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MrHaugen:
Let's hope we get up to a 150 votes or so. It would give a good impression of the importance of MC as a front end. Even though this options and answers does not write things in stone, we still get a pretty good idea.

I have to admit that even I was a bit surprised of this results. Even a few of the percent of the people that have answered the three middle options might be users that are on the verge of using it or would consider it if the experience was improved. Perhaps people use other front ends for HTPC instead? So the actual people that use or want to use it as a front end might even be closer to 80%. Speculations, yes. But quite possible.

I always knew that HTPC front end was important for many people, but I did not think that almost 70-80% of the users was using it regularly. At least not the users that frequent this forums. I've always gotten the impression that this forums holds many media organizers, and as of lately, audiophiles, that does not always care about such things as Theater View. Even a higher degree of speculations. But if I am right it would mean that the percentage and importance of MC as a front end might be even a bit bigger.

Enough speculations! It's weekend. And a great one as well. Beer and Skyrim, here I come! :D

preproman:

--- Quote from: BartMan01 on November 11, 2011, 08:08:14 am ---As it stands today we are still a long way off.  There is no standard 'app' platform to develop to and everyone is too afraid of big media to build a 'client' that can completely replace a PC.  I don't have an HTPC downstairs and have to shuffle between 3 different devices depending on what I want to watch.  Even if I did have one downstairs I would still have to shuffle between 2 devices but then it would be more clear cut - XBox for TV, HTPC for everything else.  Again thanks to big media, since either Microsoft is afraid to, or the cable TV people won't allow the use of a PC as an extender for WMC.

It also no longer takes a 'beefy HTPC'.  A small form factor i3 system is pretty energy efficient and can handle anything up to and including BluRay with HD audio.

--- End quote ---

I for one would like to see the Client and the Server be broken up into two separate applications.  This would require a port to linux for us unRAID users and many other NAS users out there.  Most often thin client set top boxes are not scalable.  With HTPC's I can put whatever video card and processor in I want and it's stays scalable for future growth. My setup consists of 1 Server (unRAID) and three clients (HTPC's).  Take a look at Plex.  They offer to free applications, 1 server app and a client app.  I like there concept.  However, I use MC for audio and if I can ever get the video down I may use that as well.  For right now I use XBMC because of the ease of use and the WOW factor with the multiple skins they support.

csimon:

--- Quote from: wig on November 11, 2011, 08:42:56 am ---Perhaps we'll see a home theater ID in the future; something like WDTV Live or a Roku box that uses MC's theater view as the interface and provides a thin client front-end to MC anywhere you need one.

--- End quote ---

UPnP Remote UI even!  I think this is the type of thing that Microsoft use for "Media Center Extenders"?  The server "projects" its client user interface onto a rendering device, which doesn't need to have anything installed on it apart from being UPnP/DLNA compliant. I think this is how it works.

This sort of thing is still in its infancy, albeit there are proprietary forms of it.

csimon:

--- Quote from: MrHaugen on November 11, 2011, 02:37:26 am ---I think you underestimate this quite a bit. As the results so far show, the couch experience is really important this days. There is not that many users left that just hooks their their laptop to the TV now and then and plays a movie once a month. Or watches things on their PC. The everyday use of theater view is very important.
--- End quote ---
But don't equate "the couch experience" with "hooking a HTPC up to a TV"!

For me, the couch experience is holding something in my hand that I can browse like reading a book.  Theater View is indeed important but no TV user interface (operated by up/down/left/right arrows on a remote control or by a keyboard that you need to keep handy) can ever hope to get anywhere near the experience of a point-and-tap browsing device. The TV, and the hi-fi, are rendering devices.  Theater View on a tablet?  Oh yes!

MrHaugen:

--- Quote from: csimon on November 11, 2011, 10:07:11 am ---But don't equate "the couch experience" with "hooking a HTPC up to a TV"!

--- End quote ---

Oh, believe me. I don't. I know the importance of more than arrow and ok/enter control of TV. More than just using the TV for playback. I'm all for touch and other remote functions. There is a lot that have to be in place for a great couch experience.

Have you tried the Tremote function btw? I've never used it my self as I have no touch devices, but one day I'll get my self an Win8 Pad and use MC in Tremote with my existing HTPC setup. I think that will rock.

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