I can't claim to have hacked on MythTV or XBMC, but I certainly used them back then, and worked on television set-top box software for much of the ~2001-2017 ti

I can't claim to have hacked on MythTV or XBMC, but I certainly used them back then, and worked on television set-top box software for much of the ~2001-2017 time frame. As a systems programmer for these devices, I'm afraid I don't have much insight into high-level details like content licensing. However, as a developer of commercial products in those days, I can say that our hands were tied in some ways. For example, showing the electronic program guide as a grid was problematic due to patents owned by TV Guide. I suspect the grassroots projects were able to play a bit more fast and loose with these things, thus leading to the UI differences you observed.