I'm a little sad to say that after using MythTV for almost 7 years
(using KM most of that time), I've switched to SageTV. Both the
SageTV backend and frontend are running Linux, and I still maintain a
KM box that I set up for some friends, so I haven't completely gone
over to the dark side.
The main reason I've switched is the continued lack of a decent
(small, silent, low-power) MythTV frontend that can compete with boxes
like the SageTV HD200 [http://www.sagetv.com/hd_theater.html]. I've
spent the last two years waiting for some DLNA or uPnP STB to step up
and fill the gap, but it never happened (and I've my doubts that it
ever will).
Over the years I've run three different combined FE/BE setups and one
split FE/BE setup. The combined FE/BE setups were all too big, too
hot, and too loud. It also seemed like a waste to keep a FE/BE
machine on 24/7 when I had a different machine that was on 24/7. I
know I probably could have set up the FE/BE machine to sleep when it
wasn't busy, but that never sounded like a very easy task.
The closest I came to a good frontend was a Mac mini with a wireless
keyboard. The tab on that ran to nearly $500, and there were kinks I
never did work out (DVI output, boot-time, slightly jerky HD decoding).
AFAICT, putting together a good, HD-capable "Myth set-top-box" for
under $200 is still impossible, so I finally gave up waiting and
plunked down my $179 for an HD200 and $79 for a SageTV license. So
far I'm pretty impressed. Everything pretty much "just worked" and
playback of ATSC recordings is noticeably smoother than on either of my
HD MythTV setups. And while the HD200 does a perfect job of decoding
ATSC recordings, it never even gets warm to the touch.
The SageTV UI has some quirks, but MythTV had more than its share of
issues in that department. A few things that I like about SageTV when
compared to MythTV:
* Good frontend set-top-box.
* No need for Qt or X11 on the backend machine.
* Web interface that's easier to use (and easier to install/setup).
* Scriptable in Python
* Plugins written in Java instead of C++
* Plain text configuration files.
* No subscription fees for schedule info
Some drawbacks to SageTV when compared to MythTV
* Memory intensive
* Closed source
* No built in commercial flagging (external Windows-only helper
required)
Oh, and the SageTV weather screens work.
That's something I haven't
found to be true for MythTV for several years.
Since I'm still maintaining somebody else's KM box, I'll be keeping an
eye on the forum -- so if somebody does start to sell a good Myth
frontend I'd still like to hear about it.