Remotes... I have couple more questions on non-line of sight

[itschris]

I'm discovering that the small windows in my BDI Avion cabinet are making reliable remote use an issue. I've messed with height of the shelves to no avail. The Pioneer Elite is especially affected.

So that brings me back to my previous questions on remotes. I've pretty much settled on either the Harmony One, 1000, or the Pronto TSU9200. I have to admit that I don't know a lot of IR vs RF, which one is better, etc. I just need to know what I need to make the remote, whichever one I get, actually work. I don't want to be worried if I'm pointing the remote just right because I've come to find my window of acessibility to my equipment is greatly narrowed by having my equipment in the cabinet.

I'm looking for new advice for the best solution for the issue. I know I can spend a $1000+ and have everything wonderful, but I'm looking for a more budget friendly solution. Thanks in advance.

 

[MDS]

IR will go through glass but a small amount is reflected back. If the remote you use doesn't have very strong emitters you may have issues like what you've encountered.

RemoteCentral tests remotes and they use a test they call the Menacing Thick Fluffy Blanket test where they block the remote with blankets and see how many blankets it takes before the signal no longer makes it to the equipment. The URC remotes have two very powerful emitters and score a 4 or 5 whereas many other remotes fail at 2 or 3 blankets. Mine will work even from 30 feet away standing in the kitchen.

If you use RF with emitters from the basestation directly attached to your equipment you wouldn't have any line of sight issues and the equipment could even be behind solid wood closed doors.

 

[itschris]

Okay... next question... and I'll preface it by letting you know I'm embarrassed to ask... where do these emitters plug into? I mean do I hook one up to my DVD, my receiver, CD player, etc? I know nothing about this despite looking at this stuff for sometime.

 

[MDS]

If the device has IR in (some receivers) you can plug the emitter from the RF basestation directly into that device; otherwise, you stick the emitter on the device in front of its IR sensor. You often don't have to actually affix the emitter directly on the device. You can sometimes get away with just getting it near the IR sensor, especially if all the equipment is in a cabinet.

 

[itschris]

The Elite 94 has IR input/output, but the manual makes it seem like it's a propriatary function for other Pioneer devices.

So if I get this:
http://www.pronto.philips.com/index.cfm?id=1620

with this:
http://www.pronto.philips.com/index.cfm?id=1618

I should have really good control. I won't have to worry about pointing the remote in the right direction so macro complete and all that... correct?

 

[MDS]

Yes, that combo will work. You just have to place the emitters on or at least near the equipment to be controlled. If the RF basestation can be placed in the same cabinet near the AV equipment you might not even need the emitters because it will flood the cabinet with IR.

 

[itschris]

As always, thanks for all the help. I'm looking at just under $500 for a solid solution. That's not horrible.

 

[jcPanny]

RF Remotes

The URC remotes offer the RF feature you need starting in the $100 price range for the remote and RF basestation and there are several options in the <$500 price range. I am using the RF30 and basestation on my system. The small touchscreen LCD works great and it lasts for months on a set of AAA batteries. The Harmony remotes with color LCD have to be docked for charging every 1-2 weeks.

In my experience, the Harmony remotes are easier setup via there web programming interface and the URC remotes offer more control. On the low end URC remotes like mine, you have to manually learn most of the commands.