Looks like a dvd recorder for me...
Well I'm one one of the people who've 'modified their box' It was 'modified' because the orginal 40Gb disk failed. Two years back I had the option, do I pay Sky £65 for a refurb box and wait for an engineer to fit it, or spend half that on a new disk and pop it in myself. Guess which option I choose.
The box has worked fine, better infact than with the original disk for the past 2 years. Far better in than my parents Amstrad Sky+ which was fitted earlier this year and has several crappy issues.
I don't want some rubbish refurb, I'd be quite happy back with the software that has worked perfectly for the past two years.