Tivo has the wierd business model, give the nice hardware away free, and get people to pay $10 a month for TV Guide on the screen. TV guide info once was kind of hard to get, now its free half a dozen different ways, which makes Tivo look stupid.
OTOH nothing works as well as the boxes from Cable or Satellite providers, YET.
DVR is a wonderfull thing, and I expect consumers to love it once they try it, but DVR and Slingbox are going to cause some BIG changes.
Nothing running on a PC is really all that smooth, but I expect that to change too. Many shoes have yet to drop.