Reading through the thread it's clear people want the ATV to be all things. However, some expectations are more realistic than others:
Tuner - The sheer problem of making a different ATV for every different TV/cable system means this won't happen. More likely is Apple opening a port to allow 3rd party manufacturers (such as elgato) to produce add-ins with this function (so Apple doesn't have to get involved when they go wrong).
Blu-Ray - It's all down to the accountants here. Putting in a DVD drive makes no sense as everyone already has a DVD player so it's BluRay or nothing. Adding Blu Ray would immediately see an increase in the number of boxes sold and probably a slow increase in content sold as people try out the downloads. But this would take time and loose rental sales in the short term. It's not impossible (imagine if iPods lost the ability to play MP3s when the iTunes store sold AAC/MP4)
Processor - I don't know why people want atoms or other intel chips - this isn't a computer, it's a media player. ARM chips are smaller, dissipate less heat and use less power than the laptop parts and if it's true that the new ARMs can playback 1080p content, then putting two of these chips in (for future codecs, programmable openCL-type stuff and running a built-in version of itunes and decoding) would probably use much less power than the current setup. The reduction in space would probably allow a bigger hard drive too...
Storage - This one is up in the air. Obviously putting in a 400-500GB drive would make people happier, but then it would simply move the roadblock a bit. There NEEDS to be some kind of server. Since the ATV and AEBS/TC are always on anyway it makes sense to use them to serve out videos, music, photos etc to macs, iphones etc. However, in order to hold a household's full library it's going to need a minimum of 500GB storage at which point the ATV starts to look a bit small. Apple could go to a stackable design or allow swappable drives, but I don't think that's practical (look how hard it is to change a mac mini drive). So I think there will be a storage bump to 120/160GB and 500 GB. It's not enough for a lot of people, but it's a start.
Software - The main way around the storage problem is the software. At the moment you can stream content from a computer running itunes, but as has been pointed out that means having a computer on 24/7 and hoping no one needs to move the computer if it's a laptop. As I've pointed out above, trying to fit complete libraries onto the device isn't easy, but if the processor gets a boost and some more ram, why not have an optimsed "server" version of itunes running ong the Apple TV - thus you can link to network drives etc and the ATV will work without a computer/itunes combination...because it IS the "computer/tunes" combination. The authorisation could be as simple as writing a code to a text file on the drive as is done with the current itunes/ATV on-screen code and it would save a lot of hassle. It could even mean that an ATV "Core" with no hard drive (just buffering space) could be released for people that just want to stream - simply specify a network drive (on NAS, Airdisk or computer share) and all purchased content is stored in that location for streaming back later. All rented content is stored in the 16GB or so flash. Also, to complement the airtunes functionality, how about being able to stream videos from ATV to ATV for homes with more than one?
Subscriptions - Will come once the deals with the content providers are sorted.
Power - With a power sipping ARM setup, hopefully the power useage will go down. Also I hope there's an option to specify an auto sleep timeout (ie, if just sitting on a menu with no music for 10 mins, go to sleep).
Content - is king. More selection, earlier rental windows and multiple languages/commentary/subtitles. There's the outside chance (and it's very outside) that Apple could figure out a way to "replicate" a DVD experience by including bonus features that are either downloaded on the fly (eg trailers) or can be (if chosen) with the film. Widgets are more likely than Apps - no HULU or additional codecs cos that's not how Apple works. Simple games are possible, but would need an iphone/ipod as a bluetooth controller (wifi is too laggy) and the increased resolution compared to the portables' screens mean simple graphics.
In Summary, Apple haven't announced to us what they want AppleTV to be. It didn't work as an itunes extender. It's had more luck as that plus a rental box, but they haven't openly said where it's going. They've hinted at it's use as a means to playback your own films (by adding multiple language/subtitle support which hasn't been used by itunes films), a media server by adding airtunes functionality and even eeked more power out of it (and I still believe we've got as far as we can with the current hardware).
I'm sure this is coming, but probably not all at once and Sod's lawy says we simply get a storage bump, but those Crofton/7300Go/40GB ATA drives must be starting to get rare/expensive.
TV. It's a failure aka hobby just like that boombox they released years ago. they should either add the functionality to the AEBS or Time Capsule as a bonus or just scrap it completely.
