And by the time any new features that require more than a firmware upgrade become "must-haves", players will have become so cheap that buying a new one will not really be an issue (except to that certain type of Luddite crank who is still using the rabbit ears on his 1967 Magnavox black-and-white TV and sees no reason to upgrade...)
What would be the reason to upgrade when you only have farmer vision available? This luddite can buy a "old" HD large screen TV for around $99 these days and be happy renting the odd movie now and then for the next 20 years.
As far as TV reception goes, the six or so free channels I get with rabbit ears has the same content of reruns, ET, Hollywierdo "news" that those with 300 channels (of the same crap) cable service have, but I don't spend all that money on monthy cable fee's and keeping up with the latest gadgetry.
Of course, if you live in the city the TV set becomes much more important, it's too dangerous to go outdoors in the evening after work, and all that expensive TV equipment needs to be guarded. It makes life in city apartment prisons more bearable I would imagine, and from the governments perspective the boob tube keeps people off the streets, making policing less expensive. The more obsessed people get with their "entertaqinment" pacifiers the better, and now people can hook up their Wii and get exersized as well, all without leaving their cells.
The B&E artists don't bother with my old magnavox (color) TV, power rabbit ears and $29 dvd player I bought at walmart. They prefer to skip the house altogether and break into the garage to go after more worthwhile things like my snowmobiles riding mowers and quads.