Developer CIR access?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm looking at platform for a universal TV remote control and wondered if it were possible, as a developer, to access the CIR capability of the Loox 720s infra red port? Is it simply a matter of accessing the consumer infra red the same way as for the irda? What extra does the CIR capability give? Range? CIR frequencies? Any built in functionality available to developers?
Thanks to anyone who can answer these q's!
cheers,
Ben