Rudy81 Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 I have been using a remote extender in my HT for just over a year now and thought I'd make a note of a good piece of gear I just installed. I had previously gone the cheapest route on an IR extender. Needless to say, you get what you pay for. I have had a few issues in that time with the extender failing to properly relay the command, requiring me to press the buttons again. This issue became a big problem when I purchased an Oppo BD player. For some reason, the extender had a very difficult time with the Oppo IR interface or the commands to that unit....it was driving me crazy. I did some research on a good system that was designed to carry the signal a long distance. After reading good reviews, I decided to buy the Microsmith Hot Link XL. Less than $100 on Beach Audio, delivered. I have found this to be an excellent product. Has thus far worked flawlessly right out of the box. Very nice, compact design with the ability to extend the IR signal up to 200 feet away via Cat5 cable. You can also choose to extend the IR eye via Coax, and I tried both methods. However, with a 30' high quality coax extension, it worked, but the signal was weaker at the control box. I then tried the Cat5 extension and there seems to be no loss of singnal at all with a 60' Cat5 cable installed. Just figured I'd throw this up in case anyone is in need of a good IR extender that is reasonably priced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akdave Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Nice review! I tried to get by with a cheaper unit years ago and after much frustration I adopted a new motto: "Buy it right, buy it once". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 I'll also add that, while slightly more expensive, Logitech's Harmony 900 is a superb product - a vast library of product compatibility and absolutely no lag when sending RF commands to the IR blaster 25 feet away in a closet. There are definitely many ways to attack the problem and we are in a good era to be a HT geek. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 I adopted a new motto: "Buy it right, buy it once". I seem to keep learning that lesson. Slowly but surely I think its taking root. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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