welll if you havnt built the circuitry then you dont have much control over its quality eh?I know when I had my Tivo, I had it down low and when sitting at couch, sometimes I had to lean forward when using remote because coffee table was in the way and caused signal to get lost.
i had a tv years ago that needed the remote to be held verticaly (pointing to roof) to work because the LEDs inside the remote pointed down. I used to own an old jvc top-loading (really old yes) vcr, the IR worked like crap untill i pulled the IR filter off the vcrs front panel - and volia!
over years repairing electronics, ive seen a hude difference in quality in different brands of electrical equipment. years ago it was rare to find a remote with 2 LEDs, nowadays its almost standard, and usally the two LEDs have different lightwave/angle specs as well as being physicaly mounted on different angles for the broadest possible transmission.
Thats not to say that if you buy some cheap IR device from say tandy, that it wont be a crap single 15mW/980nm IR LED that can barely reach 3 meters.
2 decent quality LEDs at 65-85mW will reach over 15 meters in daylight. (remote controllers arnt normally that powerfull, but security beams use them at those rates, and a mod'ed remote Tx could)
If i was you, that tivo box wouldve got to me, and sooner or later i wouldve pulled the remote apart first - to see whats up, make sure the LED isnt on some strange angle, check the voltage drop across the current limiting resistor (it/they stand out like dogs balls on the front of Tx PCB) to get an idea of current through the IR LED (min of 25mw per LED in my books).
easier way, if you have, or know someone, with a b&w cam, most are IR sensitive, point it at the cam and watch the tv screen, see how bright the LEDs are and get a idea of its angle by pointing it at wall (with low room light) and you'll see the IR hitting the wall. you can compare the brightness/angle with a IR Tx you know works good. (if you work with IR stuff a lot, then for $58 a cheap CMOS B&W from jaycar is worth it)
although, none of the above will help if you are trying to get a IR beam to magicaly go through a solid object, which is big enough to completely block the light from getting around it and hitting the Rx device. (unless you got mirrors on your ceiling, then just point the Tx up! :P)
to sum up it up, if u spent about $10, which gets you good quality compnents, and build the home-brew lirc rx circuit, you'll find that you've got one of the best IR recievers you've ever used, and works with any 38khz (one-way/Tx only) remote controller, so you can play till you find one thats strong enough for what you want, or modify a old/spare one to suit - cool! :D
...i was bored so i thought id explain myself with this one! :D
rohbags ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
PS: ...and seriously - IR can go around corners, im not talking "S" or "U" style corners, just simple "L" or "V" types, for example i can stand in the kitchen at the end of the hallway, and point the remote Tx down the hall at my bedroom door frame, which bounces off the white paint to the back wall of my bedroom and activates the lirc circuit there.
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