Sewell BlastIR Pro, IR Emitter and Receiver Kit, IR Extender, Supports Dual Band IR and RC-MM IR Signals

I hesitated on this purchase for over a year after my original IR repeater failed on the rogers to bell switch. Went with another brand with no joy.But finally i discovered a post that mentioned the problem with the bell pvrs was that they used the rare RC-MM protocol. He mentioned sewell supported this with the pro version. I had been looking at the other version.So i asked my question hoping to get some reassurance. But i bought it anyways while i waited for the responses.The Shipping was fast. The package is elegant. Best of all, it actually works! WOOT!! Initially, i thought it only kinda worked. But then i discovered that i was just too close to the tv at about 6 feet away testing. But back 12-15 feet for normal viewing, and this device works beyond expectations! If i point the remote in the opposite direction (white room)... it still works (instant responses) :)The only lille niggle i have ...is that the ir receiver has a constant green light and lights up red when remote activated. great for testing but...But yah, overall, i am beyond happy with the results!edit may 28th: I now realize that I mistakenly put the ir emitter eye over the record light instead of the pvr sensor just beside. When I put the eye over the sensor, the remote barely works. I now have the eye on the other side of the sensor. The remote works perfectly if I aim it slightly away from the ir receiver on the tv. It even works up to 180 from the receiver. So I conclude the signal is very strong. I have not tried the tape in between device and the emitter yet. So ... almost perfect :)

I was a little confused the first minute looking at the parts and the very basic instructions/diagram until I realized the emitters come in pairs for 2 devices.. I couldn't figure out why there were two emitters on one end. Not a problem.Had it for 2 weeks now. It works .OK....I have my components off to the side of our TV in a low Ikea cabinet.. Ottoman gets in the way. Yamaha A/V receiver. Roku XS, Sony BluRay, Uverse DVR.I placed the Sewell receiver eye near the TV. We use a Harmony 510 that we love. yes it's older but he tried a newer rechargeable one that does not work as well, and that one has been relegated to the bedroom where a failure to get the remote to work usually means the TV gets turned off.. Not a bad thing...And the 510 has the "GLOW" feature.. A family favorite.I have problems with the Sewell passing the commands. I see the red light blink indicating the command has been sent but we don't get a response sometimes. It takes a number of presses.The Harmony works fine on the components themselves. I did try removing repeats, I will try adding some in. Holding the button down longer on the Harmony provides inconsistent results, really no better. The ROKU in particular does not respond well. Hardly any commands to that device work when transmitted through the Sewell SW-30458. I've tried holding and moving the emitter ends al over the Roku testing... Harmony works fine direct to Roku as does the Roku remote..What have been others results with Rokus and Harmony 510/520's?I wonder if having the components still in the range of the remote is confusing it. Should I try covering the components with a blanket and test that? Just thought of that...Has anyone else gotten better results by blocking the IR receivers on the components themselves?

Very good product. Environment: TV over fireplace, devices located in closet with the TV on a wall about 12 feet away, newer construction with a coaxial cable, Ethernet, center speaker, HDMI, and "extra speaker" wire. Lessons Learned:1) Get your devices stacked the way you want before you stick the transmitter onto the device. Most of the transmitters stuck while I moved things around but some seemed to fall off, and it started to lose its sticking power.2) Play with the transmitter place on the TV. I originally had it on the mantel flat, it worked but started not to work so well. So much so, my wife started walking to the closet to turn everything on. I now have it mounted on the bottom front, and angled down because of how the TV is mounted. Works perfectly.3) Here the biggest thing I learned that's not well documented: how do I get the wired signal through the wall to the closet? Several folks mentioned Ethernet, but didn't explain if they spliced the wire, etc. There's a connection kit that Sewell sells (not available on Amazon, which is weird) that requires three wires (Ethernet, speaker wire, etc.) and it makes it all work. I was originally going to use Ethernet, but I realized that the "extra speaker" wire was probably placed there for an IR device. The connect kit is available on Sewell's web site, BlastIR Extender Kit, SW-30552-P. Wish Amazon sold it, get everything at one time with prime....

The good:Works just fine with an older Pioneer AVR (VSX9130TXH) and a Rogers (Cisco) 4642 cable box and a Harmony One remote..Installation is dead simple. You may need a couple of tries (and your manual) to precisely locate the IR sensors on your equipment to place the emitters.Not so good:The cable on the receiver is only 5 feet. Not long enough to reach the equipment rack. I tried a 6 foot extension but it degraded performance. Still looking for an answer for this. Waiting to hear back from Sewell.Performance with the Harmony adaptor for the PS3 is not so good; it works, sometimes, but often takes two or three tries. It may be I haven't yet pinned down the sensor location, see above. But the PS3 with the Logitech adaptor has always been a bit flaky...

I hooked everything up and it didn't work. The emitters were always on (per the camera test). Contacted Sewell and they offered to test the box and replace it if malfunctioning. I decided to test every hop in the chain (receiver, 50-foot extension cable, keystone 1/8" connector Monoprice Keystone Jack - 3.5mm Stereo, Flush Type (White) , my own 3-foot extension cable, connecting box). It turned out to be the keystone connector, but not the connector itself. It was such a tight fit that I didn't fully seat the extension cable into the back (wall-side) side of the connector, resulting in a signal short between left/right/ground. When pushed even harder into it, everything works great.Some reviews (at least one that I remember) mention a 1/2-second delay between pressing the remote button and it being received by the controlled unit. That is not the case with this unit. It is immediate. Maybe different models have different relay times, but the Pro connected to a 50-foot cable, keystone connector and another cable before the connecting block did not introduce any noticeable delay. I love this unit; it works better than I expected it to. Monoprice Keystone Jack - 3.5mm Stereo, Flush Type (White)