I think that there are a lot of really good ideas like this one. A lot of satellite and cable t.v. watchers have set-top boxes that are not being used to their full advantage. Skinning the listing interface is a great idea. Thinking about commercialization problems plaguing TiVo's and other DVR's, allowing companies to buy advertising spots or develop their own skins would likely attract a lot of attention.

However, as I mentioned above, there are a lot of great ideas. Getting TiVo or other DVR manufacturers to listen is a lot harder then coming up with the idea.

I'm for it. Though, beyond skins, I wouldn't mind some visuals. Say the option of view shows while getting the latest news and weather reports as a ticker on the bottom (instead of having to watch the news itself - because you're curious about the stock prices while you're watching Oprah).

Also, the music channels offered on DirectTV have no good visuals - no ambient trance lightshows and what not.

I also wouldn't mind customizeable menus, though I doubt this would fly (as people can't even program their own blinky timers). Still, I recall when cable had an awful layout to which I preferred DirectTVs. I wouldn't have minded cable (costs were the same) but that interface killed me.

Case mods aren't a bad idea, though the idea usually is to hide most equipment as such or make them small or integrated. Maybe if all systems could be transfered into a box that had similar uniformity.