Disappointment in what way? In my system, entirely htpc-based, it works close to perfect.
As I mentioned - not ALL problems relate to MC - but I could start with client/server - as in client never finding server. That one took about a week to 10 days of non stop testing (despite everyone telling me it was MY system that was at fault). As a last gasp effort - once I gave up and made the HTPC "the server" - of course that issue was solved. Not exactly how I want to run things here...but it is what it is.
Then I continue to battle with Auto-Import. I add a few movies to the Movies share - which is rightfully (and correctly setup) being watched by MC - and in some cases - hours go by without an update. And of course - this happens right when we actually want to watch a movie
Any other time like 2:00am on a Sunday morning - the file will auto-import quickly and perfectly. This one remains a mystery....
Then I have my battles with "display" in Theater View. I want my movies displayed by Cover Art (alpha) and no other way - but every time I enter Theater View - I have to crutch around and get to Toggle List View to actually get the list display I want. Maybe I am missing something here that I can set? But I have searched. I do not think so.
There are other smaller issues that plague us infrequently - (not all MC related) and I would be remiss if I did not mention the actual time it took to get the PC under control after I first set it up (from Windows Update appearing in the middle of a movie to ironing out hardware settings etc) it was a very long road. And here I thought I really knew PCs
Then we have the whole mobile angle...iPads are the norm in the house now and everyone is crying for a media server that can play to those devices...alas MC cannot at this time (* we are just getting started with JRemote - so this may change) so I have that battle to wage. More and more - the wife and kid simply do not want to deal with the "issues" in the media room and now just want to watch a movie in bed - who can blame them?
Finally - from a pure esthetics point of view - as I look closely at other Media Server offerings - the Theater View interface in MC is tired to me. It's functional but I guess I am one of those guys who likes a snazzy looking front end once in a while.
But I digress - it was me who wanted to go down this road after hanging with everyone here on the forums for several years - I thought it would be better than it turned out to be. And don't get me wrong - for music - there is no contest. MC is it - and there is no other contender. But on the movie side - once the iPads and Dunes and Netflix came into the house - and you can be watching a movie in 30 seconds (with zero hassle factor) - I knew my "big room media" dreams were compromised.
Now - I should mention that we do use MC for very large screen viewing (the new projector system) but that usually involves 10 minutes of setup by me to get the room "ready". Then as long as the HTPC is not cranky, the HDMI is working and MC is ready (and my auto-import hasn't failed - or the movie we actually want to watch has been scraped properly) we can get down to it.
But again - never....easy. Break out that IT degree....
VP