Best cheap IR receiver for a universal remote?

[horseflesh]

Here's the deal. I have a Harmony remote and a Pronto remote--so I can emulate pretty much any IR remote, like the MCE one.

However, I do not have an IR receiver for my SageTV computer. (Well, I DO--but it's a Firefly Mini IR pod and I think it only works with that remote. And the Mini is no good for Sage as it doesn't have enough buttons, and some just don't seem to work anyway.)

So what's the best cheap way to get an IR receiver that will work with a variety of remotes? I can buy an MCE remote, but that seems wasteful since I don't need the remote itself. I can get the USB-UIRT, but it is $50 and I don't know if it works with MCE IR codes. The IRman is less, but it would take up my one serial port that I had other plans for.

Any ideas? Thanks!

[Opus4]

The USB-UIRT can be used as a receiver for almost any remote, plus SageTV can use it directly as a receiver and an IR blaster, if needed. You can assign any remote button to any command. I think it is the best in terms of versatility.

You can use the MCE receiver wth SageTV, but it isn't that easy to reassign the remote buttons to different commands. To use the buttons for any commands rather than what the MCE specs define, I believe you would have to use something like HIP or Girder to interact with the receiver. You could probably use those other programs if you want to use the MCE receiver's blaster capabilities.

- Andy

[brbjr]

Will USB-UIRT use the send command ... keys to sage.. so the sage window does not have to be active?

[naln]

(Well, I DO--but it's a Firefly Mini IR pod and I think it only works with that remote. And the Mini is no good for Sage as it doesn't have enough buttons, and some just don't seem to work anyway.)

>>> I am assuming that you have checked on the X10/firefly remote forums on support for additional IR info. I would recommend looking up the universal remote forums (JP1 groups) for a possible solution. I don't know much about the stuff- but I know this that you can "read" the IR commands being sent and play around with it- and learn it on your universal remote.

So what's the best cheap way to get an IR receiver that will work with a variety of remotes?

>>> I am currently using the old Keyspan USB IR remote sensors (cost about $25 on ebay). I do not use the card remote with it, but the remote receiver is able to work on different protocols. One of my friends figured out how to alter the IR receiver files(using the bundled software) to interpret signals from a Sony remote and programmed it. I am sure you will be able to find support for that- or program it yourself to some other remote if required. The software that comes with it is pretty good for this tinkering. I think it boils down to making your IR receiver "recognize" the different "protocols/ IDs"- which may depend on the configurability of the bundled/ homebrew softwares.

This makes me wonder again that your best option is to tinker with your firefly IR pod- to try and use a remote protocol recognized by it. If I am not mistaken, the firefly remotes were very popular not too long ago.