I'm using tvheadend with openelec. I've used all the existing front end and backends available, and IMHO MP is the easiest to set up, especially regarding tuning stations and favourites.
Tvheadend is surely a great piece of software, but setup is really awful. It needs several hours to make it up and running.
Have to say that openelec + tvheadend, once configured, are really wonderful.
Bye,
sdf
Also there were loads of important functions that were not available, particularly favourites. I couldn't get it to work well at all and had duplicate channels all over the place!
If it do not keep recordings on the server, then it is only a "computer network tv tuner" aka tuner farm.
I love that all my recordings is on the server, so all my clients can give me my shows.
TVE do this so does mythtv and the same did SageTV (and sageTV had a extender
TVHeadend is superb! I really like the build in Code Word Client. I tested it long time ago and was impressed but still PVR in XBMC is crap compared to MePo, imho