MythTV was chosen for TV playback. Yes, it was chosen JUST for TV playback, although it is basically complete HTPC solution. Unfortunately, not the one I liked, so I extracted from it just the best of it. MythTV is monolith application built around "menu concept" as all the others PVR software. Obviously, it lacked desired feature of simultaneous playback of different modules. Even besides that, I don't prefer monolith application design because sooner or later there pops out an application that is better for some kind of the job than equivalent MythTV's module and I want to be able to use that application rather than wait for the same functionality to be incorporated in Myth. For example, although nobody would say that Myth Music is a bad music player, XMMS 2 beats it already in functionality although it's still in beta.
Unfortunately, extracting just one part from Myth bundle had its consequences. Most notably, I was unable to prevent closing TV application when hitting Escape key (in Myth default setup, closing TV playback returns user to Math frontend and nobody among Myth developers even considered adding an option for disabling this feature). Since that key is necessary for menu navigation, I had to map it on my remote controller, but if I press it while not in menu but rather in TV playback, application shuts down without any confirmation. At some time (around 0.19 version of Myth, I think) I actually took Myth sources, patch them, recompiled and had the problem fixed, but I was too lazy to update Myth regularly from sources when preconfigured application is available in my repository so I switch back to stock version. And I still haven't solve the Escape-key problem :)
Initial setup of Myth is a bit of a job, but there is no reason to be afraid of it. As it is complete PVR solution, configuration is much more abstract than it should be if it was just a TV application, but official site has very good Wiki that explains almost everything from installation to watching your first episode of Simpsons.
