JRiver Media Center - Convert on Sync?

dbPowerAmp you do have to pay for.

 

Maybe I can do that.

 

I've been using this for years. It's really the best music and video management system I've seen, and you don't really need to be a computer expert to use it. Just download, set the folders you want JRiver to "watch", and then let it do it's thing. It uses a powerful database system that you can tweak endlessly, plus it uses sophisticated video processing to make movies look really good. Filetype conversions are a snap. It's UI is the best in the business. It isn't much of a resource hog, yes you do have to pay for it, but once you do they update it constantly for about a year. I haven't found the need to upgrade to any recent versions, and I still have some versions going back a few years that work perfectly. Plus as I alluded to previously, you can stream it to your phone, assuming you have unlimited data (it uses a lot at the higher bitrates), and it's like having your entire collection of audio and video in your pocket.

 

What do you have to pay for? Is there anything free about it?

 

You have to pay for the software itself, $49.99 for Windows or Mac. You can test drive the full version for free for 30 days. It sounds like a lot I know, especially with all of the free software around, but I think it's worth it. However if the price scares you I heartily recommend Foobar 2000 as a music player. It can actually be customized to a greater extent than JRiver (at least from a skins perspective-there are hundreds of them around), and there are lots of plugins to address any filetype needs you may have. The ability to affect sound with JRiver is practically unlimited, however, especially if you have different "zones" you need to send music to-I don' think there's a program that addresses that to the extent JRiver does. You should at least take the free 30 day test drive.

 

Foobar2000 doesn't have any radio stations though.

 

JRiver is well worth the $50.

 

For sure.

 

I'll do the free trial, then use something else.

 

I just installed a bunch of programs on my computer and am giving each one a try before my free trial expires. First up is MediaMonkey.

 

I can attest. I bought it within the first DAY of my trial. Remind me again what iTunes is?

 

MediaMonkey, Foobar2000, MusicBee, and JRiver are all worth trying. Try them all and find the one(s) that works best for you.

Some of the things I like about JRiver:
Able to play video using the same audio settings and same audio quality as my music. Great for concert videos.
Has better VST plugin support than any of the other media players.
The zones feature is very handy for being able to connect multiple DACs to the same computer.
Flexible tagging support that allows me to manage my library the way I want to do it.
Has good ASIO support for DACs that have ASIO drivers and work better in ASIO mode.
Supported gapless playback from the beginning (back when very few media players did gapless).
And more.

It's well worth the $50 to me plus about $20 per year to upgrade to the latest version. Considering how much I've spent on CDs and gear the cost for JRiver is insignificant.

 

I like free stuff where you don't have to pay anything, so am not willing to cough up money just so I can keep using these things.

 

Free is nice. And I make use of as much free software as I can. But I'm also not going to force myself to use a free option if there is commercial software for a reasonable price that fits my needs better. Especially for audio.

The good news is that there are good freeware media players available. MusicBee is a neat one. I actually like the UI for MusicBee better than the UI for JRiver.

 

I have MusicBee myself.

 

How do I get UI for both?

 

UI is the user interface. The way the software looks and behaves as you use it.

 

Oh, okay. Thank you.

 

Jriver is the most unintuitive software I've used since the days of DOS and CPM. Poorly set up. poorly documented. A mess that needs a rewrite to bring it into the 21st Century.

 

This is true. The defining quality of J-River is programmer accessibility, as opposed to being user friendly. OTOH when I look at the dumbification of applications or modern UI disasters such as Tidal, being complex and comprehensive might not be such a bad thing.

 

It's a stinking pile of crap when you need to set it up. It makes ITunes look like a well written piece of software.

 

When I set JRiver up, it wasn't all that bad.

 

Wasn't all that bad That in and of itself says a lot. Try to figure out how to set up a zone and get back to me and then try to trouble shoot that.

 

The JRiver interface is dated by about 15 years. It's designed much how good Windows programs were designed 15 years ago. The UI is showing its age. Once you understand its design principles I do find JRiver to be intuitive and predictable. The design principles are outlined in their wiki. Any sort of change or configuration I may want to make can be done through the options dialog or some other part of the UI. Nothing of importance is hidden in obscure text config files or obscure registry entries.

One example where JRiver makes things easy is copying settings over to another computer. Just do a backup of the library. Copy that backup file to the other computer. And restore the backup. Easy. Now try doing the same in MusicBee or Foobar or iTunes. Good luck.

iTunes is software that feels like wearing a straitjacket. If iTunes is good software design and UI then I don't want any of that.

 

I meant when I first installed the program.