Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[jocar37]

I'm brand new to JRiver. I am a musician and music lover and have a fairly good stereo system in my living room - Oppo BDP-103, Logitech Squeezebox Touch, Conrad Johnson preamp, Magnepan speakers. I'm in the last steps or reconfiguring my music library to be able to stream everything to my stereo from a computer in the practice room in my basement, where I previously housed a large part of my music library in lossless format, played thru iTunes. 

When my basement computer died, I spent weeks researching how to improve the SQ of my library.  I bought a new computer specifically configured for ripping CDs, downloading and storing music and streaming it to my stereo.  I've got a fair number of 192/24 and 96/24 downloads, and have started exploring DSD.  So I bought a Marantz HD DAC1, which can play these files.  But whereas I previously connected the iTunes library via my home network through the Oppo, the Marantz supports DSD through a specific USB-B port.  Consequently, the wifi connection wouldn't do.  I also had to buy a TrippLite USB cable with a repeater to be able to utilize the full capabilities of the Marantz USB-B port. 

Today I downloaded JRiver to my basement computer, to which I also attached one hard drive with my lossless library and another with my HD library.  I also plan shortly to start to re-rip my CD library to FLAC or WAV.  At least in these early stages, I want to be able to do more than just select tunes from the living room.  I also want to be able to experiment with settings in JRiver to see what sounds the best. 

I may be wrong about this, but from my preliminary reading, I think I need more than just the usual remote capabilties of selecting files for playback.  I also need administrative control over the basement computer.  I saw the article on servers at http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Servers , but that article says it's outdated, and being new to JRiver and not being familiar with DLNA to begin with, I didn't want to start following an article that by it's own admission likely contains some inaccurate information, and I simply don't know enough to figure out what might or might not still be accurate. 

Can anyone explain to me the best way to be able to perform the functions I want from my living room?  I have a laptop computer I can use.  I also have an Android phone if in fact there's a way to do these things without a full blown computer.  Do I download another copy of JRiver to my laptop?  If so, how do I connect to the basement computer, and how do I set it up to have/share administrative functions so I can modify the settings as I sit in the living room and hear the effects of my experiments?

Thanks in advance for your kind assistance!

[JimH]

The DLNA article is generally accurate, but you would probably run MC's Media Server on one PC and connect to it from another.  See the wiki topic on Remotes and, in particular on that page, Tremote.

[RoderickGI]

As you are talking about modifying settings and listening to the effect, which means you will want to change DSP settings and other parameters of the MC output from your server, the best solution initially while you experimenting would be to use a Windows Remote Desktop connection to control the server computer. That way you have full control and can use all of MC's functions. Windows Remote Desktop isn't all that pretty, but it works. Alternately you could use Teamviewer, which has a free version and is well respected.

Once you have the sound you want you could install another copy of MC onto your laptop, and set up Media Network on your server computer, so your laptop acts as a client. You can install as many copies of MC as you like on your own computers with the one licence, within reason. So no need for two licences in this case. Using the laptop as a MC client you will be able to manage tags on your collection, set up views, search for and play music (or any media you have) from you server to stereo system, and so on. A MC client does have some limitations, such as it can't move files around on your server, change the server DSP settings, and so on. Actually, I haven't worked out all the limitations of using the client, but a search around the forum will highlight some important ones.
NOTE: What Jim called Tremote is what I am calling the client. http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Remotes#Tremote

Once you have everything working as you wish, one of the remotes may be all you need, basically to select and play what you wish, manage playlists and so on. Read through the Remotes forum, http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=37.0  You'll find JRemote and EOS are both available for Android, plus there are web based solutions.

[jocar37]

RoderickGI - I don't think the kinds of things I want to check out qualify as DSP settings, e.g., WASAPI vs ASIO. But if I understand you correctly, I could control those kinds of things with your suggestions as well, so this seems like a good workable approach.  I'm not familiar with Windows Desktop Remote.  Is this a download or native Windows program?  I think I've seen tech support people use Teamviewer.  Your recommendations for how to set up once the sound is set up how I want also look right on the mark.  Thanks!!

[RoderickGI]

What I meant was the Windows Remote Desktop Connection functionality. i.e. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows7/products/features/remote-desktop-connection

Remote Desktop is part of Windows, although possibly the client part needs to be downloaded from Microsoft for some versions of Windows. Note that your server would need to be running Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise editions of Windows, but your laptop where you run the client could be running any version of Windows. Teamviewer would also be fine, and may be easier.

I was thinking audio driver testing, WASAPI vs ASIO, exclusive vs non-exclusive, but also things like Room Correction, Bitstreaming (DSD or other) and so on.

It sounds like you understand what I meant. Excellent. Enjoy the journey learning all about MC!