IR receiver has 4 wires, what are they for?

I have a DirecTv box in room A and a hdtv with mutlti-channel receiver in room B. I also have a cat 5 cable running from room A to room B for the function of IR control to change channels on the DirecTv. I purchased an IR receiver and cut the plug off and exposed 4 wires. (red, white, yellow and black). I assumed 2 were for powering the IR receiver and 2 were for the IR flasher, but when I hooked them up I received no power on the receiver unit, and the function of the unit did not work either. Am I mistaken on how a IR receiver works? Using a multi-meter tester I was able to separate the colors of the wires to there relative position on the phono plug (tip, ring, sleeve etc.) but that doesn't answer what wire provides what function.

Thanks,
Ryan

I'm not using a IR router box. I guess I thought if I cut the wire took two leads and spliced them into a 12vDC plug and the other 2 to a single flasher I'd be okay. I'm using the 2nd DirecTv box for 3 different zones with B&K CK1.2 keypads routing the IR information locally. In this room, I also have a URC remote so I didn't want to use RF and add a 2nd remote, but thanks for suggesting that.

So I guess what I need to know is what does the IR router box do that cutting and splicing wires doesn't? I was able to find literature and the wires are 12v, gnd, status, ir out. I connected 12v and gnd to the 12vDc plug. The other two I connected to the IR flasher with IR out being the tip+ and status being ring. This actually made the flasher flash faint red when sending commands (proficient brand (they do this, but usually not faint)) but it's not working.

Thanks for your help!
Ryan

Thanks for the response, in simple terms there was nothing I could have done that would have worked. I'll buy the router box at this point. Thanks to everyone who contributed.