In all seriousness. I've been able to use it.
My first few attempts resulted in crashes. It didn't give any error message, just disappeared, always after around 3-5 seconds of playback (during which, it was perfect). The videos opened in Display View (fullscreen-ish, though not true fullscreen on a Mac). I noticed before it crashed, I was able to see the player scrub bar UI if I moused over it normally. One thing worth mentioning, I had the Media Server startup option enabled. I had that turned on from when I answered the question the other night, but didn't intend to keep it on, but it happened to still be enabled when I tried. When it crashed, the Media Server icon would become non-responsive for 30-45 seconds (maybe a bit longer). But, it would eventually "unstick" and then I could quit out of it. I tried launching MC with it in this state (after unsticking) but nothing happened. After exiting from the Media Server, I was able to re-launch.
I tried both local files imported into a local database, and loading my regular home Library served by Windows. But...
Now I can play them, or at least, I've had more success. I was able to play and scrub through a bit, two files just now: an episode of BBC Horizon (720p H264 MKV) and another one of Homeland (same, I think, maybe 1080p), both using a local Library, played off of my SMB network volume (regular media drive on Windows). Previously, the Homeland one (same file) caused a crash, so it doesn't seem to be file related. The only thing I changed in between was disabling the Media Server option.
As far as playback experience goes: I noticed, when playback was working correctly (it didn't crash in a few seconds), I could NOT get the scrub-bar UI on mouse hoovering. It did the grayed-out thing I posted about in another thread. Also, when playing Homeland in Display View, I got into a state where it was playing fine, but I couldn't stop it. I couldn't get the UI at the top, so I couldn't stop it. And I tried double-clicking and ESC and neither would exit Display View. Using the right-click menu (which seemed very truncated) worked though.
I collected log ZIPs twice, but none of them actually list a crash. They should (at least one of the two definitely should contain one of these crashes), but there's nothing in there. I can post them if you want them.
Lastly, just some stuff you probably know or worth mentioning:
* Display View isn't fullscreen.
* The Toolbar in Display View isn't working for me on my Mini, in most cases.
* When it works, playback in Playing Now is quite good. I noticed an audio sync issue at the very beginning of playback once, but it corrected itself and didn't slip again.
All the same symptoms for me *except* - disabling / quitting Media Server does *not* resolve the problem for me. Any video plays approximately 3 seconds, then crashes. Nothing in the Media Center log showing an error, but here is the relevant extract from the Console:
10/30/14 8:53:42.542 AM Media Center 20[5941]: objc[5941]: Class JRCmdRelay is implemented in both /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Media Center 20 and /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libdsp_Main.dylib. One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
10/30/14 8:53:42.542 AM Media Center 20[5941]: objc[5941]: Class JRNSWindowDelegate is implemented in both /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Media Center 20 and /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libdsp_Main.dylib. One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
10/30/14 8:53:42.542 AM Media Center 20[5941]: objc[5941]: Class JRWebView is implemented in both /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Media Center 20 and /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libdsp_Main.dylib. One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
10/30/14 8:53:42.543 AM Media Center 20[5941]: objc[5941]: Class JRNSView is implemented in both /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Media Center 20 and /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libdsp_Main.dylib. One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
10/30/14 8:53:42.543 AM Media Center 20[5941]: objc[5941]: Class JRNSWindow is implemented in both /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Media Center 20 and /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libdsp_Main.dylib. One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
10/30/14 8:53:42.821 AM WindowServer[236]: Received display connect changed for display 0x4272dc2
10/30/14 8:53:42.839 AM WindowServer[236]: Found 30 modes for display 0x04272dc2 [30, 0]
10/30/14 8:53:42.854 AM WindowServer[236]: Received display connect changed for display 0x3f003f
10/30/14 8:53:42.854 AM WindowServer[236]: Found 1 modes for display 0x003f003f [1, 0]
10/30/14 8:53:42.854 AM WindowServer[236]: Received display connect changed for display 0x3f0040
10/30/14 8:53:42.854 AM WindowServer[236]: Found 1 modes for display 0x003f0040 [1, 0]
10/30/14 8:53:42.869 AM WindowServer[236]: CGXMuxAcknowledge: Posting glitchless acknowledge
10/30/14 8:53:42.904 AM WindowServer[236]: MPAccessSurfaceForDisplayDevice: Set up page flip mode on display 0x04272dc2 device: 0x7fe665004260 isBackBuffered: 1 numComp: 3 numDisp: 3
10/30/14 8:53:42.984 AM WindowServer[236]: Received display connect changed for display 0x4272dc2
10/30/14 8:53:42.984 AM WindowServer[236]: Found 1 modes for display 0x04272dc2 [1, 0]
10/30/14 8:53:43.421 AM Media Center 20[5941]: objc[5941]: Class JRCmdRelay is implemented in both /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Media Center 20 and /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libout_Main.dylib. One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
10/30/14 8:53:43.421 AM Media Center 20[5941]: objc[5941]: Class JRNSWindowDelegate is implemented in both /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Media Center 20 and /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libout_Main.dylib. One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
10/30/14 8:53:43.421 AM Media Center 20[5941]: objc[5941]: Class JRWebView is implemented in both /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Media Center 20 and /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libout_Main.dylib. One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
10/30/14 8:53:43.421 AM Media Center 20[5941]: objc[5941]: Class JRNSView is implemented in both /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Media Center 20 and /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libout_Main.dylib. One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
10/30/14 8:53:43.421 AM Media Center 20[5941]: objc[5941]: Class JRNSWindow is implemented in both /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Media Center 20 and /Applications/Media Center 20.app/Contents/MacOS/Plugins/libout_Main.dylib. One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
10/30/14 8:53:48.564 AM Media Center 20[5941]: *** Assertion failure in -[NSNextStepFrame lockFocus], /SourceCache/AppKit/AppKit-1343.14/AppKit.subproj/NSView.m:7573