JRiver Media Center

When it comes to playing media, you have two options at your disposal. Your first option is to stick with the multimedia application that is built into the Windows operating system – that would be Windows Media Center, an application that is included in Windows XP Media Center Edition, premium editions of Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

Your second option is to select a 3rd party-developed application, something that is not developed by Redmond-based software giant Microsoft. Such an application is the J. River-developed Media Center. This is a powerful multimedia application that can play any sort of media you have on your computer. The application comes with support for a very long list of audio, video, image and playlist formats.

After installing the program using its simple installer, a graphical and intuitive interface will be displayed. Using the interface, the user can easily import various media items into the program's interface. When importing a certain media file, it will be automatically placed in a category, according to its type. JRiver Media Center can import almost any type of video file, song or image. Playing images can be done using a simple slideshow, which displays various transition effects.

What's more, the program supports importing playlists created with other similar applications. For fine-tuning sound, there is a DSP feature available, which displays a simple equalizer, for controlling every aspect of the sound. JRiver Media Center includes some extra tools, for example, it can rip any audio CD and save the tracks as audio files and it can also burn any audio CD using any audio format.

What's more, the application supports various plugins, for extending its functionality. There are a couple of plugins available, but more can be downloaded from the program's website. The same goes for skins, which can be downloaded, if the user doesn't like the ones included in the application.