Controlling Fibernet TV boxes

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Hi all,

We are currently getting fibernet installed in our house which will allow for TV over Fibernet and video on demand.
Until now I have had a typical cableTV installation where controlling of channels was done simply by SageTV manipulating the Tuner through WinXP.

The problem I am facing is how the channel shifting is going to function in the future. As I read in this forum, there have over the years been a lot of talk of IR-blaster, hereby replicating a remotecontrol change of the channels. Some of these posts go almost 5 years back - a long time in this world...
I have also read about many people saying this is not 100% reliable, and from time to time being a great pain to get to function properly.

I am therefore wondering if there is any other solutions one should look for when selecting box and the supplier of the FiberTV?

Has there still not been established a common standard for PC-box manipulation of channels?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

Regards

Stephen