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CNET editors' rating:
3.0 stars
Good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 55 reviews
- See all user reviews
Product summary
The good: Supports 80 file types; simple and customizable interface; solid search tool; fast application performance.
The bad: No built-in MP3 encoding in basic version; no photo organization or viewing; occasional glitches freeze or terminate program; no DVD decoder; no separate indexing of video and audio files.
The bottom line: Instability and a simple yet dated interface keep Media Jukebox a couple of steps behind the elite.
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 11/19/2004
The default interface is open, uncluttered, and decidedly old school, with its Windows Explorer undertones. We like the app's resizable windows and icon-based buttons for ripping, burning, and minimizing the player into its so-called Mini-Me mode. The left-hand window is generally static and houses expandable folders named Playing Now, Media Library, Playlists, CD And Handhelds, and Web Media. The larger, right-hand window is where your media and associated information show up. The visual and functional simplicity of this Explorer-like tree is one of Media Jukebox's strengths. Down below on the left side, you'll find the player and volume controls, the media-title and artist info, playback options such as Shuffle and Continuous, and the playback filter, which allows you to apply EQ, effects, and crossfading. Unfortunately, built-in EQ and DSP plug-in effects are available only as a Plus feature ($19.98 gets you the full-featured Plus version).
When you click Media Library, your entire media library appears in the right-hand window. Here you'll see all sorts of information, which you can sort by column in the typical jukebox fashion. Above it is a search bar that returns results with blazing speed. You can fine-tune your browsing by listing your files by album, artist, CD media, genre, or file location. The interface and the process for adding songs to a current playlist are efficient and intuitive, but unlike Windows Media Player and others, Media Jukebox doesn't provide a separate link to videos, photos, and other types of media. In fact, we were surprised that it doesn't support photo files.
Once your media has begun playing, another resizable window appears for video or visualizations. Media Jukebox also includes links to artists' biographies as well as e-commerce sites such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Best Buy, where you can purchase CDs from within the program's browser. The visualizations, while numerous, are mostly uninspiring. The included skins are decent but appear to have been designed in the '80s. You can download hundreds more from jriver.com; however, the built-in link in the program's skin manager is dead. (We should give proper credit to amped2 and iPod, two user-designed, downloadable Mini-Me skins.) Likewise, you can download an additional main-interface skin (a.k.a. Mega-Me) to add to the three color-schemed choices within Media Jukebox.
While the application works well for video playback, it has an audiocentric interface and feature set. Ripping CDs is painless and efficient, and you get a choice of OGG, WMA, and other codecs, plus the option to normalize tracks before encoding. You can also download additional plug-ins, such as lossless APE encoding, for free from J. River's Web site. Unfortunately, you won't get MP3 encoding unless you pay for the Plus version. J. River limits CD burning for data and audio to 4X in the basic version. Upgrading to the Plus version will get you maximum burning speeds.
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