Well - your options (for Media Center) as always - are directly related to what JRiver decides to supply.
Yes, Which is why I'm asking if they would at least spruce up the UX to address this decade.
That said - I really dig our current "mobile" options (Gizmo etc). In my opinion - they are enough for any user in terms of basic media enjoyment.
MC isn't 'basic'. That's why many people use it.
Personally - I would rather see JRiver devote their time to building out a more robust client/server networking infrastructure and improve the video "presentation" end of things well before committing any further time to mobile.
Apart from the use below, I've given up on MC as a video component - there are (admittedly much more expensive, but that's not an issue for me) much more usable solutions that I've now turned to full-time. And as for client / server - yeah, that's actually pretty important to me as you'll also see below, but the UX is just as pressing as it's a core usability matter.
My use for MC is
- Outside-firewall media streamer
- Media organiser
- Occasionally, media syncer (though since I dislike Android, iOS sync is useless in MC and I don't like the Windows Phone 8 media arrangement either, I don't really use this feature)
- PC-based, single zone (either remote controlled or directly interacting) 'high grade' listening
In terms of general at-home listening though, Sonos parses that same library independently and I simply pick up one of the iPads and use the Sonos/Crestron remote - I'll never touch MC for the vast majority of home listening, because it's far more cumbersome. It's only when I'm listening to high-bitrate material on the H*A*PC in the den or directly sitting at a PC that I turn to MC as a single-machine playback system.
As for video and use as a full HTPC - until I abandoned the idea of using MC for any kind of full-on HT use and went entirely Kaleidescape etc-based, I always felt it was too rough-edged a solution if you wanted to do things properly and part of me feels that being a computer-based solution, it'll always be that way. And as I said before, I find the Theater view actually quite unproductive and dull on anything - I've thrown dual-Xeon, upper-midrange GPU's with locally-sinced, all-SSD storage at the HTPC role in the past, and it's not so much the hardware as I said but Theater View is sluggish in terms of the general response and 'workflow'. Which is why I still either bring up the main MC screen on the current HAPC directly and interact via touchpad-integrated keyboard, or do the same thing through a Windows tablet / laptop acting as remote. And again, in that situation the resolutely 2000's UX of MC hampers effective use by touch-capable local-remote clients: The problem isn't just on the move.
MC - for me - will only ever be my "go to" within my own home environment. As much as I like the app - it's not something I would want to drag around on any mobile device. And due to the flaky nature of mobile streaming - even here in tech heavy Calgary - no mobile app can actually deliver. Things are always cutting out or failing in some way or another - so mobile as a music "enjoyment" platform - is dead to me. Nothing annoys me more than getting into a track and then have it disappear because I drive under an overpass - for clean, high quality uninterrupted (the key word here) music - nothing beats my iPod even to this day
I travel a lot so having the ability to have my entire library available to me with the same user interface as the main MC is a very valuable asset to me. When on transport where the internet is erratic I'll probably be more likely to be listening to my synced podcasts. However when I'm back at the hotel at the end of the day and I'm doing a bit of writing in the evening, it's great to have 'the full MC experience' outside.