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How can I use a remote control from another room to control my DirecTV box?

• I have my DirecTV box in the living room. I have run a split cable line to my bedroom. I do not want another box because of the cost. I heard that I can use an infrared remote to control the box from another room. Would this be a special remote control that can transmit without being in direct line of sight (pointed at) of the box? or a special receiver that attaches to the box that my existing remote works with? Can I find these items at Radio Shack, Fry's or Circuit City? If it is a special remote control, it won't have all of the same functions that my actual DirecTV remote has right?

• Answer:

  There are a couple of ways you could go. The first thing to check is if you existing Direct TV box uses an RF remote or not. The higher end models have this feature. The easiest way is to just try your remote from another room. If you don't, you could consider upgrading your current box to a model that uses an RF remote, or use an IR repeater. IR repeaters can be found fairly cheap and Radio Shack is sure to have a selection to choose from. Basically you will be placing a unit in your bedroom that you will point your remote at, and another unit will be placed in your living room pointed at your cable box. There are different types of IR repeaters to consider. There are inexpnsive types that would require you to run wire from the bedroom and attatch a small emitter onto the IR eye on your satellite box. The more expensive types will just plug into an electrical outlet at each end requiring no installation other than pluging in and pointing the devices. I would really reccomend checking out how much it would cost to upgrade your exiting box to a unit with RF capailities. You may be able to pick one up on ebay really cheap and you would have the abilitity to use it from any room in the future without having to purchase more IR repeaters if you added more TV's. I'm attatching a link to the type of device you should look for at your local Radio Shack or electronics store if you decide not to upgrade. Cheers.