I am in the process of building a home theater in my basement. I plan to have a reciever, dvd player, and comcast cable/dvr box in a closet that I would like to keep closed most of the time. I don't necessarily need lots of programming or a fancy screen - just looking for something that will work with the door closed. Because the components will be directly behind a closet door, I suppose I will have to use IR flashers unless someone has a great idea I haven't thought of.

As an aside, how do I get this to control my projector that will be ceiling mounted?

www.xantech.com for info on the flashers etc...

You will need:

Connecting block
Power supply
IR Reciever
IR Flashers

You can run some cat 5 to the projector location to the location where the connecting block will be located and attach a flasher to the cat 5 and place it on the projector.

Go with an MX 700 or so... for the remote. It has no fancy graphics and is relatively easy to program. With this set-up you dont need RF and with everything is hardwired, it will be most reliable. If it seems a bit over your head contact a company in your area, it shouldnt take them more than a few hours to complete this task.

I was planning to use Cat 5 cable for extending an IR emitter to a remote location just as you are describing, but I sent my proposed layout to the Xantech technical support department for them to check out and they told me not to use it. Instead, they recommended using 18 AWG cable, which is much thicker than 24 AWG Cat 5. Using 18 AWG, Xantech said that an emitter lead could be extended by up to 100 feet.

However, Xantech supports the use of 24 AWG cable (and thus Cat 5) for extending IR receiver leads by up to 200 feet.

This might seem like a silly question, but, why do you need to extend the emitter wires?

Run cat 5 from the reciever location, connect it to the emitter block, and plug the emitters into the block. The emitter leads are about 6' long and should reach all of your compnents.

Im assuming the projector is more than 6 feet away from the connecting block thus the use of cat 5 to extend.

You will be fine with the cat 5. If you want piece of mind just test it first

I just had a thought - if I place a mirror (or very shiny mirror like paper) on the inside of my closet door, will the blaster bounce off of that back to the components eliminating the need to use the emitters? Has anyone tried this? Do the blasters send out the IR signal in all directions so the mirror will hit components at different heights effectively?

Generaly, the projector is located whithin 'IR shot' of the sitting location. Depending on the proj., you shouldn't need an emitter on it.

Although, if you've ever used a Cannon projector for a conference room, you need an emitter! And cat 5 has always worked just fine!

steinre1

I would try it without the mirror first. It usually 'bounces' just fine without the reflective material. You'll be supprised! The only way to know is to try it.

Right. Since IR is light of a frequency we cannot see, we have no idea what different colored (that we can see) surfaces "look like" to IR. You will find IR reflection where you do not expect it. I have even see IR pass through two layers of blue painter's tape that I put over the sensor to block IR pickup for a noise test! But then, I don't know what "color" the tape is to IR.