There's also tons of Blu-Ray players with built in streaming capabilities as well that would help justify the cost of investing in a new device.

I don't know about other posters, but the reason I want everything to run through my Linux HTPC is because of the level of integration I can achieve with my custom UI, or with something like XBMC. I don't want to have a semi-reliable system with multiple boxes, IR blasters, etc. when I should be able to integrate everything I want into a single box, with the features, speed, low latency, and UI that I prefer.

Interesting -- I didn't know they were that cheap. (BTW the cheapest one is $60 + shipping).