very Remote IR Woes

[Mark Kirkby]

Hello All

I have an unusual dilemma. I have my Tivo and Sky box downstairs in the living room but also a TV upstairs in the bedroom. Until recently I had a cheap IR extender system that used RF to transmit IR signals from the bedroom to the Tivo in the living room and a A/V sender using RF to transmit the video from the Tivo back up to the TV in the bedroom. Common setup & all worked fine.

However, the IR and AV senders have recently died so I bought one of these Philips AV senders:-
http://www.atlantic2u.com/store/viewproduct.asp?idproduct=5700

Now it sends video just fine and if I use the blaster on the front of the SBCVL1400, I can control the Tivo with the remote from the bedroom; but when the Tivo tries to use its blaster,the sky box gets multiple signals so the channel will not change correctly. (Not sure why but multiple blasters can't be good)

What I can't figure out is the following:- The SBCVL1400 also comes with an IR wand which when fitted to the front of the Tivo, allows everything to work just fine from upstairs. Unfortunately it prevents the Tivo from detecting the true IR signal from the Tivo remote when you are in the same room! Has anyone experienced this before and know of a work around?

I did think of using the first setup with the SBCVL1400 blaster and the Tivo IR wand but I've had my tivo for over 6 years & I can't for the life in me find the original IR wand now. Does anyone know somewhere that might sell a replacement so I can give that setup a go?

Thanks
Mark

[AMc]

In the past people have posted that this is down to interference on the power supplies of the video senders. Take a look at the units through a camera phone/digital camera/videocamera which will show invisible IR as white.
If the LED is flickering then you might want to look at adding ferrite rings (maplin etc.) to the DC power supply wires for the video sender.

Tivo Customer services used to send out replacement wands so you could give them a call.

[Mark Kirkby]

Thanks for this, I'll give it a try.

In the meantime I have had results of sorts by taking the transmitter section of the SBCVL1400 and instead of putting it on top of the tivo and sky box, turning it round and putting it in front of the sets, pointing in the other direction. Ok it looks nasty but it means that the Tivo can still use it's blaster without interference.

[ghstone]

Mark, correct me if I've got this wrong, but you are using a remote IR sender to control the TIVO, and the IR blaster from the Tivo to control the SKY box.

I have read somewhere that if there is any IR 'noise' in the vicinity TIVO stops responding until it gets a clear signal, it seems reasonable that the SKY box would also do this, so the problem is compounded - you send a signal to the TIVO which interferes with the signal it tries to send to the SKY box and vice versa.

So, why not replace the IR Blaster from TIVO to SKY Box with an RF2Link ?

This connects to the IR out on the back of the TIVO converting the IR signal to RF and sends it into the second RF CoAx connector ion the back of the SKY Box. These are much more reliable than the IR blaster because nothing interferes with them, and they give a much neater solution as all the wires go around the back.

you can get them from www.pacelink.co.uk, or on ebay - about £15 the last time I bought one.

Graham