I was lucky enough to get a DVR back in 2001, and I’ve enjoyed a largely commercial-free television experience since then. But I’ve always known my ad-free days are numbered. On the one hand, there’s the Web, where pre-rolls, interstitials and sponsored ad banners are pretty common. On the other hand there are DVRs themselves, and the encroaching interests of content owners who are looking for ways to disable recording features to preserve their revenue streams.

The eagerly anticipated (by some) Motorola and Cisco SDV tuning adapters have just been blessed by CableLabs. Originally promised in Q2, there’s still no telling when you’ll actually be able to pick one up and at what cost: