[chris4817]

I am hoping to buy a Panasonic Plasma and Panasonic Home Cinema kit but want to put the home cinema and my Sky+ box in a cupboard away from the Plasma.

I am aware that I can control my Sky+ with a magic eye but what can I do for the home cinema? Will pointing the remote control at the TV turn up the volume in the box or will I have to do something else?

Any help would be grateful. Thanks

[bobcar]

I'd be very wary of putting the Sky+ in a cupboard. If you do, make sure the cupboard is well ventilated and ideally with an extractor fan.

[chris4817]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobcar

I'd be very wary of putting the Sky+ in a cupboard. If you do, make sure the cupboard is well ventilated and ideally with an extractor fan.

Thanks for that. It will be well away from other heat producing items and should have plenty of air circulation so, fingers crossed, should be OK.

[clockworks999]

The best solution for this is to use a Philips Pronto (or its Marantz cousin).
These touchscreen remotes are fully user-programmable, so can be set up to emulate all of your remote controls from one unit. They have extensive macro abilities, so you can switch on all the units, and select the required inputs, with one keypress.

They are also available with infra-red repeater units. Some have this as standard, some as an option.

The Marantz that I use came with the repeater.
The remote control communicates with the repeater unit using RF, so line-of-sight is not necessary. The repeater unit has a built-in high power IR transmitter, and also four leads with small IR LEDS on the ends. These can be taped to the IR receivers of individual units, useful if the unit is in a cupboard.

In your situation you could control the visible units directly from the handset using IR, and the hidden units from the repeater using the RF facility.

The only drawback with the Philips/Marantz products is the price. My RC9200 cost me £700.....

Steve

[chris4817]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clockworks999

The best solution for this is to use a Philips Pronto (or its Marantz cousin).
These touchscreen remotes are fully user-programmable, so can be set up to emulate all of your remote controls from one unit. They have extensive macro abilities, so you can switch on all the units, and select the required inputs, with one keypress.

They are also available with infra-red repeater units. Some have this as standard, some as an option.

The Marantz that I use came with the repeater.
The remote control communicates with the repeater unit using RF, so line-of-sight is not necessary. The repeater unit has a built-in high power IR transmitter, and also four leads with small IR LEDS on the ends. These can be taped to the IR receivers of individual units, useful if the unit is in a cupboard.

In your situation you could control the visible units directly from the handset using IR, and the hidden units from the repeater using the RF facility.

The only drawback with the Philips/Marantz products is the price. My RC9200 cost me £700.....

Steve

All was sounding good until it got to the price!

Thanks anyway, it is certainly food for thought.

[clockworks999]

I beleive that there are cheaper alternatives available, such as add-ons for PDAs.
Also the newer models are cheaper, especially the ones with mono displays.

Have you had a look at remotecentral.com? An excellent site.

Steve