OK I had an idea and was wondering if it will work. What if I get an RF remote and reciever and plug it up to my existing lights? The IR signals sent from my universal remote shouldn’t interfere with the light’s reciever than, right? I can get only the reciever than hook it up to the lights that I’ve already installed.
That would probably be the best way to do it actually. Directly plugging the lights and TV, effectively abandoning actual IR use, would certainly take care of any possible interference.
Might be time to step it up to something like a Harmony Elite which is a great control for the money, BUT if you want to guarantee good results, I'm a big fan of RTI (ProControl if you need something more affordable),but many people choose to use URC, Control4, etc. All are pro install solutions, but I really like going all IP and RS-232 when possible. Maybe that's all overkill for what you're going for, but either way I do believe you're on the right track with your logic of going the way of an RF remote/receiver setup.
EDIT: If the receiver transmits the same IR codes as before, and it's your LED lights that share that code, something like a Harmony Hub could land you in the same predicament since it just blasts out whatever command is being inputted out of both IR ports at the same time. That's where something like an RTI processor comes in handy since you can designate what IR port is being used for what purpose. If you don't need/want a fancier control solution, then you honestly may be cheapest off going with a different brand of backlights as suggested above that uses IT'S OWN set of proper IR codes. Haha.