question about JRiver media center... user friendly?

This is incorrect. I play Blu-ray rips all the time on JRiver. I use DVD Fab to rip them. Never had a problem playing in full quality rips on JRiver.

 

I'm not that familiar with DVD Fab, beyond knowing that like AnyDVDHD it's not inexpensive. In any case, JRiver can only play the movie, not the menu or the extras.

 

MakeMKV has been in beta for years. The Blu-ray ripping capability works for (I think) 30 days unless you make a donation (which gets you a free copy of Version 1 whenever it comes out). You can, however, download the next beta and get another 30 days. AFAIK, all the other Blu-ray rippers cost money, and not a small amount of money.

 

As long as the disc is ripped using MakeMKV it will play in JRiver? No need for any additional software like passkey or anything similar?

I'm going to try this Blu-ray thing. I'm completely new to this. I've never owned a Blu-ray player or drive. In fact, I've never owned an HDMI cable. I really detest how difficult the copy protection makes things when you rely on computer as source for all your music and video. But I'm going to try it, with my middle fingers held high. And see how it goes. There's some Blu-ray music and concert titles I want, and my library has Blu-rays. So I'll see how it goes.

The decrypting and playback software does have you over a barrel. For example PowerDVD will force you to upgrade to the latest version every year or year and a half if you want to be able to play current titles. MakeMKV is going commercial at some point and we'll have to see what their prices and upgrade pricing tactics will be. Hopefully it won't cost me $100 per year to keep the software current. My main requirement is that the video and audio play in JRiver because JRiver is how I manage my audio playback and how I manage the VST plugins I use for headphone listening.

 

MakeMKV looks at the .m2ts stream files, figures out which ones qualify as actual titles, and displays them in a checklist tree. If there's a "Making of" extra feature, for example, it will create a file for it separate from the main movie if you don't uncheck that title. Since I have the original disc and software to play it, though, I typically uncheck everything but the main movie and the English soundtrack. I end up with one very large .mkv file, which JRiver or any other player that handles .mkv will play just fine.

MakeMKV will no doubt go commercial (although the developers say DVD conversion will always be free). I donated, because I use the software all the time, so my betas never expire. I wouldn't be surprised if the developers give a discount to contributors once it goes commercial.

 

Thanks. Looks like MakeMKV will do what I want. Now to buy a Blu-ray drive and see how it all works out.

 

A rather technical JRiver question. I posted this in their Interact Forum as well:

"I just converted a number of DSD files (originating from ripped SACDs) to 88.2/24 FLAC (for use with my Squeezeboxes) and I also found the resulting file was 8-10 db lower in volume than the original recording. I confirmed that I had not accidently checked normalize to 95% before encoding. Any other explanation?"

The first response I got was as follows:

"Based on the above, the following is just my own theory...
Background: If the final output is 24bit, then when you create your CPU internal 64bit integer register value, you have 40bits of free room to play with. When doing integer arithmetic in a CPU you have to avoid a) low bit rounding errors, and b) high bit integer overflows. For the best accuracy concerning low bit rounding you would allocate all the 40 "spare" bits on the low order end of the register. But to avoid high bit integer overflows, you must allocate a few of the "spare" bits as headroom on the high order end of the register.
So my theory is that when MC does the initial conversion into internal 64bit register values, it applies 2..3 bits of (extra) headroom to avoid integer overruns, but that when it converts the internal 64bit register value for output to a 24bit file or DAC, it is perhaps not removing these -- no longer needed -- (extra) headroom bits. This would result in a volume reduction approximately of the order being observed. EDIT: and this would also mean that the DAC is getting only a 21..22 bit resolution signal instead of the full 24bits that it should be getting; thus nullifying any advantages that you may have gained by avoiding integer rounding errors in the first place..."

Can that possibly be correct? To me that suggests that JRiver is incapable of converting from DSD to FLAC (or maybe to any form of PCM) with a significant impact.

 

I can confirm this, sounds like a bug. dBpoweramp has a beta DSD converter, I tried converting a file in both programs. The volume difference occurs with the JRiver conversion, and not with the dBp conversion.

Now that they know about it, it'll probably be fixed soon.

 

I hope so.

Let me add - the explanation quoted above has already been disputed by an administrator. And to my ears with the appropriate volume adjustment, the 88.2/24 FLAC files sound better than redbook (comparing same disc different layer). Nevertheless, I'm going to have to re-convert all of my DSD files (400 discs worth). And retag them.

 

Although I do like JRMC it is frustrating knowing the version I need to use lacks some key features like Theater View and more.

 

Yeah - it's going to take some time to get the Mac version up to speed.

Then again - most of my Mac based colleagues waste no time installing Windows on their Macs and get going full blown with the Windows version of JRMC.

If I used a Mac - I would not let the limitations of the Mac version hold me back from using JRMC. Actually - it's so good - I would just hook up a Windows box and use that

VP

 

You might want to spend the $38 for dBPoweramp. Among many other things, it has a batch mode for conversions.

 

Foobar is also able to convert from DSD to PCM FLAC. You could try converting a file with Foobar and see if the results are different than you get with JRiver.

I haven't done any experimenting with DSD yet. I don't have a DSD capable DAC yet and the DSD files I have are samples from Oppo and 2L. So playing around with DSD right now is a bit premature for me yet.

 

Are we sure JRMC is not converting properly? I remember a thread where this was discussed at Interact, and I thought it was resolved. another question often raised, is why convert? You can play the ISO in real-time, and if I am not mistaken converting down to FLAC you will get even larger files than you started with.

*John - I see your comments on Interact. Maybe it's bug.

Does this help? I will try to find time to look myself.

http://forums.linn.co.uk/bb/showthread.php?tid=15485

 

New version of JRMC is available for download as of today. Included in the change log is a fix for SACD file conversion.

 

I was reminded in the JRiver forum that the maximum permitted signal level for SACD is equal to about -6dB for PCM audio - something I recall first discovering many years ago in an exchange of e-mails with Ayre tech support. Because I do not generally toggle between layers, I had forgotten this.

Bottom line, I think what I am experiencing is normal.

 

I couldn't find Matt's comments on this at Interact but I think you are right. Also see the default for DSD>PCM conversion in Weiss Saracon:

• 

 

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=81265.0

(Probably the definitive thread on the topic)

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=86765.0

(Has my query)

Separately, I exchanged messages with Ted_B who said essentially the same thing.

 

Makes me wonder about the dBpoweramp converter. Maybe it's upping the volume on the PCM after the conversion, because the DSD file and resulting FLAC file don't have that volume drop.

 

Looks like Weiss Saracon does that be default.

 

Tonight I was configuring another old PC to be a music server with JRiver. Opticle out using ASIO driver. Sounds easy enough right? It all went fine until I could not get bit-perfect sound. I could tell because my receiver was not getting DTS signal only white snow noise. Regular CD music was playing fine but not DTS 5.1 CDs.

I screwed around for hours with every possible configuration. Finally I thought well... the only thing I haven't done is try a different ver. ASIO driver. I deleted ver. 2.11, and installed ver. 2.10 and bingo! bit-perfection! I'd never been as happy to hear BTO's "Roll on Down the Highway" as I was tonight. I don't even really like the dang song. But it's on a Quad DTS release.

So it just goes to show, not every version of ASIO is equal (depending on your system or components).

Good excuse to bump this thread anyway.

 

Downloaded the trial version the other day.

Plays back my hi-rez WAVs, which Windows Media Player can't do. Windows Media Player also doesn't give an option to rip to lossless FLAC.

Problem is, JRiver shows NO options on what format you are ripping from CD to... and under "Tools" the options don't give you a clue on how to change (WAV lossless, MP3, FLAC lossless, etc.).

So I have no idea what format I'm ripping to until it's finished and I can't change it.

I give this program a big thumbs down for that. Enough searching and trying to figure out this basic option.

Back to Windows Media to rip to lossless WAVs and in the recycle bin goes JRiver.

Jeff

 

Could not be easier. When you pop a disc into J.River to rip - you should see the Rip Disc panel in the bottom left. Click Options in there and you get a special Options panel just for ripping. On that panel you can see the options for the General disc rip settings (CD, DVD & BD)..then the Encoding area (to choose your target format) and finally the File Location area - to tell MC where to place your ripped files.

Once this is set after a single rip - you are good to go.

Question: Why lossless WAVs of all things?

Could there be a more unfriendly format - especially for track metadata? FLAC is where you want to go with this...

FWIW - J.River wipes the floor with Win Media Player - but each to their own.

VP

 

I hope you did not empty the recycle bin yet.

 

JRiver now uninstalled. It was confusing as heck. Non-intuitive for the reasons I stated ("Tools" and "Options" mentions no change of audio format). Don't want to reinstall - just installed a program called JetAudio.

Why WAV? Because it's supported! FLAC is not in my world - always gives me trouble. Have to use programs like "VLC" to play them back.

I just want to rip lossless CDs or download hi-rez and playback the format from whence it came. Windows Media rips to, and plays back, WAV.

Show me a program as simple to use as Windows Media player and I'll use it. Want to change ripping options on Windows Media? A snap! Just doesn't give option to rip to FLAC. So WAVs it has always been. And it always plays back unless its hi-rez - then I playback with VLC I think it's called (same program as DVD playback). The only benefit I saw was that JRiver DID playback hi-rez WAVs.

Even from your description above on where to find "Options" - bottom left? Really? Having the options on the top panel is a universal program thing. Why bottom left? Silly.

Let's see how this JetAudio program handles these simple tasks.

Jeff