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

[marpow]

Step 4, setting up a zone.
Disclaimer, all the below can be done a variety of ways, I find my way very simple.
I am going to name two zones, DSD Zone and HDMI Zone, you can do what's best for you.

We will be working on the left tree screen, if not already done left click and expand the PLAYING NOW.
You may see a variety of items below in the overview. Most of my equipment is all ethernet connected and my view has a lot of items, disregard, we will set up our own playback zone/s.
Very top, left click Player, scroll down to Zone left click, Add Zone, new window and name your new zone, I named our first DSD Zone.
Click OK.

Your new zone is now in the "Playing Now" group and you are ready to create your DSP and Playback options.
What is best is to hook up your cabling to your desired playback gear now, either USB or HDMI or if not going to a playback system, you can just do as I am for now and playback via my PC. The reason is jRiver only recognizes what you are hooked up to.
Right click your new zone, down at the bottom is Playback Options, left click to open, it is not necessary to open the DSP Studio above as it is also in the Playback Options.
Select Audio Device, choose your device, a DAC, AVR, OPPO, your choice.
Select Device Settings, choose Default Channels (recommended), check out the other options
Select DSP & output format, you can do as the screenshot shows or play around with channels including the first choice which is Source Number Of Channels. By checking the For Stereo Sources Only, only mix to 2.1 that can be good for stereo.
In mixing I always select no upmixing or downmixing. Let's say you were listening to Chicago Quadio which is a 4.0 FLAC PCM source and you have the upmixing/downmixing selected it will play back as 5.1. I personally am a purist and I only listen to how my rip was intended to be.
Output Encoding, None.
Input/Output, you can just leave or select No Change. When you first start and playback different sources sometimes you will get a pop up that says, not recognized---, just let it buffer in a couple seconds and all will be fine. Once you have played a variety of sources this will stop.
All the other things on the left tree are cool and you can check them out later as they are not necessary for initial playback.
Change Bitstreaming to DSD.
Switch tracks to Gapless.
The rest of stuff is self explanatory and you can play with it.

Same process for HDMI, just switch Bitstreaming to HDMI.
OK, I think we are good to go, probably a few minor bugs you will encounter but absolutely any hiccups, Please let me know so I can help.
The rest of the steps will be organizational skills, this where it gets fun as you can create your own look, vibe, personal tagging and the way you playback using all the different formats.
If you have been successful getting this far, congratulations.

 

[ted_b]

I recently bought JRiver to test sidecar xml files and found you can also set Bitstream HDMI Passthrough by file type. So you could set ‘MKV’ to Bitstream regardless of the Zone.

I am downloading MC27. Where is that feature? I know some playback options are under each file format listing (file association, playback) but all I saw in MC25 were external program, different engines, etc...nothing about bitstreaming. This would be great.

 

[HomerJAU]

Where is that feature?

I just went to do a screen grab in the Options, File Type sub-option but I am wrong. You can set many other things for specific File Types but not HDMI pass-through. Apologies.

 

[marpow]

Side Note: Ripping.
Before we go to Step 5, tagging and your look, let's talk a little about ripping discs. I have been doing this for awhile and I have had great success. I will list my ways with the different formats. I won't say how to do it, unless a question pops up.
Purchased downloads: I use exclusively NativeDSD, HDTracks, (Acoustic Sounds, there download site is no longer in business). NativeDSD and HDTracks both have what is called a downloader app that works on your PC, both companies are very efficient. If both companies happen to offer the same release, they will, mostly with the 2xHD Fusion releases, I always choose NativeDSD as you also get the booklet. I have also purchased digital downloads from other companies and have been successful. Some use DropBox, etc.
SACD (Stereo & MCH): Only one way for me and that is the Sonore and OPPO combination. Works perfect. MCH and Stereo.
DVD Audio: I use DVD Audio Extractor (DVDAE), never a problem. MCH and Stereo.
DTS Audio: Foobar 2000 with the added DTS Component. Can be a little wonky but has to do more with the DTS surround discs themselves. People on QQ can help. MCH and Stereo.
Blu Ray Audio: For all Blu Ray surround and stereo including (Atmos TruHD Atmos Codec) I use MakeMKV for the actual rip, works perfect. I then use Music Media Helper (MMH) for the track splitting and tagging. Works perfect. Our own QQ member Homerjau is the inventor of MMH and his help is well, lets just say flawless.
CD's: I use Windows Media Helper, works perfect. Stereo only.

All my rips are set to FLAC except SACD are set to DSF.

All my rips, I set to send to my Downloads Folder, why? I don't know, just because. I then open them up on the PC and look at them, make sure they look good and change anything I want, this will help when it finally gets imported to JRiver.
If ripping multiple discs always look at them one at a time as sometimes the same music from the same box set will morph together in your desired folder.
Let's say you rip a 3 CD box set, sometimes they come out titled all weird and different. So as they enter my desired folder one at a time, I make sure they are tagged as I want, Black Sabbath Vol 4 Super Deluxe (Disc 1)- Black Sabbath Vol 4 Super Deluxe (Disc 2) and so on.
With other rips say a Dutton Vocalion release you would rename as Mott The Hoople-The Hoople 4.0 SACD DV and Mott The Hoople-The Hoople 2.0 SACD DV. By renaming them properly in your PC folder it not only helps when it finally gets to JRiver but also helps if you ever need to find exactly what you need in your eventual storage place.

Then I move these ripped files to my NAS in my case the M folder. as shown in the screenshot. When my download folder gets about 20 or so rips I move these again into an external hard drive that I only connect to when I do this. This external hard drive is for backup storage only, I then disconnect the external hard drive and delete the files on my PC hard drive. I now have two copies of all my music, the NAS and a disconnected hard drive. If there is a fire or earthquake it is one of the items I need to take with me as I run out the door.

I hope you are well and next we will work on making our JRiver functional and fun to use.

 

[HomerJAU]

For Blu-ray Video and DVD Video, I use MakeMKV and split concerts into song files and rename with MMH. I only leave the surround audio stream in the MKV output files (I only listen to concerts in surround).

For Movies I use MakeMKV to create an MKV file (but don’t split)

 

[ted_b]

I only leave the surround audio stream in the MKV output files (I only listen to concerts in surround).

You make that decision in MakeMKV, right, not MMH?

 

[HomerJAU]

I used to make that decision in MakeMKV but with latest MMH the ‘Extract Audio from MKV’ tool now supports output to MKV with using a selected audio stream only (and copies video stream) from a source MKV with multiple audio streams.

 

[HomerJAU]

I now have two copies of all my music, the NAS and a disconnected hard drive.

One of the great features of a NAS is when you use multiple disks in a RAID array the NAS itself encodes dual copies of all its files allowing one disc drive to fail without losing any file. You can then replace the defective drive and the NAS auto rebuilds the failed drive’s data on the new drive, so you now have two copies of every file again on your NAS.

Like @marpow I have a NAS and backup external hard drives. I also keep my ripped ISOs on my NAS so I can go back and reconvert from the disc image at any time. (I actually now have 2 x NAS. ISOs on one and converted media files I play on the other).

I’ve put so much time into converting discs and correctly tagging my music and collecting album art, disc art and artist fanart. I have two external backup discs for my music. To be sure to be sure. Extra backup discs are cheap compared to hundreds of hours to re-rip, convert, tag etc.

 

[Infomas]

Thanks for doing this. I've used JRiver for a few years now. I don't try and do anything too complicated, so I haven't had any real problems with it. The most unique thing I've done was run HDMI over TCP/IP because my computer is not in the same room as the TV/receiver.

And I apologize for this not really being on subject, but I wanted to make sure I was following this thread. Thanks again.

 

[marpow]

Step 5, JRiver, your personal look.
I'll show you a few things that will help you have a nice organized look. In the post above this, @HomerJAU says "I’ve put so much time into converting discs and correctly tagging my music and collecting album art, disc art and artist fanart". Yes, this is true, when you have a large music collection you will spend a lot of time organizing, you will likely develop your own style over time. What I hope to do here is get you to not completely redo things as it can be a real pain. Some easy things in RED.
Top Right Search Box: Type in anything, Boz Scaggs, DSD64, 4.0, on and on and wham, all that you own of that search comes right up. This will be reflection of how well you tag EVERY album. Do a lousy job, you'll get lousy results. this is why I can't stress enough to do proper tagging as you import, one album at a time. Tagging each album is easy and we will get to that.
Top Right Slide Bar: Move this right to left, back and forth and you lock in your album panes. In my screenshot I show 17 albums per row. My prefered view is 8 per row. This view is from Recent Albums, you can have a different view using the slider from all the Blue Audio Tabs.
Top Left VIEW: This expanded view shows all the little things you can do, skin color, different views, etc. Some are really into this stuff, I am not, I am most interested in recorded information and playback.
Middle Left Audio Tree: In my actual working JRiver I only have Albums, Artists, Genres, Recent Albums, I have deleted the others.
Video: Files is where my Atmos Video files are kept. I have Video files that are either Chapters or Full Length, when ripping a Atmos music disc, as of this writing JRiver does not playback gapless, even though it is there in the Playback Options tab. Most music this is not that big of a deal and I actually like chapters playing back music with the individual video screens, but like The Beatles Abbey Road, gapless is a must so I watch/listen to the full length.

I like my JRiver to look about like this.
I forgot to mention the Top Left volume slider bar: You can activate this or not. If playing back on PC OK to use, mostly a redundant function though. On my full rig it is not activated.
That is all for today.

 

[marpow]

I believe having just finished Step 5, we will be doing our final Step 6 this week. Step 6 is the funnest for me. I can tell you I first started out really rough with not a lot, but enough Tagging errors that I eventually re-did a bunch, not that I had to, but because I wanted to.
We will perfect the tag column, there are a ton of choices from Album, Artist, all the way to bitstream and Dynamic Range.
We will analyze our audio, year released, file type, Cover Art etc. Too many choices actually but great fun.

I might have a few surprises beyond Step 6, but we are doing baby steps for beginners.
This last step is really easy, and when by yourself or sharing on QQ, all your music information will be at your fingertips.

 

[marpow]

Side Notes: I go to bed thinking all on track and then I wake up thinking, there's more. Some little things before we go to Step 6.
Notes correspond with red lines.
Top Left: Help button. Self explanatory, but this is where you can jump right to the JRiver Forum, helpful yes and no, just like QQ you can get people saying the way the say there stuff. How To: very good, access to the Wikipedia Link. Registration Info. Plus other stuff.
Middle Bar: Put your cursor anywhere on this display bar and right click, now you can customize this display.
Lower Left: Display, you can collapse, expand and make full screen with different views and lyrics.
Top Right: As you can see I just typed in Bruce and everything in my library with Bruce in it popped up, Springsteen, Hornsby, Jack Bruce, etc, etc.
Middle Display Bar: This is where Step 6 will be focused on. This is your everything place for all that will be important to you, everyone will be different.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Middle Left Audio Tree: In my actual working JRiver I only have Albums, Artists, Genres, Recent Albums, I have deleted the others.

That is one approach. Another is to create additional views as a preselection aid. For example, I have added these views for formats as a convenience for the way I work:
Classical
Classical - Multichannel
Classical - Stereo
Non-Classical
Non-Classical - Multichannel
Non-Classical - Stereo
Multichannel

 

[Steve Schoultz]

That is one approach. Another is to create additional views as a preselection aid. For example, I have added these views for formats as a convenience for the way I work:
Classical
Classical - Multichannel
Classical - Stereo
Non-Classical
Non-Classical - Multichannel
Non-Classical - Stereo
Multichannel

This is what I would like to do. Can you make a hierarchical view structure?

 

[Kal Rubinson]

This is what I would like to do. Can you make a hierarchical view structure?

I've not tried that but I can do it in a "Files" view so I am sure it is possible.

 

[marpow]

Step 6- Part 1:
First let's go back to our download folder, or your choice, and review how we do our file name. This is the foundation of tagging and storage. This example the most recent CD rip of The Black Crowes, came out perfectly right from the rip, I consider that rare. Most of the time when you rip especially from box sets they kind of end up morphed together and is a hassle separating them. Rename your file as it comes and is easy, one at a time.
Here in the filename you want to rename exactly as it is, if it is a digital download and they send to you as the album name and some numbers you don't want that, you want to rename that file as it is, as example David Elias-Acoustic Trio-DSD Sessions 2.0 DSD256 if there is another version of the same just name it that and change 2.0 to 4.0 for example.

Before we really get into that center black, tagging bar, not even sure what it is called.
This is a great example of not doing one at a time and even though the file names on the hard drive are named correctly, JRiver morphed them together. The Band-Stage Fright.
First I will highlight all of the DSF file which is a Mobile Fidelity SACD stereo rip, then I will highlight all of the FLAC file which is a 5.1 BluRay from the recent box set.
I am also going to add a Description Box in the center black bar, by right clicking that bar and checking Description.

All I did was highlight, right click, rename, and within a second, done. Note: this view is just my JRiver used for instructional purposes only, so little things like the thumb nails disappearing on the left not a concern.
Not at all necessary to go to the tagging side bar for any tagging.
Lets say, I want to look at all my MOFI 2.0 SACD's, I go to the Search Box top right and start typing 2.0 MOFI and even before I can finish SACD the list populates, awesome. If I type DSD256, guess what, every file I own that is a DSD256 will populate, 2.0's and 5.0's or 5.1's.

Next: Step 6 Part 2.

 

[marpow]

Step 6, Part 2: Part 3 we will do Analyze Audio, Lyrics and Cover Art.
In this step we will change the middle black tagging bar.
I will show you a completed bar of what I like, this may not be what you like, there are many choices all easy. First put your cursor anywhere over the black bar and right click, you will see a window populate like below, see lots of choices, too many.
What you see first in this screenshot starting from left is Image (small thumbnail)-Track #-Name-Artist-Album-Duration-Description-Bitrate-File Type-Genre-Date-File Name. Very important, always keep Filename.
You can take your cursor, there is a very small bar, almost hard to see, and you can slide these descriptions back and forth if you happen to not like the order they are in.
When you are done, click Presets, here you can save your tagging bar, you have the ability to name and save different presets. One is good enough for me.
At any time if lets say your preset is expanded (it is too long) you can change it by sliding tabs to smaller or larger, for Instance Dynamic Range is a long two words, but the numbers for Dynamic Range are only two numbers, so I shrink the Dynamic Range box down to only DR, it's my JRiver and I know what it means.
The screenshot I show below this one is what I like for viewing.

These next two screenshots are what I like, too long for one screenshot so there is a left and right view. I tried making one but too small for viewing in our classroom.
Notice the dates, I have three, Date is the year of the first release, Date (release) is in this case the date of the box set release, Date created is when it from the NAS to the JRiver. I believe everything else should be self explanatory. Remember this is fun so create your own look with the many choices.
See more below.

In this example I wanted to change the Album name. NativeDSD sent the file as Warren Vache' but Bucky Pizzarelli also plays on some tracks, so I renamed all the tracks to include Bucky. Now, he really doesn't play on every track and I could have named each track individually, but I got lazy.
Highlight all, right click, left click rename and do so as screenshot below this one shows. You can rename any box you want super easy.
Notice what I did in the description box 2.0 DSD256, I need to go back because what I really wanted was "2.0 DSD256 NativeDSD'
If done this way, again back to the search box, just type NativeDSD and bang, they all show up.

I can't believe we are almost there.

 

[marpow]

Step 6 Part 3 (Final?): This final step, for now, will be three super easy things, Cover Art, Analyze Audio and Lyrics.
Cover Art: I do mostly one of two ways.
Right click anywhere in your highlighted section as shown, click Library Tools, click Cover Art, there you will get two main choices, either Get From Internet or Add From File. Lets say JRiver gives you nothing when you import, or JRiver gives you the old cover art and not the new box set cover art, whatever you either got nothing or you don't like what's there. Try Get From Internet, sometimes works well sometimes not, what I do almost exclusively is I go to Discogs, Amazon, the download sites I purchased from, right click on the cover of choice, save as, then go back to JRiver do the above mentioned and click, Add From File and bang, all done. Sometimes on a box set I will do different covers of that box set that I get from Discogs.

Analyze Audio: I love this feature. You can add this in under Import>Configure Auto Import if you would like. I don't.
This feature also adds many things in it's own black tag bar, that you can add or subtract, more stuff than even know what they are, all kinds of leveling and DR's and wavelengths, too much for me.
The second below screenshot has what I do, remember a cool thing in your play back is the Dynamic Range per track, you can only get that information, by Analyze Audio. You can see Analyze Audio in the below function, another Library Tool.
Lyrics: Either same place as Library Tools or can right click on any track, press Lookup Lyrics, one note, Jriver will only populate 10 tracks at a time with Lookup Lyrics if highlighting an entire album, I honestly don't use the feature that much, unless I am listening to a song and I think, how do those lyrics go? JRivers lyrics can of course be hit and miss, if it is a super random album, maybe you won't get anything, however in the last three years greatly improved. See all the way below for Lyric Screenshots.

Analyze Audio Screenshot

These Lyric screenshots are from the Display: Dreamstate View, Right click on Display, click Track View and create your own.

Wow, I think we did it, hopefully you got a little bit out of it, I enjoyed the class. Please ask detailed questions and I will do my best.
I also have some questions that I will be asking.
In the DSP Studio there are a ton of things I would like to know more about, Room Correction, etc, all this stuff below I would like to learn to see if it would apply or not.
Have a great week.

 

[ted_b]

That is one approach. Another is to create additional views as a preselection aid. For example, I have added these views for formats as a convenience for the way I work:
Classical
Classical - Multichannel
Classical - Stereo
Non-Classical
Non-Classical - Multichannel
Non-Classical - Stereo
Multichannel

Yes,thanks Kal. I spend quite a bit of time in my videos showing how to make additional views. They are easy, and are created using rules, like file type equals DSD, channels greater than 2, genre classical (i.e Multichannel DSD classical).

 

[Kal Rubinson]

When necessary, I use "Album Art Download" for artwork. Very efficient. Almost too much.