Slightly OT - IR Transfer

[Peter Bull]

This is only slightly off-topic, but I need some advice about moving IR
from
around the house to my central AV rack. My current situation:

- All my sources are in a rack located centrally. Only the TV itself is in
the
living room.

- The living room TV is fed by a combination of RF and Kat 5 (RGB version).

- I use a Powermid RF Receiver/IR Sender and an RF/IR learning remote
control
(designed as an X10 unit I think). The remote control is good, although I
don't
like the spongy feel of the buttons at all and the RF connection seems to
be on
the limit (it does have to go through a double-skin brick wall).

- As backup I also have a spare Powermid IR Receiver/RF Sender in the
living
room, so that if all else fails I can point the original remotes at that.
This
bit has always been a bit ropey though, in particular with my TiVo with
which it
requires buttons to be depressed in quick succession and the first
depression is
ignored! But its also unreliable with my Sony DVD player, but seems to work
well with my Yamaha amplifier.

And now to the question itself. The RF/IR remote control has just packed up
and
so I need to spend £30 or so replacing it. If the process was currently
silky
smooth I wouldn't hesitate, but it ain't so I'm wondering if the £30 would
be
better spent towards an alternative system altogether.

- Is there a better RF-based IR transmission system out there?

- Are there CAT5-based IR systems available?

- Can anyone guess why the TiVo in particular doesn't transmit well?

- I could do with targetting the IR better at the rack end - is there a
sort of
multi-headed IR LED available so I can stick one on each device?

Any help will be highly appreciated - control seems to be the one downside
to
centralising my AV kit.

Cheers,


Peter.