If it's been awhile since you wrestled with MythTV, you might want to give it another try. The .22 series was far easier to setup and use than the previous versions. I'll admit it's no picnic, especially if you run it as I do - a headless backend server and a separate frontend. Makes for some challenging configuration sometimes. But if you can run a unified system it's not that difficult to set up anymore.
If you just want to see it in action, or find out if your hardware will work with Myth, try one of the many prebuilt myth systems - KnoppMyth, Mythbuntu, or MythDora.
Also, the .23 release is about ready (RC2 was out last week) which may improve things further.