Review on IR Repeater System Control Theater by Karen Montanez

I have a system where all the components are in a cabinet halfway down the wall because I didn't want everything stacked in plain view. My problem is that all my surround speaker wires go to this cabinet and I watch TV through my Xbox One so changing everything and keeping the surround sound won't work. If you've ever tried watching TV through an Xbox, you know that using a wearable controller is tedious, not only because you have to use the game buttons to control everything, but also because the controller goes to sleep after a while alternates inactivity. So if you just want to quickly change channels to see a sports score or whatever, you'll need to wake up the controller and then navigate through multiple menus. There's also Xbox Smart Glass, which lets you use your smartphone as a remote control, but that's just as problematic. My choice was to either spend $400 on an RF remote that controls everything or build an IR system using my current setup, this little guy did the trick for 1/10th the cost. I wanted to switch from watching TV through my Xbox to watching TV directly with my cable box, so I had to control my cable box separately. I placed the IR receiver next to the TV, routed the cable under the carpet to my closet, mounted the brain box in the closet, and ran my IR eyes over each component. After the installation was complete it was necessary to connect to the power source and boom, I was ready to go. As for the IR device itself, the receiver is fairly unobtrusive, measuring about 1 x 1"1.5" and has a long cord. appears to be 10 feet There is a small blue LED on the dial that will flash when you send a command, although this has nothing to do with the actual IR function, if you don't want to see the light you can paint or glue over it it. It comes with double sided tape attached to the back for mounting, but I wanted mine to attach to the top so I had to add some tape there. remote controls, I think its reception cone is quite wide. The brain box is also small, smaller than a deck of cards and has flanges, if you want to attach it to something I put mine in the closet behind the cable box. There is a transformer in the power cord, but it's quite small, I was able to fit it onto the surge regulator with the help of extruding existing plugs from other devices. There's 1 IR receiver input and 6 IR emitter outputs, although you can use multi-channel cables from each giving you control of 18 devices in total. Do you even have 18 devices? Not me. The brain sends a signal super fast, the moment I press the button on the remote control, the controlled device does what it is supposed to do, I don't notice any delays. four devices, I only had to operate three to roll and bandage the other eye. The eyes are sealed with double sided transparent tape, remove the backing, stick on the IR window on the device you are controlling and that's it. These cables are also 10 feet long, which gave me easy access to all my devices in the closet. In my setup, I needed a longer cable to get from the TV to the cabinet, so I also bought a 30ft extension cable to connect the IR receiver. Any AV cable will work with the Brainbox as long as it has a 3.5mm tip. You don't need a special cable, just find the cheapest headphone cable and use it, and while I'm not sure how long the cable you could use, I've seen other reviews here where people mention cables that are over 100 feet long have used . My 30ft cable works fine, I don't notice any lag or interference in the signal. As a final comment, I've tried using a "spaceship" long-distance RF extender in the past (I have a review too) but they didn't help. With the latter, the cost of additional RF transmitters was higher than the cost of this IR device. These appear to be very similar devices from the manufacturer and supplier, I believe if this device fails in the future I can replace it fairly quickly and easily. Overall I'm very happy with it and for less than $30 it was a no-brainer for me.