Admittedly, the industry has been making some progress. New and improved on-screen channel guides have moved channel surfing light years ahead. Having a box which makes it easy to find stuff to watch, and easy to record stuff to watch later, well, that's a good idea. Just don't start talking about Internet access. Or home theater.
Home theater is, of course, an entirely different matter.
Whereas with Internet access you have something I don't want in my living room at all, with home theater you have something which I want too much. And where I need one heck of a lot more than the guy down the street who just uses his television to watch the news. There's a reason why component systems were popularized. It's called flexibility. When you buy a single gadget which purports to be all things to all people, you're stuck with what it considers to be adequate for all people.