Ok, we're up to version 14 now but I still think there's some inadequacies with using MC as a dedicated DVD player when compared to the competition.
For example (and in no particular order) here's a list of what I'm talking about in the context of watching a DVD disc from within Theater View. Some of these points may also apply to ripped DVD's and other video formats too:
- Pop a DVD in the drive (auto-play enabled). There's a long delay before anything happens. The problem with this is that there's no feedback for the user during this time; Is the disc loading? Has MC hung? Is it waiting for me to press a button? etc etc...
- Once the movie has finally started, there's no indication in the OSD "Language" sub-menu of what the other available audio tracks are. Say I want to choose the DTS stream, I have to scroll through ALL available streams, ALL of which have the same name and just guess! Most other players list the *name* of the available streams.
- Ok, let's jump out to Playing Now to get some info. Oh oh... there's not much here! Refer attachment. I have all the "online meta retrieval" options enabled but have NEVER seen MC automatically grab the DVD cover art for even the most mainstream of DVD titles. The name of the DVD which appears in the list is usually a very cryptic thing that tells me little about what I'm watching.
- Next, I stop and eject the disc. MC still shows the last disc "info" in Playing Now. This is true for other areas of Theater View too. The views do not auto-refresh when content is added or removed.
I think these are actually pretty minor points but something I've been wanting to mention for ages. Especially now given that MC is such a mature product. Something as basic as playing a DVD should be perfect by now.
Cheers.