Damn,
I pooched my system and will have to reload.
I checked for mythconverg/sql errors/corruption - didn't have any.
Tried firewall, tried myth passwords reset, checked /etc/mythtv/mysql.txt.
Did dpkg --get-selections | grep myth to see what was installed. Did version checks, etc.
Tried Media Director, edit software modules to see if individual package was culprit.
Tried a bunch of other things.
Sorry.