Share via

IR Extenders

  • Article

Barry asked me how my components worked inside of the new stereo cabinet. I started to post a comment, but decided it warranted a full post.

In our old house, my old Sony receiver sat about 5' off of the floor behind glass doors. Unfortunately, if you held a remote at couch level, it wouldn't work.

This is true of the other Sony equipment that I have - it is both less sensitive to IR and has a more narrow cone of sensitivity.

So, I need a solution, and settled on components from Xantech. There's a small receiver that sits where it can see the remote, a connecting block, and then an emitter that sticks to the IR window on the component. That solved the original problem.

In this house, I upgraded the system. I have a receiver upstairs that is wired into a new connecting block, emitters on all the components and one that runs back to the computer in the office at the other end of the house, and 1/4" receiver that is in the shelf that's above the TV. The receivers need 3 wire cable that runs back to the connecting block, and the emitters only need two wires. IR signals are low frequency and low power, so they aren't picky about the kind of wire you run them on.

I really like the Xantech stuff - it's well made, and with the exception of a few wiring problems on my side, has performed flawlessly. It's not cheap, however. The receivers run anywhere from $40 to about $100, the connecting blocks run from $10 to around $50, and emitters are $5 - $10 each.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 22, 2005
    Just a comment.

    For those "small time" home theater hobbiest (me being one), you can also purchase a remote that uses radio frequency to transmit to a base that will repeat using the emitters that you mention. I personally use the Home Theater Master MX800, works great. My equipment is behind solid doors in another part of the room, and I didn't have to wire to the conneting block from the receiver.

  • Anonymous
    April 26, 2005
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 30, 2009
    PingBack from http://outdoorceilingfansite.info/story.php?id=4990

  • Anonymous
    May 31, 2009
    PingBack from http://woodtvstand.info/story.php?id=2869