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[currter]

Hello,
I have not been here for a while and may have asked this question before.

Can JR Media Center (whatever version or which version) accept audio beamed
or streamed to it and distribute that audio stream to various renderers or
speaker systems that are within the same network?

In other words, can JR Media Center operate like  AirFoil which I use on Mac OS
where the audio is accepted in JR Media Center or Kodi and I use AirFoil to
send, forward that audio to various speaker systems within my network such as
Yamaha R-N803, AudioCast, Denon DRA-800H, ChromeCast devices, even
networked Televisions, etc.. All can , through AirFoil selecting each speaker
system can receive the same audio distributed.

My issue is when I run Airfoil on Windows, the audio is choppy (Mac is better).
So I would like to have JR Media Center do the distribution of the audio
directly without going through or using Airfoil. The computer whether MacOS or Windows
can run JR Media center and accept the audio beamed to it from like a smartphone,
tablet or another computer fine.
Now I just have to get JR Media Center, if it can, send that audio to multiple renderers
it can see within the intranet.  I was experimenting with Zones and Zone Groups thinking I could
add various networked speaker systems in a group then have the audio beamed
to that group of speakers of that zone group, but I cannot get it to work if J River is
even designed to do that. To  me with the myriad of options the software provides,
I think JR River Media center could potentially do what I would like (Airfoil functionality),
but maybe I am not selecting the right options and need assistance.

Thank you for any assistance you can provide or suggest and if it cannot be done, just
let me know so I can stop wasting time with it and I will just use AirFoil

[currter]

Addendum:

Another good example of how I would like JR Media Center to work
is how iTunes can send audio to various networked speaker systems
(in rendering modes). iTunes has a cast button that turns blue with
some circles ... to choose/select what networked speakers to use.
One can select 1 or more of those and the audio that plays through
iTunes will be sent to those speakers.

This is how Airfoil works and I hope that JR Media Center can also
work similarly? Let me know if it is possible or I am just wasting my
time trying (with the zone groups).

Thank you.

[JimH]

Please read the wiki topics on Media Network and DLNA.

[currter]

Okay,

Now that you mention this, this is how I use JR Media Center to
set up the computer (Windows or MAC ) to be in rendering mode
to receive the audio beamed from an external audio device/source.

Now I just need the computer using JR Media Center to send or forward
that audio to other devices in rendering mode like how AirFoil or iTunes
work(s).  The issue is that JR Media Center has too many choices and options
one can get lost in perhaps how to set this up and I notice that even the
experts here cannot just tell me how to do it easily. 

I asked this question I believe last year in posts here and could not get
a straight answer so I gave up on JR Media Center and just use Airfoil
(Mac OS) which work fine for my purposes.  I just think JR Media Center
has the potential to do what Airfoil does but nobody can help me with
figuring it out quickly and I do not have the patience to be configuring a myriad
of options JR Media Center offers.

Just tell me how to do it so I do not waste my time with this again.

However, if you help me figure this out, I may upgrade and purchase the latest
JR Media Center version as I am using 26 now -- I purchased 25 while it was
being updated and got 26 as a bonus. So I paid for 26 for both Windows and Mac.
I was going to wait until version 30 comes out before I spend more money on this
software. You may be on version 28 now? 
So if you help me figure this out, you or the Software may get more money from me
with an upgrade., if not, there will be no incentive for me to fork out more money
for an upgrade version because the experts are not being and have not been too helpful
when I addressed these questions last year or in the past causing me to just give up
on doing this with JR River and just using Airfoil being simpler to use.

[currter]

Please read the wiki topics on Media Network and DLNA.

I looked at those in the software and IF JR Media Center can behave like
Airfoil or iTunes to distribute audio to other speaker systems (renderers ) when
itself is a renderer, I believe the software just cannot do it.

If JRiver Media Center cannot operate this way, just admit it and maybe a newer
version in the future will be able to do it (I believe there is potential). I can see a list
of Player devices that show most of my networked renderer speaker systems... I just
cannot find a way to select multiple ones to send the audio.

I will just think there is a limitation of the software at this time.

[JimH]

Not trying to hide anything from you, but "IF JR Media Center can behave like
Airfoil or iTunes ..." is vague.  JRiver has extensive network capabilities, but what do you want? 

This doesn't make sense:  "distribute audio to other speaker systems (renderers ) when
itself is a renderer."

[currter]

Maybe one has a networked
speaker in the backyard and another in the front yard and another
in the family room and a stereo in the living room.

All of these devices can receive the same audio by means of a  computer
running some software like Airfoil sending the audio to the multiple
renderers by clicking boxes... if one wants to stop audio going to that device,
then that is done by deselecting the box. .

[currter]

I think maybe JRiver Media Center can only send audio to
one networked speaker system at a time and not
send to multiple ones like how iTunes and Airfoil can do.

You software has a limitation or it was not designed to
send audio to more than one networked renderer?

I am successfully doing this using a combination of
Kodi running on a computer to expose the computer as
a networked renderer and using Airfoil with Kodi as its
input (or source) and Airfoil then sends what audio is beamed to the
computer running Kodi (DLNA mode) to a list of other audio systems
within the same network thus sharing or having the
audio distributed.
I use BubbleUPNP or Neutron sending audio from an external
source to the computer that is running both Kodi and Airfoil.

Audio is thus sent to various speakers in and around the house.

Simple.

I do not think JRiver Media Center can do this alone but I thought
it has the potential to do so but the people here do not know how
to explain it or how to do it?

Using Kodi and Airfoil to do this is simpler than trying to get JRiver to
do the same thing because JRiver has just too much and it tries to do
too much confusing things with all those options and selections.
One gets lost in JRiver software trying to do this simple thing
that is accomplished easier using Kodi in DLNA mode and Airfoil
to distribute the audio to multiple speakers.
Unless JRiver Media Center can prove otherwise?

[JimH]

It sounds like you've found a solution with Kodi and Airfoil.  You should be able to use the same solution by replacing Kodi with JRiver.

[currter]

Yes true... I either use Kodi with Airfoil or JRiver with Airfoil.

I want to just use only 1 software package to do both
and REALLY feel JRiver can accomplish this alone.

However, I do tend to use Kodi with Airfoil because Kodi has
some features such as seeing wave form of the audio sent
to it -- like a wave stream and it shows the metadata from
the .flac file on the screen. So it is more fun.

JRiver may show the metadata but there are no fun features

I still have faith in JRiver though and I may consider
an upgrade.

[currter]

I believe JimH missed the point...
Though Kodi is more fun to use than JRiver,
I was hoping JRiver can do with what Airfoil does and I just
use one software package and not 2.

If this is the case, I will prefer to use Kodi than JRiver with Airfoil.

Now can JRiver accomplish what Airfoil and iTunes do to easily
distribute the audio to various renderers with clicking or choosing
those networked speaker systems?

[JimH]

You can click on any renderer listed in the top section of Playing Now to change to that renderer.

You could also set up zones for each and switch that way.  Ctrl-T toggles among zones.

The wiki explains this.

[currter]

I believe I did this and could only send audio to 1 renderer.

Can I send the audio to multiple renderers easily?

The thing with JRiver is there are so many options and features that
the software seems overwhelming. It does many things and for me
I kind of get lost and may click on something and it is the wrong thing
then I have to remember to backtrack to undo.

I would like something more focused maybe like selection boxes
to select many renderers.

I will try JRiver again as you suggested on both platforms.

Thank you.

[currter]

Okay, I managed to be able to access audio via DLNA on a server
and I managed to send audio or play it on one renderer in the Playing Now
section. 

How can I play that audio on multiple renderers in the Playing Now section?

Is there a  way to put 2 or more Playing Now renderers listed in a directory
or folder and then the audio can be played on those networked devices?

Is this where zones come in?

Airfoil and iTunes are easier to use because you just click boxes of
the devices you want audio to be played to or sent to.