Next Generation Remote Control Extender
by Next Generation
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List Price: Our Price: $39.54 You Save: $25.41 (39%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Speakers See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Next Generation Remote Control Extender
Customer Review: It works well with my Time Warner Box (i.e. Scientific Atlantic HD DVR)
Summary: 5 Stars
This review addresses some of the issues brought up in other reviews:
I hesitated to buy this since others who had Time Warner Cable Boxes had compatability issues, but decided to take a chance. It took me only a few minutes to hook up (I am not a tech person, but did benefit from the tips given in some of these reviews). It is working fine even though I have one of the Time Warner Cable HD DVRs(Scientific Atlantic Explorer 8300HDC to be specific). It appears that Next Generation (or maybe time warner in the case of the cable/dvr) has more recently fixed some of the issues others brought up in older reviews:
-The directions must have been updated because they were fine. Each part was clearly labled, directions were concise, illustrations were included.,
-Directions did indicate that with some cable boxes, you might have to switch the position of the switch on the bottom of the transmitter (UFO guy) to the "A" postition to get it to work. This is something I DID have to do given the cable box I use.
-Directions do mention that you "may sometimes need to adjust the position of the RF transmitter inside your remote for better RF performance". That's a little vague, but was enough to remind me that others had mentioned that if it doesn't work you might have to switch the transmitter/battery into a different battery position within the remote control . As it turned out it wasn't an issue for me.
-The battery charger has a big sticker warning people not to put their own batteries in the charger slot(a mistake other reviewers made in the past back when the instructions were unclear).
The downside: because I had to switch the position on the Receiver to the "A" slot, It won't work with my DVD player or other equipment (I believe-I haven't tried yet). That's OK for me because the price is cheap enough that if I want to, I can buy another transmitter (I'd get the other frequency) for the rest of my equipment.
I just wanted to get something that would allow my remote to work on the cable box which is enclosed in a cabinet. It's a bonus that the range of remote has now been greatly extended. I can change channels from the far end of my kitchen which is 40 feet away.
By the way, I first went to Best Buy looking for something that would allow my remote to work even though the cable box is in a cabinet. They said they didn't have anything (she was unclear whether they discontinued products that would address this or whether they were out of stock). I went to a television/audio specialist store that had equipment that ranged from $300-$900 and required wiring and installation. This Next Generation product is CLEARLY a better option for me.
We did just receive it, though, so I can't attest to it's durability. I will come back if it breaks or stops working in the next few months and amend the review. Even if it just lasts a year, given the price and ease of installation, it would be worth it for me.
Customer Review: Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
I just plugged this little guy in, so I can't comment on the battery life, but since it comes with a 2nd battery that stays charged in the base unit, I imagine it will not be an issue. But as far as first impressions:
I hid my simple components (cable box and DVD) in a cabinet to the side of my fireplace after mounting a plasma over the fireplace. Problem was, I had to open the cabinet to watch TV because of the IR remotes. The guy who installed the TV (that is a whole other story...pick your AV guy carefully or better yet, do it yourself) tried to sell me a $300+ dollar, complex, RF remote system. While I'm sure that system is great for a true video nut, my need was simple: watch cable with the cabinet closed.
Enter the Next Generation Extender. You charge the two batteries in the base for 36 hours, then put one of them in your remote. Next, place the "flying saucer" base where it can "see" your IR sensors, and plug it in. Works like a charm, and as simple as anything I've seen.
The unit comes with a little eye you can tape to the IR sensor if you put the flying saucer behind the component, but I had enough room in my cabinet to set it right in front of the cable box and DVD player, so I didn't even need that part.
I am amazed and thrilled with this little gem, especially after listening to all the head-spinning, complex, expensive solutions the AV guys tried to pitch me.
UPDATE November 23, 2009: After almost 2 months, I've had to swap the battery one time. Pretty impressive. And since they are rechargeable and there is a spare, it takes about 30 seconds and I was back in business. This remains one of the most useful, simplest electronic products I've ever owned.
UPDATE April 16, 2010: I still haven't had to swap the battery yet. It's been 5 months. And when I do, the newly charged one is just waiting. I am so impressed with this little product I put a 2nd one in my basement.
YET ANOTHER UPDATE, August 9, 2010: DO NOT BUY TWO!! Okay, I still love this device, but you can't use two of them at the same time, even in different rooms. I have a TV in the basement pretty far from the one where the original unit was installed, and if both TV's are being used, the remotes change channels on both TV's at the same time. For example, I was watching a baseball game in the basement, and when my kids upstairs changed channels, it changed the channel on my TV too. The RF works too well....it goes through walls and everything else.
FINAL UPDATE, February 11, 2011. The little guy still works great, can't believe how long the batteries last; but I've got a problem now. Someone else in my neighborhood must have one too, because every so often the TV just starts changing channels. I unplug the extender and it stops; so the device is clearly picking up a radio signal from something. Kind of frustrating, but it doesn't happen all the time, and for the money you can't beat it.
Customer Review: Versatile and functional
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this RF-based remote extender for a friend who had hidden all his AV components in a closet, which meant that in order to watch TV you had to open his closet doors wide and point all the remotes at a weird angle to activate the components. Since this effectively defeated the purpose of hiding everything in the closet in the first place, I offered to do some research and find a solution. It amazes me how expensive and complex the IR repeater setups are -- hundreds of dollars and you end up having another receiver box to mount to the TV/wall.
This little product is much simpler, insanely cheaper, and, amazingly, works the way I expected. The setup took about 10 minutes -- the only decision I had to make was which remote control would get the transmitter -- fortunately, one of the remotes had the ability to control most of the various components. Since the UFO-shaped emitter needed to reach all the components in a small closet, I positioned it on the middle rack of the component shelving, facing the closet door so that when the door was closed, the infrared signal from the UFO would bounce off the door and reflect back to the sensors in each component. This seems to work well, although I haven't tried any other configurations to see if it matters. Anyway, the point is that I can control everything from about 12 feet away (haven't tested the limits of the range yet), there's no need to point the remote in any particular direction, and there's no visible hardware outside the closet to mar the clean HDTV-on-wall setup.
I don't pretend to understand the physics of how this all works -- somehow the little battery-shaped transmitter must interpret the way the remote control pulses are elecrically reflected in the battery usage, and translate those pulses into an RF signal that then gets retranslated back into an IR signal. That's 4 transitions -- remote to battery, battery to RF, RF to receiver/emitter, and emitter to IR. Hard to believe that it actually works at all -- seems more like voodoo than technology at some point, but it does work on all the components I've tried, including a Comcast digital cable box and Denon AV receiver. The TV itself still receives the IR signal direct from the remote, since it is not in the closet.
The only regret is that you can only use a single remote control with the initial setup. It's possible to buy an extra transmitter to use with a second remote, but it's expensive enough that it's almost worth just buying a whole extra system instead. This is what I will recommend to my friend if he wants to add remotes to the system.
Anyway, I realize all this has pretty much been said in the previous reviews, so I'm writing this review mostly to add my voice to the majority of people who have had positive experiences with this product. It's a bargain, and it works as advertised. Good design.
Customer Review: Worked perfectly right out of the box
Summary: 5 Stars
Allow me to add another 5-star review on top of the othr 500+.
When our house was built 6 years ago, we went with a high-end solution for whole-house video distribuiton that allowed any device to be controlled from any room. That ($3000+) system used ChannelPlus technology that passed IR signals through coxial cable. Recently, the IR capability had degraded to the point where it barely worked. For less than cost of replacing the defective IR units, I decided to try the NextGeneration product, and was instantly sold.
We have a small media closet that is centrally located on the first floor of our house. In that closet are two TIVO boxes that are distributed across the house. The previous technology we used for IR had us taping the IR blasters directly to the front of the TIVO units. When I tested the Remote Control Extender, I removed the IR blasters from the TIVO boxes, exposing the original IR lenses. I then placed rhe little "flying saucer" receiver on a shelf int he closet (about 4 feet away from the TIVOs), pointing toward them. The saucer has a small antenna, that I extended and pointed straight up. I replaced a battery in my TIVO "peanut" remote with the AAA-sized transmitter in the AA-sized shell, and was instantly able to control either TIVO from anywhere in my house (or back yard). It simply worked perfectly out of the box - no tweaking necessary. The switch in the saucer remains in the default "B" position.
The day I ordered a Remote Control Extender for evaluation, it was $37. I also ordered an extra transmitter at $21. The day after I placed the order, the Extender dropped in price to $29.50. Sadly, Amazon no longer has a price matching policy, even for products purchased through Amazon.
We have a total of 5 remotes that we want to be able to use througtout the house, so we need a total of 5 transmitters. With the Extender costing only $9 more than a transmitter alone, I just ordered three more full units, which will give us plenty of spare batteries, and spare receivers (which I will use as battery chargers).
The ONLY negative about this product is the lack of a charger that can charge multiple spare batteries. It would be great if they sold a 4-slot charger that accepted the tiny 2/3 AAA sized batteries. NextGen does sell a USB charger that charges one at a time through your computer. Amazon sells it for about $30; NextGen sells it for $10. Of course, with the Extender system selling for just $29.50, there's no reason not to buy a spare and use the saucer as a charger.
For years, there have been systems that turn IR into RF (remember the "Rabbit" cubes that sent RF from one room to another?) Those were expensive and unreliable. This system works so well, it should be priced at $100+. It's a steal at $30.
Customer Review: Part of a Great Kitchen TV System
Summary: 5 Stars
When I switched from cable to FIOS, I lost access to most of the "standard" TV channels I use to get on cable. I neither had room for another FIOS converter box in the kitchen nor wanted to pay the recurring fee. So I found a solution that works for me - piggyback on my one FIOS converter box.
After a huge amount of research, the solution I gravitated to was to use the Tripp Lite component video adapters to transport video and sound over CAT5, and really nice digital TV from Vizio attached to the underside of my kitchen cabinets with the Vantage Point "wall" mount (works fine under cabinet too).
The TV in the kitchen is now slaved to the same channel selected on the one FIOS box in the family room. This was great, but we had to walk into another room to switch the channel.
Then I found a bit of magic: the Next Generation Remote Control. This magically device has a receiver plugged into the wall near the FIOS box, and a transmitter that fits into a FIOS remote.
How to get a second FIOS remote? Well, if you dig around you can just request one (for free) on the FIOS site - mine arrived in a few days. You put one real battery into the new FIOS remote, and then the transmitter (which has a rechargeable battery inside and is the same form factor as a battery).
Now the magic - when you press a key on the new FIOS adapter, the battery senses the codes being sent, and transmits it to the receiver, which generates new IR signals to trigger the FIOS receiver.
Amazingly, this all works like a charm! Both TVs show the same channel, but if you don't need two converters this solution is a real winner!
PS: if you have a long cable run (hundreds of feet) don't get normal CAT5 cable - use "KVM" qualified cable. This cable has the special characteristic of uniform delay on all pairs (since its used with analog signals, just like this solution does). My run was about 100 feet and used CAT-5e I had run earlier, and it works great).
PSS: I see negative reviews on the Tripp product. Well, I am a EE and know how to create and test CAT-5e cable with connectors I attach. If someone does this and reverses pairs, or misconnects wires, or somehow misses getting one wire punched down, then the picture is going to be crap. If you buy this product, then try it first with a short cat-5e LAN cable. That is, plug one Tripp into the set top box, then the cable to the other set top box, the second box to the TV you plan to use remotely. See if that works then any problems are due to the cable/connectors.
All Products:
"Next Generation Remote Control Extender"
"VIZIO M160MV 16-Inch LED"
"Vantage Point UL01-S Articulating Wall Mount"
"Tripp Lite B136-101 Component Video with Stereo Audio over Cat5 Extender Kit"