Beginner - Remote from Different Room

I'm new to the remote world so far too, but from what I have learned on this forum in my research you would want something like the Harmony 890 with RF extender, which i think you can get bundled together from Amazon.com right now for around $150. Anyone agree? Hope that helps...

yes, you need a rf remote, or an ir repeater...

do you already have an existing universal remote? if so, you may be able to use something like this little doodad...

HERE'S another good RF remote for a fraction of the price of a harmony.

You can probably get by just fine without feedback. A decent universal can manage what's on and what sources are active, so you don't usually have to worry about it. You just push the button that does your macro/activity and all your devices go to the right states. And you usually get some visual feedback on the active inputs on your tv anyway. You'll have to elaborate on exactly what you're after. If you really need feedback on the remote, you're looking at a lot more money than harmony. If you're willing to drop at least a grand and possibly much more, post back for some more recommendations on the high-end stuff.

Didn't you get one of those (URC RF10) ccotenj? How's it working out?

yup, i did. and they fulfilled the order FAST (2 days from order until it arrived on my doorstep.

unfortunately, i can't comment on it yet, since my "setup outdoor speakers on their own avr" project got temporarily delayed by the "setup second tv room" project (which ended up getting a h1 of it's own, since my wife found one dirt cheap on craigslist)... plus the weather hasn't exactly been cooperative...

i'm hoping to get it done within the next month... the tv project is just about done (only gotta pull wire for the surrounds), so i should be able to get to it soon...

all that being said, i'm expecting that it will work out well...

Link doesn't work, but I'm assuming you were talking about THIS. Yes, it works great. I've been using it for a few years and control my stuff from anywhere in the house. In order to use it, you have to have a remote that takes normal batteries (Harmony 880, for example, won't work because it uses a proprietary rechargeable battery). Additionally, I believe it comes with a sensor to control one device, so if you have more than that (which the OP does), you'll also need something like THIS, which will allow you to control up to 6 devices.

oops... should know better than to post on avs and conference call at the same time...

yea, that's the one...

if the op doesn't already have a universal remote that will work with the nextgen, he/she might as well get the urc remote that mdavej linked to...

If you're happy with your DirecTV remote, you can continue using it just fine with the extender. But a good universal will make life much easier. If you have to push a dozen buttons to get set up to watch a DVD today, you could do all that with a single button press on a decent universal. If you're planning to get a new universal anyway, it would be better to get an RF one and not bother with the next-gen to minimize the hassle of dealing with its rechargeable battery, IMO. If you do get the next-gen, make sure whatever universal you get uses AA or AAA batteries. The 550 does, so you're ok there, but some other models don't.

Since the extender base also blasts IR everywhere, you could place it line-of-sight with all your devices and not bother plugging in the tether at all, or simply hide it anywhere you like and use the tethers instead. You could also do a combination of the two, using the tether in your cabinet and placing the base line of sight with whatever else the tether can't reach, like a projector located behind you, for example.

Here's another option. Your DirecTV remote may be RF already (it will have an FCC sticker on the back if it is), so you could use it in RF mode with your DVR and get by with the next-gen with just the 3-eye tether for your other devices. Even one eye can hit several devices if you put it in the right place.

When we recently remodeled our house, we did the same thing (ie, put all of the electronic equipment in a seperate room which adjoins the room where the tv is).

We used a professional installer and wound up with a Philips Pronto remote, which does both rf and infrared. The Pronto remote uses radio frequency to control all of the devices in the adjoining room and infrared to control the tv. We like the remote, as it operates all of the equipment. We don't like that we have to pay someone to prorgam (and re-program) it.

We also installed an infrared repeater in the living room (where the tv is). That way we can still use all of the various remote controls which came with our electronic equipment, if necessary. Our Philips Pronto can access almost all of the various features of the individual remote controls, but not all. On rare occassion, I like to use one of the other remotes. Also, when the Philips doesn't seem to be working properly, its nice to be able to to use the original remotes.

Love this forum. Tons of good information for us newbies.

One question about extending your A/V equipment in a different room.

I get the IF repeater stuff, but what do you do about all of your video cables? Do you need to just get really long video cables? Or is there a way to plug them into a controller with a really long cable?

brettsinn,

We used really long cables. Since we were remodeling and were ripping out the wallboartd and ceiling anyway, we just put the new cables behind the new wallboard. From our receiver, we ran an HDMI cable, a composite video cable, and a component video cable. We also ran a couple of cat 5 cables while we were at it. We didn't know what, if anything, we would use them for. We also ran a nylon parachute cord between the tv and the electronic components rack in case we wanted to add additional cables at a later date (tie the cord to another cable and pull it through). We installed some kind of flexible, 4" tubing in the ceilinlg that all of the cables run through.

As I recall, we ended up using one of the cat 5 cables for the infrared repeater. We used the other cat 5 cable to attach a webcam to our computer (the computer is located in the adjoining room with all of the other home entertainment system electronic components). We have a webcam on the fireplace mantle, just below the tv. That way we can display the webcam image of whoever we are chatting with on the (52") tv screen above our fireplace. Much bigger, nicer, and more comfortable than sitting in front of a computer screen. The distance between the computer and the tv screen was greater than 16 feet, so we used a USB-to-cat 5 converter thingie which allowed the cat 5 cable to be used as a USB cable.

In retrospect, I don't think it was really necessary to run the component and composite video cables. All we use is the HDMI cable, but that is what we did.

Its a nice setup. We ended up with an Escient Fireball, a new computer, a Sony PS3, a Sony receiver, a Sonxy XBR4 tv, a dvr from the cable company, a turntable, and a computer all integrated together and operated by a universal remote control. We really like it.

One other thing we did was to place a small, 1.5" diameter hole in the wall between the computer room and the living room (wherre the tv is). On the compter room side, the hole is immediately behind the the compnent rack. We put it there just in case we wanted to run a cable, say for playing a PS3 game, between the living room and the computer room. The hole has a nice, removable plastic cap on it. So far, we haven't ran a cable between the two rooms. The bluetooth signal from PS3 controllers penetrates the wall just fine.