The cablecos deserve everything they get. For decades they've abused the fact they control distribution of television programs to charge whatever they pleased, hike prices without warning, and force the customer to take channels and programs they never use. Now that there's alternatives coming out for their customers, they're struggling to compete.
Combined with a cable box? Why do I even need one? What do I need 300 channels for? Why should I be forced to get a cable box for the few channels I do want, or to have HD cable? All it's doing is descrambling what they're already sending you. An HTPC or most of these xTV devices already can have hard drives and DVR functions, as well as accept HD feeds. There would be no actual need for a cable box if the cablecos would give up their greed and just descramble their programming.