JRiver Media Center Owner's Thread - Page 24

I don't know the answer. I thought it was possible. It's reasonable to want to do it.

I also haven't been able to figure out to actually mark a show as watched. There is a last played tag, but it isn't changeable.

When I'm in Theater View it does show the file name for these "special" shows. Since I can control the file name I can live with it. I did try to see if I could get it to import a sidecar file automatically. Didn't work.

Here are a few features I used in XBMC that I've tried to reproduce in JRMC.

First is the ability to "group" some movies into a collection. This is referred to as stacking in XBMC. When you have a list of movies up, instead of the 6 Star Wars movies there's one selection "Star Wars Collection". Selecting that then displays just those movies. I was able to get this to work by adding an expression to the Movie Name category.

Next is the combining of multidisk sets. I have the BR Cleopatra movie ripped to my NAS. It consists of 2 disks (little over 4 hours). In XBMC all I need to do is place both files in one folder, IE Cleopatra-CD1.m2ts & Cleopatra-CD2.m2ts. XBMC shows it as one movies, displays length for the entire movie, and it plays as if it were one file.
JRMC initially looked like it would work using their stacking feature. I stacked it and it appears as one movie. However the duration is wrong, as it is only for one disk. Initially it started playing on disk 2. Messing around with the disk tag may have fixed that, but I'm not really sure. Regardless, it doesn't work. Playing the movie only plays the disk it is on. Get to the end and there's no way to move on to the next disk.
This is not a show stopper, but it is something I think eventually needs to be addressed.

Playing of ISOs almost seamless. The info screen for ISO movies doesn't show the duration, an important bit of knowledge when you have a limited amount of time to watch and are looking for a movie that isn't too long.

I apologize if this was posted elsewhere, I did do a search but couldn't find what I needed.


I have a few questions:

first my folder structure is:

\\movies\\[name]\\file
\\iso movies\\[name]\\file
\\home movies\\[name]file or files

\ v shows\\[name]\\[season(s01e01)]file or files

My first question is will this file structure work?

My second question is:

I have been using media browser and media center master. I finally feel like I have dialed it in over the last few weeks. But my wifey still thinks its a little too complicated.

I feel MC may be better for her.

Do I need to remove my meta data and pictures from the folder structure before importing into MC?


Question 3: After I did do an import I noticed my home movies were under tv series, and a couple of my movies ended up in an unknown folder.

What can I do to change this? I feel I am over complicating the matter since so many people say MC is easier to use. I feel like I should be able to figure this out. I know you are supposed to "tag" movies, but I don't see a tag for home movies.


Again I apologize I am a newbie in the HTPC department, but I am learning a lot.

MC can import your files (add them to its database). You can select folders you want to import or to exclude. It doesn't matter where they are.
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Import

Select a file and edit the "Media Subtype" if it's not in the right category.

Gavin, I had the same issues when I first started playing with MC. At least on my machine, everything is sorted by Genre. I used to use MediaBrowser and WMC so I have (still) my media organized in folder structure. Now I have MC set up to auto import media and while it's doing that, it automatically tags the Genre field based on what folder it is in. Probably not the ideal situation, but it works for me.

For example, I have everything in the Kids Movies folder auto-tagged so that their Genre is Kid's Movies. In Theater View, I have a section under Video called Kid's Movies and all of my movies for kids show up there. I also have subsections of Movies, BluRay (further broken down into subcategories) Home Video, etc

Once you figure out the Library that MC uses, it's pretty easy.

This should work is you; add to the file Tag Series=Cleopatra and Episode=1 for "...CD1.mts and Series=Cleopatra, and Episode=2 for "...CD2.m2ts. Since you are using media Sub type is Movie (instead of Televison) you won't mix up your Movies and TV, but your Movie will have two parts and you can select the one you want. You also get the "Play All" button when you have a Series. I think JRiver could do a better job on this - but for now it is a good workaround.



If you go to Tools>Options>Theater View there is a setting called "Customize File Info Panel". This panel is the info you see whan you hover over, or select a movie/TV/Audio ect in the Theater View screen. You can add to the panel (such as Duration, Last Watched, MPPA rating, Date, File Type, etc.).

EDIT -- I just realized you are talking about ISO files not "IFO". Sorry. I don't use ISOs so I don't know what info shows or doesn't show. Maybe someone else can help on this question.

If you don't mind how did you did you add the tag based upon the folder?

And should I remove my library from MC and then re auto load? I followed Assassin's guide for setting up MC. But I have random files that I need to tag correctly.

I'm not in front of a MC PC at the moment, but if memory serves when you set up the Auto-Import there's a box at the bottom where you can set "rules" and whatnot. I think that's where I had mine set up.

Something like: M\\Kids Movies would get imported to Video, and then would have the Genre auto-tagged to Kid's Movies

When I'm doing bulk stuff, or looking for oddball stuff that happens from time-to-time, I exit Theater View and I think go into Files on the left pane and then I sort stuff by Genre, or File Type or whatever and then I can track down stuff that's placed wrong. Sometimes a video will get scraped and Internet data will change my Genre tags on some stuff so I have to swap it back.

I'd still like to be able to organize my videos by Folder Structure like in MediaBrowser, but I'm coming around. I'm not sure why they went with database structure. Perhaps it makes more sense for large collections or audio. I don't do much with audio on my HTPC.

Thanks Perpetual, You were spot on. After re loading my library by selecting file type via folder in auto-import everything was fixed. After using Jriver for a fews days I really like it.

Now it just needs Ceton Infinitv support and I am set. Anyone know a good program to switch between Jriver and windows media center?

MC can start an external program - so I think it could start WMC if you point it to the .exe file

The Last Played (date/Time) is not editable although you can clear the field (back to "never watched"). What some users are doing is creating a new custom field/expression like "Date Watched" = "Last Played", then editing the "Date Watched" field, and displaying the Date Watched field in their Theater View display.

I can confirm that this is fixed. You can start watching a movie in one room, stop the movie, and resume watching in another room from the point where you stopped.

... I'm never going to be able to use this program...
sounds way too much tweaking for me...
hope non of you guys ever get a disk crash...

The beauty of this program is that it works 99% stock out of the box. You just follow a few rules to tell MC where/how your data is stored. It does everythign else for you (including finding the movie data and cover art on-line).
All of this complicated talk is for those that want to customize the program, how the movies/music is displayed. What data is shown and how to sort/list huge databases.
I only use about 10% of the capablity of the program.

For those still undecided - see this: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5814/a...htpc-review/11


Quote from AnandTech:
For those wanting things to work out of the box, JRiver Media Center 17 is highly recommended. I usually only recommend free open source software for HTPC users (except for Blu-ray playback, where there is no alternative but to pony up for one of the software Blu-ray players). However, a majority of HTPC owners don't have time to play around with different codecs and their merits and other settings. Codec packs were designed to solve this problem, but they have a tendency to mess up the system even more. JRiver Media Center 17 is a $50 player with self-contained filters (which can be further configured, if necessary). It also has a mode in which it can use system filters, but that is not of interest to us in this section. JRiver's Red October initiative enables users to enjoy LAV Filters and the madVR renderer out of the box. [End Quote]

The latest release (17.0.151) adds the ability to set Reference Level when using the internal volume control. You can also cap the internal volume at a certain percentage to prevent someone from using a playback volume that is too loud.

I used the Disney WOW: World of Wonder Blu-ray to set the Reference Level. I played the test tones and adjust the internal volume until my SPL meter read 83 dB (C weighting and Slow) from the listening position. For my system this was at 87%. I then went to Tools > Options > Audio > Volume and set "Internal volume reference level" to 87. I also set "Maximum volume" to 87 so that my system wouldn't be played back higher than reference by my kids.

Now when playing a movie the volume indicator will show + or - dB in relation to the Reference Level that has been set.

Note: Since movies are supposed to be mastered to the same audio level standards, it is best to have Options > Video > General Video Settings > Normalize Volume unchecked.

Did you mean the latest release of MC17? MC17 is at .151 now.

I fixed it!

When can we expect bluray menus to be supported? Is this scheduled to be added for this release?

My understanding is that the way they're supporting Bluray means that Bluray menus cannot be supported. Personally, I think what they've done to support Bluray is a pretty reasonable compromise.

Quote from Jmone (at JRiver forum):
"The good news is that MC recently added a "Particles" function where you can get MC to import not only the BD Disc as a whole but also import each of the titles as an individual track. You can then play through them, name them correctly or just delete the ones you don't want or need."

Not the final solution - but a step closer.

Here's the wiki topic that describes particles:

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Particles

I appreciate the effort that jRiver spends on tweaking its program to meet customers' requirements. Personally, I wouldn't part with my money (no matter what the cost) until blu ray menus are supported.

Blu ray is now the standard in consumer media. It should be able to played with the same simplicity and reliability as a CE player. I understand that there seems to be a workaround. Archiving my media and gathering metadata is already an involving task and to have to implement these 'particles' seems cumbersome. Especially for discs with many special feature titles or concerts with numerous songs. Needing to identify each title in the stream folder of my library would take a lifetime.

I see jRiver as providing the best playback possible for media files and music, which is one of the goals in setting-up a HTPC. Now that DTV functionality is supported it is a step away from becoming a HTPC enthusiast's holy grail. I believe that can only be reached once menus are supported and I'd pay handsomely for this 'complete' solution.

Just curious if you have a source to back that up? Not that I doubt you, but I would just assume that DVD sales still outpace BR.

I know when I buy/rent movies, 98% of the time I'm just getting the standard DVD unless I know it's something that I REALLY want the BR for. Everything I buy gets ripped to my server and for the most part, I don't need a single movie taking up 20-40gb unless it's something I feel we might be watching multiple times.

I also NEVER rip the menus and am glad that I have the option to remove them. If I really want to see that deleted scenes cut, I'll throw the disc in and watch it from there.

IMO, sales aren't really the right indicator. Blu-ray is the standard as far as picture and audio quality go. I find the idea of buying DVDs in 2012 when you have a decent HD television preposterous. Also, I just don't get the hard drive space argument. Large hard drives aren't very expensive anymore.

I personally like removing the menus. But what happens when you rip something like the Star Wars blu-rays and there are different angles and subtitles? It's a pain figuring out which the one you want, and it means you can't easily automate the process. For those reasons I can't recommend blu-ray/dvd ripping to my friends or family. Obviously having the full blu-ray menu eliminates that problem. Full blu-ray menus would be an amazing feature for J-river MC, and that would probably be enough to have me switch away from XBMC/Plex.

Standard DVD suits us just fine for the most part. We're using a 50" LG plasma. I don't need to consume 30 extra GB to watch an Adam Sandler movie via BD with TrueHD sound. The BD movies that I DO rip from BD? Well, the Star Wars box set, kids movies like Monsters vs. Aliens, Tangled, How to Train Your Dragon, etc.

We're fine with standard DVDs but also use BD for certain things and that suits our lifestyle.

I also have almost 9TB of storage on our HTPC but I still don't want to just waste it because I can. To each their own I guess.

What he said.

I'm currently using the WMC7-MB-TMT5 combo which has a great interface and high WAF. A little buggy at times. When I want to do some reference playback of movies or music, I'll use MPC-HC or Foobar but this means I have to pull out the wireless keyboard which is not ideal.

JRMC is so close to becoming the do-it-all program that I need with the required 10ft gui, but I feel that I can't live without the blu-ray menu support, especially for my concerts which I like to play frequently. And, inability to play my 3d movies... I won't even go into that.

I'm a big JRMC fan, especially for the music library and smart playlists. However, there are a few things that keep me from using it as our primary application for our family HTPC:

1. Doesn't support playback/recording of encrypted cable TV content, which I get from my HDHomeRun Prime and watch and record using WMC7.

2. The UI of Theater View isn't as easy to navigate and isn't as nice as WMC7, so my wife and teenage daughters don't like using JRMC and prefer WMC7 (even for music they prefer WMC, but I always play music from JRMC).

3. When we want to see the extras from one of our BDs, we have to insert the disc and launch TMT to get the menus. Would also like to see BD menus supported in JRMC. I don't necessarily need to rip the whole disc, because I prefer to just rip only the main feature, but it would be nice if we could insert the disc and play from the menus. I don't use TMT to play the main feature because it won't play the audio at full resolution with my hardware. The only way to get the audio at full resolution is by ripping it into an MKV container.

4. I currently use My Movies to organize my collection of DVDs and BDs. So far, I haven't seen anything in JRMC that offers similar capability. I've read that JRMC will use the data from My Movies, but it would be nice if it just replaced it. BTW, I think the way My Movies handles TV series for Blu-ray discs is a little clumsy. I'd like to see JRMC improve on this feature.

5. It would be great if JRMC handled BD ripping, so I wouldn't need 'Another EAC3to GUI', 'mkvmerge GUI', or MakeMKV.