J River Media Center

[Welly Wu]

I recently purchased J River Media Center 21 master license and I use version 20 64 bit on both of my PCs running Ubuntu 14.04.2 64 bit LTS GNU/Linux. This is a big GNU/Linux port for me this year. Media Center is one of my favorite software applications because it puts Kodi to shame. Version 20 is a work in progress and there are numerous bugs abound, but I am hoping that version 21 will give it more features parity with the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh OS X versions later this Summer. J River Media Center 20 is awesome because it features bit-perfect audio and video playback in theory and it is the only media software application that my Oppo Digital HA-1 works with perfectly. It gets the bit depth and sampling frequency spot on. I have a small and growing number of HD Tracks high resolution PCM music albums and J River Media Center 20 makes each track sing. I will keep paying for new versions at reduced prices each year.

[MartyBuntu]

Do you have a link for this product? I'd like to check it out.

[Welly Wu]

http://jriver.com/

So, how it works is that you can download and install this software package by navigating to the Support -> Interact (forum) -> J River Media Center for Linux -> and click on the thread that contains the latest version of J River Media Center 20 AMD64 for Debian (Jessie) -> download the .DEB file. Then, you wait to download the file. Next, you'll open the terminal and cd Downloads along with sudo apt-get install *.deb* followed by sudo apt-get -f install to fix any dependency issues. Launch J River Media Center 20 64 bit and test it out. If you like it, then you can purchase this software product. If you are a new J River customer, then create a free account and verify your e-mail address to activate your account. Once that is done, you have two purchasing options: 1. Master License or 2. Linux only license. The Master License allows you to download updates for J River Media Center 20 and you are entitled to upgrade to version 21 later this Summer for free of charge for Microsoft Windows 7, 8.1, Apple Macintosh OS/X, and GNU/Linux combined. The Linux only license is only good for the GNU/Linux version of J River Media Center 20 and 21, but it's less expensive.

This is another preferred installation method:

1. http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=87051.0

Follow the directions and you'll add the official J River Media Center software repository and you'll add the GPG signing key and then you can download and install Media Center 20 64 bit. In the future, Ubuntu's Software Updater will get future updates for you along with other updates for Ubuntu on each of your PCs too. If you purchase J River Media Center 21 Master License or Linux only license and register your software application, then you will get future upgrades and updates through Ubuntu's Software Updater too.

Feel free to contact me about this software product if you need tips or tricks. Remember, J River Media Center 20 64 bit is not at the same level of features parity compared to their Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh OS X versions yet for GNU/Linux. There are active bugs involved and this is a work in progress. There is no feature to import and organize your digital photographs for the GNU/Linux version and connecting to Amazon Prime, HBO Go, Showtime, Starz, Netflix, are not supported yet, but Hulu is supported. Social media integration is limited as well. If you don't care about these subscriptions or social media stuff, then J River Media Center 20 will play most of your films, videos, and music just fine, but you got to be patient and expect bugs. Keep your software up to date and it will get better.

J River Media Center 20 beats the pants off of Kodi, VLC, Clementine, etc. period. It's very advanced and slick to use.

Also, if you purchase J River Media Center 21, then they will send you a special registration file. You will need to save it and back it up. This file will be needed to activate your copy of J River Media Center 20 or 21 to register it. It will also come with a unique product key. You'll need to save that product key in the future. If you like J River Media Center and you will to purchase new versions every 12 months during the Summer, then you need your unique product key in order to get special repeat business discounts. For example, the Master License costs $79.98 USD, but it is on sale for $69.98 for a limited time period right now. Next year, you can purchase J River Media Center 22 Master License for just $24.99 USD and you can redeem special electronic coupons for additional discounts off of the sale price if you enter your unique product key. This is what I have done myself and it makes this software product invaluable to me at a very affordable price.

I was playing Hilary Hahn's Bach Violin Concertos and Elgar Violin Concertos and The Lark at 24 bits 192 kHz using my Oppo Digital HA-1 and Sennheiser HD-800 with the CH 800 S balanced 4 pin XLR headphone cable the the sound quality is unbelievable! DeaDBeef doesn't get the bit depth correct and it does not sound as good as J River Media Center 20. Version 21 is going to be even better. I played The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Blu-Ray at 1920 X 1080P and J River Media Center 20 played it flawlessly and the picture especially the color accuracy are far superior to VLC. It's a night and day difference between J River Media Center and FLOSS software packages available for Ubuntu to handle multimedia content.

[Vladlenin5000]

Interesting product.
Can you explain exactly what it has or what it does so much better that puts Kodi to shame?
In a nutshell, how would you convince me to replace a free and open source software by an expensive and proprietary one?

[Welly Wu]

It's about the quality of the software. First, J River Media Center 20 and 21 64 bit support bit perfect digital audio playback as confirmed by my Oppo Digital HA-1 DAC and headphone amplifier. J River Media Center 21 should support both PCM and DSD playback if your DAC supports both formats. Playing back films and video result in much better color accuracy, saturation, gamut, and field of depth depending upon your HDTV or monitor. The other features include tight integration with streaming service providers. Hulu is currently supported for GNU/Linux and Netflix is supported for the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh OS X versions. Future streaming services like Spotify and Amazon Prime, Showtime, HBO Go, Starz, etc. are planned to be supported in future versions of J River Media Center. There is tight social media integration with Twitter for the GNU/Linux version and Facebook is support for the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh OS X versions. The Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh OS X versions feature importation and management of digital photographs and the GNU/Linux version will gain features parity in future versions as well. There is the capability to use your Apple iOS and Google Android smart phone or tablet as a remote control for home theater PCs connected to a HDTV.

The FLOSS software packages don't offer these unique features with the same ease of usage and they don't offer bit-perfect digital audio playback and they don't support DSD playback. While there is integration with streaming music and video services, Kodi has add-ons that resort to streaming torrents of copyrighted materials which is illegal in most countries. J River Media Center will never support such add-ons in their software products. The quality of audio and video playback with FLOSS software packages is inferior to J River Media Center to my trained ears and eyes. It's more work on the end user to get FLOSS software packages to support some of the features of J River Media Center and the user interfaces are not as intuitive and user friendly.

You get what you pay for most of the time. J River Media Center is a superior software product for multimedia playback compared to FLOSS software packages. Of that, I am certain.

[coldraven]

My first job was in what was at the time the most technologically advanced recording studio in London. (Three 16 track studios) I will give you a tip. For the best reproduction you need to have good quality equipment where the signal changes medium. For example, from the air (sound waves) to electrical signal (microphones) and, of course, from electrical signals back to air (loudspeakers). I could have a rubbish amplifier connected to good loudspeakers and get a better result than an expensive amplifier that's connected to rubbish loudspeakers. It's the transition from one medium to another that matters the most!
At the moment I have an Akai amp that cost £4, 20 years ago at a jumble sale! But I do have some very large Sansui loudspeakers and even Youtube sounds pretty damn good!
P.S. I also run Kodi on a Raspberry Pi2

[Vladlenin5000]

+1 to coldraven

As a former musical producer (now cinema) I couldn't agree more.

Plus... Kodi does "bit perfect" too anytime you use it as standalone because it accesses ALSA directly instead of the Pulseaudio sink. When run as an app it uses the default Pulseaudio. There are pros and cons for both approaches. Everything is discussed here (http://kodi.wiki/view/PulseAudio) and for some reason the Kodi team doesn't want to have both in a user selectable menu, for the sake of the users. You can read for yourself. However, there's a way to run it as an app with direct access to ALSA, therefore audio wise doing exactly the same JRiver can do.
Regarding picture quality sorry, I have to see it to believe. I'm quite skeptical about you actually doing a side by side comparison. Anecdotal "evidence" most likely plagued with confirmation bias has absolute zero scientific validity or purpose. However, it's quite plausible, even expected, that JRiver has more and/or better proprietary codecs. Whether or not it results in a noticeably better picture quality remains to be proven, preferably with a double blinded experiment and, since it deals with potentially subjective perceptions, the sample must be really relevant. No, N=1 doesn't cut it either way.

It may have social media integration but so does Kodi with addons, including Facebook. Actually the possibilities you have with Kodi and several addons, with different settings, must be greater than in a closed program where you're always dependent on the software owner. And, has you say that's not so important for many people and the Linux version is stripped down anyway. Personally, I'd rather not have it at all so I prefer Kodi which offers me a blank slate where to built on whereas in JRiver I would probably be mucking about how to remove/disable certain features (opt-out), the same features I can add in Kodi if I choose to (opt-in). Granted, users that really want those features welcome an almost ready made solution. So, it's a point in favor but it doesn't convince me as already explained.
There are both official and unofficial remote control apps for Kodi and they work fine. The proprietary solution fares no better here, not even close. And it really isn't such a great selling point nowadays as you might think because pretty much anything has remote control apps now.

Online streaming services: This is THE point where I had higher hopes but they were completely shattered when you actually confirmed it does NOTHING more that can be done OOTB in Ubuntu already. I was expecting more than that from a commercial software. If I have to pay then I expect some of those dollars go to licenses, "lobbying", etc.

Bottom line:
My arguably loaded question was specifically about "what it has or what it does so much better that puts Kodi to shame? And you showed nothing except perhaps some vague social media integration which, by the way, is totally secondary to a Media Center, it's just a nice (or annoying) additional feature.
Please note I don't actually disagree with your assertion but I certainly have a problem with such hyperboles, bias and fanboyism. It's your opinion - and you're entitled to have one no matter what - but it's just that, an opinion and a misinformed one, it seems. Honestly, you don't know/don't care about what Kodi can do. And you payed for the other one and now you have to stand by it. All perfectly understandable.
What baffles me is you trying to sell such idea HERE, of all places :lolflag:

[Welly Wu]

J River Media Center 21 64 bit for GNU/Linux was released yesterday, but the download link on the Interact support forum is broken and the administrators are working to fix it. This new version now supports DSD-64/128/256 playback as a confirmed new feature. I purchased a discounted J River Media Center 21 master license so I am waiting for the download link to be fixed and the J River software repository to be updated so that I can download, install, and upgrade to Media Center 21 64 bit. I will explore the new features and capabilities and report back. I'm super excited! I can play my SACD DSD high resolution lossless music albums on GNU/Linux!

[Welly Wu]

I got J River Media Center 21 64 bit for Debian Jessie GNU/Linux. There have been important new features and capabilities that have been added to the GNU/Linux version that give it more features parity with the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh OS X versions. First, DSD-64/128/256 bit stream playback is now supported. Second, importing and managing digital photographs is now supported. If you previously purchased a J River Media Center 21 GNU/Linux or master license and installed the previous version, then you can add the official J River software repository and GPG signing key and upgrade without having to restore your license for the new version.

1. sudo apt-get remove mediacenter20
2. sudo apt-get update
3. sudo apt-get install mediacenter21

If you use Google Chrome, then you will need to exit your web browser and open a terminal and type in aplay -l. Once that is done, take a look at your digital sound card to ensure that it says Subdevices: [1/1]. Launch J River Media Center 21 and select the correct sound card in the Tools -> Options - Audio Device. Configure the auto import feature to include the current location of your digital photographs, music, and videos. Run the import process and wait until it is done. Pick the right music album or video and press play. You should be golden!

It just works!

[mc4man]

Well it has a 30 day free trial so no harm in (anyone) trying.
From a video playback standpoint (on laptop, intel gpu 4600, ubuntu session

Subjective video quality is no better or worse
A plus is it seems to handle judder ok though I need to find some better test files for that.
On a negative -
In fullscreen there is no vsync, don't see yet any setting for that (if not then a no go here
hw accel doesn't work, generally not that big a deal here for most vids, but it doesn't (vaapi
seeking is a bit weird in fullscreen/maximized
It has some considerable window sizing & video scaling issues

The .desktop should be improved by adding context menu support, (add a %U to end of Exec line