I agree that a service based recording system would be desirable. I use a v-stream xpert dvb-t pci card. The software that comes with it is not very friendly for setting up recording. The EPG doesn't work, and set-up of the recording requires knowledge of the channel numbers which cannot be reassigned to anything memorable by the user. MP is a vast improvement - even my wife will be able to use it.
However, one advantage that the v-stream software has over MP is that once set up it will start recording even if the front-end program isn't running. It even brings the PC out of hibernate mode to record, and then drops it back into it again when its finished. I don't keep my PC on 24/7 and running MP all the time the pc is in use would just be a waste of resources.
I don't know how specific to my card the recording module is, but it seems to me that it would almost be trivial to use MP as the front end to set the data up for the v-stream recording module to use.
However, one advantage that the v-stream software has over MP is that once set up it will start recording even if the front-end program isn't running. It even brings the PC out of hibernate mode to record, and then drops it back into it again when its finished. I don't keep my PC on 24/7 and running MP all the time the pc is in use would just be a waste of resources.
I don't know how specific to my card the recording module is, but it seems to me that it would almost be trivial to use MP as the front end to set the data up for the v-stream recording module to use.