J. River Media Center thread

doctorcilantro

Wow that program is pretty cool doctorcilantro. You made me really want to buy it haha. Damn... Oh by the way.... can you override the sample rate of a cd track or mp3 file? That doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense as I believe it is natively 44.2 Khz. Is it ideal to double it or quadruple it?

I noticed you have 192,000 selected as your sample rate but wouldn't that mean you are adding a conversion before outputting your sound to the speakers. This potentially can negatively affect your sound quality?

Well, you can use the 32bit internal DSP to do things which may not make it bit perfect per se, but you won't lose any fidelity.

Upsampling can be done in the DSP. If you have a sample rate locked transport or sound card like an EMU 1212M, you could just set the DSP to 96kHz if you have native material at 96kHz and didn't want to manually switch the DSP every time you play 44kHz material.

If you want crossfading you can't switch sample rates on the fly. If you card can auto-load various sample rates yo ucan just leave JRMC DSP at "no resampling".

My current card and DAC work fine at auto-switching but I do plan on some listening with upsampling turned on in the JRMC DSP.

Who knows....

Here is another link to the screenshots I have taken; hopefully they offer some insight.

Fongolio

I just switched to this program yesterday and I've got to say it is by far the best all round media center that I've ever tried. The versatility is superb. It will play almost any format audio or video. Can display raw photo. Excellent library customization options. As was stated in a dfferent thread it does buffering and sends bit perfect digital down ethernet to my Apple Airport Extreme and then to my DAC. No drop outs and as stated above upconversion options. Ripping and recording capabilities. PS3 and Xbox friendly. My son even discovered last night he can load his Ipod and Iphone from it and ditch that hideous Itunes. I could go on and on but for less than $50.00 this is the undisputed champ of PC based media servers.

doctorcilantro

Fongolio wrote: »

I just switched to this program yesterday and I've got to say it is by far the best all round media center that I've ever tried. The versatility is superb. It will play almost any format audio or video. Can display raw photo. Excellent library customization options. As was stated in a dfferent thread it does buffering and sends bit perfect digital down ethernet to my Apple Airport Extreme and then to my DAC. No drop outs and as stated above upconversion options. Ripping and recording capabilities. PS3 and Xbox friendly. My son even discovered last night he can load his Ipod and Iphone from it and ditch that hideous Itunes. I could go on and on but for less than $50.00 this is the undisputed champ of PC based media servers.

Great to hear. You can use a 3rd party app to sync between itunes and JRMC but I haven't used it.

I burned a CD over WAN the other day via the library server

Face

They also have an app for Android phones...I'm about to pull the trigger on this.

bikerboy

Man I wish you had talked about this before I paid for a lifetime subscription of Media Monkey. This will do video and audio. MM only works with audio. Oh well MM does work very well and I'm not that interested in video at this point. J River looks like a very good player for everything. At least I used flac files for all encoding instead of wav or mp3 like some have. No tagging issues or lower sound quality.

davide256

Ive tried JRiver Media Center, better than Windows Media player for audio. While VLC and Foobar2000 may be a pain for interface, they have more detail and better base than JRiver in kernel streaming or wasapi mode.

doctorcilantro

davide256 wrote: »

Ive tried JRiver Media Center, better than Windows Media player for audio. While VLC and Foobar2000 may be a pain for interface, they have more detail and better base than JRiver in kernel streaming or wasapi mode.

....in your system.

cokewithvanilla

Ok, so I am a bit confused here.

The website is pretty darn crappy at explaining why I would actually want this. I could grab the torrent and check it out, but I would need more enlightenment to even want to do that.

I currently use Windows Media Center to record tv, show pictures (any format, camera raw included), play music (any format, but generally WMA lossless works best), play movies (MKV's, bluray, dvd, etc)... everything is presented in a really nice looking manner and comes with album art, dvd covers, fan art, synopsis, cast, etc, etc. I can stream this data from any pc in the house. It can be controlled from a remote, keyboard, phone or another computer.

What will J. River give me that WMC won't???

doctorcilantro

Where to start?

I'll have to starting delving into specifics in the morning.

Maybe just check out the 30 day trial and play around with it.

how many files in your library? Do you tag in WMC or a 3rd party app? Does WMC support DLNA?

cokewithvanilla

doctorcilantro wrote: »

Where to start?

I'll have to starting delving into specifics in the morning.

Maybe just check out the 30 day trial and play around with it.

how many files in your library? Do you tag in WMC or a 3rd party app? Does WMC support DLNA?

DLNA? I looked at it a bit and it seems to be something to do with streaming?? I guess they show the ability to have files streamed from your phone, NAS, ect... well, that's nothing that couldn't be done years ago. Am I missing something?

I currently have around 70 movies and maybe a couple thousand tracks. I don't record much tv, but the guide is a must. I use WMP to get the album info (i think WMC does this in the background).

The main use for the unit is... well.. everything. It's job is anything someone might want to do. WMC plays a big role.

Things I like:
Stream Netflix (perfect netflix integration), download movies directly into my library and have them renamed and cover art, ect downloaded. The guide for recording shows forever in advance, on any channel, ect. The picture slideshow that acts as a screen saver. Play any type of video... bluray, dvd, and any downloaded format. Most importantly, everything looks good and operates seamlessly. Everything can be done from a remote... the tv is a tv.

Things I dislike:
It's a minor product made by microsoft, which means they update it whenever they get around to it. The fact that hulu integration is not quite there yet (secondrun.tv does a fair job though). TV show integration isn't 100% (for a downloaded series). Sometime the media libraries get messed up, especially the picture libraries... they don't seem to function 100% with files that have been tagged in Adobe Bridge.

Fongolio

cokewithvanilla wrote: »

Ok, so I am a bit confused here.

The website is pretty darn crappy at explaining why I would actually want this. I could grab the torrent and check it out, but I would need more enlightenment to even want to do that.

I currently use Windows Media Center to record tv, show pictures (any format, camera raw included), play music (any format, but generally WMA lossless works best), play movies (MKV's, bluray, dvd, etc)... everything is presented in a really nice looking manner and comes with album art, dvd covers, fan art, synopsis, cast, etc, etc. I can stream this data from any pc in the house. It can be controlled from a remote, keyboard, phone or another computer.

What will J. River give me that WMC won't???

WMP does NOT play any format audio. DTS comes to mind as does DVD-audio. Sounds like you're happy with what you have. Why come here and start dumping on this? No one here is trying to sell it to you. We are all happy with it for our own reasons. If you are happy with WMP then fine, go play and leave us with ours.

cokewithvanilla

Fongolio wrote: »

WMP does NOT play any format audio. DTS comes to mind as does DVD-audio. Sounds like you're happy with what you have. Why come here and start dumping on this? No one here is trying to sell it to you. We are all happy with it for our own reasons. If you are happy with WMP then fine, go play and leave us with ours.

I didn't bash it. I came to this thread because of the good things said about it in another thread. I was honestly asking, because WMC has flaws that I would like to see addressed... as you can see in my above post.


And, before going off... educate yourself. And maybe consider that someone wouldn't make a statement about how they use something unless they actually use it that way. 90% of my movies are in DTS.

WMC plays DTS like a charm. Never tried dvd-a but would bet on it. How about you look up the magic word 'codec'. WMC or WMP (actually the Windows Media Foundation) will play anything that you have a codec for. Windows does not come with certain codecs (like FLAC), however, it does support them.

ugh.

Fongolio

I stand corrected about WMP and apologize for my tirade. I really had the impression you were only trashing Media Cernter.

One of the main features I really like about this player is it's ability to buffer audio before sending it out. That achieves bit perfect digital to my DAC through Airport Express. It can also upconvert audio although I have not tested the effectiveness of that feature. My previous favorite player was VLC which did very good streaming but with less or no buffering and thus prone to data loss. I find it the most customizable of all media players with some excellent quality features that I find easier to use than any other player. My son immediately found it easier to use for his Ipod and prefers it greatly to Itunes which is limited in it's codec use. By the way Coke, I was refering to DTS audio files encoded with wav. I have several hundred DTS music disks and have never been able to play them with WMP. That's why I used VLC. Excellent dts multichannel music support.

doctorcilantro

Fongolio wrote: »

I stand corrected about WMP and apologize for my tirade. I really had the impression you were only trashing Media Cernter.

One of the main features I really like about this player is it's ability to buffer audio before sending it out. That achieves bit perfect digital to my DAC through Airport Express. It can also upconvert audio although I have not tested the effectiveness of that feature. My previous favorite player was VLC which did very good streaming but with less or no buffering and thus prone to data loss. I find it the most customizable of all media players with some excellent quality features that I find easier to use than any other player. My son immediately found it easier to use for his Ipod and prefers it greatly to Itunes which is limited in it's codec use. By the way Coke, I was refering to DTS audio files encoded with wav. I have several hundred DTS music disks and have never been able to play them with WMP. That's why I used VLC. Excellent dts multichannel music support.

I'm not saying you aren't a power user; some of the features JRMC offers truly, and simply, may not interest you.

They are community driven, but yes, could use a better web site and this has been a topic of recent discussion. Here are some recent thoughts to answer your questions:

"We've been thinking about this question ourselves, with respects to website messaging. It's hard to give a good answer without knowing a little more about the customer.

If we start talking about our industry-leading audio engine, will that resonate?

If we talk about Library Server, DLNA, WebRemote, WebPlay, will that tickle the customer?

Do they like control over how to view their media or want the fastest media database?

Do they care about access from their couch with a remote?

Is their main focus consuming media from lots of sources, and they just want an easy, pretty interface?

Does an active community and development cycle appeal to them?

Do they get any satisfaction from supporting something other than the Microsofts, Apples, and Walmarts of the world?

I'm sort of brain-storming out-loud here. One idea Jim has been floating is to make our homepage try to triage users into 5 to 7 focal points (like the ones listed above) so we can better talk to each group. For example, there's no point talking about RAW image support to someone looking for the premier audiophile solution. And there's no point talking about ASIO, WASAPI, and Room Correction to someone hoping to hook up their new DLNA device."

Something you touched upon, active development and consumer input (a lack of with WMC), mean a great deal to me. I'd rather not be tethered to WMA lossless, but open-source .flac, .ape, .tak.

I'm not a videophile but I do have a lot of video, and being able to configure Directshow filters is an asset in JRMC; maybe you can do that with WMP; not sure.

Pauly

This looks interesting and pretty cool, but im still stuck on XBMC for my media center.

Pauly

cokewithvanilla

Fongolio wrote: »

I stand corrected about WMP and apologize for my tirade. I really had the impression you were only trashing Media Cernter.

One of the main features I really like about this player is it's ability to buffer audio before sending it out. That achieves bit perfect digital to my DAC through Airport Express. It can also upconvert audio although I have not tested the effectiveness of that feature. My previous favorite player was VLC which did very good streaming but with less or no buffering and thus prone to data loss. I find it the most customizable of all media players with some excellent quality features that I find easier to use than any other player. My son immediately found it easier to use for his Ipod and prefers it greatly to Itunes which is limited in it's codec use. By the way Coke, I was refering to DTS audio files encoded with wav. I have several hundred DTS music disks and have never been able to play them with WMP. That's why I used VLC. Excellent dts multichannel music support.

No problem, I probably did come off pretty negative. There site, to me, was pretty bad . it seems like J river might offer more options concerning audio, especially native. I guess the good thing about WMC is there are enough people modding it that there is generally a plugin for everything. However, it would save setup time to have it native.

cokewithvanilla

doctorcilantro wrote: »

I'm not saying you aren't a power user; some of the features JRMC offers truly, and simply, may not interest you.

They are community driven, but yes, could use a better web site and this has been a topic of recent discussion. Here are some recent thoughts to answer your questions:



Something you touched upon, active development and consumer input (a lack of with WMC), mean a great deal to me. I'd rather not be tethered to WMA lossless, but open-source .flac, .ape, .tak.

I'm not a videophile but I do have a lot of video, and being able to configure Directshow filters is an asset in JRMC; maybe you can do that with WMP; not sure.

It seems like J River has the media end taken care of. Yes, I can do all that in WMC (including direct show). However, it requires some setting up. Without Sharks Codec Pack, it would be terribly difficult at best.

I guess what I am getting at is, with WMC you rely on tons of third party codecs, applications, ect. to make WMC literally do anything you can think of. However, as you probably know, getting all this software to function properly IN WMC (and stay functioning) is sometimes difficult.

With the media side taken care of, I am wondering about how J river handles the other things I mentioned. It is hard to just jump into a program and see EVERYTHING it does without taking a lot of setup time. I was hoping an experienced user could answer if J river was everything WMC is and more, or something focused mainly around audio.

WMC is kinda like you can leave it with 60 year olds and they can figure it out (once it is set up).

Is J river
Easy to control with nothing other than a remote?
Easy to navigate
Very nice looking
Low on upkeep (things that require me to pull out the mouse and keyboard)
Does it stream Netflix?
Play Blurays?
How well does it handle TV? Does it have a guide so you know everything thats on for the next 2 weeks?
Support hulu (and others) with a remote?

I know it must sound like I should just try it, but I moved into my apartment for school and now I do not have a remote enabled computer to try this on

Thanks

Face

Do you have a Android or IPhone? If so, there's your remote.

cokewithvanilla

Face wrote: »

Do you have a Android or IPhone? If so, there's your remote.

Yes, my phone can control my system, but it's less than ideal because you have to unlock it and start up the program everytime you want to use a command. Not to mention how it kills the battery on an iphone.

I am more interested in its regular IR remote capabilities

doctorcilantro

Library Server allows you to load up your entire master library and then control other instances of JRMC, so you aren't stuck working through the lens of VNC apps, you have a native GUI which means your laptop can be a remote. Each machine can control another. So any tablet or even an iPad could be a remote, but the non-Windows devices would have to use the html based controls.

I mainly use my Gyration remote, but also my iPhone with their native WebRemote feature, or Melloware's Rivermote.

Their Library Server also allows me to stream audio to my iPhone over WAN with WebPlay. It's html based.

They support all of TV recording features and basically are looking to have it so multiple users can access one master library as they see fit on each client PC.

Right now you have to load the master library in read-only mode but you can actually make tag changes and sync back to the master.

doctorcilantro

Pauly wrote: »

This looks interesting and pretty cool, but im still stuck on XBMC for my media center.

Pauly

Someone posted this the other day when we were talking DLNA:

if you want to test upnp/dlna you can try xbmc for windows as a client..i run the old xbox and it works like a charm with MC

cstmar01

maybe a dumb question but is there a lot of upgrades that come out for this software that fixes bugs ect or is it pretty smooth were you don't really have to deal with a lot of that?

be nice to get something besides itunes and controling from my iphone would be awesome...

cokewithvanilla

doctorcilantro wrote: »

Their Library Server also allows me to stream audio to my iPhone over WAN with WebPlay. It's html based.

Ah. This seems to be a feature that WMC lacks. So far, it doesn't sound like this is a WMC replacement, but rather really sophisticated media server software. Am I correct?

So far, it seems like the best use would be to run it alongside the WMC, so that anyone in the home can listen to music from any computer. Can it run in the background?

doctorcilantro

Well, if you load it up, you'll see that Media Monkey got there design from them; it looks like any software player to some extent. It does have a steep learning curve for the advanced features, but the Theater View mode is what I use for my wife. She can grab the Gyration remote, go full screen to Theater View and play what she want. Theater View looks like WMC iirc.

doctorcilantro

cokewithvanilla wrote: »

Ah. This seems to be a feature that WMC lacks. So far, it doesn't sound like this is a WMC replacement, but rather really sophisticated media server software. Am I correct?

So far, it seems like the best use would be to run it alongside the WMC, so that anyone in the home can listen to music from any computer. Can it run in the background?

Hmm, not sure. My perspective is that this does most of what WMC does, and more efficiently. You have a Theater View (10ft view) but than your standard, mini, or display (custom track info screens) with regard to the gui.