JRiver digital playback for beginners. Question and Answer Forum, 2021.

[marpow]

So, I would like to ask a question of the JRiver users here that play BluRays (esp if they include Atmos). Can a bluray ISO rip or BDMV folder be sent (bitstreamed via HDMI) from JRiver to you AVR/pre/pro and then pick the Atmos stream from the menu? Some have said JRiver needs an MKV, but there's been at least one response about an ISO rip. And I've been toying with Abbey Road Atmos on my desktop (even though I haven't bought an Atmos pre/pro yet for the new room) and it seems we can choose the Atmos layer by choosing the TrueHD 7.1 layer from the remote (for me it's the keyboard up/down). Since I am doing this all pre-Atmos maybe all you can get with these non-MKV files is a 7.1 stream? Please advise, thx.

Sixtyten and I are good with the same setup.
I will add one little thing. You need to plug in your HDMI cable from your PC to your AVR at setup. JRiver will only recognize what you need to set up when it is connected. ASIO's are always connected but receivers, etc, may not always be connected. I had a couple fails because I thought I could connect and was a no go, then I plugged my HDMI in and bang, like magic.
My Mcintosh MX122 is shown as the (WASAPI) also. All my 16 Atmos album rips are MKV. Play great.
Before I learned how to rip the Atmos Blu Rays, I was ripping the same Blu Rays using MakeMKV and MMH for the 5.1 playbacks as FLAC or the 7.1's playing back as 5.1 as I do not have 7 on the floor.
In my hundreds? of music Blu Rays, I have ripped all of them exclusively with MakeMKV and MMH, I have never even tried anything else.
I just listen to the master and he tells me what to do.
2 weeks ago we had to playback MKV Blu Ray Atmos (TruHD) on JRiver via the video section, now, I have not tried, we can play back from the audio section, but still have to set Bitstreaming to HDMI.
I hope that helps Ted, if I understood your question correctly?

 

[ted_b]

@HomerJAU and @himey finally got through to my thick skull, that MKAs are the file types we want to use for music Atmos in JRiver. These MKA files have had the non-Atmos streams stripped out (via MMH). This breakthrough (for me) made me remember a tip I'd thought I'd add here in this tutorial, and that is:

Appending special names to album versions in batch (I go over some of this in the videos).

JRiver has a special expression language you can use to do bulk tagging. We get so many of our favorite albums in so many flavors (redbook, hirez, bluray, etc etc) that it might make sense to filter them by category and give, say, all your Atmos albums a special "Album name (Atmos Mix)" nomenclature to weed them out. Atmos may be a bad example, in that we have so few compared to our library, but you get my drift.
1) first filter your albums by some category, say, DSD or Atmos Mix (MKA). This can be done using the drop down filters in the audio subcategory "files".
2) highlight all those MKA tracks, right click and choose "tag" and then, in the album row do this:

Example:
=[Album] /(Atmos Mix/) puts (Atmos Mix) after the album name. So, when I import several albums i simply highlight them all and put that command in the tag area for album. As long as you start with the equals sign it will not over-write the album name. If you mess up, just go up to edit and "undo". The forward slashes escape using the parentheses (cuz parentheses, by themselves, are metacharacters and mean something in the expression language). So this changes Abbey Road to Abbey Road (Atmos Mix), and allows me to see all my Abbey Roads with indivdual qualifiers (remaster, 24 bit USB, 5.1 BluRay, etc). It's great for huge bulk appends.

 

[himey]

@HomerJAU and @himey finally got through to my thick skull, that MKAs are the file types we want to use for music Atmos in JRiver. These MKA files have had the non-Atmos streams stripped out (via MMH). This breakthrough (for me) made me remember a tip I'd thought I'd add here in this tutorial, and that is:

Appending special names to album versions in batch (I go over some of this in the videos).

JRiver has a special expression language you can use to do bulk tagging. We get so many of our favorite albums in so many flavors (redbook, hirez, bluray, etc etc) that it might make sense to filter them by category and give, say, all your Atmos albums a special "Album name (Atmos Mix)" nomenclature to weed them out. Atmos may be a bad example, in that we have so few compared to our library, but you get my drift.
1) first filter your albums by some category, say, DSD or Atmos Mix (MKA). This can be done using the drop down filters in the audio subcategory "files".
2) highlight all those MKA tracks, right click and choose "tag" and then, in the album row do this:

Example:
=[Album] /(Atmos Mix/) puts (Atmos Mix) after the album name. So, when I import several albums i simply highlight them all and put that command in the tag area for album. As long as you start with the equals sign it will not over-write the album name. If you mess up, just go up to edit and "undo". The forward slashes escape using the parentheses (cuz parentheses, by themselves, are metacharacters and mean something in the expression language). So this changes Abbey Road to Abbey Road (Atmos Mix), and allows me to see all my Abbey Roads with indivdual qualifiers (remaster, 24 bit USB, 5.1 BluRay, etc). It's great for huge bulk appends.

That is what I meant in my other post about the endless sorting options so you only need one library. The sorting options and zones are what sets jRiver apart from the others.

I still like to mix and match my favorite media players/organizers because none are 100% perfect at everything...Kodi, jRiver, Musicbee, Foobar2000, Squeezelite-X (Logitech Media Server), Plex, ect.

 

[marpow]

I am just glad I do that in the Description Tag, and all I do is type in the search box, anything I want and wa-la, there they are.
Endless sorting options, that is for sure, we all find what works for us individually, what makes sense to one doesn't necessarily float the boat of another. Like I said in tutorial I have 3 playback zones, I don't need 3 but I like 3. Just because, really happy you figured it out for your way of doing it Ted.

 

[himey]

I am just glad I do that in the Description Tag, and all I do is type in the search box, anything I want and wa-la, there they are.
Endless sorting options, that is for sure, we all find what works for us individually, what makes sense to one doesn't necessarily float the boat of another. Like I said in tutorial I have 3 playback zones, I don't need 3 but I like 3. Just because, really happy you figured it out for your way of doing it Ted.

Do you use different library views for your most used "sorts"?

I set up sorting shortcuts (library views) for 2.0 Artists, 2.0 Albums, 5.1 Artists, 5.1 Albums, Atmos Music, Atmos Video, Music Videos, Concerts, Movies.

For zones I only use two now, one for pass through to Oppo and another for bluetooth speaker.

 

[HomerJAU]

One of the major features of media player software is the filter, sort and find capabilities in your music collection. Something not available in conventional disc playback.

In Kodi I use folder naming to create menu nodes like ‘Atmos’ and ‘Quad’ that display only Atmos or Quad releases. Many way to skin a cat!

 

[himey]

One of the major features of media player software is the filter, sort and find capabilities in your music collection. Something not available in conventional disc playback.

In Kodi I use folder naming to create menu nodes like ‘Atmos’ and ‘Quad’ that display only Atmos or Quad releases. Many way to skin a cat!

I do a similar thing with Kodi and PlexKodiConnect and the favorites option. I could get more fancy but the skin I like (simple Estuary skin) doesn't have the options that some of the more complicated skins, that I don't like with my Harmony hub remote, have. The Music Video sorting in conjunction with Movies is severely lacking with Estuary skin.

 

[marpow]

Do you use different library views for your most used "sorts"?

I set up sorting shortcuts (library views) for 2.0 Artists, 2.0 Albums, 5.1 Artists, 5.1 Albums, Atmos Music, Atmos Video, Music Videos, Concerts, Movies.

For zones I only use two now, one for pass through to Oppo and another for bluetooth speaker.

No Himey, I kind of freelance my feel around my library. The library I use is Recents. I like it. I scroll around with no rhyme and reason. Like you I have all my titles listed as 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 5.1 and Atmos, so just typing any of that in the search box is good. I also have the main players typed in my description. AP, AF, DV, NativeDSD, HDTracks, SW, etc, to each his own I guess. To be honest I use my JRiver so much I just look at the album cover in the main library and I know what it is.
My playback zones are three, Stereo and MCH both set up exactly the same and all my stereo can playback on the MCH zone, but if I play surround music on the stereo zone it only plays stereo, both zones are Bitstreaming DSD and are USB out from the PC to the DAC.
My Atmos zone is Bitstreaming HDMI.

 

[MartinGr]

I'm thinking of buying JRiver and an Intel NUC 7.
As the NUC7 is too old for a long future with Windows, I wonder if I can do everything I need with Debian Linux and ALSA drivers as well?
I have a Marantz SR 6015 - and HDMI will be my preferred connection. Will it be possible to do bitstreaming with Dolby Atmos files? (mka, m4a or mkv). And how about DTSHD MA?

KODI on a Raspberry Pi 4 would play all my surround files (and formats) easily via HDMI. Except for native DSD of course. It seems to have a more direct access to the HDMI hardware than all other media players. But it can't play gapless when rendering via DNLA, and I don't like the GUI.
B.t.w: since the last Kernel update, the Raspi plays surround (!) via ALSA/HDMI, but only in 48/16 - and is too weak for JRivers sample rate converters.

So, could this be my perfect streaming player for Stereo and 5.1 FLAC, DSF and Dolby Atmos?

 

[HomerJAU]

Why not put Kodi (LibreElec) on your NUC? It plays gapless if connected to a filesystem not DLNA. Theres been some improvements with DSD support although I all my SACDs are converted to FLAC.

 

[himey]

Why not put Kodi (LibreElec) on your NUC? It plays gapless if connected to a filesystem not DLNA. Theres been some improvements with DSD support although I all my SACDs are converted to FLAC.

I couldn't get LibreElec (Windows 11 too) to pair with my Harmony hub bluetooth remote, so I am forced to continue using Kodi on Windows 10.

 

[MartinGr]

I couldn't get LibreElec (Windows 11 too) to pair with my Harmony hub bluetooth remote, so I am forced to continue using Kodi on Windows 10.

I linked my Sony TV to Kodi via CEC - and can control everything perfectly with the TV remote, and with my Harmony Hub too! (via TV)

 

[MartinGr]

Why not put Kodi (LibreElec) on your NUC? It plays gapless if connected to a filesystem not DLNA. Theres been some improvements with DSD support although I all my SACDs are converted to FLAC.

Did you reply to me or someone else? I don't have a NUC until now, only PI 3 & 4.
Kodi works fine, but only without DNLA and via the GUI. I've tried different skins - but JRiver looks way much more attractive to me.
If I knew that I could play Atmos with a Linux NUC 7 and JRiver, I would buy it.

 

[himey]

I linked my Sony TV to Kodi via CEC - and can control everything perfectly with the TV remote, and with my Harmony Hub too! (via TV)

Harmony Hub connected to a PC as a bluetooth keyboard, is a wonderful thing with Kodi considering how many keyboard shortcuts Kodi offers. I just wish I could pair it with every operating system.

 

[MartinGr]

Harmony Hub connected to a PC as a bluetooth keyboard, is a wonderful thing with Kodi considering how many keyboard shortcuts Kodi offers. I just wish I could pair it with every operating system.

I must admit I haven't thought of this, although I have the hub. I can use almost every key on my TV remote via CEC and thought this already nice.

 

[himey]

I must admit I haven't thought of this, although I have the hub. I can use almost every key on my TV remote via CEC and thought this already nice.

You switch between remotes even though you have a Harmony Hub remote?

 

[HomerJAU]

Did you reply to me or someone else? I don't have a NUC until now, only PI 3 & 4.
Kodi works fine, but only without DNLA and via the GUI. I've tried different skins - but JRiver looks way much more attractive to me.
If I knew that I could play Atmos with a Linux NUC 7 and JRiver, I would buy it.

Yes.

I'm not sure why you want DLNA? I just setup both my Kodi NUCs to access my NAS shares directly.

I play Kodi from my iPad app if I'm having serious music session. If its just to play a new album I tend to use my RF remote. But the iPad app controls everything in kodi without interrupting the TV screen (or even needing a TV running). I can queue tracks and albums, play music videos etc. Change the queue order, insert tracks in any position in queue etc. I can do same from my iPhone but a tablet is nicer to use especially with my aging eyes!

 

[MartinGr]

Yes.

I'm not sure why you want DLNA? I just setup both my Kodi NUCs to access my NAS shares directly.

I play Kodi from my iPad app if I'm having serious music session. If its just to play a new album I tend to use my RF remote. But the iPad app controls everything in kodi without interrupting the TV screen (or even needing a TV running). I can queue tracks and albums, play music videos etc. Change the queue order, insert tracks in any position in queue etc. I can do same from my iPhone but a tablet is nicer to use especially with my aging eyes!

Maybe you are right and I should try it for a while. I'm using Asset as my DNLA Server and Bubble DS as my control point (and Bubble UPnP OpenHome extension). This is, how I play my music abroad or in the kitchen... and I would like to use it when I'm listening seriously, too.
But Atmos files aren't visible in the control point, anyway....
If I'll stay with Kodi, even the Pi 3b will do what I need. But for JRiver, I'd need the NUC. And wonder, if the bitstreaming works under Linux..

 

[himey]

Maybe you are right and I should try it for a while. I'm using Asset as my DNLA Server and Bubble DS as my control point (and Bubble UPnP OpenHome extension). This is, how I play my music abroad or in the kitchen... and I would like to use it when I'm listening seriously, too.
But Atmos files aren't visible in the control point, anyway....
If I'll stay with Kodi, even the Pi 3b will do what I need. But for JRiver, I'd need the NUC. And wonder, if the bitstreaming works under Linux..

Try Plex (free) and Kodi with the PlexKodiConnect add-on. I used Asset way back and Plex adds a lot to the table for serving up media.

 

[MartinGr]

Try Plex (free) and Kodi with the PlexKodiConnect add-on. I used Asset way back and Plex adds a lot to the table for serving up media.

Really? I thought, minimserver is a bit overrated, but Asset is just perfect in its flexibility. But I'll have a look at PLEX!
Maybe I'm a bit too much in a "I'll have to buy something new" mood at the moment