Reliable and powerful wired infrared repeater?

I want to use a wired infrared repeater with my home theater system. The sensitivity of the various devices means that at any given time, one or two devices won't pick up what the remote is sending. Also, the TV set has a bezel around the IR sensor that means the TV won't see the infrared remote if it's very far off-center axis.

I tried this one:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/produc...=1&format=2

Its infrared reception and infrared output were very weak, meaning it was not sufficient for what I wanted. I wrote a review that's on that page now describing why it sucked.

In the past, I have used one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/X-10-POWERMID-Remote-Control-Extender/dp/B00023KG40

(Well, the Radio Shack-branded version of those), and it worked a lot better, however, it was susceptible to RF interference after a time. After leaving it up and running for a few days, it tended to get itself into a state where all it did was blink random IR noise back at itself, and then nothing would work until I unplugged it, effectively rebooting it.

Anyone have recommendations of other IR repeaters that they've used successfully? I'm considering this one:
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/remotes/accessories/devices/6347

Since it's a Harmony One remote that I want to amplify, I'm hoping that it would be compatible with that. Anyone have any experience with that one?

Xantech

Simple, faultless, come in plasma-resistant versions, etc.

I have a basic external receiver on a shelf, feeds to a small redistributor inside the cupboard, which relays to all the components inside the cupboard. Has run 24/7 for 3 years without a hitch.

Yeah, I second that. I've worked with several Xantech systems and they're great.

I like the tiny, sticky blasters from Xantech more than those bulky Logitech ones.

Xantech used here as well. Has worked well despite my getting the wrong type unit. if you have a plasma screen, get the unit intended for that use.

Plasma screens put out a horrible amount of ir noise and can swamp a repeater. Because i didn't pay attention, I had to locate the Rx about a foot above and 6" behind my plasma. Even in that location, when someone walks past the tv, they reflect enough ir that the blasters light up. I'll really need to get the correct Rx.

I too use a harmony remote. It was because the harmony had to be pointed directly at the plasmas ir port that I bought the repeater.

Edit: the only drawback, it adds another wall wart to the rat nest.

That's going to be a [minor] problem for any IR repeater. There may be some that don't use it, but those are probably ones that are run by another component in the system.

Excellent. Slightly concerned about price, and about finding a location I can get the product, since the web site has no prices, and I must look up a local dealer. But yes, that looks like the sort of thing I'm looking for. Web site isn't particularly clear from the top-level which set of products I need, but it seems I could suss it out with a little poking.

I agree the product spec / set isn't very intuitive; takes a bit of going through though I think there's a downloadable full catalogue somewhere which can be helpful.

Good selection of bits on ebay to give you a sense of the price ranges.

Looks like everyone else beat me to it. Xantech. Or Niles or a few other really similar products that are pretty much identical, also available from the usual sources.

For Xantech you should first go to their site and figure out what they offer. Then go to eBay.

Smarthome has most of their stuff, but you should be paying less. The stuff is esoteric and niche, but not expensive at all to manufacture, so you know the markup is astronomical.

I have two Xantech repeaters and a couple of barrel receivers for them which I'm using with setups around the house. I've also got RF to IR via the URC remote products which allows me to target individual IR outputs instead of blasting to all at once (like the Xantech simple repeaters do).

Check out Hometech.com for pricing, it's one of the places I bough Xantech parts back in 2010 for much less than elsewhere. Don't know how the prices are today. Then also smarthome.com. But you'll likely get the best deal on eBay.

You can avoid using a new wall wart by re-using an existing one if it has 12v output and current capacity to feed the multiple devices you'll split it to work with.

Tony, this is exactly what you'll need, though I leave it up to you which specific models of each to get:

1. Power supply 12v
2. Connecting block (this has connections for IR receiver and multiple blasters - different numbers of blasters and receivers supported with different models)
3. IR receiver (lots of variety here)
4. IR blasters x however many devices you want to attach to

Here are the parts I have, and where I can find/remember the amounts, what I paid:

Xantech 791-44 Amplified Connecting Block (with power supply) - $19.50
Xantech 789-44 kit (block, blasters, surface mount receiver + PS) - $24
Xantech Microlink Barrel receivers - $31.50ea

Wow, okay, that is a very reasonable set of prices. Definitely going to look into this.

With some additional blasters, that's two complete repeater systems I outlined above. The connecting blocks came from eBay and the barrel receivers came from Hometech.

I wanted the barrel connectors for flush-mount installation so I didn't even use the receiver that came with the kit. You might luck out and find similar prices on eBay. I'm pretty sure neither of the auctions was Buy It Now, but they didn't have much action on them so they were easy enough to win.

Just ordered one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0046WZ08U/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details

I chose to do Amazon instead of Ebay because I wanted the opportunity to return it if it didn't work well with my system. Since the prior infrared repeater didn't work for me, I didn't want to take any chances.

Shall report back soon with success or failure.

Okay, I'm really confused by that product listing. My initial impression was:

"It looks like it only has repeaters - where's the IR receiver? Wait, the product description makes it sound like all four of those things that look like repeaters are actually receivers. In that case, where's the repeater(s)?"

I checked out the primary customer review, and it seems to indicate that it does in fact come with one receiver and four repeaters (not sure if my terminology is accurate, but it's descriptive). I don't see the receiver in the photo, but that might be what's on the top-left.

Please let me know if I'm not the only person who's confused

In that pic the Rx is the upper left part. For some reason the pigtail is not shown.

Yeah, that's what I was left to assume. The #1 complaint I have about Amazon's website is the horrible photos. For computer stuff I still go to Newegg first to look at their normally above-par collection of photos.

The description is also poorly written, but the photo of the Rx is just bad. It just looks like a black stick.

I would have saved the almost $100 and just resold a $20 eBay purchase.

If I'd found something for $20.00, then yes, that would have been my route. But when I looked, the Ebay stuff had a bottom floor of $70.00 and went up into and past the Amazon new-retail range. So I figured, save the hassle, spend a few more bucks, and have the opportunity for an easy return, should I need it.

Damn, I should have sent you some links. When I posted the info about my parts, I found some for very reasonable prices. Not exactly what I paid, but very very low compared to MSRP. Though they didn't have the same blasters as the kit you bought (those are the newer really really tiny ones).

Success. Spectacularly happy with the unit. Works flawlessly and solves all the problems I was hoping it would solve. All components in my system now respond to the remote thanks to the IR blasters. Before this, I frequently needed to re-try the remote commands, or needed to hold the remote at a special angle and stretch to make sure all its signals were recieved. Now I can just be a lazy ass, barely lift the remote, and vaguely point it in the general direction of the TV, and everything just works.

The receiver puck is very unobtrusive. It's smaller than the pictures made it seem. The blasters are tiny and stick nicely to the components with the double-stick tape, their wires are thin and easy to hide/tuck. The 12-volt wall-wart adapter is one of the somewhat-more-convenient type, designed to take up less space on the power strip.

An unexpected pleasant surprise: Both the reciever, and all the blasters, have bright visible-red LED blink indicators which flash when there is IR traffic. This is exceptionally useful when setting up and testing the unit, you can see instantly if it's getting a signal from your remote. In my case, I had managed to run the wires for two of the blasters but forgot to plug them in. So I was able to see instantly what I had done wrong because two of the blasters didn't blink.

If I could change one thing about the unit, it would be this: The wires running to the blasters and the receiver have a little white stripe so that you can know the wiring polarity if you have to cut the connectors and wire by hand. This means that, for the short distance that the wires must run across the face of a component to reach its IR sensor, the wires are more visible than they otherwise would be running across the shiny black A/V components. For example, the IR blaster stuck to the IR sensor on the front of my TV, I can see the little wire running to it a bit more clearly than I would have if the wire were just pure black. Now, this thing's purpose was to actually *hide* the components, which I'm not doing, so that's kind of my fault.

Oh hey, I just realized I could hit the white stripe with a sharpie and solve that problem. Shall do that next, and then it will be perfect.

Thanks, everyone, for the recommendations!

IF you ever get home-sick about the poor IR repeating quality you once had, the Dinky Link receiver you got in your kit should have a small pot on it. Fiddle with it a bit and I'm sure you can cause it to start missing codes.

I got a Dinky Link as part of the similar kit I bought for just over $20 but I hadn't tried it out until just a couple of days ago, since I have been using the flush-mount bullet-type receivers. Well, whomever had it perviously definitely screwed around with that pot and its operation is totally inconsistent. Hopefully I can tune it up as I'd like to continue using it for testing.

Glad to hear it, Tony! Xantech really is the king of this product category as far as I can tell. I just wish they were a little less expensive on Amazon and that they had their products in brick and mortar so I could run out and pick one up for a client. It really seems that they're one of these home theater product companies that is used to selling to installers and not the end consumer. I'd like that model to die pretty quickly, please

I don't think Xantech is going to ever have stuff at Best Buy. They've always been installer-driven and I don't see that ever changing. There are a few other products out there just as good with less-known names.

I hope I can post pictures soon of my IR/control goodies in their final resting spots after the remodel and refit.

I just picked up some spools of LED strip lighting today and IR-addressable dimmers, which will also be controlled via remote/controller. With manual/macro commands *and* time-based events.