Topic: POLL: Importance of Video and TV (Read 13668 times)

1maynard · « **Reply #100 on:** July 26, 2018, 08:04:35 am »

For us TV and Video are the main reason we started using MC. When I cut the cable and went OTA antenna I bought a HTPC with Win 7 and WMC and used that until Microsoft dropped support for it. I then wasted a couple of years with Kodi and all of its issues. I finally loaded MC and have not looked back. I have all of out DVD and BluRay's copied to hard drives and selecting and viewing them is effortless. We use the DVR features of MC to record and watch TV shows like we did when we had a cable DVR. Again it just works. I am in the process of copying all of our music to a hard drive so we can start streaming it. But TV and Video use is our highest priority at this time. It is a very great product at a very great price. Please keep up the good work.

chrisr · « **Reply #101 on:** July 26, 2018, 07:47:21 pm »

99% audio playback (75% DSD, 25% other audio formats)
1% video playback
0% TV, and probably never TV for me

THEO-THOR-DORE · « **Reply #102 on:** July 27, 2018, 04:55:31 am »

Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, everyone.

As a consumer/user, I can only guess that integrating PCM High-Res, DSD
(and more) and Blu-ray (or more), VR(?), with increased or increasing data
and features, into one app can be a strain for the team at JRiver.

Anyway, my personal reasons to start using MC some years ago were:
MC was a (the) quality app that enabled music and video and photo listening/viewing
in a one-stop fashion - emphasis here on "quality" and "one-stop."

Priorly, I used a combination of F**bar or iT***s and M**** P**yer or some vid app.
(as a trivial aside, I think, but am not sure, the word "app" was non-existent then.
Something "Payed" and something "Free" -w/ hidden sponsors, making money in
unclear ways- should be distinguished, no? Sure, things can get blurry. I recall how
I disliked how some (a 100USD+) app would constantly ask me to "share" data).

I suppose there are some apps that perform better with specialized tasks
--I haven't done any research or tests lately, since I'm satisfied with MC.

If you require specialized quality, and there are apps that provide them,
then you'd have a different opinion.

In my case, and although it depends on my mode or mood for listening or viewing,
I want to keep as few apps open at one time, not having to shut one down
and activating it again later.

So there it is: "Quality" and "One-stop."
MC is still the choice for me!

TT

SpeedD408 · « **Reply #103 on:** July 28, 2018, 09:35:41 am »

JRiver is the hart/core of my HTPC system. Without TV support and Video support you will lose me as a customer. I do have some music but if I'm honest with myself I don't spend the time really listening to it. It is just on in the background when doing things around the house so I'm not critically listening. However, JRiver is my sole source for TV watching (via HD HomeRun cable card) and moving watching via DVD/Blu-ray disks). The awesome audio to watch movies.

horse · « **Reply #104 on:** July 29, 2018, 12:54:51 pm »

I started with MC back around MC10 or 11 and for high quality music playback and library management.
MC became the critical backend library management for all my media. (Music, Video, Podcasts, Audio Books and hopefully when I get time all the photo's that have yet to be sorted out) (25k+ music, 6K + video)

The Audio server capabilities with multi-channel and multi-zone is in use every day.
TV OTA was in use, however the TV guide service for recording just became easier in other applications and eventually I stopped using it around MC20. Maybe it has changed or been updated since? I cut the cable a decade ago, using OTA for a small number of shows and then streaming services for everything else.

MC still manages the local video library, however I don't use it on the front end as I've never managed to overcome the WAF or get a decent integration with the streaming clients (Roku, Pi's) that are used for Netflix, Amazon, YouTube etc. for which I'm finding I use more and more for our video needs and less and less for playing BD or DVD, to the point I cancelled my Netflix disc subscription and can't remember the last time I purchased a video disk, unless it was to rip the multichannel soundtrack for music (life performances typically). The ability to tag and manage the "views" seen by the clients is a must have for MC in my current setup. As the quantity of media continues to grow, being able to quickly find stuff is the biggest challenge which MC addresses because of it views, tags and display filters. Kids get there view, I get mine, wife gets hers. We can all be happy!

The User interface is the critical part for the rest of the family and hence JRiver clients or the client-server capabilities is what drives my use. Without JRemote on the iPad, MC for music may get relegated to library management.
DLNA audio support so I can integrate with the clients that are also used for streaming services. (single box client solution for WAF) With Direct connection (SPDI/F or USB) as a zone to a DAC.

I would also like to state that the other critical part of MC is the ongoing development and the support of the Interact forums. So many other applications have abysmal support or have come and gone as developer interest dropped of a cliff. MC is still one of a very (and I mean VERY) small handful of applications I continue to use over decades and purchase an upgrade license (Master) even if I'm not yet going to deploy it to support the company.

As I rebuild my house and fully update the whole house media systems, I will spend more time looking at latest developments and other options to see what has changed and before I break what is currently working fine for a god number of years.

In summary, for me Music is important for playback, however all media is important for library management and enabling other clients to find and access.

OverTheAir · « **Reply #105 on:** August 01, 2018, 07:42:15 pm »

Video and especially TV are extremely important to me as my screen name might suggest. While I have my music ripped as Flac and have on occasion listened to streamed music via MC at my desktop it is my HTPC and home theater use with a projector that dominates at probably 99%+. My HTPC with TV decoder card and Blu-ray rom drive has acted as DVR, DVD, and Blu-ray player as well as pre-amp with analog outputs from a sound card directly fed to a power amp. I switched to MC to simplify after using a number of separate programs tied together via the Win MCE interface. I had plans to get into convolution etc but never got around to it. In any event, I will now be changing to bitstreaming and a separate AVR in order to get ATMOS decoding for in ceiling capability, and to a lesser extent Dirac Live room correction.

My TV usage is exclusively over-the-air and almost all public service broadcasts. Everything I watch is recorded first, even news programs, as I find even the lead-ins on PBS to be tedious in the extreme and watching athletics, or frankly anything on any of the big three TV channels live, is intolerable due to the frequency and duration of adverts.

My plan is to upgrade the HTPC to be capable of playing 4K UHD. I don't currently plan to access any 4K streaming services. That may change although I would always prefer the higher audio and video quality of discs.

I am quite interested to see how ATSC 3.0 roll out goes and how that enhances OTA capabilities.

Robert Taylor · « **Reply #106 on:** August 02, 2018, 01:31:00 am »

Hi, and greets from Down Under!

I use Media Center purely for audio. I always switch on VIEW -> AUDIO ONLY MODE. Files and Database are on a Synology NAS. NAS runs a Virtual Machine running Windows 10 containing Media Center Server. I also open the database locally on my PC for all tagging operations (the Windows VM is no racehorse on the NAS, but it's just fine for server duties).

I use this to stream music to all other locations in the house, either on Windows PCs or using the Gizmo Android app. I use Gizmo to stream in my car, as well. Now Gizmo could use an update, that's for sure, but it works pretty well most of the time.

I use the PLEX server on the NAS for all video - rips of TV shows, Movies and Documentaries. Plex seems to play all my files, and is very good at gathering the metadata associated with the files as well (once you learn the quirks of PLEX's file naming conventions. It kind of forces you to be pretty organised in your file structure).

I hardly watch any free-to-air TV, let alone record it.

I've been using Media Center since version 9 (and when it was called "Media Jukebox", and really was just an audio only tool if my sieve-like brain remembers clearly).

My 2c inserted in slot...

Shasta Mike · « **Reply #107 on:** August 02, 2018, 12:35:58 pm »

I rarely use JRiver for playing video files.

If I was voting on JRiver features and enhancement projects, I would vote for increasing JRiver's UPnP/DLNA and bluetooth capabilities to make it the absolute standard for music playing in a wireless environment across the various platforms (Sonos, Windows, Apple, Linux, etc). That is the immediate need and the way people are going. Get rid of wires. Make interfacing different devices using the various available methods as easy and seamless as possible while minimizing program crashes and providing better feedback to users when the supporting systems (bluetooth, wifi) have their own issues.

Today, JRiver is too difficult to set up for the regular person who wants an easy interface. JRiver today is great for those who want and need to set many various attributes for very specific needs. But, it needs to be more like an OS with the main features important to most people on a top level and the current long, long list of program attribute settings at a 2nd and 3rd level down.

JimH · « **Reply #108 on:** August 02, 2018, 12:43:40 pm »

Quote from: msojka on August 02, 2018, 12:35:58 pm

Make interfacing different devices using the various available methods as easy and seamless as possible while minimizing program crashes and providing better feedback to users when the supporting systems (bluetooth, wifi) have their own issues.

Please start a thread with details on any crashes. Most crashes with video are because of bad video drivers or over-eager antivirus software.

RK · « **Reply #109 on:** August 02, 2018, 08:24:09 pm »

Excellent question Jim H,
Both audio and video are very important for me even though the system is used mostly for music.

One piece of (professional) and reliable software to do both! Personally "TV" weather, youtube and such like are of no interest...

Dantos · « **Reply #110 on:** August 03, 2018, 01:05:35 am »

I voted for "Extremely".

While I am first and foremost an audiophile, truth is I (and the family) spend more time watching TV/Video.

There are other audiophile players but it is the promise of 'one stop shopping' multimedia capability that has attracted me to MC from the beginning. To that end better streaming capability that works for example with netflix would be great (eg using firefox ...... chromium or IE doesn't work)

If it ever achieved the user interface friendliness akin to Kodi or Roku and added a dedicated remote control, MC would rule the world ( Yes, there is theater view but little configurability and no automatic carry over of settings made in standard view)

jachin99 · « **Reply #111 on:** August 06, 2018, 02:31:16 pm »

I'm trying out MC after being away from it for a few years and I hope you make some TV and video improvements. To stay on topic video and TV are must haves, and there are some simple things you can do to improve the overall experience. To name a few, coming from WMC, I really miss having more than four grid cells on the TV guide. Four just doesn't seem like enough when you have about 80 channels. I would say probably a second huge improvement you could make is implement some kind d of miniguide where one could be watching a TV channels, and scroll through a small guide at the bottom of the screen to see what else might be on. I think of your going to be serious about TV then you probably need at least one of those two, if not both

EDIT Figured out how to increase grid cells but a miniguide is still a great feature to add

imeric · « **Reply #112 on:** August 06, 2018, 07:53:05 pm »

Quote from: Vocalpoint on July 16, 2018, 01:14:54 pm

For me - "Video" simply relates to the ability to playback movies (files) in a easy and meaninglful way. Audio of course is my main reason for using MC.

"TV" in MC serves little purpose here in Canada as everything is encrypted and delivered via set top box.

I actually scratch my head wondering how/why the TV fans in here actually use MC in conjunction with a standard TV subscription be it in Alberta or Minnesota. Is everyone out buying antennas and capturing the free over the air HD channels or what?

VP

I'm in Canada and I use both Over the Air and a Satellite Set Top Box working with a Hauppage Colossus and JRiver. It works like a charm. It's not perfect and it hasn't been a smooth ride...I did spend hundreds of hours (probably thousands...) setting this up and providing the MC team feedback to make the whole TV experience better over the last 6 years and I can say now that it works better than a lot of TV software out there thanks to the relentless effort of the MC Team...

I have Commercial Skipping, Subs, Audiophile grade music listening so truly a full All-In-One solution for all my TV, Video and Music needs for the whole family...Something that no other STB or service provider in Canada will ever offer me...(Well for that cheap anyway!!!)

imeric · « **Reply #113 on:** August 06, 2018, 08:37:22 pm »

Quote from: jachin99 on August 06, 2018, 02:31:16 pm

I'm trying out MC after being away from it for a few years and I hope you make some TV and video improvements. To stay on topic video and TV are must haves, and there are some simple things you can do to improve the overall experience. To name a few, coming from WMC, I really miss having more than four grid cells on the TV guide. Four just doesn't seem like enough when you have about 80 channels. I would say probably a second huge improvement you could make is implement some kind d of miniguide where one could be watching a TV channels, and scroll through a small guide at the bottom of the screen to see what else might be on. I think of your going to be serious about TV then you probably need at least one of those two, if not both

EDIT Figured out how to increase grid cells but a miniguide is still a great feature to add

Not a full miniguide but -> Up Arrow on your MCE remote or keyboard while in theater view then left and right to see what is playing on other channels while watching the current one.

jachin99 · « **Reply #114 on:** August 07, 2018, 07:13:22 pm »

Quote from: imeric on August 06, 2018, 08:37:22 pm

Not a full miniguide but -> Up Arrow on your MCE remote or keyboard while in theater view then left and right to see what is playing on other channel while watching the current one.

I didn't know about that either, although a mini guide would still be a good addition. Thanks for letting me know though.

imeric · « **Reply #115 on:** August 07, 2018, 07:40:55 pm »

Quote from: Vocalpoint on July 16, 2018, 01:14:54 pm

I actually scratch my head wondering how/why the TV fans in here actually use MC in conjunction with a standard TV subscription be it in Alberta or Minnesota. Is everyone out buying antennas and capturing the free over the air HD channels or what?

VP

Forgot to comment on this..YES Over The Air Big time! You get your money back in less than a year or 2. I get pretty much all I want as far as News, TV shows, etc... on Broadcast Television. I must admit I'm still dependent on Satellite for Sports Events (Well...Hockey mostly ...) but it works seamlessly with my OTA... I can record 5 shows at the same time, transfer to PDAs, phones...Stream from one room to another sky is the limit...

I have to admit I'm fortunate as I get both all the Canadian and main US channels with my Outdoor antenna so it's definitely worth it!!!

Ironically I get a lot of hockey games from NBC in the US on OTA!!!

And the money I save is for my Netflix account...

It's a shame how the Canadian government didn't publicize this at all compared to what was done in the US in the early days of HD OTA...

Hilton · « **Reply #116 on:** August 08, 2018, 10:17:49 pm »

I still have 4 usb tuners hooked up to my HTPC but with a new 4K TV and chromecasts around the house and 2 x cable DVRs I just don't need them.
I get all my TV via cable TV DVRs and stream my movies collection from JRiver server around the house.

The new main 4K TV in the house has Apps for just about everything I need built-in. I don't like the DLNA interface to my JRiver library from my TV and most of the time we prefer to pull video to the TV, not push it from a mobile. Especially since the TV has all streaming apps built in via Android TV.

The TV built-in Apps have completely replaced the lounge HTPC because it's easier to use and the apps are nice to navigate, nice to look at and the quality for direct streaming from my library is perfect, and HDR is intact without any fiddling.

I've installed another TV app for accessing my library that supports direct streaming without conversions so video and audio meta-data stays intact for automatically triggering various native HDR and sound modes on the TV.
(I have another server product installed along-side JRiver in my main server for this TV App specifically for this purpose)

I would love if JRiver developed an Android TV 10 foot interface app that natively interfaced with my JRiver server. (a port of JRemote, Panel or TheatreView from MC)
I guess I could try sideloading a couple of JRiver android apps and see how usable they are on the TV, but without a theatreview mode I think it just wont feel right.

I would value a quality native Android / Android TV Theatreview WAY ahead of any TV tuner features.

I still play all my music and multi-channel concerts through JRiver in my theatre room, but that gets a small amount of use compared to the new 4K TV in the family room where a JRiver 10 foot interface natively built-in to the TV is sorely missed.

livingondogfood · « **Reply #117 on:** August 13, 2018, 05:21:24 pm »

I discovered JRiver with version 21 so I could play hi-res music.
Since then I only run it in "audio only mode"

frankly I find all the rest simply too complicated and couldn't be bothered.
edit: I should add I do not subscribe to any kind of TV service, paid or free, so I know I obviously am a minority

MrGadget · « **Reply #118 on:** August 15, 2018, 04:36:33 pm »

I use JRiver Media Center primarily for Video and recorded TV*. When Windows Media Center was abandoned by M$, I did an extensive search for a replacement. I found that Emby (AKA 'MediaBrowser'), Kodi, and JRiver were the only contenders. Emby was too unstable and buggy (the old MediaBrowser plugin for WMC remains a favorite of mine). Kodi did everything I wanted, but was overwhelmed by the size of collection. JRiver did everything I wanted and allowed me to organize my collection the way I wanted to see it.

* I rarely watch live TV. I record favorite OTA programs to view later (...and skip commercials).

jkolker · « **Reply #119 on:** August 15, 2018, 04:53:46 pm »

I have over 180 days of DVD/Blu Rays (movies and TV shows) saved on NAS drives, and JRiver powers my home theater in 2 rooms of the house. Video is a crucial feature. If JRiver didn't have video, I'd have to use something else.

Trumpetguy · « **Reply #120 on:** August 16, 2018, 04:39:46 am »

Essential for audio and video in our home theater.
Preferred for remote music playback.
Main photo storage and management software.
Not used for TV, and no plans so far.

CountryBumkin · « **Reply #121 on:** August 16, 2018, 11:20:33 am »

90% for Movie watching
9% for TV recording (never Live viewing)
1% for Audio and Images

Vocalpoint · « **Reply #122 on:** August 16, 2018, 01:09:51 pm »

Quote from: imeric on August 07, 2018, 07:40:55 pm

Forgot to comment on this..YES Over The Air Big time! You get your money back in less than a year or 2. I get pretty much all I want as far as News, TV shows, etc... on Broadcast Television. I must admit I'm still dependent on Satellite for Sports Events (Well...Hockey mostly ...) but it works seamlessly with my OTA... I can record 5 shows at the same time, transfer to PDAs, phones...Stream from one room to another sky is the limit...

Cool. Here in Calgary - there are just 6 over the air channels "out there" and none of them would hold much interest for the family. So there is little point in investing in an antenna in this market.

And I still do not get how one could plug a set-top box into a PC TV tuner card and actually see anything that is not encrypted.

VP

JimH · « **Reply #123 on:** September 08, 2018, 07:22:19 am »

Split What's Left to do for Audio?

nsxelent · « **Reply #124 on:** September 18, 2018, 12:53:43 pm »

I don't use any of the TV features but one of the most compelling aspects of JRiver for me it's ability to inventory and play all of my media in the highest quality way possible - including video (bit-perfect for Audio). I've sold my friends on the fact I've yet to find an audio or video format it doesn't play - multi-channel DSD, DTS, Blu-ray, FLAC, ALAC, everything! And it can convert every file type into practically every other file type. The best media manager on the market!

INTERACT FORUM

Poll

How important are JRiver's video and TV features?

Author Topic: POLL: Importance of Video and TV (Read 13668 times)