The two difficult things in setting up a TV recording applications are;
1. Scanning all channels from all sources (OTA, Cable, SAT) and getting them into the software so that channel changes and watching TV is possible.
2. Sourcing and getting an EPG into the system to enable viewing of the guide, changing channels based on the guide, and selecting programs to record.
The value add then comes from;
3. Series recording, with series link type functionality, rather than just searching by program name, which may be inconsistent in the EPG data. Adding information about the program and storing it as metadata for use in searches, image lookups, and other value added functionality. Search for programs by actor, director, genre, year, format, unwatched, season and episode, etc. Make suggestions based on viewing habits. Take it one level higher, with Xbox like functionality recognise who is sitting in front of the TV and customise the experience for them!
The first item is hard, and a moving target, because of all the different hardware, connection and control methods (set top boxes, USB tuners, satellite, IPTV, internet viewing based on sites, etc.), but at least there are standards for all of that. Well, if the hardware follows them!
The second item is and always will be a can of worms. Different countries, regions, laws, the standards are limited and there is a lot of proprietary stuff used to add functionality. The XMLTV standard is amazingly simple, and limited, while still being flexible. I think we should expect EPG to be difficult for some people in some regions, always. After all, most of the EPG solutions outside America until recently have not been strictly legal as they scraped data from web sites, violating copyright. People were only able to get away with it because it was technically difficult, required ongoing effort, and hence a relatively small number of people did it, compared to the suffering majority.
The third item is where a product differentiates itself.
WMC was really easy to set up, for OTA channels, in North America.
Yet still there have been whole ecosystems of forums, blogs, magazines and books written on how to do it. Not to mention there have been more than a few people who made a living out of doing it for other people. Don't underestimate the work it takes to set up any TV application, or expect to make it a breeze for people who have trouble using a toaster.
Actually I should note that I found MC just as easy to set up initially as WMC. It just didn't have certain functionality, like colour coded programs in the Guide, sorting of channels in the Guide, and so on. In both cases I had to search elsewhere for an EPG solution, and had a learning curve to get the EPG working. WMC plus IceTV worked quite well and wasn't too hard. Neither was as difficult as getting an EPG into my Topfield TF6000PVRt, which required the use of a local solution called TEDS Suite on a laptop sitting next to my PVR and communicating with the PVR via FTP over USB. The USB was an improvement over my initial solution using the completely dodgy TF6000PVRt wireless adapter, with TEDS Suite on my main PC. The program cost a few dollars a year, but the data was free . . . because it was scraped from web sites, violating copyright, and the author would have been in big trouble if he charged for it.
adlelare, for WMC you forget the hoops M$ has us canadians jump through 
That is nirvana compared to what Microsoft does for us Australians, which is nothing. No EPG is provided at all. Never has been. On top of that, our broadcasters took the only commercial EPG provider (IceTV) available for end users to court, multiple times to prevent them from sharing a program guide electronically. They lost, won, and finally lost as they went up through the court system, and finally gave up. Now they compete by providing a seven day EPG OTA, which isn't perfect but isn't too bad.
Since you are rethinking TV setup from the ground up it would be worth considering integrating EPG collector. It is open source with the source code available. The dev is happy for anyone to do whatever with it.
EPG Collector is a great solution for Australia and New Zealand, and many other places. It is what I use to collect the OTA EPG mentioned above, and it does it very well. But because of its heritage it is quite a technical application, and has a bit of a learning curve. That is because it supports such a broad range of EPG data sources (OTA, Cable, SAT) from around the globe. But it doesn't support every location, to my understanding. It is great that it is free and is well supported. It is better yet that it uses free data, and is 100% legal.
I wouldn't integrate it, but would get the source and work out what it is doing, and then build the functionality in MC as a module. Just one of the options for getting EPG into MC. Which is similar to the current design. Combine that EPG gathering with the internet based Metadata Lookup to find Season and Episode numbers, and possibly go further to collect "Program ID" and use it for series recording, instead of using a simple full or partial name search, would see MC start to compete with some of the proprietary solutions, such as IceTV here in Australia.
In fact IceTV has a lot of value added services build around its EPG, including "never miss a recording" type functions, series link recordings, mobile device TV Guide and setting of recordings remotely, recommended programs and so on. It has an API which the PVR manufacturers use to get IceTV into their machines. It also has an App to push EPG data and recording instructions into WMC. One option in Australia would be to use that API to build a module in MC to import IceTV EPG plus all the value added functions. I did ask IceTV some time ago if they would be interested in working with JRiver, but I didn't get a response. They were focused on their new PVR and management changes. They may be interested now.
Anyway, another long missive. Don't forget to look at
Argus TV as they were supposed to be the up and coming TV solution. I quick look last night was a bit disappointing though.
Oh, and please don't put aside recent short term improvement requests in favour of establishing the long term view and goal. There are two more that will make my personal EPG experience a whole lot better:
[EPG] MC Kills my external EPG data collector[EPG] Importing xmltv_ns format Season and Episode numbers correctlyFinally, I'm not sure how I can help. My WMC experience was short, and now mostly forgotten. I do still have it, but it is on the MC HTPC and running it again may be problematic. If you were to start a list of ideas about required functionality I could probably contribute, or critique.
