JRiver. I really doubt that it is JRiver that is at fault since many of us use it without issues on multiple machines. What is the hardware and configuration of your setup?

OK. You do not say how your home network is involved. NAS? WiFi?

No need to apologize but, if JRiver is asking you to take other devices off-line, it seems to indicate that such connected devices are affecting JRMC function, even if your music playback system consists only of the PC connected directly to the DAC.

I hope you will post here whatever outcome there is as this seems more than a bit strange to me and I'd like to get more insight.

Unless you use very carefully, JRiver tends to hang or crash. Exception handling seems very poor. Sound quality of low frequency sound of equalizer is also very poor.

Windows Media Player (WMP) is quite robust and sound quality is best amongst several players I tested. Note that WMP may not support some opensource formats such as FLAC, etc. Installing "Media Player Codec Pack" plugin will allow you to play all sort of codecs that WMP does not support. Google for the plugin.

24x48 wrote:

Unless you use very carefully, JRiver tends to hang or crash. Exception handling seems very poor.

The only instability I have encountered with JRiver is associated with my fiddling with changes and/or implementing new hardware. Otherwise, it just plays without problems.

Quote:

Windows Media Player (WMP) is quite robust and sound quality is best amongst several players I tested. Note that WMP may not support some opensource formats such as FLAC, etc. Installing "Media Player Codec Pack" plugin will allow you to play all sort of codecs that WMP does not support. Google for the plugin.

Good to hear. Will it permit DSD or ISO playback in multichannel?

kenrus wrote:

It was suggested that I turn off the auto import function in Media Center. I turned it off and MC didn't crash today. However, I also turned off all the computer functions that don't deal with playing music. I'm not sure which made the difference, but my problem may be resolved.

Ah. I suspect that the latter is likely what made the difference. I keep auto import on all the time on my machines but none of them are doing anything else than play music.....when I am playing music. Doing other things can really interfere with good music playback, something that is very obvious to me whenever my NAS does its weekly full scan tests.

Kal Rubinson wrote:

Will it permit DSD or ISO playback in multichannel?

You will need another plugin for DSD. I was aware that Sony was providing DSD plugin for WMP. For Sony Vaio users, it's pre-installed. I am not sure about ISO files. It should hangle.

24x48 wrote:

Kal Rubinson wrote:

Will it permit DSD or ISO playback in multichannel?

You will need another plugin for DSD. I was aware that Sony was providing DSD plugin for WMP. For Sony Vaio users, it's pre-installed. I am not sure about ISO files. It should hangle.

Thanks but I am not so sure it is worth pursuing for me. FLAC is very important, as is DSD, and you do not mention multichannel at all. JRiver does all.

Kal Rubinson wrote:

FLAC is very important, as is DSD, and you do not mention multichannel at all. JRiver does all.

The core of media player codec pack is "ffdshow" plugin. It handles audio-only and video differently. In case audio-only, it passes decoded stream to WMP. So if your version of WMP support multichannel, it should. Microsoft has bad habit of giving crippled version for cheaper Windows! On the other hand, video files are handled with own DSPs and filters such as graphic equalizer, resampler, mixer, etc., with multichannel.

The main reason I use WMP with ffdshow is the sound quality. I use Equaliser to adjust low frequency sound. With equaliser use, sound quality of WMP(+ffdshow) is the best. I tested JRiver and foobar2k extensively, their sound at low frequency sucks.

I tested several media players: WMP, VLC, WinDVD, Foobar2k, JRiver, KMP. When played plainly without use of DSPs and filters, sound looks the same. However DSPs and filters such as Equalizer are used, sound quality of media players differs greatly. With equalizer, I found WMP and VLC sound best. Foobar and JRiver and KMP worst. So I am stuck with WMP.

JRiver relies on 3rd party decoders. As the original poster complains, exceptions and error handling is very poor.

I defer to your knowledge of the inner workings but I tried WMP way back when I started out with file playback and, then, this morning. Both times, I found it annoying. It doesn't see most of my files nor does it display coherently those that it does see. Albums and works are chopped up. Songs? I don't have many "songs" but mostly operas, arias, quartets, symphonies, movements, etc.

It is possible that, with some effort, I can get it to properly recognize, display and, perhaps even, play the many FLAC/DSD/ISO files I have but I am not enticed to put in that effort.

JRMC works for me and, with DiracLive for EQ, is superb.

SSIA

kenrus wrote:

I am currently running JRiver to organize and play my ripped CDs. However, it keeps crashing. What is the best software to use on a Windows computer to organize/play music?

VLC, Kodi, and foobar2000