Going back (way back) to JimH's "any media, anywhere, anytime" (forget the exact quote) aim for MC, here is my (very) old pic and how I see each segment:
Content Support: 8/10 - Most content that users want is supported. Couple of edge cases keep coming up:
- MVC (BD 3D)
- BD Menus
Delivery: 9/10 - MC can read content from pretty much any source.
- A bit of clean up for adding/displaying Radio streams etc (can be done just not "easy")
Connectivity: 9/10 - MC supports pretty much all connectivity options.
- Maybe Radio Tuner cards (but with streaming options does anyone care?)
Consumption: 7/10 - This is one area that has seen more devices appear in the market and some areas that I think still need better support though with the new focus / and team members on "Remotes" this I expect will get a big bump along in MC20. In particular:
- "Remotes" Clients : New improved/consolidated Gizmo/JRemote
- Portable Devices : I think the days of how users "Sync" content to devices like iPhones by plugging then in and writing to their DB is fading. I'd much rather see that the new and improved Gizmo/JRemote app replace this concept entirely by using a local cache. No need to use iTunes at all in this case and it can be done OTA as well as by cable.
- Media Streamers / DLNA : I find AndrewFG's discussion on this akin to that we had for the development of Red October. It could remove all the fuss if done well and make this stuff "just work".
- Audio Devices : AKA the Sonos Killer / Whole House media ideas. Plonk down some active speakers/devices around the house and play content in sync to some/all etc
- PC/Servers : We still have some limitations for MC Clients, like local ripping, recoding of TV etc
Converter: 7/10 - Still a bit to do here:
- Format Shift: As discussed, improvements and flexibility to the Video Conversions options (both for files and streaming)
- Time Shift: Mostly for TV, not sure there is other Real Time content these days (Radio Streams??)
- Place Shift: Pretty good, you can now consume content from MC anywhere in the world though flexibility / auto config of the stream to match the connectivity capacity of the connection makes sense
- Device Shift: Few holes, eg I can not watch Live TV on a "remote" at all (does not go through the converter at present) and issues with live streams as MC just hands off the URL (does not go through the converter at present).
Thanks
Nathan