Mark,
Currently our Remote Protocol is only available for use by selected partners under an NDA.
We are however currently working on an alternative that will suit your needs, we do not have a firm release date at this point but it should be within the next 3-4 weeks.
Our "Remote API" will be available in XML or JSON and should provide everything you need to support remote programing including series recordings and favourites.
We are really excited about this new API and look forward to seeing what the developer community can do with it.
We are currently developing an all new widget that will be available on the Dashboard for OS X, Konfabulator and hopefully as a Vista Gadget. The new widget will be built on top of the Remote API, so we will be eating our own dogfood on this one

I'm sorry I can't give you any more details but the API is still under heavy development and the technical details may change before we release it.
Please be patient for just a little longer, I guarantee it will be worth the wait...
Cheers
Dan - IceTV Software Manager