If you can’t skip them, turn them down

For those not yet fast-forwarding past the BMW ad with the screaming child, here’s another option: tone down the little bugger with the Audiovox/Terk VR-1. The product apparently lowers the volume during blaring commercial breaks by (to hazard a guess) reacting to the change in the vertical blanking interval when an ad comes on. The MSNBC reviewer is not clear on whether the VR-1 works or not; perhaps his methodology should have included noting specific commercials that are actually broadcast too loudly over a particular station, then measuring the decibels emitted.