RF Remote needs for media cabinet

I have the harmony 900 and love it. All my components are hidden and it works great

All it does is convert any remote to rf from ir.

I don't know why it wouldn't work for the Apple TV. If your stuff is in the closet, you will either have to wire the ir extenders to a place in front of you or convert to rf and not have to run it in front of you.

I have this and put the conversion battery in my denon remote. The denon is behind a copper door and I can use it with the door closed.

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ir over hdmi

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In-closet distribution won't necessarily be fantastic with that. And, per monoprice, it cannot be combined with their IR distribution system. So, for a few devices it may work well. Depending on how the closet is set up, it may not be the best option.



Your choices are:
RF remote.
IR-->RF-->IR (as above. Other options available)
IR extender to distribution center
IR extender over HDMI (as above).


There are a couple of RF remotes. They're on the expensive side. Logitech and URC are the two main players. Logitech is cheaper and less durable. You program it yourself. URC options are usually more expensive. They are supposed to be programmed by dealers. They're notoriously not user friendly, as I understand it.


What's your budget? How many devices are there and what are they? How are they located? What existing wires are run at present? How far is the closet from the tv? How careful are the people in your house (seen three Harmony 890 screens bite the dust because of kids dropping them on tile)? A picture of the closet would go a long way here- it would be worth a few hundred words.

So, all of the above options should be fine and roughly easy to implement. I'm no expert. take me with a grain of salt. My father has a similar set up, there's a thread on this board a few pages back called something like "finally pulled the trigger on a Logitech Harmony" where I explained his setup.

The IR over HDMI above also has a somewhat limited range of reception. If you sit head on, it's no issue. The seating in his place is much more of a wide U (couches on lateral walls, one couch head on, one recliner at the "corners" between the two couches). The remote picks up well from the recliners and couch directed right at the tv. From the two side walls, it's not great. And then in the closet, it only currently controls one device. It is placed about 2.5 ft away from it and the blaster does a good job of tolerating moving around. I haven't moved any components around or added some that are currently LoS into the closet to further test, but I could probably control two or three adjacent components across one level on a rack well. That's a guess. A multi-level (two shelf) setup or not all against one wall, you could hit trouble, and I'd really look at a review from someone with a similar setup before investing. This is really best as a retrofit. Not that spending more is better- this thing is cheap and functional! But there are other options that are superior really mainly because of the lack of blaster-end distribution (now, you may be able to tape the blaster to the receiver of a distribution system, but we're already talking about rigging a system, which is never the best idea for primary implementation so long as budget permits (yours should)

Next, you could invest in an IR extension to run the distance to a distributor. Per the guy at the Best Buy Magnolia Center I spoke with last week, this is a very functional option. Much easier to build into a place than retrofit (good option for you). You need one long cable in the wall, and then a receiver on the tv end (some TVs even have an "IR out" and your regular TV's IR receiver works to output a signal). The pitfall here is that you need to have an proper signal strength +/- amplifier in the system to hope that you have good enough signal at the blaster end. Why is that a problem? Because I can't find any info on voltages per ft or any sort of standardized/professional review. The advantage here is that a basic wire (cheap) is run, allowing you the use of a nice IR universal remote ($40 buys you a Logitech Harmony 350 which will control 8 devices with a single "macro" that is programmed, so your TV, Directv receiver, and sound system all come on and change to the correct inputs with one button pushed. Plenty of other options, but choosing a single example for a lengthy post). Also would allow each individual remote that you already own to work fine. So if the one universal remote you decided on fails/breaks, you likely have backups handy.

IR-->RF-->IR is basically the same as the wire. I don't know how well it works. They're more expensive than a cable run into a distributor, but we are talking about a $40isn system. I haven't seen how their distribution system works on the blaster side. You need line of site to each component that you're controlling. Since you're building from the ground up, this isn't so hard compared to a retrofit. You can probably design the space well since it's currently non-to-barely existent.


Now, the expensive part. Basically all RF remotes come with a "base station" that is the RF receiver that will blast IR commands to the components. Of these, Logitech offerings almost exclusively have touch screens that are glass. They're cool. And the screens give you access to tons of commands you wouldn't find on most remotes (menu options 2-3 clicks away, usually, available with one touch). These screens are fairly fragile, and I've had poor personal experience with them. With a 2 year old who would have any access to them, I would avoid the option. Someone may come behind me and suggest that I am wrong. Like I said, I'm an amateur with limited (but real) experience. The gentleman at the Best Buy Magnolia Center (on Vets in Kenner. If this is accessible...or any other magnolia center...these people are worth talking to) recommended a URC model that I didn't write down. It was on the order of $300, programmed by an expert (small reprogramming fee if you change out a component in the future), and durable. He says the guy who is their supplier throws it against a wall to show how durable their plastic, non-touch screen is (easily as function as the Logitech). Claims lifespan is ~7 years (vs 2-4 for Logitech Harmony series). He also says that a coworker has a three year old who is known to "play basketball with (the remote)" and it holds up fine. Again, maybe I'm off base with the fragility of the Logitech (890?) touch rf. I own a non-touch Logitech 700 and am not concerned with it. Difference is that I'm a single guy, Dad had kids ages ~6-18 living in the house and a tile floor. After 3 replacements repairs at -$100/each in the span of 18mo tops, Mom put her foot down and said it was absurd and that he needed to go another route. Now, in this product range that I will almost certainly buy for him come Father's Day is the Logitech Harmony Smart Control. They offer an RF remote with blasters and a simple (no screen) remote. I don't know the number of devices it controls (believe it's 8) or the number of macros it supports (believe it's 3. At least 1). The best part, though, is that it also has an iOS and Android app that serves as a fully-functional remote. So, in lieu of the simple remote or to get to the options that you're missing on the simple remote, you still get that "next level" of functionality. It's $130, or $100 refurbished. Also supports some amount of connected home devices, but I don't know what standard(s) is/are supported.


If I were you, I would consider that last option vs thorough research of IR extension --> distribution block since you've got such easy access to behind the walls and roof.