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[newsposter]

I would think that anything that enhances out-of-the-box stability, usability, connectivity, & recoverability would sell more licenses.

The "out-of-the-box" item is key.  No sense having an infinitely configurable product which, out-of-the-box, is marginally useable to noobs.

Perhaps an installation switch (or a start-up switch) would be useful.  Pick one:

a) Install with ready-to-go MediaCenter functionality using a very polished Theater View and ready to batch-import loads of user data (media).

b) Install with minimal functionality, ready for Guru Customization.

c) Install with minimal functionality, ready for import of a pre-existing user configuration.

[JimH]

I moved this here because I agree that we should change the default appearance and behavior for fresh installs.

Any specific recommendations would be very useful. 

Thanks,

Jim

[newsposter]

A brain-storming session to identify 5 or 7 likely install and/or first use scenarios would be a good idea.

Assumptions about users:

a) noob, minimal tech skills
b) noob, decent tech skills, noob at MC
c) used HTPC before, noob at MC
d) used HTPC before, used MC before
e) guru at both HTPC and MC

Assumptions about user libraries:

a) already on disk, ready for import, fully tagged to users satisfaction
b) already on disk, ready for import, no tagging
c) nothing on disk (and by implication not tagged), needs to be ripped/scanned

Assumptions about usage of MC:

a) full-blown HTPC, audio, video, photos
b) streaming and/or sync to external devices
c) audio player only
d) various combinations of above

Assumptions about devices:

a) auto-detect and add/config of audio
b) auto-detect and add/config of video
c) auto-detect and add/config of streaming
d) auto-detect and add/config of network storage (CIFS and NFS3 please)

Probably need to expand on this and come up with likely combinations of user, install, first usage, on-going usage, etc.  Then prioritize the scenarios according to likelyhood as well as the amount of resources needed to implement.

[raldo]

Include more default view schemes, also view schemes with smart filters.

This would also advertise this feature in your free version...

[leezer3]

Perhaps the biggest problem in this field, is MC's complexity. I've said this before, but MC needs more Wizards, and nice large toolbar type buttons 
A few comments on the first page a new user sees-

1. These three images look more like an advert than anything else, and don't serve any real purpose. Replace them with nice sized buttons for Importing media etc.
2. The tree/ toolbars could do with a few tweaks. I can get into the DSP Studio from here, or look through the plugins (Neither of which are things a first time user is IMHO likely to be doing), but I can't perform basic tasks such as importing media or setting up a CD-rip without going into the menus.
3. The Google search box is IMHO irrelavant for the start page. Nice for the right-click menu or links, but here it only serves to confuse.

Comments on Wizards etc-
When first started, MC needs to present a Wizard. This should guide a new user through importing thier media library and setting up MC's defaults (For example, should MC start in Theatre view or standard view). IMHO some of the main points to consider here-
1. What would the user like to import? Images, photos and videos should all be presented as options, and it should be made clear that MC can manage these in exactly the same way as music.
2. Is the user's music collection tagged to thier satisfaction, or should we lookup new tags from YADB?
3. Should we re-arrange the music collection into the appropriate artist/ album folders? Itunes etc. do this
4. Set up any folders that should be monitored for new files.

-Leezer-

[newsposter]

having lots of views would generally be a good thing, but NOT in the case of starting up and configuring MC for noobs.

[park]

All of leezer's advice is right on the money I think.

The most difficult stuff for me as i started out was going through all my music and tagging/getting cover art for it. This has largely been solved by yadb now which is good. But this feature should poke it's nose out to beginner users. Perhaps have areas (web pages) in MC which have related tools pooled together and advice in which order to use them. ie, it's better to tag all the music before looking for the cover art for it. Audio analysis can be done last when the user doesnt need to use the computer etc.

Next, syncing to portables was quite a stressful affair. This again has been made easier with the synch options now. But if there were an area dedicated to choosing what to synch and how to do it, that would be useful. Perhaps more useful than having to go into opitons to do it. Itunes way of synching the iphone is quite good.

Finally, without a doubt the biggest headache for me was getting videos to play properly. CCCP has helped with that, but people have to come to the forum to find out about it. Perhaps a video playback setup wizard would help. It could direct people to relavant codec download locations, recommended setup options, and grab data and cover art from the net and apply it to imported files.
As I suggested elsewhere, it would be cool if MC could also (with the users permission) automatically re-wrap any and all videos to a taggable container such as mkv. If this were totally transparent, so that the user never had to see it, then video organization and playback would almost be as easy as when importing music, and about as safe (library data kept inside the files would be insurance for when files get moved around outside of MC).

In summary, I like the web pages that greet you at each section of the tree, but as leezer says, they could be beefed up a lot to guide the user through the software and introduce tools and workflows.