question about JRiver media center... user friendly?

Unfortunately, that didn't work. Any other suggestions?

 

Thanks for your help. I think I'll stay away from this program for now. R128 may be the new standard, but right now RG is still widely used. I don't like the fact I can't edit a setting the computer makes for me - yes, R128 may be more accurate, but I would still like the option to edit if I don't agree with the volume leveling. Not to mention with 20,000 songs, and all the time I put into RG, I really don't want to go through and tweak everything anytime soon.

I again looked at Foobar - it looks like that could be my answer, but man, I don't want to spend all that time configuring the player. I've tried to figure it out a few times but it's just too complicated for me.

I'm going to stick with Winamp. The only major complaint that I have about it (other than it's currently not being updated, but supposedly a new version will be coming out) is that I can't add my soundtracks to the library - if I do, and there are 15 different artists, it lists them as 15 different albums and not 1 album. I noticed that is not an issue in JRiver, at least.

 

You do realize that MC still generates RG values - just "better" ones than previous. My iPod uses the RG value extensively (via Soundcheck) and I haven't hit a single file that has been "redone" by MC to be faulty in any manner. Certainly have never needed to edit any values either. I wouldn't go back to the old RG ever after having R128 at my disposal.

No arguments there. I took one single 5 minute look at it years ago and that was it. Could not be bothered with the clunky vibe.

Gotta do what you gotta do - but WinAmp is a dead end. Ironically it used to be my app too - and then I found J.River back around v12. Never looked back.
Regarding the soundtracks - all you need to do in Winamp is find the Album Artist tag and stick Various Artists in there. That should take care of the grouping issue. This is the same as Media Center does it.

VP

 

I deliberately took out Various Artist from Album Artists because iTunes didn't need it with it's non standard itunescompilation tag. I think it may have been the problem I had with the music player on the first iPhone. It did what mattdm11 said and listed every artist as a separate album. Basically, Apple had one piece of software set a flag to mark an compilation, and another that ignored that flag. I realized a couple of days ago, I need to put them back.

 

You could do what I did when I was flummoxed about a sorting question in JRiver. Post a screenshot in the JRiver Forum.

I have to say - while there are some very knowledgeable people here, over there you get the people who worked on the program. It is the best tech support forum I've seen.

 

Good advice, it's not huge deal. It's just annoying.

 

You sir, just solved a problem of mine that no one has ever been able to give an answer to. Thank you!!!

 

And, since I don't like all the soundtracks being in the V section.... I will just put a "ZZ" in front of it and it goes after my regular library. B-E-A-utiful.

 

You can also create separate libraries. Which is what I do for the different genres.

 

In Winamp? I always read (up to and including yesterday) that they never allowed that feature.

 

Whoops, thought you we're talking about JRiver.

 

I have everything from all genres in one master library - have never seen any need to separate them out (In JRMC). The ability to customize practically everything makes it easy to departmentalize anything. The only separate library I keep is for my mobile tracks - this library is a standalone and is using exclusively to sync my iPod only.

How/why do you use separate libs for genre?

VP

 

The problem with sorting and grouping in JRiver (IMHO) is that there are too many options and they are not presented all that consistently. I can generally get the program to do what I want in this regard, but I don't feel as if I'm the master of it.

 

You don't have to, there are ways to do so also from a main library, I agree. Like my hard drive, I just like to have separate folders/libraries in this case, with my collection, when searching for music to play or research. Separate libraries works for now. Downfall would be if you wanted to play a random list from different libraries, which I never do. I should fix the genre tags to reflect my classifications, but that's what is nice about JRiver, it is easy to change around the structure as long as you saved all meta tag changes to your collection outside of JRiver.

 

Anybody know if you can burn a DVD-V of hi-rez music files on JRiver?

I ended up buying the program, but it's been such a pain - switching the output for my speakers to some weird thing without consent, then having to change it back... hate the interface of it. How to tag an album so each track has the new artwork? It just seems to default to often incorrect user uploaded art from who knows where. I obviously amend the tracks appropriately.

How can you "tag" an album so you don't have to go through each track's tag and remove and put in proper album cover art? I just got to backing up the 100+ track Bobby Darin Milk Shows 2-CD set and thankfully the art was correct or that wouldn't have been a nightmare.

Another issue is it doesn't recognize blank CDs. You have to "fake it out" and put the music you want together and then hit "Burn". But it won't recognize a blank CD-R (or DVD-R) once it's in. The program won't pop up, but other programs like Windows knows it's in there. And, eventually, I can burn CDs from FLAC back to CD.

Just bought the extra tracks from McCartney's New in hi-rez. I bought the previous released in hi-rez WAV, but since they were just released separately, I was able to buy the bonus tracks in FLAC.

Anyway, I can put all the tracks in and make a CD... but it keeps saying ALL content for DVD must be Video. ?

How can I make a hi-rez DVD? I used to use a program I hate - VLC? Something like that. But at least it did it!

Thanks,

Jeff

 

Why not use dBpoweramp for ripping, tagging and picture embedding like the rest of the world. Get that down cold, and them move on to JRiver features.

For DVD authoring find a program that does that that you like. Do not expect a media player however great to do all of your music and audio tasks.

And lastly, head over to the JRiver forums and read up there, so much more info there than you will find here.

 

Thanks for the incredibly useful and specific "suggestions"! Damn, where would the forum be without you offering your generous expertise?

Anybody here have a favorite program that takes FLAC/WAV files and can turn them into a playable DVD-V?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

If you want to do it right the first time - Sony DVD Architect is my one and only choice for this sort of thing. Not cheap - but you do get what you pay for.

Cheers,

VP

 

Downloading lpex now... seems to be the go-to for hi-rez files to playable DVD-V on my system. That must have been the one I used a few computers back. I don't think JRiver has the ability to do this task.

Jeff

 

And... forget that program. It's not a burning program.

From the official lpex site:

Q: How do I burn a dvd once lplex is finished?
A: Just open or drop the generated '.iso' image file into/onto your favorite burning program and press go.

They should create a program called "Your Favorite Burning Program" since this seems to be the default answer from everyone, including, lpex, JRiver, users on here...

Am I the first person to burn their hi-rez audio onto a playable DVD here? I see the music forum has slowed down considerably over the past few months - can anyone recommend a program that does this simple task?

I did it originally with an easy drag and drop program that I cannot recall for the first HD release of McCartney's New. I'd like to throw out that DVD now and add the hi-rez bonus tracks.

I had to replace about 3 computers since then to finally get a REAL computer that could handle Windows 8.1.

Unfortunately, I'm on Windows 8, top of the line ASUS, computer repair fixed the problems JRiver caused with the speakers...

Help? Real help?

What do YOU use?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

Found the easy to use program finally. Did some searching in my email.

THIS is the best for burning hi-rez to DVD-V.

http://www.cirlinca.com/download.htm

Get your free trial! For drag and droppers like me, it's the best!

Jeff

 

I agree in not understanding the separate library per genre thing. You can either sort by Genre or create Smart Lists by Genre to manage them. In sort by Genre you might not get everything you want if you have many sub-genre like Blues-Chicago, Blues-Delta etc where in a Smart List you simply create two conditions, one that the file type is Audio and second that "Genre Is" and simply select from the drop down boxes all the various versions of the particular genre.

 

I listen to popular music and a bit of classical. I have separate libraries for each.

This is useful in a number of ways, but particularly because classical music tends to be sorted by composer whereas pop is done by the players. I also tend to have sessions with one genre or the other but not both at the same time.

It works for me anyway.

 

The real question is, WHY? Once your stored onto hard drive, no need to go backwards onto a digital medium. Everything is playable from the HDD, back it up and your golden. Playback is via JRiver. To exchange files do it via key or upload. You should never have to use DVD,BR or CD's ever again.

As far as settings in JRiver for speakers, they are there if you know where to look. It's easy once you get past the learning curve and play around with it.