I've got a Lutron IR dimmer at the rear of my living/home theater room. Normally, if I need to dim the lights from my remote, I have to either do my best to bounce the signal off my TV screen or simply turn around and point the remote at the dimmer itself.

Where would I find a simple, stand alone (battery powered would even be fine) IR repeater that I could set on my entertainment center, point my remote at it, and have it relay the IR signal to the back of the room?

-=Zzed=-

what kind of remote do you have?

Currently, I have a Pronto TSU2000, but I'm looking at replacing that with a Harmony 880 when they're readily available.

-=Zzed=-

maybe a mx850 with the mrf250 and aim the mrf's blaster towards the rear of the room - just a concept

My thoughts exactly.
It would also make your macro's completly consistant.
Especially the 'all off' command.
No more 'pointing the remote' until your macro has run it's course!

While I'm sure that would work, I'm not really in the mood to spend $350+ for that combo. In fact, I bet I could do what I want to do using a set of Powermids that are just set side by side, but I figured there was a much simpler solution.
Anyone?

-=Zzed=-

Aren't they $175? You can get an open box mx-800 for $300 with freight and have a better remote and a cleaner setup.

I have a mx-800 (NIB) I'll sell you for $250

everybody is always trying to save a buck, and it does nothing more that cost you more money in time and frustration...just do it right the first time and oil the hinges of tightly closed wallet.

my 02

Ok, so now I'm curious. What is it about using a Harmony 880 and an IR repeater (because I have one device in the back of the room) is considered doing things the "wrong way"?

I have no problem spending the extra money on something if it makes a significant difference. Heck, it took me quite a while to convince my wife that we needed to spend $200 on the Pronto versus just getting a cheapo all-for-one. It's going to get even more interesting when I tell her I now want to trade the Pronto for another remote. That's why there's a big difference (to me) between $170 for the 880 and $300 for the mx850 (which, if I'm not mistaken, doesn't include the mfr250, which is another $50). In this situation, where I don't really need the RF capability of the mx-850/mrf250 because I only have one device that has no line-of-sight, it seems that the costs would outweigh the benefits.

I'm sorry if I sound "huffy", but I just get a little frustrated when I ask a straightforward question and 7 posts later I'm no further along in knowing an answer. I know you all are trying to help, which I do appreciate, but I feel like we're going down the east fork of a river when I'd like to take the west, even if it seems like the long way…..

-=Zzed=-

fortunately youre a lot further than you were. my suggestion will work the best - i offered to sell you a remote. you cheapest solution will be to buy a dinky link, connecting block and hard wire an emmitter to the dimmers. sounds like a tough job to me though

I consider it doing things the wrong way if you have to abandon something that is working quite well except for one flaw in order to fix that flaw.

If you have the stomach for keeping Radio Shack receipts and arguing with the store manager about how they must replace the piece of crap they sold you, then you can get their equivalent of the "powermid" (google that, search for it on this site) remote extender and take it back for an exchange when and if it dies. I have seen several of them die.

It has an IR pickup which transmits and RF signal to its IR emitter. The IR emitter can go somewhere near the back of the room. Problem solved until this unit dies. Who knows? Maybe you will get one that will work forever.

Otherwise, the dinky link hard-wire idea is the best, but absolutely not what you asked.