I think it would be a better a idea to improve existing products in terms of UI:
- MC needs extended functionality to allow custom skins to perform more complex tasks and change the UI more drastically. There are amazing skins for Kodi, Plex & Co, but for MC are no good theater view skins because of this reason.
- MC needs support for cover art for arbitrary tags. So one could add cover art for genres, media types, keywords, etc. Also benefits the item above.
- Change the threshold for when a thumbnail instead of the original image is used when displaying covers:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=95795.msg659930#msg659930- Better automatic scaling in standard and cover view, when resizing the MC window. The horizontal and vertical space between covers should stay constant. The covers should get bigger until one more cover can be inserted, when making the window bigger. The covers should get smaller until one cover can be removed, when making the window smaller. So when I set the cover art to a specific size, they can actually be a little bit bigger/smaller depending on the spacing option and the window size. This way, the cover view would look good at every size and wouldn't need adjustment after resizing.
- The 3d-Views both in standard and theater view need a big overhaul. Their performance is horrible low and they definitely need some antialiasing. Do these views even use OpenGL/Direct3D? According to the performance, they feel more like software rendering.
- Most of the default skins look like as if they are stuck in 2000. I currently use the Modern Cards skin, which is one of the only modern looking skins that are available.
- A better music visualization software. I think the integration of milkdrop 2 seems to be a good idea.
- In JRemote while scrolling through albums, covers should be loaded before appearing on the screen and kept be in the cache:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=97626.msg674184#msg674184- The Website needs a redesign as well. If you do a Google image search with "JRiver Media Center" most of the pictures show the standard view with lots of covers. That's the kind of eyecandy people want to see. It triggers their collecting mania. The JRiver Website has 2 images showing some covers. After looking at all pictures on the website, I wouldn't have any idea how MC looks, if I had never used it.
The presentation of products like Plex or Emby are much better. Since the website is the place where new potential customers decide if they buy the application, it should be as visually appealing as it can be.
All in all I think a new application is the last thing MC needs. There are lots of legacy parts in the MC UI that need treatment. I would recommend to hire a designer. With a new website, a better presentation and more appealing skins, this will pay off faster than you think.
Edit: I just forgot that there is a Web Interface as well. I'm not sure if it is necessary, since there should be applications for all major platforms, but if you want it to have a future it needs an UI update too.
I also recommened to do this UI refurbishment thing better sooner than later. In the moment the market for these kind of applications is growing fast. New users are much easier to capture than users that have already settled with Kodi, Plex & Co.
In the Kickstarte campaign forum thread I've read:
If it doesn't get funded, we'll do something else.
It seems like that it won't get funded. But this isn't a bad thing. It is an opportunity to start a big UI refurbishment.