Much like it is with DBS receivers, that will come down to the ability to handle the volume of guide data and that mostly comes down to RAM with a smattering of CPU horsepower.
It would be nice if things always came out in the consumer's favor, but with modern electronics having such a short longevity due to feature creep (especially looking down the barrel of a transition to compression >AVCHD), lifetimes will get shorter. Then there's the downside of large scale integration (LSI) where the manufacturer has substantial control over how long repair parts are available.
Understand that, having worked in the industry for 40 years now. My company just got burned on a lifetime buy of what turned out to be counterfeit microprocessors. Now scrambling to deal with a fast redesign because we can't build the old box.
It is no different than changing RF modulation technology, video format or some other critical input data format. This goes back to the buggy whip argument where at a point, there where no horses pulling carriages anymore and hence nothing left to whip with your buggy whip.
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