Giving up on RF and going with an IR Repeater

LCD TV is wall mounted in the living room and all the equipment is located in a hall closet about 20' away.

I used a Harmony 890 for about 3 years. I thought it had a cheap feeling to it and buttons started failing after about 18 months (just remapped them to a button I didn't use). But, by far, my biggest complaint was the LAG you got between button press and command execution. And sometimes the remote would get "stuck" and refuse to do anything. Then after about 30-40 seconds, it would execute all the commands you pressed at once. ULTRA LAG.

When the Harmony kicked the bucket, I bought the URC RFS200 with RF20 RF module. Higher quality feel, despite being much cheaper. A little tougher to setup and unable to remap the buttons, but it works just as well day to day. And unfortunately... suffers from the exact same lag problems the Harmony did. Slow reaction to every button press, and the occasional ULTRA LAG problem.

So.... I'm done with it. The regular IR remotes work fast as heck and are super dependable in themselves. They just don't travel through walls. So, I'm thinking of running an IR extender through my walls and into my equipment closet. Thoughts on this? Recommendations on a specific one? I've heard of the Hot Link. How is it? How does it compare to all the $30-$40 setups I see online?

Huh. Never heard of it before this. I did some Googling and see that it's RF based. Not exactly the same design as a pure-RF remote, but still RF based. The RF signal then converts to IR which is blasted out to your components (same as all the others). So, I must admit, I'm a bit skeptical. However, there is over 1,000 positive reviews on Amazon for it (some complaints about compatibility). And it's only 40 bucks. So, I must admit, it's certainly got me interested. I'm just afraid I'm going to be disappointed FOR A THIRD TIME. The IR-repeater just seems like the end-all will work perfectly no matter what remote I'm using solution. I don't mind running the IR-repeater cables through my walls. The labor is WELL worth it if it works as advertised.

Any more input?

I think maybe you're right. It's cheap and a lot of people seem very pleased with it, while speaking specifically of the lack of the lag they got with other RF remotes.

The main remote it will be used in is the remote for my cable box. Which is a Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC.