South Africa
The first (few) times I installed MP I thought it was not what I was looking for. Because it seems like it could only be used for watching TV, playing general "videos" and "music" and "pictures".
I wanted something to simplify my experience when wanting to watch my huge collection of "Movies", "TV Series", "Music Videos", "Music Albums", "Photos".
I realised that I was missing something big, because there should be a reason why this project got so much attention. So I started reading through the forums and realised that I was missing the huge Plugins library, and that the original design team specifically left out "media specialization" for the plugin developers to fulfill. (Or they just pooled all their resources to getting the TV server running smoothly!)
My suggestion is to improve the installation wizard to allow me to select what I want to do with MP and then install the necessary plugins to allow that. But stick to "media specialization" like:
Not just video, but rather: "I want to watch my Movie collection", "I want to watch my TV Series collection", "I want to watch my Music Video collections" or "I want to watch my Family Home Videos".
Not just pictures, but rather: "I want to watch my Digital Photos", "I want to watch my Digital Art".
Not just music, but rather: "I want to listen to my Music collection".
Not just tv, but rather: "I want to watch TV".
Not just internet, but rather: "I want to browse the internet", "I want to browse Flickr Photos", "I want to listen to streaming audio", "I want to watch online videos", "I want to see the weather report".
And depending on what the user selects, install the correct plugin for that job.
I wanted something to simplify my experience when wanting to watch my huge collection of "Movies", "TV Series", "Music Videos", "Music Albums", "Photos".
I realised that I was missing something big, because there should be a reason why this project got so much attention. So I started reading through the forums and realised that I was missing the huge Plugins library, and that the original design team specifically left out "media specialization" for the plugin developers to fulfill. (Or they just pooled all their resources to getting the TV server running smoothly!)
My suggestion is to improve the installation wizard to allow me to select what I want to do with MP and then install the necessary plugins to allow that. But stick to "media specialization" like:
Not just video, but rather: "I want to watch my Movie collection", "I want to watch my TV Series collection", "I want to watch my Music Video collections" or "I want to watch my Family Home Videos".
Not just pictures, but rather: "I want to watch my Digital Photos", "I want to watch my Digital Art".
Not just music, but rather: "I want to listen to my Music collection".
Not just tv, but rather: "I want to watch TV".
Not just internet, but rather: "I want to browse the internet", "I want to browse Flickr Photos", "I want to listen to streaming audio", "I want to watch online videos", "I want to see the weather report".
And depending on what the user selects, install the correct plugin for that job.