Media Center (software application)

Media Center, or formally, "JRiver Media Center" is a multimedia application that allows the user to play and organize various types of media on a computer running Windows.

Media Center is a "jukebox"-style media player, like iTunes, which usually uses most of the screen to display a potentially very large library of files.

Media Center organizes files using Media Libraries, these are effective databases.

Version 12 of Media Center added support for auto-importing of media, whereby Media Center continually watches designated directories for changes in media.

If a new file is dropped into the directory, Media Center will add the file to its library.
View Schemes are the main way to browse through files in Media Center.

Media Center allows the creation of playlists.

If a new album were added to Media Center's library that had the Indie Rock genre tag, Media Center would automatically add those files to the smartlist.

Media Center provides four different user interfaces for use in different situations.

Standard View is the default user interface for looking at the Media Center Library on a desktop/laptop computer.
The standard view consists of the following components: While the standard and mini views are designed to be used in front of a desk computer, or laptop, Media Center also features a large font remotely accessible 'Theater View'.

With this, Media Center uses 3D and 2D Animation to create a more visually appealing interface, which more nearly resembles that of a digital recording box, or DVD player.

Media Center provides network access to its libraries using different server plugins.

Media Center uses COM Support to provide access to an SDK library.

Media Center's predecessor was named Media Jukebox, until the rebranding to Media Center for version 9.


In November 2007, J. River released Media Jukebox 12, a stripped down version of Media Center 12, which is available to download for free, compared to Media Center's price of $49.98.