Microsmith Hot Link Pro IR Remote Extender, 6 Emitters (HLPRO)

APPLICATION:I bought this unit for my parent's house because I recently installed a projector and screen in their family room. The best place for the screen was right in front of the entertainment center. It's a manual pull down screen with a 6:9 ratio 84 inch diagonal, and works great (but that should be a different review). The problem was that all the AV remotes were already having trouble getting through the glass on the entertainment center, so there was no way they would be able to bounce signals around the screen and into the windows.This unit was just right for this application. It is simple which keeps it relatively inexpensive (some other units I looked at were more configurable with removable sensors, longer cables, more/fewer emitters, etc.). The Hot Link Pro has just enough emitters for my application (with a receiver, DVD player, VCR (yes my mom still uses one), CD changer, Digital/Analog TV converter, and the old 32 inch tube TV).INSTALLATION:I placed the blue LED that tells you the booster has received a signal in the TV cabinet on the bottom just behind the hideaway doors so you can still see it flashing with the doors open or closed, and it is also low enough to be seen when the screen is pulled down in front. I tried hiding the sensor in the side of the TV enclosure in the door pocket. This worked when the door was open as there was still a half inch gap between the door and the side of the cabinet, but did not work when the door was closed and the gap reduced to less than 1/8th of an inch. I ended up placing the sensor on top of the whole cabinet (roughly 7 feet high) in the very back. The sensor seems to be like a half cylinder area on the side, not on the tip, so I taped it down with the half cylinder pointing straight up.PERFORMANCE:All the remotes now work from anywhere in the room (used to be 2-car attached garage, converted to finished family room with vaulted ceiling). From some areas and with weaker remotes you may have to actually point toward the sensor. The only downside is the occasional missed signal or delay which sometimes results in duplicate commands when the user holds down or re-presses the button on a remote.

I'm using Hot Link Pro with a 55-inch Visio LCD (fluorescent edge lighting, not LED edge lighting) TV, a DirecTV satellite receiver, a Panasonic Blue-Ray/DVD/CD player, and a Magnavox VHS/DVD/CD player. The TV is mounted high on a living room wall; the other three components are in a closet in the next room and are connected to the TV by three high-speed HDMI cables through a 2-1/4" hole in the wall behind the TV and into the next room's closet. The TV's power cord also goes through that hole, as do the Hot Link cables. Absolutely nothing is visible in the living room except what appears to be a wireless TV on the wall. The Hot Link's "eye" is located entirely behind the TV so is not visible at all--the signals from the remotes bounce off the wall and into the eye. Works smoothly and consistently. The blue "confirmation light" is so tiny as to be visible only when it blinks when you press a remote button, but when it blinks you can't miss it.I used this system for a week before my Hot Link Pro arrived, and I had to go into the closet of the next room with the remotes to activate any feature of the DirecTV receiver, the Blue-Ray player, or the VHS player. When my Hot Link Pro arrived, that all changed in a matter of a half-hour or less. Now all the remotes work perfectly from my chair in the living room. No hitches. (The next step will be to get an All-in-One remote like the Logitech Harmony One.) EDIT: I've since discovered that my DirecTV remote can be easily programmed to operate all four of my components: TV, DirecTV receiver, Blu-Ray/DVD player, and VHS player. It handles them all perfectly through my Hot Link Pro. So I won't be needing a new remote. Just do a google search for: "DirecTV remote code" and also include the model number of your component. You'll find forum websites where good geeks talk to each other and share all those codes. Easy.I contacted the company by phone to find out if I needed to unplug the Hot Link when it wasn't in use. They said, no, you just leave it plugged in all the time. Perfect. I really didn't think that you had to plug the Hot Link in every time you wanted to use it, but it didn't hurt to check. By the way, if you want to get an idea of how well this company backs its products, check the COMMENTS to the one-star reviews and see how much they care about good service.TIP: When you are looking for your component's IR receptors so you can stick the Hot Link's emitters directly in front of them, remember that there is a difference between your component's IR receptor and its associated confirmation light (if it has one). Often they are side-by-side and you can find them only by using a flashlight to search through the smoky plastic front of your component. The stick-um on the Hot Link's emitters seems perfectly adequate, but I secured them all again with clear plastic tape anyway.[EDIT: August 29, 2012.] After six months, my Hot Link Pro is still working perfectly, just as if the components were stacked up in the living room with my TV. One remote for all four components, and everything but the TV out of sight. Couldn't be better.[EDIT: November 28, 2012.] After nine months, no problems, no changes. Everything works perfectly.[EDIT: February 15, 2013.] After one year, everything still perfect.

We installed our LCD TV and on the wall of our bedroom. However, all the cabling looked unsightly, so I decided to move the DVD player and cable box into our closet and route the wires through the wall to our television.I bought this IR repeater to be able to control our hidden boxes remotely. The unit works as advertised however I've noticed that whenever we turn our television on, the IR receiver tends to get overwhelmed by the output from the LCD TV for about the first 10 minutes. After that, the unit appears to adjust its sensitivity to the signal output from the television and other ambient signals in the room.I am able to control the cable box for the first couple of minutes after turning on the TV, but after that, and until the IR receiver unit adjusts to the ambient signals, I am not able to control the cable box or DVD player. I have the IR receiver mounted behind the TV and have tried moving it further up behind the TV. This seems to reduce the amount of noise reaching the receiver, but at the same time, the receiver also has a more difficult time picking up signals from the remotes. I'm going to continue trying to find a better location for the receiver. I'm going to try positioning it off to the side of the TV. If that doesn't work, then I'll just have to get accustomed to not being able to control my cable box for about a 5 minute period after turning on the television.