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[mabes]

My brother just got an iPod and I suggested he use MJ but I can't give specific reasons, the couple of times I used iTunes I hated it but don't remember just why.

[EZ22350]

iTunes sucks for a variety of reasons. Here's a few:
1. It's an Apple product
2. Apple has made it very bloated to work with it's various products (iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, QuickTime, iTunes Store). [Media Jukebox is just for Music]
3. Because of #2 iTunes uses A LOT of system resources! Ex. 150MB+ RAM for playing an MP3. [Media Jukebox would be ~40MB]
4. Next time you update iTunes you may also get other Apple software you don't want like their Internet Browser.
5. Media Jukebox connects to Amazon.com for VBR MP3s which I prefer.
6. Media Jukebox's user interface is very customizable.
7. The Mac is Whack!

[Mr ChriZ]

Media Jukebox has Auto Import as standard.
It's skinnable.
It has a more usable Cover Art view although admitedly not as flash.

[Listener]

Media Jukebox has a lot more features and flexibility than iTunes.  Not all will matter to your brother but some will.

- MC/MJ lets you use whatever tags you want and also lets you define database fields that aren't based on a tag in the music files.  Classical music is about 2/3 of my library.  So being able to fully use Composer and other tags is very important.  iTunes will make limited use of the Composer tag won't let me put it in a browser pane. 

- If you like briowsing using Album art, MJ can do that.  Ask someone else about that.

- MC/MJ lets me define more than one library. 

- I can have as many views as I want for each library.

- MC/MJ scales well.  Big libraries are no problem.

- MC/MJ lets you sort lists of music files as you need to.  For example, By Artist, then Album, Disk # and Track #.  Or by Composer, Album, Artist and then Track #.  Changing the sort order is just a matter of clicking on column headings.

- MC/MJ has lots of tools for editing files and doing conversions.

- MC/MJ can read and play Flac files.  The market for downloads in lossless format is coming to life and a lot of that content will be in Flac format.

MC/MJ can output to the ASIO interface for bit perfect results and reliable playback.

The JRiver developers actually listen to users and incorporate improvements based on user feedback.  Apple doesn't.

Bill

[mabes]

what about smartlists? I know iTunes can create, are they as easy, for example I could create a smartlist in MJ that plays 3 songs by 10 certain artists that I can select from a drop down box. Can iTunes do that sort of thing? I know I could download it and play around with it, but I don't want it on my computer.

Oh, can MJ recognize if a file has been played on the iPod?

Mr ChriZ iTunes doesn't auto import new files???

[Mr ChriZ]

Mr ChriZ iTunes doesn't auto import new files???

Not on Windows.  I'm told it does on Mac.

[e-head]

I would be easier to list the things iTunes does better, because frankly, there aren't many of them.

Gapless playback support for older (foreign) rips. That's about it (hint, hint...).

In virtually every other way MC/MJ is better. Better interface, more flexibility. Ability to create custom library fields, custom views, browse by album art. Not to mention WAY faster. And it uses less memory.

Perhaps the only other perk to iTunes is it is simplier, with far fewer options, which might appeal to someone who is not a computer/software savvy user. I figure it goes without saying though, that the typical MC/MJ user values configurability more than simplicity.

[e-head]

what about smartlists? I know iTunes can create, are they as easy, for example I could create a smartlist in MJ that plays 3 songs by 10 certain artists that I can select from a drop down box. Can iTunes do that sort of thing?

Nope. Not easily. Maybe with multiple playlists. MJ smart playlists are more powerful.

Oh, can MJ recognize if a file has been played on the iPod?

Yes it can.

[DarkPenguin]

MJ is a 13mb download.

[mabes]

He's convinced and downloading now. If he needs help, does MJ behave just like MC (which I have) for audio?

[JimH]

He's convinced and downloading now. If he needs help, does MJ behave just like MC (which I have) for audio?

It does.  You could also run it without problems, alongside MC12.

[mabes]

At some point he'll probably decide to upgrade to MC.  What's my commission? 

[Matt]

iTunes installs at least three programs / services that run at system startup, using resources all the time even if iTunes isn't running.  It offends me.

[JimH]

Feature requests were split to a new thread.

[KorkyKat]

Essentially it is way to obese what with Quick Time, Bonjour junk and goodness knows what else.

One major factor for me that pushes itunes aside is; Media Jukebox is one of the very few that will let you scan your c.d. collection and retain the information in the library without having to store the actual space hugging files.

Not everybody wants to transfer their c.d.s to their p.c. but it's good to have the information to avoid buying duplicates. Moreover, if you only like particular tracks from an album then you can rip them to the hard disc and still have the remaining track information. Now that is cool!

Finally itunes is seriously lacking in the skin department for windows users.

Given it's now free (thank you) I hope it brings more people to the site and encourages sales of Media Centre.

 

[Lunatique]

-I for one will not use any music librarian that won't allow me to completely alter the general brightness/color of the background and fonts, as I HATE white UI--it is way too bright to be looking at for prolonged period of time. iTunes does not let you alter the UI to any significant extent, and neither does most other music librarians. Media Jukebox allows tons of customization--more than any other music librarian out there, except for maybe foobar, but then again foobar requires a ton of scripting and unless you like programming you'd hate customizing foobar.

-I also absolutely must be able to list my collection by filepath, and AFAIK iTunes does not do that (though I could be wrong since I haven't used iTunes for a while now).

-I love the Smart Playlists in Media Jukebox. I have a ton of different ones setup for different situations.

-It is a lot more open than iTunes. iTunes is an Apple product and iTunes is locked in with a lot of Apple-centric stuff and that annoys me. I like a music librarian that is open to every format.

-Media Jukebox is very customizable--from exactly how you want your playback, skipping track, searching, view layouts...etc to behave, to a bunch of other very detailed and small things.

No comparison at all for me. Media Jukebox all the way.

[MarcusAnimal]

It sounds better.    Believe it or not, the software one uses affects the sound.

I'm an aspiring audiophile, and I send the digital signal out via usb to a usb esi waveterminal box and then to a separate DAC.

I save my music in a lossless format.

M

[glynor]

Not on Windows.  I'm told it does on Mac.

Whomever told you that, lied.  It doesn't auto-import for Macs either.