How IR Repeater Systems Work

[admin]

An IR repeater system takes Infrared (IR) light coming from your remote controller and converts it to an electrical signal that can be easily distributed over electrical wiring to one or more IR remote controllable components. How this can help improve your system and allow you more flexibility in multi-room applications is something we'll attempt to answer and explain.

Discuss "How IR Repeater Systems Work" here. Read the article.

 

[Bryce_H]

Good overview. When I was constructing my dedicated HT in my basement I knew I need a repeater system (my components are in a closet in the back of the room behind a solid core door). I ran 4-22 wire to all the locations I would ever want to control equipment and then built the target into my center speaker stand. That way I point my remote toward the screen and the signal gets repeated to the component closet, the lutron light controller by the door and the projector on the ceiling. I went with a Buffalo Electronics setup in my basement. I have 1 target (IR-350), 2 IR-100 receivers (they can be run in parallel) due to the number of components being controlled, one power supply (DV-9 500) and numerous repeaters (IR-E1). For the repeaters, I spliced in the 4-22 wire for extra long runs to components (i.e. from the receiver to the lutron light controller and the projector). All told the following are controlled by the IR repeater system:
Denon 3805
Sony PS3 (thru Blu-wave)
Dish Network HD DVR (VIP 722)
Impact Acoustics HDMI switcher
Lutron Dimmer
Epson Projector

System works great.

 

[tsteves]

Bryce, thanks for the kind words. Sounds like a nice setup! How do you like the Blu-wave? I'm considering that $50 pop.
My biggest "Duh" realization with this stuff is when I realized dual sided clear tape was fine for re sticking IR bugs. Available in most Home Improvement stores.

 

[Bryce_H]

The blu-wave has worked great, even with the repeater system. Oh course you still need to get up to turn it on and off, but I do that when I put the disk in and out - so no big deal.

 

[tsteves]

So no on/off with the remote with the bluwave? How functional is the remote with the ps3 interface?
Sorry, I should "search", but I was out of town on the west coast last week and am behind on news as well as basic functionality.

 

[Bryce_H]

nope - no on/off with the blu-wave, but as I said not a big deal for me as I need to put in the disc (so that's when I turn it on) and take it out when I'm done (which is when I turn it off). Given I rent from netflix, I never leave a movie in the PS3 and it is so quick to boot that I do not need to wait to put the disc in after I turn it on.

Note sure your reference to the $50 - it is $10-20 at most retailers. I really just bought it for the USB receiver as I downloaded all the codes into my Harmony universal remote.

 

[liamk]

I tried a couple of infrared repeater kits before settling on this one. It uses the Buffalo parts too, but they bundle shielded cable and a ceramic coated filter that *really* blocked the interference I was getting from the TV backlight, while only reducing the range a little bit.

Infrared Repeater Kit

Components:
Panasonic Plasma TH58PZ800U
Motorola Cable HD Box
Sony PS3
Onkyo TX-NR717
Logitech Harmony Adaptor for Playstation
Harmony Smart Hub for iOS
Apple TV

I also have an HDMI splitter so I send my Cable HDMI Out to the Onkyo and also to a second TV where I daisy chained a second infrared receiver. I control the one cable box from two rooms.

We don't really watch different Cable TV content so I save myself $20.00 per month on an extra cable box.

Liam