I've wished the same thing. But what I've found is that there are just so many variables to getting a good picture. Processor, video card, video card driver version, etc. I have a backend/frontend AMD system and a P4 Intel frontend only and things that worked on one to get a good picture didn't necessarily work on the other. For example, on the Frontend only, when I was using an earlier version of the nvidia driver, the tv output would only come up once it had loaded X. On the 9746 driver, I get a tv output as soon as the computer is turned on., so I get to monitor the whole boot process.
One thing I have found is that there can be significant differences in picture quality depending on which version of the Nvidia driver you use. I've had some that output a lousy picture w/ stuttering, etc and switched to a different version that was much better. But it seems to all depend on what hardware you are using. Personally I've had better luck with the later Nvidia drivers. Presently using 9746, which has worked well with both the 6600GT and 6200TC cards From my experience it seems that while some versions of the Nvidia drivers "fix" something, it may also break something else. You have to try several versions and see which works best with your hardware.
I had a situation where the backend/frontend played all my HD channels fine, but the frontend only machine stuttered on two channels, I went round and round trying to figure that out, turns out that for some reason the nvidia driver I was using would cause the xorg process to peg the processor at 100% when watching those two channels in LiveTV on the remote frontend. Switched to the newer driver and that problem disappeared and I have stutter-free performance on all HD channels now.
As I've found out over the past 6 months setting up my Myth system, it's a lot of trial an error.
