.
- Endless customization options. I thought I knew JRiver after using it for so long, but if I click on some settings, up pops a dialog box with another 20-30 options I have never seen before. JRiver's philosophy is different to some other players (notably the four letter word player starting with R). Those players decide how you use their software. With JRiver, you decide.
- There are two remote options - JRemote2 and Gizmo. I have tried both. They are as slick and quick as JRiver, and run on ancient hardware (my remote controller is running on an 8 year old tablet running Android v5).
- It is CHEAP! To put it in perspective, JRiver costs $60, and you can install it on as many computers as you want. Some convolution software by itself costs $130-300, and it only performs convolution. JRiver does convolution and everything else.
- The video and TV functions of JRiver are currently irrelevant for me, but when I eventually get around to getting my TV working with JRiver, it will cost me nothing. No need to buy more software.
- It is lightweight and fast. JRiver launches almost instantaneously on my PC and consumes very few resources. Result: I can underclock and undervolt my CPU so it runs cool, and set the fans so they don't turn on. I have a completely silent PC, which is important since my PC is in my listening room.
At the moment I am still customizing JRiver to make it easier for my wife to use. The goal is to avoid using the keyboard and mouse altogether, and control everything by touchscreen and JRemote2. I am starting to think it is possible.
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I love JRiver so much that I built a computer just to run JRiver. It is the heart of my home audio system. This one piece of software does almost everything I need.
Yeah. Argreement abounds.
On the video side, I am currently starting to look for a replacement for my TiVo.
TiVo's customer service seems to have gone south for the winter, i.e. too many problems, not enough solutions.
So... based upon my most excellent experience with MC in the audio area (and to the MC team, thank-you), it is a frontrunner in my quest to replace my TiVo. But I have so much to explore and learn on the video side...
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Because it works. I rather pay for a program that does everything I want it to do, then get frustrated with Free programs.
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Because it works. I rather pay for a program that does everything I want it to do, then get frustrated with Free programs.
Yeah, there is the [minimal, imho] cost aspect of MC to consider.
But, yes, it works, and it works most excellently.
For example... (and I have posted this example before but, imo, it is worth a repost...)
MC in some usage (OK, my usage) depends upon network connectivity.
In my use, I have an old PC in the entertainment center that functions as a MC client, the server being the desktop PC in a different room.
So... obviously the MC client in the entertainment center needs to have the desktop PC running in order to be fed the media bits and bytes the client needs to show in Theater mode on the TV.
So... what happens when I'm listening to a song in Theater mode on the PC client in the entertainment center, and I shutdown down the PC that hosts the MC server for its nightly backup?
Long story short, the MC client puts up a nice,informative message telling me there's an issue.
When the MC server on the PC eventually comes back online, I merely press "Enter" on the remote and I'm back to cruising along in media bliss as if nothing happened.
In my prior lives of writing system-level networking software (can you say X.25, I knew you could :) ) I will say that such smooth operation does not just appear out of thin air.
It is thought of ahead of time and engineered into the software.
Thank-you to the developers of MC.
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I chose JRiver because.
1. It's not a subscription service...please don't change this attribute.
2. It is absolutely brilliant at connecting to and play person audio libraries.
3. It's more geared towards people with a bit of technical knowledge on how all this works
4. I love the ability to connect remotely to my personal music library from the JRemote app, and play my music, not a version of what I own that resides on some 3rd party cloud server.
5. Customizable to no end.
6. Cloud Play is a game changer for discovering new music without having to go through mainstream music streaming services that run on a subscription model. (I hate that)
7. I run the Windows version on a dedicated, but old, laptop that has absolutely nothing else running on it besides the Windows OS and JRiver is rock solid with streaming my FLAC music library.
That, is why I chose JRiver.
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I chose JRiver after my Windows 7 Media Center Box suffered a hardware failure and there was no way back with the latest hardware. My main reasons are:
1) Helpful forum especially to a newbie with a near vertical learning curve
2) Ability to read tags from existing WTV files
3) Automated Ad Skipping
4) Continued program development
5) Sensible licencing
6) Its ability to work with my local TV standard H264 HD / AAC-LATM / AC3 and MHEG5 Guide Data - all the other Windows Media Center replacements I tried didn't fully work
Please keep up the good work guys!
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I have to add my 2 cents. I can't believe it's been almost 20 years since I started using Media Center with MC 11. I needed it back then to catalog and organize my large (to me) MP3 collection. There wasn't a better tool back then. Even though I finished organizing MP3s way back, I continue to buy the new version every year as it continues to be the best in playing and organizing music. I dabbled in the theatre feature, but I sure wish I had gotten more into photo organizing back then. I tried multiple programs over the years for organizing photos but those programs came and are now gone. Now I have a ton of photos I wish I had added to MC to organize. Since I just retired, perhaps I'll have the time to make that happen. Keep up the great work!
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OK, I just added a new reason to why I chose JRiver, though I have to admit at the time I did not know this reason existed.
But, as of this afternoon, now I do.
Wake on LAN (https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Wake_on_Lan).
It was a surprise to me.
My desktop MC server had been shut down for maintenance reasons.
I was also working working on the MC client PC for those same maintenance reasons (a.k.a., Patch Tuesday).
I have the MC client PC version of Windows configured to boot into MC client and start up in theater mode.
But the MC server was powered down, or at least I thought it was. When I went to the desktop PC, I noticed it was booting up.
I knew I had enabled WoL for other reasons, so it was no surprise to me that it would boot up by itself.
What was the surprise, though not really a surprise, but more of a smiling recognition of what has been designed into MC. That the MC client sent a WoL packet to it's configured server.
Poking around in the Wiki, I found an entry that pointed to some decade+ old comments here.
So, succinctly, if the MC client is configured to connect to a MC server, and it sees no response from that server, it issues a network-based ~wake up-call~ to the server.
Excellent stuff, that is...
Thank-you to the developers.
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I originally selected MC (version 8 IIRC) for my HTPC project in March 2003 to play music. Other players were chosen for video and TV as that side of things wasn't really supported then in MC. The main reasons for the selection at that time were its flexibility in library organization and its ability to be remotely controlled (by Girder - remember that??).
Over the last 20 years the project has evolved enormously, and has been the sole entertainment system at home for all that time. And MC has remained as the core player for music. And I am just embarking on major re-work to move to Linux and to transfer the responsibility for the video and TV functionality into MC (ditching Zoom Player and DVBViewer).
The things that keep me with MC remain unchanged: its flexibility in library organization and its ability to be remotely controlled (now via the very rich MCWS API). And of course the reliability and output quality is superb and matches the capabilities of modern display and audio hardware.
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From the 31.0.36 announcement...
2. NEW: Added "Shuffle Albums" to the shuffle menu to keep albums in track order but shuffle the collection of albums.
Whoa.
I have been doing that manually (and to be honest, outside of JRiver with VLC).
OK, it, specifically, is not a reason why I chose JRiver back years (decades?) ago when I switched from iTunes....
But if you give me a little latitude, this type of continual improvement (and, in this case, I do not use "improvement" lightly) is a reason why I chose JRiver.
Good stuff.
thx.
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Hi Jim,
A great question; I chose it back in 2013 because it could:
- play Hi-res audio files;
- handle FLAC;
- playback "bit perfect" on USB devices like the Centrance DacPort and Chord Electronics Hugo; not always easy on Windows;
- allow me to pick music and make a queue/playlist in a way that made sense to me, no hassle;
- handle changes in sample rates without full range white noise or crashing the app/device; could add tracks to Playing Now with abandon;
- play tunes the whole time I had guests over and have music without interruption or distraction; it just worked compared to the alternatives.
However the clincher was it sounded better, with my gear, in my room, to my ears than the alternatives I tried at the time. Perhaps how it worked with the USB devices I had; the other solutions seemed more strident and less effortless.
I also think it's reasonably priced and like it's available on multiple platforms. I have picked up most versions since the original MC19 I started with, thanks for a great product.
Cheers, Nick