JRiver Media Center Owner's Thread - Page 28

I've had very good success with problems by using their Forum. Many very knowledgeable and helpful people there. My suggestion would be to make a simple post explaining the problem, and don't complain about how they do things there when you are asking for help.

Good luck.
Rod

I suggested a more typical problem tracking system. To whidch they were very cool, candidly they were hostile to the idea. They want to work on what they want to work on. I thought it strange as even freen open source stuff often uses problem management systems.

I've also had extremely good luck on the forum. My questions are usually always answered quickly by a developer or at least someone with a lot of knowledge. In fact, I think JRiver by far has the best support of any HTPC frontend. Good luck getting help from Microsoft with WMC.

I feel your pain.

I have been using JRiver since MC8 and can appreciate how disappointed you are with MC18. As for sonic improvements, I have not noticed any difference between MC17 & MC18, in fact I really have not noticed any improvement since MC16 but that is pretty much down to using ASIO for the interface.

The last version of MC17 still has a few bugs but it works for me subject to making sure the picture gets sent to the right monitor (frustrating) and that is what I am presently running with. Your MC18 licence will work with MC17, you may wish to consider rolling back to MC17.

Perhaps we should name the new Flagship Bismark

I wouldn't say that the audio quality is better. Bit-perfect is bit-perfect. The functionality is improving though as far as the DSP goes. For a DIY speaker guy the upgrade is well worth it. Personally, I haven't had any major issues since I upgraded. I'm not into video so I can't comment there.

AFAIK J River is a really small company. If they were doing phone and email tech support they probably wouldn't get anything done

One thing they could do on the audio front is partner with Audyssey and full add room correction to MC. There is already PC versions of MultiEQ XT32 from other vendors.

Really? Who?

IK Multimedia, not for HT use but it proves it is possible.

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/arc/
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/arc/index.php?pp=arc-system-specs

Of course it's possible! A HT pre/pro is essentially a very very dumb computer.

There's also a european company that offers HT room correction. But it's ~$1000...

It's only a matter of time before Audyssey is easily available for HTPC's.

Problem is not the technology, up until now Audyssey IP is a closed package of DSP firmware, IK Multimedia is the first time they have let it out as a pure software module on a PC which greatly improves the chance of a small company like Jriver being able to add it to their product.

If PC room correction is the goal I would aim a little higher than Audessey. Harman (among others) has put enough info into the public domain to reverse engineer a better solution.

Absolutely.

Among the others I have tried with are Audiolense and DiracLive.
There is also DRC .

The basic problem with the commercial stuff is they are many multiples of the cost of MC.

I am sure there are many like minded. Alas we are probably the minority since most users are operating with single displays and will never experience the image appearing on the wrong monitor or auto frame rate failing to work on the second monitor etc

If there is a problem with JRiver Media Center, and we can reproduce it, we will fix it. Just post the details on our forum.

We want you to be happy with MC, and we want to fix any known problems.

As several people said, on our forum, a blue screen is a hardware and or driver problem. In this case, a "glass" skin triggers it. A non glass skin works fine.

We fix our problems. We can't fix other company's problems.

It is what is is, incompatiblity MC18 vs a lot of hardware out there....it will work on some computers, but not on alot of others. My point is try before you purchase!

Respectfully the issue is that when JRiver releases a new product version it should undergo sufficient testing to eliminate fundamental bugs. This is not part of the JRiver development team mentality, the product is released and we the user are being relied upon to report problems. I have no doubt that the development team will ultimately nail the most significant anomalies quite quickly but don't you think it would have been a better idea to fully test MC18 before making an announcement that MC18 is the new flagship? Had MC18 been tested even briefly in a dual monitor environment before release the initial bugs I found could have been eliminated.

I purchased my MC18 licence as soon as it became available but waited until your recent announcement before installing it over MC17 only to find fundamental problems like MC18.exe /mode theatre did not work. This command is fundamental to using MC in a remote controlled theatre environment. The next bug I found is that Auto Frame rate does not work on a secondary monitor. IMHO JRiver needs to STOP pushing out new versions every week and concentrate on making a baseline that is as bug free as possible. The command line bug was fixed within a couple of days of my report and I do not doubt that the Frame Rate bug will be quashed just as quickly but that is not the point, users want stability. I have no issue with beta versions being made available for those parties that are not relying on JRiver every day for their visual entertainment but we need a stable baseline and presently MC17 is not perfect but it is a close as we can get to it right now.

Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe JRiver is one of the best media players around excepting the demise of MC18. IMHO MC17 is JRivers flagship until such time as the bugs stop accumulating in the MC18 development thread.

If you really want to win over current as well as new JRiver users, please consider incorporating a PVR function that is as easy and reliable to use as WMC! I see this request over and over again but instead of addressing this issue the development team has concentrated in offering some sort of obscure audio feature that they felt was more pressing. We the user would like to be able to use JRiver for both film and tv, presently most of us use JRiver for music and films and use WMC for TV recording and playback.

I write software for a living and I do understand the development cycle. One of the most important points in developing a product is market research and listening to your customer base.
Edited by Beamer - 12/29/12 at 2:51pm

With respect, a good number of the MC18 issues have nothing to do with hardware compatibility, they are simply bugs that should not have been present when the product was officially announced.

Beamer,
I just looked at your recent posts on our board. Is the automatic frame rate feature the problem you're talking about?
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=76645.msg519567#msg519567

If so, please be patient. We fix anything that can be fixed. That report was made just as we were shutting down for a week,

If it's something else, please find it on our forum and bump it..

+1

Bit-perfect is bit-perfect, but bit-perfect is not the same as real-time audio playback quality.

Since the beginning of digital audio, most audible differences in sound quality have been due to timing differences in playback of the same bits.

In fact, most of the perceived "warm and smooth" quality of analog versus the "hard and cold" quality of digital is due to improper timing in playback of digital "bits". Sophisticated reclocking systems (that tend to be expensive due to low volume of sales relative to ipods and earbuds) can remove that "hard and cold" quality of sound that has been around for 30 years. Recently some inexpensive products with reclocking have entered the market (HRT, Schiit, V-Link), but even with those, some players - such as Jriver and cPlay - ofter subtle sonic improvements.

I haven't done an A-B comparison of earlier vs later, but I suspect that the introduction of 64-bit audio path in Jriver was the major sonic improvement in Media Center.

What is the point you are trying to make? you state that you have not made a comparison and yet you challenge my personal opinion!

The audio side of my system consists of Denon AVP A1HD, (Latest Audyssey MultEQ-XT 32 calibration system), Bryston 4B SST Power Amps, Matrix X-SPDIF 32/192 XMOS high-quality digital interface (Bridge), Aurum Cantus Harmony Speakers. While my system may not be the best in the world, it has proved itself more than capable of differentiating between earlier versions of MC.

I say again, I really have not noticed any improvement since MC16 but that is pretty much down to using ASIO for the interface. This is my personal opinion, I am not stating fact. If your ears can discern a difference and improvement between MC17 & MC18 I am pleased for you, I cannot.

In respect to re-clocking, for the uninitiated, this is probably one of the most important aspects of specifying a PC for high quality stereo re-production. The Matrix X-SPDIF 32/192 XMOS could be considered the heart of my system and relatively speaking is the most inexpensive component. Its job is to simply move data via the USB port and re-clock it into the SPDIF input of the AVP.
Edited by Beamer - 12/30/12 at 5:03am

I'm not sure if you are ignoring the bigger picture through lack of time or intentionally since you did not take on board any of my points. I have no urgency in getting my MC18 bugs fixed, I have reverted back to MC17 and am a happy camper once again. For me personally MC18 is simply a can of worms that I do not relish opening again. Aside from some cosmetic improvement in Theater mode It does not appear to offer much additional functionality over MC17.

Personally I would have preferred to pay my annual subscription (Yes, I consider JRiver subscription based to support its long term development) and continue to have MC17 supported with updates to madvr etc while MC18 was developed in the background.

Bottom line, look at the bigger picture not my personal bug list. I have stated before and will do so again JRiver MC17 is probably one of the best media players around but sucks as a TV PVR. Have you considered licensing parts of WMC from microsoft and porting them to JRiver MC? Many would be more than happy to pay an additional licence fee.

And yes, that was tongue in cheek
Edited by Beamer - 12/30/12 at 5:05am

I think all new users, which I realize you are not, should start by reading http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Category:Frequently_Asked_Questions I realize as well, that it's not specific to your problem. However, a lot of the questions I have asked on the forum were in the FAQ. Support is not perfect but the price is very low for what they offer and the speed at which the company responses to technology advances. None of the programs, I have purchased for 50 buck have telephone suppport, so that does not surprise me.
Edited by Bulldogger - 12/30/12 at 5:59am

I had a power surge that blew out the PSU in a PC. I'm very unhappy with JRiver. They should have tested MC18 better so this wouldn't have happened.

You don't read as carefully as you choose equipment.

If you look at my post, you will see that I was replying to Nate's reply to your post, and not replying to your post.

How about the complete silence regarding filter management for XP users and Jriver. I posted on the forum regarding this issue and did not receive 1 response to this. It's not even addressed in the FAQ. Without filter management, there is no chance to use MadVr within the software. I know Xp is old news. but works well for my applications. And your response IS............

MAk

DirectShow filter management in MC is done with Red October.

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

It works on XP as well.

Tried it with MadVr and Nev's decoders. It was a no go. The White list was useless as it did not even list the proper decoders for MadVr playback. Looked at every conceivable thread regarding this set-up and us Xp users were all in the same boat. Care to post screen shots of a XP system using MAdVr for playback with 17?

MAK