J River Bells and Whistles but no reliability

[indigo]

I'm writing this as J River which I believe is one of the better Media "Audiophile" players is in my opinion still in Beta! I laugh when it asks would I like to purchase it on the splash screen. WTF? I've been a software developer for 15 years and always have got the foundations right before adding the "un-necessary" features, J River on the other hand think they've got one feature working and move onto the next - so wrong! I really had hoped this product would work but after searching the forums to determine whether I was doing something wrong it appears it's just common buggy software that's untested. How do software companies hope to make a living while producing software that isn't tested? I've spent so many hours trying to get J River working with Twonky on my NAS, it's not even funny anymore. If any J River developers read this then I hope you sort your game out as it is seriously bad. If there's an error, tell the user why? not just that there was a problem??? some info please? I get it working, reboot and I'm back at square ONE! why??? you expect me to buy this? Please sort it out, despite the RANT and think you potentially have a very good product in the pipeline, just please finish it before release it (that includes unit testing, integration testing etc...)

 

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi indigo - Can you let us know what some of the problem are? I've been using v14 & v15 for awhile with out many issues.

 

Maybe some here has experienced the same issues you have and can help.

 

[Old Listener]

DLNA is a sloppy standard. DLNA devices do not all work the same way and a vendor has to learn the quirks of each device they have to interact with.

 

There are posts on the J. river forum about problems when J. River MC 15 is using Twonky as a server. Go to other forums and you'll see users reporting problems using other DLNA control points and renderers with Twonky. So is the problem entirely with JRMC or is part of the problem the way Twonky works?

 

Right now, DLNA functionality is a work in progress for JRMC and other vendors. J. River has been working to characterize problems with different devices and device solutions.

 

You may be quite frustrated but your rant seems to me to be rather over the top. You used the trial period. If JRMC doesn't do what you want, don't buy it.

 

Bill

 

 

[indigo]

The problem is I try to connect to "Library", "Connect to DLNA server" and it just says "There was a problem trying to load a library from the selected DLNA server". I can however browse and play music from my Iphone using the Media:Connect application.

 

A message or easy access to the logs at this point showing a) what it just tried to do (connecting to server x on port etc), message received from server is x etc... would be really useful. Instead I just get a message that tells me it failed but with zero help on how to go about correcting the issue.

 

The app on my iphone connects to the network over wifi, discovers all DLNA servers available, shows them in a list, lets me select one then browse and play the music. Why can't J River do that??

 

 

[Matt Ashland]

Hi there,

 

There are two main methods to get content from a DLNA server: browsing containers and searching.

 

When Media Center connects to a server, it uses searching to get files. This works with Twonky, WMP, and many other servers. However, there are some servers that do not support searching.

 

We need more details about what server hardware / software you're using, and also what version of Media Center.

 

We would be happy to work with to see if we can get it working if you would post on the Media Network board on our site:

 

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=7.0

 

Thanks!

 

Matt

J. River, Inc.

 

[BobH]

in as much as I too used JRMC 13, 14 & 15 without 'too many problems'

 

The problems it did have for me, iTunes doesn't have. I now use iTunes, having come to my own conclusion that the differences between media players, in terms of sound quality, is not something I need to worry about.

 

I chose not to pursue my gripes, preferring the easy route of selecting software I knew would work and would do what I needed it to, with the downside that it is clunky to have to manually select resolutions. My money, my choice.

 

Attacking the developer will get you nowhere, I'm afraid. You either go to the forums and engage them in reasonable dialogue or you chuck the software in the virtual bin and use something that works for you.

 

As an aside, I had the same problem as you with JR14 and Win Vista. Wnen I went to Win7 I did a clean install and double checked all things network were AOK before installing JR15. It still wouldn't play with the library files located on my NAS.

 

Life's too short for such things!

 

[indigo]

Thanks for your responses, I don't mean to rant or attack the developers. I'm also a software developer and spend my days using buggy software as part of my job, I had a bad day yesterday and sat down to relax to listen to some music and got annoyed that once again I couldn't get to the FLACs on the NAS.

 

I'll post on the JRiver site be here are the details:

 

OS: Windows 7 32 bit

NAS: QNAP Turbo (4gig Raid1)

Media Center: 15.0.95

Tonky: 5.1.6

Media Type: FLAC 24Bit and 16Bit (only 12 albumns on there at the moment)

 

Media Center 15.0.95 C:Program FilesJ RiverMedia Center 15

 

Workstation 6.1 (Build 7600)

Intel Pentium 4 2966 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1047 MB, Free - 450 MB

 

Internet Explorer: 8.0.7600.16385 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82.7600 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.1.7600 / Shell32.dll: 6.1.7600 / wnaspi32.dll: N/A

Ripping / Drive D: Mode:ModeSecure Type:Auto Speed:Max

Digital playback: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767

Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No

 

Burning / Drive D: _NEC DVD_RW ND-4550A Addr: 0:0:0 Speed:5 MaxSpeed:5 BurnProof:Yes

Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes

Use playback settings: No /

 

Portable Device Info

Removed devices:

 

 

Interface Plugins:

last.fm (Active)

TiVo Server (Active)

 

 

[indigo]

Also, when I click on Search in the connect to library dialog window, it thinks about it for

10 seconds saying searching for library servers then the Media Center window losses focus and nothing happens.

 

 

 

[indigo]

....close to giving up. Please tell me how this is meant to work as it really is driving me nuts! How to I enable logging in J River so I can see what the hell it is doing, what error it is getting etc etc?

 

iTunes is looking more and more like an option before my wife divorces me!

 

What I don't understand is my goddam Iphone can connect to the server and browse and play the music, you need to hire the guys that wrote that software cause it works with no issues.

 

Sorry, I'm losing patience again, I'll stop ranting.

 

[indigo]

So after messing about enablingdisabling options on the Media Network settings page I can now access the content in Twonky from MC. I've been here before though and know that when I start up tomorrow I'm back at square one trying to connect to it. There is a bug in MC, the options in the Media Network options page don't seem to persist correctly or something. It's basically just poor software, I have 15 days of the trial left, I'd really like to use MC since there is nothing else. Is there a release in the pipeline that fixes these issues? Can you please look to stabalise it before adding any new features?

 

[Old Listener]

> Another night of my life wasted trying to get J River to work...

> ....close to giving up.

 

Matt, one of the J. River developers, invited you to post on the J. River forum about your problem.

 

"We would be happy to work with to see if we can get it working if you would post on the Media Network board on our site:

 

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=7.0"

 

If you haven't taken him up on that, you are wasting your own time.

 

> iTunes is looking more and more like an option before my wife

> divorces me!

 

Your choice.

 

> What I don't understand is my goddam Iphone can connect to the

> server and browse and play the music, you need to hire the

> guys that wrote that software cause it works with no issues.

 

You don't seem to understand much about troubleshooting and debugging.

 

- The DLNA app on iPhone is probably making different requests to Twonky than JRMC does. Matt explained a bit about that.

 

- JRMC is running in a Windows environment which might affect what you are seeing. The first thing to check is whether a firewall is blocking the DLNA port on your Windows PC.

 

> How to I enable logging in J River so I can see what the hell

> it is doing, what error it is getting etc etc?

 

You might ask questions like this on the J. River forums. You might also try exploring the JRMC user interface on your own.

 

You can turn on the general log in JRMC with the help/logging command.

 

To view DLNA activity in JRMC, look under "services and plugins" on the left side of the MC 15 window for "media network". (If you don't see a list under services & plugins, click on the arrow to the right of that line.) Click on media network and you will see a an activity log for severs including DLNA servers. This may or may not provide information relevant to your situatiuon.

 

Bill

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Indigo - Your tone isn't helping you much. You are ranting about problems that most of us have never experienced even though we use the software the exact same way. Your pinning the problem on J River calling it, "basically just poor software" when you haven't identified the resolution. As a software guy yourself you should know not to place blame until you find the resolution. Often when jumping to conclusions we following many red herrings and find the final resolution something entirely different than what was manifest by the problem.

 

Everyone here trying to help is doing it because they really want to help you. That said, I have to mention the elephant in the room. Are you sure the problem isn't related to your computer or something you are doing incorrectly? Just asking, not suggesting.

 

[jriver]

As Chris says, please post on our forum.

 

Updating to the latest build might help. It's on the MC15 board on the forum. 15.0.136 right now. A lot of work has been done on DLNA since the 15.0.95 build that you're using.

 

Good luck and thanks for any patience you may have.

 

[jriver]

On our forum, a user named Vincent Kars says it's working with Qnap:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=60079.msg406533#msg406533

 

[indigo]

Just downloaded the latest version and it worked first time!

 

Thanks for your help and sorry for ranting etc.

 

Regards

 

Indigo

 

 

 

[jriver]

Good to hear. I think the problem was that the Twonky Media Server was taking more than 10 seconds to respond. So we recently raised the timeout period that MC waits to 60 seconds.

 

[crazydac]

Hi

This is my first post in this Forum and I apologize if I am off topic.

I have both J River 15 and CPlay installed in my PC music server (a dedicated computer, running Windows7 currently without any modifications to bios or software whatsoever).

I have a Weiss DAC2 connected to the computer through firewire.

The point is that CPlay sounds much better than J River in all parameters!

I am certainly missing something here, to believe in the comments of all the experts!

 

Can somebody help and explain what am I missing?

Many thanks in advance

 

 

-Clearaudio, Revox A700, Primaluna Dialogue Two, Primaluna Prologue Eight, Martin Logan Vantage, Nordost cables.

 

[jriver]

Assuming that's not just a plug for CPlay...

 

Maybe you're not using ASIO or WASAPI.

 

This might help:

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

 

If you have problems with J. River Media Center, please post on the MC15 board at our forum:

 

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php#2

 

Following Weiss's setup instructions might also help.

 

[crazydac]

In fact I am using Asio/Asio4All.

I had CPlay installed for a couple of months, running 24/192 and just downloaded J River 15 yesterday to try before purchasing.

It recognized the Weiss DAC2 automatically through the firewire and started smoothly without any problems.

However, as I mentioned the quality of sound is not comparable.

This is why I thought I am surely missing some parameters when using J River 15 and asked for help. I am not a computer expert, just somebody who loves music!

So I have no pre-concepts on your software, just wish to learn how can I have it running correctly with audiophile quality, even more because I like the way it displays the albums in 3D on my screen!

 

Is there a simple tutorial to install it correctly where I can learn?

Thanks

 

[jriver]

Did you try the link above on Audio Output Modes?

 

You can also try WASAPI or Kernel Streaming.

 

Please use our forum if you need more help.

 

[crazydac]

Thanks, Asio seems to be the best output mode.

But still am not able to upsample higher than 44.1

Will look deeper in the forum

 

 

[crazydac]

Just been able to have my setup working with an extraordinary sound: J River 15, working in KS, 24b, 192K upsampling,to the Weiss DAC2.

 

No longer using the Asio4all and it is much better now!

 

Great sound with a lot of stage, detail, deep and sweet.

Voice is incredibly clean and present, tried a download from the Society of Sound HI Res musics 24b FLAC from Juliana Raye.

Now I am convinced!