Well, back from my long slog in Africa/France, so hopefully be able to make a few entries here now and then. Here something just to get the ball rolling...

Found a neat trick, on the remote control that comes with the Time-Warner DVR box (or at least the one they issue in the Houston area) there's no commercial skip button like on the TiVo. So you have to fast forward through the adds. So the trick is if you press the fast forward button more than once it speeds up, so now my only problem is stopping it quick enough to not miss the end of the adverts.