J. River Media Center for Windows

All-in-one solution for large multimedia libraries

J. River Media Center is an intuitive program that will allow you to manage all of your multimedia files - audio, video, images and more - from a single interface. It isn't very pretty, but it does provide a great platform for your media and pretty much every configuration option you could hope for.

Although there are a number of skins for the J. River Media Center, none of them particularly help in the looks department. What is attractive, however, is the variety of viewing modes available: the four screen options available will take you from quick access to more theater-like viewing for movies and television. Playback quality is good, especially for audio, and larger screen options don't compromise viewing.

J. River Media Center has all the features you would expect from a modern player. As well as the standard audio, video and images, you can also subscribe to and manage podcasts, burn and rip CDs, sync with handheld devices, control via remote control, stream from the 'net and connect to high definition television (although to do this you'll need a tuner). Add this to J. River Media Center's extensive organizational, tagging and management abilities and J. River Media Center begins to look like a serious threat to other multimedia players.

Don't be fooled into thinking that the J. River Media Center is just a pretty face. It also has a fully functional browser, allowing you to search for information related to your music - and more - on the internet. Tech fans won't be disappointed either - J. River Media Center has a huge variety of configuration options ranging from the esthetic to the advanced, including a DSP (digital signal processor) studio for tweaking your audio, a media editor and audio recorder.

Often, a major problem with programs that try to do a lot is that they overreach and end up compromising quality. Not so with J. River Media Center. In the short time I tested it, the program performed perfectly, was easy to use and gave great quality output. If you just want a program that will play your CDs, you can probably get away with something lighter, but if you are looking for an integral multimedia manager with plenty of options, J. River Media Center might be the program for you.

J. River Media Center provides options galore and great quality - what more can you ask for in a multimedia player?

Many new audiophile features, including support for 24 bit, 192Khz, AIFF, WAV tags, Room Correction DSP, play from memory, downmix to 2.1, surround sound to 7.1. Support for many audiophile USB DAC's. Windows 7 Snap (also in XP and Vista).

Changes

• Many new audiophile features, including support for 24 bit, 192Khz, AIFF, WAV tags, Room Correction DSP, play from memory, downmix to 2.1, surround sound to 7.1. Support for many audiophile USB DAC's. Windows 7 Snap (also in XP and Vista).