MCE in Catford,
I have just read your page as a person that used to use Windows MCE for years before switching to the Linux side:
1. your XDA's will work fine with Wifi and that alone should sell your mates - sit on the sofa load up a playlist, turn on follow me then change the orbiter room on the XDA and hear the media switch - nice (yet another of Tom's videos explains this)
2. Selecting sort by album in LMCE will show you the album covers as it does in WMCE, LMCE gives you the advantage of going to the first letter of the album name directly and gives you more items per screen than WMCE. Other than that there is no difference. As thom said I suggest you watch his video.
3. Adding a track to the playlist (Queue it up) is a feature that is missing from LMCE and has been talked about here many times. I too hope this will get sorted at some point (and wish I had the ability to do it myself)
After watching a couple of Thom's video's I decided it would improve my understanding and usability if I watched them all - break out the popcorn.
On an alternate but very topical subject I believe the videos should be featured on the new LMCE website or a video tutorial section on the Wiki.
4.