Digard
VLC is a bit spartan compared to Kodi, and the latter is probably more suited as
a stand-in for regular TV watching. But I'm with you, I used both Kodi and VLC for
a while on my computer and tend to only use VLC now.
If VLC could -like Kodi- also collect the channel guide info from tvheadend, it
would compete even better. No mandatory need for it on a computer though, channel
guides can easily be found elsewhere on the web.
To slightly enhance VLC usability you could generate several channel playlists
as to your wishes, just by selectively enabling/disabling channels in tvheadend
and using the standard url as a base. Changing the default playlist and node name
into a more informational one is also easy, as playlists are editable text files.