Hi Daniel, welcome to the forums.
I would definitely recommend you go for a Technomate 1300mhz range of receivers - they are pretty fast and do a great job
Regarding the image - most people on these forums are advocates of OpenVix images - that's the one I used when I joint- and it is very easy to use.. Crashes are rare; but in the unlikely event of a crash - reinstalling the image is easy - just plug in a USB and reboot your STB.
7-day epg is available on the openvix images and in my opinion one of the best EPGs available.
Streaming is a great tool - and there are a number of mobile apps and a web application that will allow you to stream to other devices at home.
I'm new here myself - so hopefully some of the more tenured members can validate what I've said. They are all a friendly bunch and happy to help where needed.