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

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.

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.

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.

This product was a little tricky to setup, but I've been using it for over a year now without any problems. I have all my AV equipment (DVD, Roku, Dish Network Receiver) hooked up to the 60" TV in my downstairs living room. I put a new 42" TV in the upstairs bedroom and ran an HDMI extender so that I could use all the AV equipment downstairs and just send the picture and sound via the HDMI extender to the lone TV in the bedroom upstairs. I bought this product and placed the reciever in the bedroom and all the transmitters in the living room. Now I can control all my downstairs AV equipment from upstairs and watch the signal on my TV upstairs. Works Extremely Well!!!!The IR receiver is so sensitive, that it has to be placed somewhere almost dark in order to work. It took some trial and error before I realized that placing it between the wall and the tv was the only way to make it work well. I called support because I thought that something was wrong and the support guy (I think he is also the owner) explained how everything worked and helped me get good placement. Once I got it setup, it has worked consistently well for well over a year now. My wife was vacuuming the other day and sucked up all the wiring and emitters from the AV equipment; right down to the extender box itself. All the little plastic covers came apart in the process and the little sticky tabs were no longer sticky enough to hold the emitters in place. Amazingly everything still worked! But the emitters kept falling off of the AV equipment. I wrote to customer support to get new sticky pads to hold the emitters in place. They wrote back saying they were going to replace the whole receiver box along with the wiring and all new emitters and all I need to do is send back the old parts! No Charge! That is amazing support! I highly recommend this product!