The issues I see with all of what you are asking for are very real. This is something I have complained about for about half a decade now, and the solution is not coming as far as I can tell.
First, Blu-ray Discs, while easy to rip, are still looking for solutions that don't allow them to be copied easily. Most are easy, some are not, and studios are working to keep them 'not' easy.
I have been using Dune players for my collection of 300+ BDs and 300+ DVDs along with a couple thousand TVs episodes stored on (currently) 20+ TB of RAID storage. I know that my setup runs in the upper levels of what most have. I use exclusively BD and DVD ISO rips for my movie content, and the Dune players properly show menus for both. But, with a lot of caveats which bug me to no end. Still, I think their 5+ year old design remains one of the best on the market, which is just stupid.
My dream?
While I like the HTPC concept, it does require a lot of technical knowledge.
Instead, the stand alone, dedicated player like Popcorn Hour and Dune really make a lot of sense, but they need serious upgrades.
First, their hardware for playback of BDs is weak. Lousy in fact. An extra $100 in faster processing, buffering, memory, etc. would be a good start. $200 would be more realistic, and something I would certainly pay for if it delivered. What they have now does not match up to a HTPC, or even AppleTV in terms of performance.
They offer a number of video wall user interfaces. You get your cover art and the rest, and it looks good, and is reasonably fast. But, the cover art must be loaded using programs you run on a PC and load manually. It is time consuming, and a bit confusing to use. It is non-intuitive, and doesn't guide you at all.
Finally, storage is something that I must setup entirely on my own and then build pathways for. This requires a fair bit of research and considering I just want movies on those drives, it is ridiculously cumbersome for any 'average' person to go through.
My dream?
A stand alone playback device. One that can just plug into the network anywhere in your home. You may have a 'top tier' model and then 'zone' models which aren't as fully featured, and perhaps a bit slower. These players are easily configured by using internal software to name them and get setup on your network locally to the devices, or have software which can go out from a central PC location to identify them and allow you full keyboard/web interfacing to set them up.
Movie scanning/loading. A central database stores all covers, metadata, etc. which is then copied out to the players. One main player controls the scheduling of when this database is updated, and the players can be scheduled as a group, or individually to update their local database. While a nice concept to maintain this across a network, the constant changing of images would drag the local players down so store a few thousand images locally, and information locally for quick access, but pull from a centralized storage system (or the main player).
Movie wall art should be skinnable to a different look with plenty of updates out there as users like.
Loading/Ripping can be done from a main PC if desired with good software. The software rips any non-HDCP movie to ISO format or can rip to other formats such as MKV (movie only), and MP4 or similar as desired automatically. Drop a disc in, while the ripping software is open, and it puts the movie where you tell it to. The key is 'where you tell it to'. So, if you have a RAID for DVDs, a different one for TV shows, and several for BDs, then it puts them in the appropriate drive. If you have a place to store your portable videos (MP4) then those go in that location. Options for folder storage at a initial storage level should be supported as well. ie: Movies: a, Movies: b, etc.
Dedicated ripper: A device can be sold my the manufacturer which only has one purpose which is to rip movies. Stick a movie in, it gets ripped (as you have set it up to) and then ejects the disc. Basically it is a 19" wide PC with a TV level interface. Consumers will need to load any disc decryption software on their own, this is the ONLY external level interaction any consumer should need with the ripping devices/software.
Storage: This one I consider a biggie. Storage can be cumbersome to understand. There are many RAID devices out there, their reliability is all over the place, and their support is as well. RAID 5 makes sense for many, but ease of use should come first. Just have a RAID device which is standard 19" wide and can be stacked and is relatively quiet in operation. Gbit interfaced, and plug and play ready. You buy it with 2-4 drives installed in it. Have a few models out there which can handle more/less drives as appropriate, but all with the same plug and play ease. You plug it in to the home network and power, then the main player in your home comes up with a menu to allow you to name the RAID and give it some options that are straightforward. Such as it being the 'default' storage location with 'default' folder structure. If you buy it with two, 2TB drives, then you can hot-swap upgrade it with as many drives as the unit supports.
This makes it all plug-n-play easy.
Kaleidescape is, by far, the best movie player on the market which comes closest to giving a user experience of this level, but it is really pricey.
It seems like this type of product really could change the market, but ripping software is still pretty weak, and none of these products have come together in a manner which allows ease of use to really hit a home run as an integrated media player solution.
XBMC caters to many formats other than BD ISO files, which is tough and doesn't deal with ripping, storage, or much else. It's a limited functionality player which is cool, but lacking in areas which the geek heavy end-users fail to understand is a missing feature.
I'm ready for something new... any day now...
