I am an Italian audio enthusiast engineer. I am going to report a (long) list of considerations I have made during the last months while using Media Center.
Immediateness Of Use
I am using Media Center a lot, as it is the only integrated tool that allows me to perform certain organization tasks on audio files. It is really one step beyond a simple "multimedia file player". But its use isn't immediate.
When, in your workplace, you are compelled by your management to use certain software, e.g. Word or Outlook, you find it very difficult to achieve certain results. You have to resort to all your skill and imagination: at the end, with a great effort, you can still achieve the result you want. But you have to concentrate on the instrument, while the instrument should be transparent and immediate to use, just like using a screwdriver.
The same applies to Media Center. Many things can be done, but they are all two or three clicks away, while the most used functions should all be one click (or one hot-key) away. Most functions I use very often (like Audio Analysis) require a long sequence of mouse clicks (or, using the keyboard, ALT+T, L, A, a key sequence that one is going to forget easily). Moreover, when you want to perform a given task, you have to put an hand on your forehead and _think_: "well, how do I do that?". Most functions appear really unnatural. If I want to have a certain sorting on files, I have to _think_: "well, to have files sorted by fields A, B, and C I have to click on the columns in reverse order: C, B then A".
After all, Media Center is entertainment software.
Structuring of Media Center Features
Media Center has lots of possibilities, but they should be better structured. For example, the Option menu should be split in a "Program Options" and a "Library Options" menu, as one is pertaining the program behaviour, and the other is about the configuration of the single library.
Niche or Mainstream Product?
Maybe my need is different from the needs of the masses, and nowadays software is made for the masses. The basic equation that seems to rule the world is "Total Profit = Unit Profit * Number Of Copies Sold". To increase "Total Profit" there is no need to resort to complex optimization methods: if you cannot increase "Unit Profit", you have to increase "Number Of Copies Sold". Media Center, however, does not seem a product for the masses. It is, actually, a "niche" product, for media enthusiasts who, notwithstanding the lack of documentation, spend a lot of time playing with it and find out how to use its enormous potential. So, even if Media Center is a commercial product, few features are available straight "out of the box".
The features I seek in Media Center are oriented to a more "professional" audience, like DJs, audio technicians or musical reviewers. A market, however, that JRiver could keep in mind. I don't think I am the only person in the world that uses his music collection the way I do: music professional use their audio collection in a similar manner in order to perform their work.
I think that Media Center could become an excellent product for music reviewers, and audio professionals at large. A DJ could use the superior organization features of Media Center to create playlists, the export them to professional mixing software. I think, however, it is useless to add professional mixing/scratching features to Media Center, even if it would be so much fun to loop and scratch the track you are listening to...
Features I will never use
Media Center is so packed with features, that I keep finding very advanced one that I will sever use, as the do not fit my way of enjoying PC-based entertainment. "Stream Radio to a Remote PC", for example, is technically interesting.
Media Formats
I am not interested in images or video playback. I don't even have such media types on my PC. I have removed them in order to make space on the hard disk. Also, imaging and video technologies are not mature yet. Just see the awesome number of formats (and codecs) available. Dedicated image and video playback are by far more feature-packed and more responsive. I have tried playing DVDs on Media Center, but it really acts as a very basic viewer (resembling the difference between Notepad and Word).
I even find the "Image Playback" feature annoying (I want to listen to music), and I haven’t figured out how to disable it easily.
Speaking of audio media formats, I am oriented to keeping my files in two formats only: WAV for uncompressed audio and MP3 for compressed audio. Two formats are enough for me, but more are of course welcome, and a program named "Media Center" cannot afford missing a single one.
Documentation
Media Center is really powerful, but it lacks on documentation. It is a program for "hands-on" people. When you want to do something, you have to figure it out by yourself how to do it.
Audio algorithms are not documented. Also, no information is found about audio reference levels. Calculated field could be a very interesting feature, but no reference is found about calculated fields templates. In Media Center 10 I found a new field, "Access Rating", whose meaning I do not understand.
Forums
You can override the lack of documentation in Media Center by going to the online forums. There is a lot information buried in there, but it is really volatile. Also, the search engine is rather slow and not very powerful, and it is difficult to find interesting results with it.
Plug-ins
Some of my needs are solved by using plug-ins. But only few plug-ins are shown in the official Media Center web site. A lot of plug-ins are discussed in the "Third Party Plug-ins" forum.
If a plug-in is missing, you can always program it by yourself. There is a lot of SDK documentation available. But you are supposed to be able to program, and to have a lot of spare time available.
An interesting plug-in site is
http://www.spartasoft.com (King Sparta). The plug-in goals are good, but graphically they are very coarse. Fonts are chosen that do not support ClearType rendering. I don't know is "Sparta" stands for a certain simplicity in software, however I have installed the plug-ins and I ended up never having used them.
Usage Modes
I use Media Center to listen to music in two basic ways:
1) Foreground (actively working on the music I am listening to)
2) Background (while doing other tasks on the PC)
All the features I need in Media Center fall, of course, in one of those two types of use.
I am not much interested in the "Hairstyle" mode because I work on my PC and I don't just sit on a sofa listening music. This is my way of experiencing media.