The Video Game Critic

This is mainly meant for Paul C., but if anybody else can chime in, feel free.  I currently have anice plasma Pioneer TV in my basement, but my DVD player (and other stuff) resides in an alcove in the side of the room.  That means, when I want to control the DVD, I can't point it at the TV.

I considered getting a Pioneer receiver, since my TV receiver has a port that lets you chain Pioneer components together, all controlled using the TV remote.  But I really don't want to do that for obvious reasons.

Is there a device I can set on my TV, and then run a wire to the alcove to the components I need to control?  I don't want something that's going to be noticeable.

I stopped at a home theater place called Tweeter the other day, and they had something along those lines (in their catalogue) but it was over $200 and controlled about 5 components.  That's overkill for me.

Any advice would be appreciated.  Also, any news on that wireless TV sensor for the Wii?

[QUOTE=The Video Game Critic]

Any advice would be appreciated.  Also, any news on that wireless TV sensor for the Wii?

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Someone made one, here's a link to ign's review. They give the name of the site in the closing comments:

 

http://gear.ign.com/articles/751/751096p1.html

[QUOTE=a]

Someone made one, here's a link to ign's review. They give the name of the site in the closing comments:

 

http://gear.ign.com/articles/751/751096p1.html

[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the link, but I don't think this will be sufficient for my case.  My TV will be about 15 feet away from my Wii (when I finally get a Wii that is).

[QUOTE=The Video Game Critic][QUOTE=a]

Someone made one, here's a link to ign's review. They give the name of the site in the closing comments:

 

http://gear.ign.com/articles/751/751096p1.html

[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the link, but I don't think this will be sufficient for my case.  My TV will be about 15 feet away from my Wii (when I finally get a Wii that is).
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Then sensor bar is just some LED lights. I'm sure more will come out soon, or you could just use 2 candles.

You have two good options.  The first would be an IR extender system by a company called Niles.  If you can't find it at a local store I can send you one at my cost, which would save you something like 50%.  It has a black or silver surface-mount sensor that mounts to the TV and receives your remote signals.  Since you have a long run, you should then connect this to a Cat5 cable or a phone wire (or anything with 4 conductors) to get the signal back to your equipment stack  where it connects to the control module.  At this point, you need to get the signal repeated to your components, which either uses a single "flooding flasher" which is a little thingy that sticks somewhere in your cabinet so it barely has line-of-sight to all your components (if your cabinet closes completely, it usually floods the cabinet with IR and works even better), or you can get a little stick-on IR repeater for each of your components. 

The other option is a Universal remote with built-in RF that sends a signal to a little RF receiver box back at your equipment, and then uses the same means as the other method to get the signal to the components. 

The whole package for the Niles repeater system would be around $150.  You could probably do the universal remote setup for a little over a hundred.  Don't just jump in to the Universal Remote one, there are particualar ones that work great and some that suck.  Same with the Niles system.  There are cheaper systems, but the Niles never fails.