I'm looking for a good IR Receiver for my Harmony One

[maseline_98]

I was looking into the HP Infrared Receiver for HP Media Center 5188-1667. Does anybody have any history with this? Is this the newest model?

I found it on Amazon, but there are only 2 reviews for it:
http://www.amazon.com/HP-Infrared-Recei ... B000Z7XJME

[kmp14]

I use that one, It works very well, pretty much rock solid for me.

[maseline_98]

I use that one, It works very well, pretty much rock solid for me.

I'm curious what the range is on it...and how long is the cord?

EDIT: Also...does it allow you to turn your HTPC on/off(I wouldn't think that it would, but I'm curious)...

[mdavej]

It will do wake/sleep, not on/off. It's the most popular MCE receiver by far, so you'll have good results. I personally prefer something smaller, like this, and use my own extension cable with it:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/111092021225?ss ... K:MEWAX:IT

I also like Ortek/Adesso/Sama dongles, although they aren't MCE. They have good mouse pad functionality and are much smaller than the HP.

Those HP receivers and ones like them are cheaper on ebay.

[Mike88]

You could buy a Window 7 MCE remote that comes with an IR receiver such as this one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6880101008

Sometimes this & similar are on sale for about $15. It has a small receiver & the dongle is about 18"-20". And of course you also get a remote.

[maseline_98]

It will do wake/sleep, not on/off. It's the most popular MCE receiver by far, so you'll have good results. I personally prefer something smaller, like this, and use my own extension cable with it:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/111092021225?ss ... K:MEWAX:IT

I also like Ortek/Adesso/Sama dongles, although they aren't MCE. They have good mouse pad functionality and are much smaller than the HP.

Those HP receivers and ones like them are cheaper on ebay.

I ended up buying the HP 5188-1667 receiver on ebay for $12 shipped...I couldn't tell it if it was the newest model, but it didn't seem too bad and if it doesn't work well....it was $12....

I've been using the FAVI FE02RF-BL...it works fine, but when the battery gets low, the range just sucks on it....we ended up having to charging it every night and if we seemed to forget to charge it, we would have to pull out the Lenovo N5902, but it is not backlit so it was a pain in evenings...

You could buy a Window 7 MCE remote that comes with an IR receiver such as this one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6880101008

Sometimes this & similar are on sale for about $15. It has a small receiver & the dongle is about 18"-20". And of course you also get a remote.

I was looking into purchasing a MCE remote, but I couldn't find one that had good reviews, was backlit, and was cheap enough...$25 was probably my limit. I have enough remotes as it is and my wife liked the Harmony One, but it became obsolete when we decided to get rid of the cr@pc@st dvrs....

[mdavej]

I was looking into purchasing a MCE remote, but I couldn't find one that had good reviews, was backlit, and was cheap enough...$25 was probably my limit. I have enough remotes as it is and my wife liked the Harmony One, but it became obsolete when we decided to get rid of the cr@pc@st dvrs....

I think Mike is suggesting buying both but only for the dongle. The remote (most of which suck, as you already know) goes straight into a drawer or back on ebay.

Not sure what you mean by the One being obsolete just because you use MCE now. I'd definitely continue using it just as before. My wife has no idea a PC is now our DVR because the remote works the same as it did with cable and with satellite before that. A universal remote is far more powerful than a crappy MCE remote.

[Mike88]

I was looking into purchasing a MCE remote, but I couldn't find one that had good reviews, was backlit, and was cheap enough...$25 was probably my limit. I have enough remotes as it is and my wife liked the Harmony One, but it became obsolete when we decided to get rid of the cr@pc@st dvrs....

I think Mike is suggesting buying both but only for the dongle.

Correct.

[barnabas1969]

My wife has no idea a PC is now our DVR...

That's hysterical! I can see that happening with my ex-wife, but my current wife is too savvy to be so unaware.

Actually, my current wife thought I was crazy for spending so much money building an HTPC back in 2011. Then, six months after I built it, we were at a friend's house (who still had a cable-company-supplied DVR). My friend left for a while, and left us to sit and watch TV in his living room. After using his DVR for a while, she leaned over to me and whispered, "This SUCKS compared to ours!"

[maseline_98]

Not sure what you mean by the One being obsolete just because you use MCE now.

I was just saying that we couldn't use it for the MCE DVR because we didn't have a IR Receiver...but with the purchase of the HP IR Receiver, it will be put back in place....

[maseline_98]

she leaned over to me and whispered, "This SUCKS compared to ours!"

I had a similar experience when we went over to our friends to watch a movie and they didn't have a HT Setup(more-a-less a setup like a our Klipsch RF-7s )...She told me on the way home, that the sound was so crappy that the movie was almost unwatchable....I laughed....A couple months after us, I had to send me amp in for service, and she must asked me 5 times when it was getting back because it sucked watching TV like that...I told her, "And this comes from the same woman that said she couldn't tell the difference when I got my new setup"....

[wighty]

I have a question for all of you. I've tried googling this but haven't come to any definitive answer.

Do any of the IR receivers you guys use support discrete power buttons (ie Power "on" and power "off", rather than power toggle)? I programmed my Harmony 600 as "Windows Media Center SE" and I see the commands, but the power on command does not work to wake up my PC from sleep. IIRC, the power off did put the computer to sleep. I would much prefer to have this command that way if the remote and computer power get out of sync the remote won't turn the computer off when it is trying to turn it on.

[barnabas1969]

Yes, mine works... but it depends on how you put the computer to sleep. If you put it to sleep with the power-toggle command, then you have to use power-toggle to wake it up. If you put it to sleep with OFF, then you have to wake it with ON.

[newfiend]

My wife has no idea a PC is now our DVR...

That's hysterical! I can see that happening with my ex-wife, but my current wife is too savvy to be so unaware.

Actually, my current wife thought I was crazy for spending so much money building an HTPC back in 2011. Then, six months after I built it, we were at a friend's house (who still had a cable-company-supplied DVR). My friend left for a while, and left us to sit and watch TV in his living room. After using his DVR for a while, she leaned over to me and whispered, "This SUCKS compared to ours!"

I haven't had a Comcast DVR now in years, I went to the local auto repair shop the other day and they had the Comcast DVR there in the waiting room. I used it for less than 15 seconds trying to view the guide to see what was on.. My first thought was.. DAMN THIS THING SUCKS! I'm going to be damn upset when we can no longer use MC for TV recording. You get so damn spoiled using WMC!

[newfiend]

she leaned over to me and whispered, "This SUCKS compared to ours!"

I had a similar experience when we went over to our friends to watch a movie and they didn't have a HT Setup(more-a-less a setup like a our Klipsch RF-7s )...She told me on the way home, that the sound was so crappy that the movie was almost unwatchable....I laughed....A couple months after us, I had to send me amp in for service, and she must asked me 5 times when it was getting back because it sucked watching TV like that...I told her, "And this comes from the same woman that said she couldn't tell the difference when I got my new setup"....

I love stories like this., My wife has complained about the cost of things for years.. But you know when some small part goes bad and you have to repair/replace it they sure notice how quickly things suck or aren't the same. My Home Server's OS drive failed a couple weeks back. It was under warranty but it holds 95% of our HD movies. And the kids were complaining to me and the wife how much it sucked that the WHS was down.. My 10yr old daughter after about a week was asking me daily if I had the server fixed yet.. haha.. It's especially gratifying when it comes from the wife though especially when they give us such grief during the initial build and it's cost..