INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 15 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: preproman on February 02, 2011, 09:30:39 am
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Hello All,
I'm new to MC and this is my first post. I apologize if it's in the wrong place.
I'm in the process of finding a suitable Media Center that works well with large libraries (Movies, TV Shows and Music). I'm sure most of you have tried others before coming to MC. So from your point of views what advantages does MC have over some of the more popular free Media Centers out there like XBMC, Plex, and Boxee?
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- outstanding abilities to manage meta data in large libraries
- highly customizable
- great user community
- fantastic developers
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What joh said plus:
- manages meta data for all media types (video, dvds, audio, ebooks, photos) in all known formats
- is very fast with large (300,000 file) libraries and has been getting faster with each new release
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- outstanding abilities to manage meta data in large libraries
I had difficulty with any player I tried due to having a huge library. None could handle the entire collection without stalling or crashing.
Then I discovered MJ8, and it was the first that was up to the task. It was the first to work well enough for me to cough up the cash, and I was fortunate enough to have stepped in as MC9 was being unveiled so my license worked for both.
I was sold and have not moved away since.
A great feature set has worked to keep me using MC to today.
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Came on board around MJ8 because
1...Speed (we have lost the speed of MJ8, but MC15 is mostly fast)
2...Smartlists
3...Do Not Play feature (MC has not had this feature for some time)
4...ID3 tag and cover art ability (has improved much since the early days)
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THEATER VIEW!!!!!
What keeps Foobar still installed on my computer? Integrated Artist Bio and Lyrics.
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JimH saw me picking my nose and said he'd tell my mother if I didn't buy MC12.
Actually, I PM'd him or vice versa when I was looking for a directshow video player on AVSforum. I was never one for following the herd, especially if it'd make my life more complicated/less compatible with everyone else. I loved TheaterView at the time (MC12) and that I could use my favourite directshow filters to play mkvs. Then add to that the tagging and organisation, and I was hooked!
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I needed a player that let me use tags beyond the minimal genre-artist-album-song set to browse my music collection the way I wanted to do it. The Composer tag was the most important extra tag but I wanted to freely choose whatever tags I needed. MC 11 was the only player that met my criteria.
Bill
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I used to use RealJukebox which was okay. Then Real became the turd that we all know and hate, and turned it into Real One which was a huge piece of crap. I stumbled around not liking MusicMatch's Jukebox (which crashed importing my library, even then), not being able to deal with the minimalism of WinAmp, iTunes was but a twinkle in a designer's eye (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundJam_MP), and tried MJ back then a few times. I loved the functionality, but couldn't get past the design back then.
I finally did take the plunge though, despite the surfing jukebox, and haven't looked back since. I was very glad when they switched over to MC and really started to focus on the video features more.
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Gapless playback that is perfectly gapless.
A bunch of media players claim to do gapless playback. Very very few actually do. What good is a media player for music if it can't play Pink Floyd or Beethoven's 9th properly?
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I saw Fitbrit picking his nose too, and figured this must be the place to be.
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What ^they^ said along with the ability to have multiple zones, and search function that can search based on any criteria other than x frequency but I here it is in the works. (jk on that last part) I really don't know what else they could add. Voice recognition? "Play - Rock - 5 stars"
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I used to use RealJukebox which was okay. Then Real became the turd that we all know and hate, and turned it into Real One which was a huge piece of crap. I stumbled around not liking MusicMatch's Jukebox (which crashed importing my library, even then), not being able to deal with the minimalism of WinAmp, iTunes was but a twinkle in a designer's eye (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundJam_MP), and tried MJ back then a few times. I loved the functionality, but couldn't get past the design back then.
I finally did take the plunge though, despite the surfing jukebox, and haven't looked back since. I was very glad when they switched over to MC and really started to focus on the video features more.
OK,
So it sounds like MC - 15 is awsome for music play back. How is the video play back, fuctions and features compared to the others that you have used? Can someone compare it to XBMC and or Plex? What makes MC - 15 better from this perspective?
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I got here not because I'd heard how good the application was - I hadn't. It was more to do with a complete dissatisfaction with all the rivals. I only heard of this one via a high end Hi-Fi website.
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I did not use other players for video playback before, so I cannot compare much.
I like that:
it plays all of the formats that I have my dvd's ripped to.
you can stop playing a movie and come back later and it goes to where you left off.
I use MyMovies to get the information about the movies, and MC picks it up and displays nicely.
the support for newbies like me is awesome!
I never thought I would use it for Photos as well, but I ended up tagging my photos and it has benefited already. When I needed to find a photo that includes only my son and my mom, MC made it pretty simple.
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Well they paid me 2 rhinos and a giraffe.
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WHATTTTTT!?!?!?!??!?
I only got a chicken and two pies.
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I found MC when looking for a player that can synch to my portable device with advanced options, and I only wanted it for that purpose, (I remember being a hardcore winamp user), BUT Once you try MC with all its outstanding features, you can never go back
other great things MC has:
* active development - new builds always, new features and bugfixes
* great support, great community, Im starting to feel like with friends in this forum
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I came for the large library support. I stayed for the smartlists and custom fields.
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The article on www.computeraudiophile.com was responsible. Iīve been one of those "exclusive foobar2000-users" for years. I just wanted to try something new. So I downloaded the trial and immediately noticed the better sound quality. I even had to call my best mate because I was thinking I was listening at a placebo. But after he heard it too and confirmed what I was hearing I purchased JRiver in the minutes after.
I donīt need all the video, podcasting, websurfing, theater and whatever stuff... Iīm just interested in the good audio quality - the best reason one can stay with it, donīt you think?
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I was looking for a media player with good WASAPI support, both for best audio quality, and especially to be able to play material ripped from dts-encoded CDs. MC15 fit this requirement perfectly. I also liked its elegant and easy to use interface. That was enough to sell me on it.
I also like its smartlists, which I have only begun to explore. I think that's one of the great things about MC15... I'm sure I'll be exploring new features for some time to come as I dig into the program deeper and learn more about all it can do.
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For a different reason than most...
I began following a thread at AVS Forum by Hyslopc (Zoner here), because I wanted whole house audio with a media server. Found out he developed a plugin for MC to integrate with the Russound CAV system. Bought MC (MC11 at the time), bought the Russound system, donated and got the plugin - have been very happy since!
Also, learning slowly about all the capabilities MC has. Over the last year, I've been using the MC remote control to kick back and watch MKV's in Theater View - amazing!
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I came because of the ability to use a VST parametric EQ plugin. I used to use (still do while I'm trialling MC) Squeezebox and Inguz for EQ which I can no longer get to work.
The only problem is the lack of (I'm new so maybe I'm wrong) a decent remote app for my ipod touch. Ipeng for SBox is wonderful, and PlugPlayer and Remoteweb don't seem to be in the same league - when I can get them to work!
I really need to give MC remote options more effort though as not everything is as simple as ipeng and my alternative is to buy a Macbook or Mini to get the plugin capability.
I do like the sound of MC, at first I thought it was even better than the SB Touch, but I'm not sure - it is at least as good.
Cheers,
Riddo
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MC staff: Some of these are potentially great user testimonials. Do you need our permission to use them on your website? You can have mine, except for the nose-picking bit.
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I was looking for a Media Center, to throw up on my TV.
First I tried Windows media center, not any good, then i went on to Team Mediaportal,
but it kept crashing for me, next up was JRiver.
I have allways used Windows media player for my music, but after I installed JRiver
I have never looked back since.
I now use it for all my medias, and even my wife is happy with it.
Regards
A happy customer............... ;D