New to HTPC and building first one. Need advice!

We have a HTPC, but we kept the cable. The HTPC contains a four-tuner Ceton card, as well as a pair of 3TB hard drives for media storage. It uses Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics, and no discreted graphics card. (I started out with one, but pulled it to keep power consumption and heat in the small case down.) It also has a Blu-ray player.

Because it has a tuner, the HTPC replaces a number of other components in our entertainment center. We got rid of the CD changer, the cable box, and the Blu-ray/DVD player.

Picture quality and access to/storage of media is great, but there are some drawbacks.

1. Wife is not a fan of computers. She wants to just push a button and have something work, and I can't say that I blame her!
2. Display can be a problem. Even with a 42" TV, it's hard to read type in windows, menus, and web sites from the couch across the room. And you DO need to work with the computer, as a computer, now and then...you can't do everything from within Windows Media Center.
3. Control can be a problem. I mostly use a small Logitech DiNovo handheld keyboard, and I also have a Galaxy Tab set up with apps to control the system as a "universal remote". However, both of these devices have some frustrations.
4. All media center applications suck. At least the ones I have tried (Plex, and Windows Media Center, and PowerDVD 13) Setting up libraries is clumsy and time consuming, and even when set up, changes are not always incorporated for some time.
5. All media player applications suck. This is more the fault of the myriad of video formats out there, as well as the copy protection media mafias. Ripping a DVD or a Blu-ray movie to your hard drive for later instant access can be a time consuming process, and may involve a lot of trial and error before you find a format that your players will handle, and that doesn't produce issues like no audio, audio played back in the wrong language, unwanted subtitles, no subtitles, or playback errors/freezes.
6. It's a computer. Computers crash. I have to re-boot ours every other week or so. I don't think our cable box went down more than once a year, and when it did, it recovered itself automatically.

So, think carefully before you jump in!