I also pay for free software that I use and find useful. If nobody pays for JRMC the software won't stay around and the developers will be out of work. I am willing to pay others for what I know they are doing.

I know how much work it takes to develop software. The reason I can afford the audio toys I have is because people paid for the software I worked on. With two developers doing the video stuff there is going to be more changes there, but video is also something that needs that amount of work to keep up. And a couple other developers who work on the rest and a mix of stuff (like the mobile apps and the server related stuff). There is one developer doing audio stuff and other stuff. JRiver has two developers who specialize in the video related stuff. So the video related changes are going to be more visible in the changelogs. Plus video standards and such change more rapidly than audio. Video improvements in JRMC do get more visibility because video in general is more visible. The fact that JRMC can now scan your entire library and find recordings that have HDCD is very nice.

Even with a lesser DAC the HDCD decoding is a very useful and handy added feature. If you have a Schiit multibit the HDCD detection and decoding is especially nice. I own over 250 CDs that have HDCD and some high-res that was done using the Pacific Microsoincs. They're very nice recordings with the Schiit multibits. HDCD titles and other recordings done using the Pacific Microsonics AD converter have multibit magic. I consider HDCD detection and decoding to be a very nice feature.

Jriver media center review