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's As Good As People Say!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've never bothered to review a product. After purchasing items, I never feel strongly enough about them. But I had to come back here and report on how good this remote control extender is.
I have a TV in my kitchen but the cable box is located about 20 feet away in our den. I didn't want to ruin the nice clean look of the LCD mounted on a flexible arm to be cluttered by a cable box. So I hid the box in an entertainment center that is not in the direct line of sight of of the kitchen TV.
I purchased a Terk remote extender and it worked on the same principle as this one. It uses a special battery that has a transmitter built into it. You put that battery into the remote and the transmitter magically extends the signal of the remote. Like most remotes, my cable box remote works on a IR (Infrared) signal. IR requires direct line of sight. You must point the remote at the cable box. The remote extender, however, converts the signal from IR to RF (radio freuqency) and RF signals do not require direct line of sight. The signal gets picked up whereever you point the remote.
The Terk worked okay but not great. About two weeks ago, it stopped working for no apparent reason. I took it back to the store where I bought it and they told me Terk discontinued the model. So I did a search on and found the Next generation remote extender, which costs about $60 less than the Terk. I was skeptical, even after reading all the rave reviews because I figured people from the company post these reviews. (I'm from New York and jaded, I guess.)
The remote arrived a couple of days after I ordere it. It took me about 10 minutes to hook up. You simply put the flying saucer-like receiver where you it's convenient. In my case, since the cable box is on and inside cabinet behind a door of the entertainment center cabinet, I placed the flying saucer o the back of a shelf about 78 inches off the floor--so you cannot see when standing up. I placed an emitter on the front of the cable box.
The emitter is a litle light bulb attache to a wire. The wire gets plugged into the back of the flying saucer reeciver. When you press the remote, the RF signal gets picked up by the flying saucer. The emitter then lights up in front. Since the emitter sticks on the front of the cable box--in the same spot where the signals gets picked up if you point the remote directly ast the cable box--the cable box changes channels and peforms all of the other remote functions.
This product works great. It has far better reception than the Terk. It is hidden on shelf out of the way. The channles change faster than ever. I spent the last 20 minutes writing this because the company deserves the recognition so it can sell a lot of these things.
Customer Review: Works Better than I dared hope
Summary: 5 Stars
I love having all my AV equipment out of sight in an AV cabinet- and this gizmo is what makes it possible. I ordered one on the strength of the glowing reviews, and was pleased to find that it works exactly as others have said. I can control the AV equipment from literally anywhere in my house.
Also, in my own use, I found a few unique things I hadn't seen mentioned in other reviews.
First off, in the tight space of my AV closet, the unit didn't send signals perfectly to all my equipment- probably because it needs to be located a little farther away from the devices than space inside the cabinet would allow.
I solved this by adding the "3Eye Triple IR Mouse Emitter" (which is 3 separate IR bulbs on a wire, you stick over the IR ports on your AV gear, then attach to the mini plug on the Remote Extender). Voila! With the direct connection to my devices, this thing never misses! If you have trouble, and can't locate the RCE far enough away from your gear, or there's interference in the IR signal, try the 3Eye device, it'll likely solve the problem. (Note: The RCE comes with a single IR cable, but it can only control one device).
Then I had another challenge arise- I have an audio receiver located almost 50 feet from the AV closet, in another cabinet. I wondered could I run an IR emitter cable that far, and have this control that device also? (And of course, without giving up control of the AV closet devices).
The answer: YES!
The Remote Control Extender only has one minijack, but a simple $2 dual-headphone adapter jack that you can get at any electronics store works to make it 2 jacks.
More of a challenge, I wondered would the IR emitter work via the dual adapter with the triple Eye, PLUS attached to 50 feet of headphone extension cable with mini-jacks.
The answer: YES!
So little signal strength goes through the cables, that you can extend modestly long distances, adapt with a splitter, and run as many IR bulbs as you need off the same mini jack, with no loss of IR performance.
So I merely ran the long cable through the wall to my stereo cabinet, plugged both IR emitter sends into Remote Extender (via the adapter), and now my universal remote controls literally EVERYTHING- even devices over 50 feet apart- with just this one extender!
This is a product that simply WORKS, and works well. An amazing product for the price. If you're looking for a way to hide all your AV gear and still be able to control it, and even if you need odd control options that require extended IR cables, this is the gizmo that will handle it!
Customer Review: Works perfectly with Direct-TV model RC65 remotes!
Summary: 5 Stars
Considering how most peoples' homes are wired, an RF remote is absolutely essential to conveniently and cheaply watch a Direct-TV signal on more than one TV in a house. Since only Direct-TV's expensive HD satellite boxes have RF remote capability, the RF-based Next Generation Remote Control Extender is a Godsend for those of us with the lowly standard Direct-TV boxes! And the best part is that you can continue to use your existing remote.
If you haven't figured it out, what you're buying is a small, sub-AAA battery sized transmitter that fits, along with a rechargeable battery, inside an AAA battery sized unit. If your usual remote takes AAA batteries, just insert this unit in place of one of your batteries. If your remote takes AA size batteries, the AAA-size transmitter/battery unit is just slipped inside of an AA battery size sleeve (supplied) which is inserted in your remote in place of one of the AA batteries. The "saucer", which runs on a plug-in transformer (supplied), re-broadcasts an IR signal whenever it receives an RF signal from your existing remote, so it is simply aimed at the device you want to control (my satellite box is in a closet in the center of the house, where the satellite signal comes in, and where all of the TV lines spread from, so the saucer lives there). Also supplied is a wired IR blaster eye (5 feet long or so) that can be plugged into the saucer, and then stuck right on top of the satellite box IR remote sensor (if your satellite box is finicky and needs a super-strong signal to work). Also, in the saucer unit is an always-charging spare rechargeable battery to swap out when the one in your remote runs down. So, set-up and use is super easy.
Now, having read reviews indicating both that this will work and will not work with Direct-TV remotes, I was a little worried about ordering such an expensive item from a seller which was vague about whether they would accept a return if the item was not defective, but just incompatible. Well, I can verify that it DOES WORK nicely with my new (June 2010) Direct-TV remote model RC65 (I put the transmitter-battery unit in the lower position in the remote). In any case, the signal is evidently received from anywhere in the house, there is no noticeable time lag so button response is crisp, and the rechargeable battery has lasted for several weeks so far. In all, much, much better than messing with all of the wires and such necessary for an IR-blaster system! That said, it is a lot of money for a bit of cheap Chinese plastic and electronics. But, it does work great!!
Customer Review: Better than I could have expected
Summary: 5 Stars
This product is great. I had opened up my wall to run my cables and mount my TV. I ran all of my cables 20 feet away to a cabinet that is around a corner near my laundry room. I started researching IR extenders and had decided on purchasing the Niles IR extender for my system. This system was going to cost me at least $250.00. I have a friend that had used a similar system and he said the system worked "okay". I didn't want to spend that kind of money on a product that only works okay. During my research I found the Next Gen Remote Control Extender for $42.00. Given the number of positive reviews, I decided to give it a try and if it didn't work I would go with the Niles system (I ran the cables in the wall in case I needed them.)
I received the Next Gen Remote Extender and had my system ready to go. I plugged the UFO into the wall and let the transmitters/batteries charge. After 24 hours I put the battery/transmitter into my Comcast remote and BINGO! It works. I was worried about lag time when I started, but as soon as I hit any button the component I am running responds. I have a habit of pointing the remote at the TV, but there is no need. I can run my receiver, TV, cablebox or Blu-ray from my kitchen which is at least 25 feet from the TV. The product says you have to place the UFO in front of the components, but I found this isn't necessary. When I first plugged the UFO in I set it on the shelf below where the components are to let the batteries/transmitter charge. In my haste to try the Next Gen out I forgot to put the UFO in front of the components. All of them worked flawlessly. I went back to the cabinet and found that the UFO was on the lower shelf. Now that is where I keep it. My remote works whether or not the doors are open and my shelf sits flush with the closed cabinet doors.
I have removed the battery/transmitter from my cable remote and placed it in my other remotes to see if they work. No problems at all. My friend came over and saw how seamless the remote worked. He has ordered the Next Gen and is scrapping his old IR extender.
In my system I am running a Motorola Comcast cablebox, Denon receiver, Samsung 46" TV and a Samsung Blu-ray player. The receiver can only be turned on and off by the Comcast remote, but that is a problem with the remote not the Next Gen.
My only complaint is that the Next Gen only comes with one battery sleeve. My Comcast remote runs 3 components, so I need another to run my Blu-ray player. Not a big deal since this saved me a lot of money.
Customer Review: Perfect solution for hidden components
Summary: 5 Stars
I was not sure this was what I had been looking for, but it was and it works perfectly!! Basically, this allows you to hide your components (cable box, receiver, DVD, etc) and still allow them to work. It turns an existing (not supplied) integrated remote that works on Infrared (IR) into a Radio Frequency (RF) remote. Thus, line of sight is not required to control the components. 2 easy steps!
1) You simply replace one of the remote's batteries with the tiny battery/RF transmitter. Your remote is now both an IR and an RF remote!
2) Set up the "flying saucer" inside the cabinet with the components. The little IR Repeater Transmitter gets placed near the IR receiver on your components.
You are in business! Press a button on your remote, the battery/RF transmitter sends the RF signal to the flying saucer which converts it back to an IR signal for your component with little to no delay. Very slick!! You do not need "line of sight" with the RF setup.
A few caveats:
1) This system comes with only 1 IR Repeater. Therefore, all your components must have IR receiver windows fairly close to one another (in my case the components are stacked and the receiving windows are all in a 6 inch diameter area. I taped mine to the inside of the cabinet door that transmits to all the components). If your components are spread apart horizontally, in different locations or (perhaps) even on different shelves, this system may not work for you UNLESS you also buy the 3-way IR Repeater. This three-headed repeater can be positioned to relay the signal to 3 components that are not close to each other.
2) The IR in your remote still works like normal...the RF is simply an added way of transmitting the signal. This is very helpful if one component (like a TV) is not in the cabinet. In my setup, the IR signal from my remote operates the wall mounted TV while the RF signal from my remote operates the DVD, Receiver and Cable Box (all located in a cabinet). This is seamless and invisible to the user as long as you remember to point the remote at the IR controlled component (in my case, the TV).
3) The flying saucer also works as an IR Repeater Transmitter, but is pretty big. I could not get it in front of my components with my cabinet door shut.
4) Not sure how long the remote battery (used in conjunction with the transmitter) lasts in my Remote. Had the system running for 4 months and it still is functioning. The Saucer recharges the remote battery.