IR or RF extender for FIOS
Donlow
Enthusiast - Level 1
I am having Fios installed in my house next week.  I have 4 TVs in the house; one is a wall mounted flat panel TV and no place to put a STB.  I would like to put the box in the room behind the TV (garage) and run either an IR extender or an RF extender so I have full function from the remote control.  Does anyone have any experience with either of these and can you recommend a product that will work with the Fios Box.  I am told that Verison will install either a QIP 7100 Series, QIP 6416 or QIP 7216.  I spoke with Motorola who makes these STBs and they said that they have no product that is compatible with these units.  The QIP models are made exclusively for Verison and Verison determines what other hardware devises are supported by the units.  I spoke with Verison and they said that they do not have a recommended product for this condition. I can’t believe that in these times of wall mounted screens that this issue has not come up before.  HELP!    
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Re: IR or RF extender for FIOS
jkiv
Contributor - Level 1

The 6416 uses a IR Remote, I don't about the others, but I think they do also.   While I haven't used a converter (not really an extender) since I went to FIOS, I have used them extensively with Satellite & Cable Boxes.  From my experience I can say they are really STB independent, don't matter what kind of box or service you're using.

What they do is convert the IR signal to a RF signal, send it to a remote location, then convert it back to IR.  Example: You are in the room with the TV, the Set Top Box is in another room.  You are using the IR remote that came with the box.  Somewhere in the room with the TV, you place the transmitter.  You aim the remote at it and press the function you want.  It converts it to RF and sends it.  In the room with the box, you have placed the receiver facing the box and it receives the signal converts it back to IR and transmits the function to the box, like changing the channel.

I have used them between rooms and in rooms on different floors without problems.  I have used 2 different brands, Recontron & RCA.  They both worked equally well, but the Recontron were cheaper and more readily available.  I think I got them either at Radio Shack or Best Buy.  They need to be plugged into an electrical outlet.  They are small ( 4" x 4" ) and pyramid shaped with a small attenna.

These will absolutely do what you said you wanted to do.

Message Edited by JoeK on 01-04-2009 05:00 PM
Message Edited by JoeK on 01-04-2009 05:01 PM
Re: IR or RF extender for FIOS
bassman134
Enthusiast - Level 2
I use the radio shack brand, they work great!
Re: IR or RF extender for FIOS
ENFiOS1
Contributor - Level 1
I have the exact setup - including the box in the garage - and it all works just fine.  Since you can't see when the box is "on" (because it's in the garage) you might get out of sync once in a while.  I can figure it out, but the Mrs. just gets mad and gives up.  For that reason, I "unlinked' the power button on the remote so I can leave the STB on all the time.  I think the default on the new remotes is to NOT have them linked, so you may be able to skip this step.
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