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[ozziaj]

Ok, since MC18 no longer gave me access to info from TMDB (Rotten T’s was long gone already), I finally – yet reluctantly and unhappily – installed MC 20 (build 115) on my Win 7 SP1 (32bit) lappy. I downloaded the installer directly from here: 

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http://files.jriver.com/mediacenter/channels/v20/latest/MediaCenter200115.exe
When initially installing MC20, I ran into a few little kinder-surprises, seemingly all related to the MC18 install, as MC20 seems rather unhappy having to co-exist with a MC18 install. But ok, I made a new library backup in MC18, including settings (as there are far too many to set a-new), and said my bye-bye’s to MC18. Uninstalled that trusty & reliable old version, uninstalled MC20 (it really seemed unhappy), made sure all reg entries and assorted left-overs were taken care of, restarted, and got ready to install MC20 b.115 once more.

A note here to the developers:
I know it’s kinda hassle, but could you please create a proper uninstaller? There were 263 reg-entries left over after uninstalling MC18! Plus 278 left-overs related to MC20. Seems a tad much to this ex-system admin / programming chappie …

Anyway, having made sure these and the assorted files and empty folder left-overs were taken care of, followed by yet another restart, I installed MC20 – which was the usual happy and painless affair. Opened the progy and restored the library backup from the MC18 build, which seemed fine and all of my files were carried over. I should add that I have a fairly large audio and video library.

So, now the thing is, every time I open MC20, Media Center 20.exe and JRWeb.exe want to go online downloading from its server God knows what. And I mean not just a few KB’s here and there, but MB’s galore! 
Why would that be needed? And yes, I have disabled automatic updates in them settings … And no, I don’t have some virus or Trojan lurking about waiting to use either of these exe’s to call home, or worse …

And yes, sure, I could use my firewall and block all MC20 related exe’s from online access, but that kinda defeats one of MC20’s purposes, namely having direct in-program access to online data/info, i.e. TMDB et al.

What makes matters worse, however, and really annoys me, is the fact that MC20’s GUI won’t open until I kill its online excursions via my firewall. And then, no matter what I try to do in the settings, MC20 always and infuriatingly and insistently opens in its "Welcome to JRiver Media Center" section/view instead of the Last Exit View – something I really can do without most of the time. I mean, if I want to hop on the program’s web page for info/updates etc, I use my browser. As it is, if I open MC20 I don’t want to surf the net or having to click to open another section of MC20, but either want to directly access my music library or my movie library - simple. 

My Startup settings in Options (Ctrl+O) are thous:
Location:
Mode: Last Exit View
No Action Window, No Splash screen, No Show tree, No Startup Actions, Run on Windows startup: Nothing

And yes, I have tried every other Mode, and yet, I still can’t get to my Last Exit View when I start MC20, which would be either in Audio, or in Video or in Recently Imported.

Now, all this was never a hassle in MC18. So what’s going on? Where am I going wrong here?

And before someone tells me to, yes, I did uninstall MC20 once more and tried again, thinking that perhaps the installer had a bit of a blonde moment. But no, made no difference …
And yeah, it makes no difference whether I import my (MC18 generated) library or not. MC20 behaves like that for me even just after a fresh install without importing a library (all my libraries included settings).

BTW, another note to the developers, the MC20 uninstaller seems not much better than the MC18 uninstaller … it still left 215 reg-entries behind, plus a few empty folders and now useless files. I’m pretty used to this sort of thing, but given the program's size and scope (in comparison to much “heftier” puppies), the number of left-over reg-entries seems a tad excessive (at least IMHO). Perhaps someone could look into this in future releases...

Anyway, that’s really a very minor gripe about an otherwise great product.

What I really wanna try to fix is, how can I:
a)   stop MC20 from wanting to download stuff (and I don’t even know what it is or why it would be needed)
b)   get MC20 to open in Last Exit View instead of its online/browser viewer

Thanks for all help and advice. Cheers and peace be with ya’ all. 
 

[JimH]

If you want to use MC to watch video, it must be able to update some of the components.  If you block it, you won't be able to watch video.

[ozziaj]

If you want to use MC to watch video, it must be able to update some of the components.  If you block it, you won't be able to watch video.

Thanks. Yes, I thought that might be the case. Though I don't use MC's internal player, but in the settings I stipulated an external player of my choice. And no, I have no intention to block MC - as I said, that would pretty much defeat the purpose(s) ... Basically, I use MC just as a library and an audio player (something MC excels at), plus a great library for my video collection.

My primary issue, however, is that for me at least, MC20 - unlike MC18 - insists on opening in  in its "Welcome to JRiver Media Center" section/view instead of the Last Exit View I was in when I closed MC20. If that's a default behavior that cannot be user-changed, then MC20 ain't for me ...

[ozziaj]

Ah, I just found out how to go about this. And admittedly, and happily, the fault was more or less entirely my own.

What I didn't do, was to set the Location in the Startup Options. Once I noticed that, and set that to Last Location, I no longer get harassed by MC20 trying to download some stuff prior to opening, and MC20 no longer opens in that dreaded "Welcome to JRiver Media Center" section/view instead of my Last Exit View.

So, so far all good ....  

Cheers to ya' all.  

[mwillems]

MC downloads certain external components when first needed at runtime for a variety of reasons.  Not only the video components Jim mentioned above, but also the internal browser that JRiver uses to display web content (like youtube, etc.). The initial download is large (modern browsers are often many MBs), but it almost never happens again if you let it finish.  That's why the "start screen" is triggering it (it's a webpage).

If you use any JRiver functions that require the internal browser you'll see the same downloading behavior until you actually let it finish.  Once all required components are downloaded, JRiver will stop downloading things until one of the external components is upgraded, or you use another feature that requires an external component.