I know I'm going to get a couple of people suggesting I should search the forums, but maybe you haven't looked at the SIZE of the forums lately
They're delightfully active, but it's information overload. I have quite a few questions about some things I've noticed missing from Media Center 10 trial version that would prevent me from buying it. I'm curious about what's been addressed for MC11.
1) In-engine TV listings (like how digital cable/satalite does it)
2) Scheduleing TV recording without having to do it in an external program
3) I try to exclusively use Theater mode when just leisurely playing media, but if I play something then double click in the display to return to the theater interface, it goes back to the 'standard view' instead. If I'm using this in a theater setting (which i am) would it only go back to standard view if I explicitly tell it to?
4) I use Winamp TV and Radio a lot, I'd like to get the ability to play it within MC. Is that in MC11? (especially internet TV, ESS is awesome)
5)
DVD playback: this is confusing but I've tested it repeatedly. WinDVD came with my dvd player, so it's the decoder I use. When playing a DVD through MC the performance is almost unwatchable (audio stutters terribly and the framerate is slow) but if I play it through WinDVD directly the performance is signifigantly improved. Why is this? can it be (or has it been) circumvented without me having to open WinDVD myself?
6) Media Library doesn't seem to clean itself up. I move things around a lot, rename stuff, delete stuff, put new stuff in. Media library only seems to add things I play myself. Can it monitor directories I specify and routinely add/remove content? If not, can someone PLEASE add Drives & Devices navigation to the Theater View. (or has this been done in MC11?)
7) can I specify a playlist or directory for images for the images 'display' when playing audio files? I have collections and I'd rather not have to maintain two collections of them. (one where I'd like to keep them, one where that images visualization wants them)
DVD playback: Even when in WinDVD I'm capable of chapter-forward'ing past FBI warnings and whatnot, MC's DVD navigation doesn't seem to work properly. I'm guessing that functionality doesn't come from the decoder. regardless, I hope there's been improvement.
9) 'fast forward' option in DVDs or video playback?
I hope my questions can be answered by the informed community, and concens addressed by the developers. This software seems to have the potential to be exactly what I've been looking for without having to use linux, and I can only hope it can be rounded out to suit my needs perfectly.