Yeah, the Replay IR blaster (basically a little IR lamp with a sticky pad to let you glue it over the remote sensor on your cable box) works pretty well. I used one for years in Champaign, and the only problems were that the sticky pad didn't stay so sticky after a few moves and pack/unpack cycle and that having your Replay downstream of the cable box means you can't record one channel and watch another one live.

I switched to the TiVo when I moved because I got an HDTV, and it works great with the CableCards. I find the better interface of the TiVo worth it as compared to the DVR in the set-top box I originally had, and the CableCards make the whole thing seamless.