J River Media Center

I just purchased J River Media Center 19 64 bit. I have a Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P with Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional with the Media Center 64 bit. This is a great multi-format media center. It's clearly superior to the Microsoft Media Center by leaps and bounds. The sound quality is significantly improved. It's pretty much easy to learn the user interface and the program settings which are extensive. This was a significant upgrade from all of my previous music players. I was using Music Bee previously and it was pretty good, but nowhere near the caliber of J River Media Center. This is the complete solution.

I was wondering what kind of program settings that you guys use? How do you use your Media Center?

This is worth the money. The price is low for such quality and features.

 

They made their reputation with the Windows version and I was waiting for the Apple version. It has been released but the initial reports were that it was still a work in progress, so I haven't looked again. I'll have to read up on it.

I use iTunes on my Mac Mini (only Redbook ripped to AIFF) but have been thinking of Pure Music by Channel D. I think I want to keep the iTunes database for my iPod, so that's another reason Pure Music appeals more than J River.

I send audio to a Metric Halo LIO-H over FireWire.

 

That's too bad. Apple's iTunes is good, but I chose J River Media Center because it supports subscription services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and others. I had to do research to figure out how to specify the location of my media library. I got double entries because I backup to my Western Digital My Cloud Personal Cloud 4 TB model and I backup my data to it. I also had to remove duplicate entries from my Western Digital My Passport 2 TB USB 3 hard disk drive as it found my other music library and it added double entries. I got it figured out now. I specified my media library exists on my internal hard disk drive and it's rescanning now.

 

I'm using WASAPI to connect my Resolution Opus 21 USB 2.0 24 bit 96 kHz DAC and it clearly makes a big difference in sound quality. I like the fact that J River Media Center makes it easy to select everything from a convenient pull-down menu. My vast MP3 music library sounds amazing now. I'm going to import my FLAC library later today. This is one of the best multimedia media players that I've tried. I plan to connect it to Netflix and Hulu Plus, but I don't know if Spotiy Premium is supported or not. Based on my research, J River needs permission from Spotify in order to enable deep integration and that hasn't happened yet. Qobuz and WiMP are not supported.

 

There's a good write up on the Computer Audiophile site on how to setup JRiver. It's specifically for version 17, but still applies. You might find it useful, I know I did.

Find it here: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/436-jriver-media-center-17-detail/

 

Thank you. I got the audio settings correctly configured. This is the main reason why it sounds superior to Music Bee. I re-organized my media library to scan my internal hard disk drive. I think that I'm good now.

 

I second this plan.

However, I wouldn't describe JRiver as 'easy to learn'. There are so many options that I didn't find it that easy. However, once you set it up for what you want, following the advice in that link, you shouldn't need to tamper with it too much. If you run into problems you can Google 'JRiver xxxxx' where xxxx is the item you want advice on and there are Wiki entries for it. There is also an active forum if you run into difficulties.

 

I would make sure that you've got the right to get mc20 for no cost, as I believe that is now available.
TBH, I use few deep functions. It just plays all file types without my having to pay it any attention. I just have an old laptop sitting in a corner and control it via their android app "Gizmo".

 

Gonna read that article. The biggest complainr I have about JRiver is that their Wiki is useless. Responses in the forum are great though.

So far I am using JRiver primarily as a way to organize my music. I play primarily through my Squeezeboxes. But I suspect that will change over time.

BTW I got an e-mail from JRiver this week asking if I wanted to pre-order Version 20.

 

I didn't get that e-mail to pre-order. I understand that it will cost me $20.00 USD to upgrade, correct? I also understand that I have to install the new version and click on the buy button within the program to get it licensed, correct? What do I need to know?

 

I just got this myself and so far so good.
I very recently built my own PC and am using a large TV as the "monitor" and am using the V-DAC to play music through my stereo. The PC is replacing my Squeezebox (because I don't want to have to rely on having a network connection to listen to music), video game console (because I don't want to deal with the next-gen console wars) and watching movies through my laptop.

There are a LOT of features and mostly I gotta figure out how to get it to display everything the way I want it. I will also read through that computer audiophile link, thanks for that.

 

JRiver Media Center has a lot of configurations that can be modified, lots of features and capabilities. I've used JRiver Media Center for almost a decade and I've still only explored or made use of a very small portion of what it can do.

You can configure what folders and drives JRMC watches.
Tools >> Options... >> Library & Folders >> Configure Auto Import
Remove folders from Auto Import that you don't want JRMC automatically adding to your library. For example, remove folders that have backup music files or any other media files you don't want in the library that JRMC manages. Do that should remove many of the duplicate files you had.

You can also create your own fields for specialized info or as specialized ways for helping you organize or search your library. Lots of possibilities there.
Tools >> Options... >> Library & Folders >> Manage Library Fields

If you listen to classical and similar music you'll want to make sure JRMC is set to play gapless.
Tools >> Options... >> Audio >> Track Change

It is possible to do scripting type commands in file renaming operations and field (tag) changing operations. Lots of power there if you're comfortable with scripting style commands and syntax. I have a file move/renaming rule that has if statements that set the folders I want particular music stored in. Rock gets all put in one directory tree, classical in another, jazz in another, etc. Makes it possible to have JRMC automatically organize my folders when I import a new album.

If you have an Android you can use the Gizmo app to browse your library and control playback. If you have an iPad you can use the JRemote app to browse your library and control playback. There's also a "web gizmo" that will allow you to browse your library and control playback using a web browser on another device that has a capable web browser.

JRMC can make use of VST plugins. There are VST plugins for things like parametric EQ, headphone crossfeed, spectrum analyzers, and other handy things.

Use WASAPI or ASIO so you can get bit-perfect playback. If your DAC comes with an ASIO driver then use ASIO. If not then use WASAPI.

 

If you just bought version 19 the license you got will also work on version 20. About a month before they do an upgrade they start distributing license keys that secretly work on the next version as well. That way people who just bought the old version just before an upgrade to a new version don't get punished. So the license you got for version 19 likely works with version 20 as well.

 

All I know is that it sounds better than iTunes using the settings in the link posted here.

 

You don't have to give up your iTunes database to use JRiver for Mac. I just point JRiver to the same file location as iTunes. I still occasionally use iTunes and Audivrana. Pure Music was my first playback software upgrade from iTunes but I no longer use it. I really really like JRiver for Mac. It functions fine. I think most of the objections surround two issues. First that it is not as full featured as the Windows versions (support for video, ripping etc) and second that it has more of a Windows OS look and function than a Mac OS. I absolutely love the JRemote app on my iPad for control of JRiver and it is leaps and bounds better than the Apple remote app. Finally, very shortly JRiver for Mac 20 will be released and I'm hopeful a couple of those "objections" will be addressed. I do think JRiver is a better operating tool than iTunes for my primary focus of music playback and it metadata support and views flexibility are superior.

 

Also my library are all AIFF files. I use XLD for ripping and it auto adds the files to iTunes. I also have setup Auto Import on JRiver for Mac and it adds the new files from the same folder location when it opens or I tell it to run Auto Import.

 

Good comments - much appreciated.

 

Was version 18 the last one that does not require an internet connection to always be on?

 

I don't believe that any of the versions require an internet connection or always-on internet connection.
You can register a new install by sneaker-neting the mjr registration file to a non-internet connected computer. As far as I know an internet connection isn't required for registering an install. I've certainly used version 19 while no internet was available.

 

Really? I read the big news over at JRiver and them demanding that connection for all the social apps (that they wanted to ingrate and staying registered and active. Yes very sure of it. Basically advertising stream is what they were looking at.

Perhaps they backed down after a firestorm of user feedback. They may have cleaned up their forums of the negative responses.

 

I have a dormant Facebook page that I do not use for anything or divulge to anyone. JRiver certainly does not have it.

 

I don't recall anything like. I do read and post in their forums. It's possible such an idea could have been floated while I wasn't paying attention over there. They do have a free version that has reduced functionality. I could imagine the free version getting some ad support for revenue. But not for their paid version.

 

Ok good to know it never materialized. I don't want Amazon or any commercial sites mentioned on my screen ever when playing music on a high end player.

Nor would I want suggestion of what I might like.

 

I like it so far. It's one of the fastest media centers that I've used. It scans my audio, video, and pictures very quickly. For such a low cost, I got an upgrade in sound quality after following the guide. This is one of the most fully featured media centers that I've used in a while, but I don't wind up messing around with all of the settings. The default settings are fine with me. It also doesn't crash on me yet. It's stable software. It scanned my music files in less than five minutes.

 

On my macs I found that Amarra and Pure sound better and are much easier to deal with from an interface standpoint.

Many of my friends like it for Windows boxes though.