I've been in this industry for many years.. there are a bunch of people throwing software onto a hushpc. They come and go every year.

The consumer marketplace for infrastructure hardware is fickle indeed.. the customers who could actually hook everything up with your box often fall into the 'experimenter' market.. they are putting their own boxes together.

The 'enthusiast' market for these devices is pretty good, but often it's like the 'audiophile' market in the 80's. No matter what you sell, it's never good enough. So even though they are willing to pay a premium, it only takes a couple of them with a ground hum problem to eat up all of your profits in technical support.

The 'rich guy' market is tough to access. They are happy with the DVR from their cable company.

But whatever market you get into you need fat margins on the hardware to have a chance of making it.