I kind of agree re the subject of this post although saying that i have made the switch to MC. Problem being the rest of the family have not due to the navigation issues.
I really want to get them on board and ditch Vista MC but after watching my partner attempt to actually view the current queue in full screen i can see the problem and why i had to allow the MS offering prime time once more.
In my case i have a large music video collection which MC treats and catalogues just like a music collection, enabling video and audio to be mixed in a playlist or current queue. This is unique and the main reason i love MC. However, retrieving your full screen view of now playing using screen prompts is very tricky when browsing your collection and adding files to the queue. Navigate to more, navigate to now playing, navigate to big screen. Then when you want to add more of your media to the queue you have to repeat the process.
I personally think that 3 things would help immensely in the navigation area:
1. Now playing - Screen positions of playing media and queue info should be swapped - With the currently playing media on the right hand side it could be selected with a right arrow remote press and select
2. Perhaps an alternative to 1 (but this as an option as well would be great) is transparent menu overlay option (playing now full screen in the background). It would be good to have the esc keystroke remapped to exit the menu overlay as personally escape kicking me to the exit screen seems counterintuitive and a bit severe. On the subject of quitting theatre view, i think this happens to easily (toggle views etc) and as has been mentioned elsewhere in the forum theatre view should perform in a kind of locked kiosk mode so users don't get kicked back to the widows desktop or standard views too easily. Exit on the home screen is enough with perhaps the main options being 'cancel', 'Shutdown / restart' and 'more' in which exit theatre view is located
3. Allowing user customisation of the rollers shown i.e. removal of unwanted options (i have no need for volume controls, stop, previous, next for example) and moving of most used options (i would for example like the big screen and playing now more immediately available).
I really really love MC and with some navigation tweaks and the potential addition of some form of movie database (which i hear may be in the pipeline - Perhaps Mr MyMovies could be persuaded to join up
) its game over for Vista & 7 Media Centre
Thanks for listening to your users and the continued improvements - how do you cope with these constant demands