I have both Tivo and ReplayTV right now, and yes, commercial skip can be annoying on certain shows. It skips scenes occasionally on Law and Order (trademark fade to black throws it off) and I missed the climax on The Lost World (until I disabled it and rewound). On most shows on most channels, it gets 90+% with no errors, but there are a few that it cannot handle.

I'll admit that I am somewhat subjective. I think consensus is generally that TiVo is ahead on scheduling; ReplayTV cannot distinguish First-Run shows, has no To-Do list, seemingly random priorities, etc, but all of these limitations can be worked around with the advanced features for an even better result than the TiVo if you want to put enough work into it (I don't). As far as networking, it would be hard to argue that TiVo is ahead. TiVo is generally acknowledged as having better audio quality on lowest quality, while ReplayTV has better video quality on comparable settings.

I'd say that both products are comparable, as far as price right now, ReplayTV is much more bang for your buck. I think most people would be happy with either, but if Sonicblue delivers on their next software release, the ReplayTV may pull ahead.

-Biscuits