Hot Link XL IR Remote Extender, 6 Emitters (HLXL)

I purchased both the "Microsmith Hot Link XL Cat 5 Extendable IR Booster System ($100 shipped)" and the "Premium White Ethernet LAN Network Cable Cat5e Gold Plated Male to Male Connectors - 100 Feet ($13 shipped)" at the same time from Amazon. I wanted to use this in a slightly different way than shown, so, I decided to get the cat5e version to test, and if it worked as expected, I would split the receiver to another room afterwards. (I had been using a few pyramids, which really are hit or miss, which frustrated me one time too often.) I have 2 TiVos, 1 DVD player, and 1 component switch, located in my livingroom. I have 3 100' component cables running to three bedrooms. All I needed was a dependable IR transmitter/receiver. I installed 1/2 of the Hot Link XL in the livingroom, ran the 100' cat5e to one of my bedrooms, and plugged in the the other 1/2, the remote receiver, which uses no power on it's end (another plus). It worked absolutely perfectly. It is extremely sensitive and it transmits correctly 100% of the time. Just what I need. Since that worked, I went ahead to the next step. I needed to split the ir receiver to another room. Searching here on Amazon, I found an "Additional Receiver Eye for Hot Link Pro". It does not mention if it will work with the XL, but it looked like it would. I double checked with Microsmith, and they responded that it will work with all of their products. (It might increase sales if the description actually SAID THAT!) So, I bought that for about $35. What made me balk at the price for the repeater was that they also want to sell you a "High-grade mini-coaxial cable with fully shielded RCA connectors" to extend the repeater for almost $50 for 25 feet! Once I figured out that it is simply an RCA cable, I looked through all of my audio cables until I came across one that worked without any interference. (You can tell if there is interference because when you plug in the extension, there should be no activity light. If there is an activity light, the cable is no good. Excellent test.) Plus, Microsmith tech support let me know that you can use a regular coax cable with adpaters to RCA, which are available here on Amazon, or even your local Radio Shack. So, once I do get the extra remote receiver eye and splitter, I will be all set for two rooms. I really do not need the third room for the time being, but, if I ever do need to add another remote receiver, I will just buy another splitter. EXCELLENT PRODUCT. It may seem a little steep in price for some people, but, it adds NO ADDITIONAL IR INTERFERENCE, and it is a 100% rock solid performer. If you intend to spend $30-50 on pyramids, or other remote control extenders, do yourself a favor and go all out for $100 and get this. I've spent way too many years frustrated over those stupid pyramids, even going so far as isolating them in all metal tissue dispensers to reduce the errant IR emissions. Because, those errant emissions also affect the use of all the devices from your normal remote in the same room. It is really not worth the hassle. I'm just surprised I dealt with this pain for the last 5 plus years.

Worked great for 6 months. Now I have to get the remote 2 ft away in order for it to work. I might as well walk to the back bedroom and change the channel. For this kind of money the product should have lasted longer.

I purchased two of these repeaters to hide the AV equipment in closets. They work brilliantly. Simple to install and reasonably priced. The reason I gave it 4 out of 5 stars, is because one of the blue IR indicators on one of the products does not light up. The product still works, but I nearly returned the product without actually trying it because it did not indicate that it was receiving IR signals. Also, the product is not as super-sensitive as they claim. It easily picks up signals, but you can't hide the receiver as much as they claim. Overall, I would buy this product again.

Only works when the remote is pointed directly at the receiver. Rd tv ct ct ..=bbdbvvd hbn Dr Dr xx scurvy n x was

This is a terrific product that does exactly what it's supposed to do, and does it very well. Using standard CAT5 wire to connect the two ends of the system together gives you a lot of flexibility since you can use off-the-shelf Ethernet patch cords or, if you have bulk wire and crimp-on connectors and a crimper, you can make your own cable to run within walls, etc. The detector eye has detachable lead but, for some reason, the indicator light is permanently attached. Both have fairly long leads so it's easy to route them through cabinets, etc. and tuck their connector box in an out-of-the-way location. Power for them is provided via the CAT5 cable. This made it easy for me to locate the IR detector and indicator LED behind the speaker grill of an in-wall speaker, and tuck the connector box into the wall cavity there, with a length of CAT5 going back to the AV equipment. My only complaint is that the IR flashers are all permanently attached to the base unit via a single "ribbon" cable. You can peel the strands of the ribbon cable apart, so it's easy to attach the emitters to various AV devices, but you still end up with all 6 emitters even if, as in my application, you need only 1 of them. It would be nice if each emitter had its own 2-pin connector so you could easily remove the ones you don't need. But that's a minor issue. The detector is very sensitive, as claimed, and the system does a very reliable job of transmitting IR commands to the remote equipment. The indicator LED is invaluable; I thought it would be unnecessary but it's really nice to see it confirm that the IR commands are being detected and passed along to the remote equipment.

Purchased it to replace my RF repeater (worked well but was flaking out when the remote control batteries got low). A very good concept and very easy to install. Excellent sensitivity. Works well with most of my equipment in the cabinet, but it has problems with Dish VIP 612. For whatever reasons it is very sluggish and misses a lot of IR commands, to the point of being useless. Also, after a couple of days the "feedback" LED started lighting all the time, even with everything off. Back to the RF repeater.

Love the product, but the packaging was seriously lacking. I debate if this was an open box or had simply been sitting on a store shelf for too long. The box had significant signs of wear. Two of the emitters had the plastic housing off (found it in the bag). Was able to get the housing back around one of the emitters but the other had broken "plugs". One of the emitters also had the sticky tape already exposed. With all that said, I still ordered a second one from this same vendor. Why? Simply stated this product works. I tried another budget-friendly repeater and while it worked so-so with one of my setups, it would not work with my non-DVR Uverse box (Motorola VIP-1200). This one worked flawlessly from the get go. I also love the fact it is very forgiving as to where the remote is aimed. I seldom have to think about aiming it. The only drawback of the product itself is there is no way to direct connect to a device which has a 3.5mm remote in jack (like with most higher-end receivers). In spite of this, I was able to quickly find the receiving IR eye on the front of my Yamaha receiver much quicker than I could with other repeaters.

works good if you get the repeater lens right in front of the infra red eye on the receiver