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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 27 for Mac => Topic started by: Listener on March 29, 2021, 11:03:23 am

Title: considering switching from w10 to Mac - JRiver differences?
Post by: Listener on March 29, 2021, 11:03:23 am: I'm finally fed up with the new bugs introduced in each Windows 10 feature update. I am considering switching to an M1 Mac Mini as my personal PC. If that works out, I'll switch to a Mac Mini for my wife's PC, a dedicated music PC and a travel laptop.

I've relied on JRiver MC on Windows for 16 years and want to keep using the Mac version. I need to understand what functionality of the Windows version is missing or different in the Mac version. Here are some of the features that I depend on:

- Flac and mp3 files files (a few mp4 files as well but no copy protected files.)
- used defined tags/database fields
- changes to tag values are written back to Flac
- pane views using standard and user defined tags/database fields.
- DLNA and TRemote functionality
- web remote and panel remote control
- DSP functionality for room correction
- headless operation of a computer dedicated to music playback.
- I use WASAPI exclusive mode to bypass Windows audio processing. Is there a comparable feature to bypass Mac CoreAudio processing?

I also use the photo editing functionality to select, edit and tag photos. The JRiver database functionality and panel views are vastly superior for my photo applications (mainly wildflower and insect photography.) I don't use JRiver itself to do the photo editing but launch an external photo editor from JRiver.)

I'd appreciate any info that you can provide. The JRiver Wiki doesn't provide much help in understanding the differences between the Windows and Mac versions.
Title: Re: considering switching from w10 to Mac - JRiver differences?
Post by: Awesome Donkey on March 29, 2021, 11:43:22 am: Quote from: Listener on March 29, 2021, 11:03:23 am
- I use WASAPI exclusive mode to bypass Windows audio processing. Is there a comparable feature to bypass Mac CoreAudio processing?

Just use the exclusive mode option with CoreAudio in MC's audio settings and you should be good to go. If you encounter issues, you might try disabling integer mode.
Title: Re: considering switching from w10 to Mac - JRiver differences?
Post by: LilyAarseth on March 29, 2021, 12:57:09 pm: The UI feels a bit laggy and delayed compared to on my Windows machine (5-year old hardware) despite that M1 chip should be plenty powerful enough. Almost everything else is working just fine however.

When JRiver changes back and forth from 44.1 and 48 I noticed after a few dozens of songs CoreAudio seems to crash and I have to manually restart it, so I've set everything to resample to 44.1 to avoid this and run the mac system sounds in 44.1 to avoid the switching. Could be a driver issue/macos bug or something, I don't think that JRiver is causing this, but good to know if you run into the same issue (I'm on a M1 Mac Mini as well).
Title: Re: considering switching from w10 to Mac - JRiver differences?
Post by: Listener on March 31, 2021, 12:09:46 pm: Thank you @Awesome Donkey and @LilyAarseth for the useful info. You've addressed some of my concerns.